Lyrics
Walking along the high tide line
Watching the pacific from the sidelines
Wonder what it means to live together?
Looking for more than just guidelines
Looking for signs in the night sky,
Wishing that I wasn't such a nice guy
Wonder what it means to live forever?
Wonder what it means to die?
I know that there's a meaning to it all
A little resurrection every time I fall
You got your babies, I got my hearses
Every blessing comes with a set of curses
I got my vices, I got my vice verses
I got my vice verses
The wind could be my new obsession
The wind could be my new depression
The wind goes anywhere it wants to
Wishing that I learned my lesson
The ocean sounds like a garage band
Coming at me like a drunk man
The ocean tells me a thousand stories
None of them are lies
I know that there's a meaning to it all
A little resurrection every time I fall
You got your babies, I got my hearses
Every blessing comes with a set of curses
I got my vices, I got my vice verses
I got my vice verses
Let the pacific laugh
Be on my epitaph
With it's rising and falling
And after all, it's just water
And I am just soul
With a body of water and bones
Water and bones
Where is God in the night sky?
Where is God in the city light?
Where is God in the earthquake?
Where is God in the genocide?
Where are you in my broken heart?
Everything seems to fall apart
Everything feels rusted over
Tell me that you're there
I know that there's a meaning to it all
A little resurrection every time I fall
You got your babies, I got my hearses
Every blessing comes with a set of curses
I got my vices, I got my vice verses
These are my vice verses
These are my vice verses
Yeah
These are my vice verses
Video
Meaning & Inspiration
Vice Verses sits with tension rather than offering an easy resolution. The lyric's tides, wind, and ocean become images for life's rising and falling, while babies and hearses place blessing and loss side by side. The wordplay of vices and verses suggests a person trying to name contradictions without pretending that they are simple.
The refrain's little resurrection after every fall introduces hope into that uncertainty. Later questions about God in genocide, earthquake, city light, and a broken heart recall the biblical language of lament, which can voice faith and distress at the same time. Perhaps the song does not answer every question because its focus is the search for meaning amid mortality, failure, and the hope of renewal. Its questions remain unresolved, but the recurring image of resurrection keeps despair from becoming the final word.
Related Scripture
- Psalm 13:1 The psalmist asks how long God will seem hidden during distress.
- 2 Corinthians 4:9 Paul describes being struck down but not destroyed.
- Romans 6:4 Paul connects Christ's resurrection with walking in new life.