Hypocritic critic

"The melancholic "Stratosphere" is about Beck's close childhood friend who he lost to heroin around 2000. The young Beck Hansen looked up to him, and when he overdosed in a motel room, the singer was mortified. Beck explained to English newspaper The Sun:

"It's about needing to escape and the lyrics are talking about heroin and that mind state of somebody wanting to numb out and go somewhere else. It's a theme throughout the record and I was thinking about hyperspace and space travel. We live in a time when it feels like the walls are closing in and there is anxiety and uncertainty.""