The song lyrics are written from the perspective of a war veteran, containing the line "wheeled out once a year, a cenotaph souvenir" and tracking the bathetic progress of the former soldier's war medal: "It sells at market stalls/Parades Milan catwalks". Richey Edwards told "Melody Maker" newspaper, "It's a beautiful image when the war veterans turn out at the Cenotaph, [...] and everyone pretends to care ... but then they're shuffled off again and forgotten." According to Martin Power in his book "Manic Street Preachers", the band "sounded at sixes and sevens" in the rest of the album, "Yet, as with "Generation Terrorists", they had again produced one genuine classic in the form of 'La Tristessa Durera (Scream to a Sigh)'."