Automat

Some wounds never heal
They just bleed a little slower
It's never over

And if you make it home
Death white skin and bone
Can you face the thought
Of another night alone ?

Oh me, oh my
Flying saucers stopping by
It all comes flooding back
When I sit at the automat

How, how can you know
What the void holds for you ?
And will you make it through
All alone ?

Oh me, oh my
Flying saucers stopping by
It all comes flooding back
When I sit at the automat

No answers in your cup
No solace in your chains
Oh believe me
Here they come again

Oh me, oh my
Flying saucers stopping by
It all comes flooding back
When I sit at the automat

Automat
Automat
Automat

Lyrics by:
Squire

Available on:
Marshall's House (3.08)

Details:

An Automat is a trademark for a restaurant in which the consumers obtain food from closed compartments by depositing coins in the appropriate slots. Hopper’s Automat portrays a lone woman staring into a cup of coffee in an automat late at night, and is often cited by art critics as an example of urban alienation. The reflection of identical rows of light fixtures stretch out through the night-blackened window. The décor is functional, with a stone-topped table and hard-wearing black wooden chairs. The woman's eyes are downcast and her thoughts turned inward, like many of Hopper's melancholic subjects. The empty chair at the opposite side of her table seems to emphasize her solitude as she sits there alone with her thoughts. The pose and mood of the piece is reminiscent of Edgar Degas's L'Absinthe.

Throughout his career, Hopper was fascinated by dramatic lighting and nowhere is this more evident than in his nighttime paintings, where brightly lit interiors contrast with the darkness outside. Glowing fluorescent or electrical lights, which illuminate windows and spill onto an otherwise darkened street, set the tone for many of Hopper's paintings and imbue the works with an air of mystery. The voyeuristic possibilities inherent in the modern city (see, for example, 1928's 'Night Windows'), where people lived in close proximity but often with anonymity, are especially apparent at night. Hopper frequently depicted stolen glances from fast-moving elevated trains and glimpses from windows into neighbouring buildings, where figures are busy with their own private concerns, unaware or unconcerned that they are being watched.

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