In an interview with NME (2011), Julian Casablancas shared:
That’s probably my favorite on the album. The verse was a random old Brazilian thing I had, but it works well with the chorus. I like the chorus: it gives me cheesy/happy chorus vibes.
[Verse 1]
Animals on TV singing about some pain that they once felt
There's no one I disapprove of more or root for more than myself
I wanted to pretend that it was better, better, better on the phone
I didn't wanna tell you I was jealous, jealous, jealous and alone
[Chorus]
So we talk about ourselves in hell
To forget the love we never felt
All the old jokes that work so well
Universal truth was a moment's lie
Don't try to stop us
Don't try to stop us
Don't try to stop us
Get out of the way
[Verse 2]
Got to get to climb your tree in the light of the living ghost I see
She sees her father in that old man's eyes while secretly he stares at her thighs
Animals on TV singing about some pain they felt at some point
I didn't wanna tell you I was jealous, jealous, jealous, what's the point?
[Pre-Chorus]
As I watch the velvet drapes appear
And the door was closed for forty years
As we hide what we don't wanna hear
As we hide what's really in our ears
[Chorus]
He is coming from a part of hell
Where lightning blue eyes don't go down well
He can tell that we're oblivious
It's addiction of routine as well
Making fools out of the best of us
Making robots of the rest of us
Innocence itself in America today
Is a crime just like Cornel West might say
Don't try to stop us
Don't try to stop us
Don't try to stop us
Get out of the way
Life Is Simple in the Moonlight was written by Julian Casablancas.
Life Is Simple in the Moonlight was produced by Joe Chiccarelli & The Strokes.
The Strokes released Life Is Simple in the Moonlight on Fri Mar 18 2011.