And if it's Crowded, All the Better

Throughout the songs six minute run time, LCD's lead singer James Murphy goes over many existential themes from growing old, life with and without regret and the bonds of friendship.

"That's how it starts
We go back to your house
We check the charts
And start to figure it out"

And if it's crowded, all the better
Because we know we're gonna be up late"

The opening lines from the song that set up the theme of life without regret. These lines describe a party that the narrator is at. Lines like

"But if you're worried about the weather
Then you picked the wrong place to stay"

and

"And if the sun comes up, if the sun comes up, if the sun comes up
And I still don't wanna stagger home"

describe a life without regret, a life of the rock and roll lifestyle. The narrator may be past the age of partying but still wants to live the life of a someone in their twenties. The lines

"You spent the first five years trying to get with the plan
And the next five years trying to be with your friends again"

may be a metaphor for college in that you spend your college years trying to act more mature than you our as in "getting with plan" while after college you just want to reconnect with your friends and relive your college.

About halfway through the song, James Murphy sings these lyrics

"It comes apart
The way it does in bad films
Except in parts
When the moral kicks in"

This is where the song goes from glamorizing a life without regret to a condemnation of this lifestyle.

"Though when we're running out of the drugs
And the conversation's winding away"

These lyrics may describe the party discussed earlier but shines a much more negative light on it. The fact that the conversation is fueled by the drugs show the shallowness and the emptieness of the narrators lifestyle.

"You drop the first ten years just as fast as you can
And the next ten people who are trying to be polite
When you're blowing eighty-five days in the middle of France
Yeah, I know it gets tired only where are your friends tonight?"

These lyrics follow on the idea of the shallowness of the narrators life. Here he is, possibly on tour, and discusses the shallowness and the loneliness he feels. "You drop the first ten years just as fast as you can" tells of how meaningless and brief life can be while "And the next ten people who are trying to be polite" tells of fake friends you meet. The concluding lines describes the narrator exhausted from the constant touring and wondering
what happened to all of his real friends and possibly feeling regret about his lifestyle.

"I wouldn't trade one stupid decision
For another five years of lies"

These lyrics bring the theme full circle and tell of how no matter how many mistakes and poor decisions you make, there's no reason to wish for change. Its better to live a life with all your mistakes then live a life without any.