Lyrics:No Distraction [Version (a)]:
It's not the words I want to tell you
It's not the tension that I feel
It's not the face that I'm showing you today
That betrays the way, the way I want to feel
What I need
What I need
What I need right now is right here
Right in front of me
What I need
What I need
What I need right now is right here
Right in front of me
A million times, a million thoughts
I really don't know what I want
But then I see you, now I'm almost lost
And everything that I know went wrong
And if it means that it's done and I'm a fool
But I don't want to forget what we've been through
Just to save us both from what we knew
Losing our way, sometimes, it's cruel
No distraction
No distraction
Can I, can I be with you?
No distraction
No distraction
Can I, can I be with you?
Pull you to the left
Pull you the right
Pull you in all directions
Pull you to the left
Pull you the right
Pull you in all directions
It’s not the objects that I hold in my possession
It's not the worldly things that shine
Sometimes the worst will come and bring us back together
Well, hold me up and get me through the night
What I need
What I need
What I need right now
Is all right right in front of me
What I need
What I need
What I need right now
Is you you, only you and me
A million times, a million thoughts
And I really don’t know what I want
But then I see you, then I'm almost lost
In everything that I know went wrong
And if it means that it's done and I’m a fool
When I want to forget what we’ve been through
Just to save us both from what we knew
Losing our way, sometimes it’s cruel
No distraction
No distraction
Can I, can I be with you?
No distraction
No distraction
Can I, can I be with you?
Pull you to the left
Pull you the right
Pull you in all directions
Pull you to the left
Pull you the right
Pull you in all directions
I’m losing time
I’m losing time
There's so many ways
To live or love or die
I’m losing time
I’m losing time
I've wanted to know
Are you still on the line?
Wasting time trying to prove things
Instead of proving my love
I’m losing, I’m losing my mind
A million times, a million thoughts
And now I really know what I want
But then I see you, I’m almost lost
In everything that I know went wrong
If it means that it's done and I’m a fool
Don't want to forget what we’ve been through
Just to save us both from what we knew
Losing our way, sometimes it’s cruel
No distraction
No distraction
Can I, can I be with you?
No distraction
No distraction
Can I, can I be with you?
Pull you to the left
Pull you the right
Push you in all directions
Pull you to the left
Pull you the right
Push you in all directions
The Song:"No Distraction" is the name of a song on Beck's upcoming 2016 album. Rolling Stone calls it a "dance-y, Talking Heads-like stomp." Others have noted the similarity in sound to The Police, and Beck was asked about it on the BBC. He said that "No Distraction" was one of the few songs on the album that was left "the way we did it the very first day" with little change. They had noticed the similarity to The Police, but decided that it worked and "had its own thing," so they left it.
Q Magazine called it "positive in its message" and a "self-help cry in the face of 21st-century digital overload" (which makes it sound like a
The Information outtake). Beck was quoted, "Anybody who has a phone or computer lives with the distractions pulling you this way and that. We haven't figured out how to have access to everybody and everything all the time and how it affects us psychically and neurologically. Or at least I haven't. My analogy to friends has been that I feel as if somebody has removed the front door of my house, permanently."
In another interview on the BBC, Beck mentioned the situation of a room full of people and "everyone is looking at a screen." He wanted to write about that without being condescending or judgmental, noting that it was a human expression of "yearning to be there completely" which is more difficult nowadays. "We're always partially somewhere else," Beck noted.
Both those quote are fairly common ideas for Beck. He has long written about being unaffected, avoiding all the noise, in order to maintain your sense of self or to more legitimately connect with others. (See, "Static," "New Pollution," "Just Noise," "The Information" which all use similar metaphors for 'distraction').
Live:2017-2018 Colors tour
For whatever reason, Beck never played this song live on the
Colors tours. Will he ever give it a shot?