Incubus just had their concert at the Araneta Coliseum tonight. Since I wasn’t able to go, I just had to content myself with their songs. One of their songs I find interesting is Thieves, the fourth track from the band’s latest album If Not Now, When?. The song reminds me a lot of one of their biggest hits Wish You Were Here.

The beauty I found in Thieves has to do more with what the song is trying to convey. Taken literally, the song comes from the perspective of someone who is not “a God-fearing, white American.” You can take this further and take this to mean anybody who belongs to a minority. The lyrics is like an outsider looking in. The outsider looks on as other people are given the rights they deserve as well. But because they are outsiders, even asking for these rights is taken as being questionable by the lot. They become strangers in their own town.

Brandon Boyd, vocalist for Incubus, is singing as the outsider in Thieves since essentially the outsiders are the ones who are being robbed in the song. Robbed of their rights, robbed of happiness, and it seems robbed of the song title. The song title chooses to focus on the thieves and not the outsiders. It might be overreading on my part, but I find it mildly interesting.

Listen to Thieves below.