In “Rats,” The Tiger Lillies turn a house into a haunted mind, where scratching, shadows, and a foul smell signal something gnawing just out of sight. The warning not to turn your back and the call to set traps suggest a fear that cannot be outrun, only managed. The twisted corpse in the foundations is dismissed as imagination, yet the rats feast there and each bite extinguishes another light, linking decay to a life built on lies. The repeated refrain traps the listener inside the walls with the vermin, making dread feel physical and inescapable.
Rats Lyrics by The Tiger Lillies
Can you smell that smell
Can you hear the sound
Can you see that shadow
See it running round
Well you’d better not
Turn your back
Get the men to
Set some traps
Because there’s rats rats rats …
In the walls
In the foundations
Lie the twisted corpse
Well it’s all in your
Mind of course
There amongst
The rotting meat
Where those rats
Have their feast
Yeah there’s rats rats rats …
In the walls
Each time they gnaw
Each time they bite
Out goes
Another light
In the foundations
Where they rot and die
Living lives
Built on lies
Yeah there’s rats rats rats …
In the walls