"Back from Mars" is not so much a song, but a mission statement. On the surface, track 8 off the Aqua's Aquarius album sounds like one's longing for out of space travel to a land of glitter and glitz where everything is happy and pleasant. The lyric, "All the people that I'm meeting, are so friendly and perceiving" justifies this. The narrator has come back from this place and wants to go back. Similar to going on vacation...when one returns home, there is an immediate longing to go back. That is, to continue to experience those feelings that can't be understood on our planet. It is about longing and the human condition.
However, upon further listens, one begins to understand that this make believe world is superficial. Instead of praising this glamorous place, the narrator is being sarcastic. "This is oh so just fantastic, I will live my life in plastic. Check the hair, and see what I wear." The narrator has been swept up in this imaginary place, and doesn't like it. It's a critique on Hollywood. We praise our movie and pop stars and put them on this plateau. So-much-so that it is almost like they are on a different planet then we are. "And Elvis has said, that I could be just like they are." There is clearly no logic to this place, but everything on the surface looks great...so we go along with it. It is a cautionary tale about how this lifestyle can be perceived as outstanding, but when one becomes part of this lifestyle, we see how shallow it actually is.
I personally feel the song is deeper than that. "Back from Mars" is not about Hollywood. It's about ourselves. It's about epiphanies and resolutions. 'Mars' is not Hollywood...it is our day-to-day lives. The glamor and glitz is our daily agendas. We often go on 'autopilot' with our daily routines, until one day, we realize how silly it. Upon the this realization, we make an effort to go back to become grounded, to return to our roots, to come "Back from Mars".
This is what a good song should sound like:
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