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1. |
PC Musical Chairs
04:00
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PC MUSICAL CHAIRS
Everyone gets a seat, no one gets left out
The desire to equalize is starting to numb us out
Blunting individuals, looking far too wide
Beyond the need to understand that every single mind
Must know its own reflection not one that has been supplied
With over regulation we've nothing to decide
Without the risk of failure we've nothing to achieve
But when failure is the basis on which a brand new moral theme
Is set from past conceptions of an old morality
How far does doctrination make it seem like a repeat?
Invisible consensus, value added facts
Standards shift without warning, something starts to crack
Hear it on radio see it on a screen
Read it in a paper they tell me what it means
In terms of having heard it somewhere else before
But the media self-appointed are laying down new laws
To give us more illusions and this one like disease
Has spread so well we find it hard to disbelieve
Political Correctness? Check the words out one by one
After years of media politics the first one is no fun
And "correctness" reeks of classrooms, being taught to toe the line
So don't tell me it is natural, or previously in our minds
Anyone with a conscience knows what is right or wrong
They're pushing what cannot be bought: a reason to belong
PC is just a label, not a statement of ID
Not a passport to be someone of some higher quality
When something says it for us and repeats it enough times
We believe we hear a chorus of other people's minds.
Then we all become self-conscious and lose the basic need
Of expressing our opinions; it's the root of being free
It's only by discussion of a difference that is known
Learning by discerning who we meet and where we go
No one sets morality, what you are is all your own
PC obscures reality- what you reap is what you sow
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2. |
Next Big Thing
02:41
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NEXT BIG THING
"Tremendous! Fab!" the critics cried
As unpopular culture was opened wide
To show the world what wasn't hidden
But up until then had been forbidden
With more open eyes than open minds
The critics searched intent to find
The latest act on the borderline
Between being coarse and showing fine
An image brought to public view
That spurned the many to proclaim the few
Yet processed such that any threat
Was shown to be simple to forget
And for that falsehood people flocked
To be seen to be relishing what they'd mocked
Safe now the threat was public domain
All the old rebellion was shown to be safe
Radical chic for the strong gone weak
Handed on a plate what they were too scared to seek
Dressed in non-conformity the people took the hand
That seemed to promise freedom, but they couldn't understand
That through the hands of the media
And all the ways they are feeding it
The content becomes less, not more
Getting the result without knowing the score
Music has been raped and shed
Of all its power by the images fed
Beguiled by smiles presumed to be scorns
They bought the product and the cult was formed
Original music is always born
But the way it's produced can make it look deformed
Pity for the rebel who fought so strong
To be put in the position where he didn't belong
But hoped beyond the vision he'd always had
That some kind of good could emerge from the bad
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3. |
Can't Be Bothered
02:37
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CAN'T BE BOTHERED
Queuing up for leaflets 'How to Get Ahead'
One man grumbles next to me, "That's the one I never read
But no one tells me what I need
So it doesn't really bother me."
Outside someone sweeps the road, I ask, "Is it good pay?"
"Throw that leaflet in the bin and ask some other day.
I do my job to make ends meet
Reasons, they don't bother me."
In the lineup by the sign that says 'Wait here until it comes'
Everyone's standing in the rain doing mental sums
The fare has just gone up again
So the weather doesn't bother them
The bus is late again - the driver smiles, he knows
That the people who complain at him will thank him when they go.
"Well I get paid, and they pay me.
So it doesn't really bother me."
A kid walks down the pavement kicking stones and cans
His mother slaps him harder to make him understand.
"You can try and impress your friends
But it doesn't really bother them"
And his friends are laughing loudly, but they're feeling just like him
There's always someone bigger who tells you you can't win
So they hang around in groups of ten
Pretending nothing bothers them
A man slumped in the corner was talking A to Z
About where he'd been and what he'd done and why all his friend were dead
"I know I drink too much" said he
"But now it doesn't bother me"
Nothing bothered anyone, so I wondered "Who am I
To be the only person to ever wonder why?"
And someone said I was in the way
"Does it bother you?" "No, it's okay."
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4. |
2000 and One
04:01
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2000 AND ONE
Selling by number hi-tech illusion
Look to a future and keep it clean
2000 and one, end of the century
Figuring out the advertising schemes
For toilet machinery paper dispensers
Kitchen appliances razor blades
Serial comics without the humor
Buy now, pay later, pre-arranged
2000 years since whatever the panic was all about
Turn on the TV to see the devout
Asking for money so they can help you out
It's almost as if we can stand and watch
Until the magic number lets us off somehow
We imagine a new beginning
Getting fatter after all the thinning
Losing so much, then suddenly winning
Meanwhile obscuring the chaos we live in
With fast rate technology, plastic diversions
Wiping our conscience on numerical versions
Of a future conceived too easily believed
Via numb repetition in a culture of ease
And convenience trash. We're so easy to please
Is nobody asking for more than this?
Don't wait too long, it won't always exist
2000 and one
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5. |
Panic in the Supermarket
02:21
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PANIC IN THE SUPERMARKET
She got a basket- she got to fill it
Picking up a can of beans
Imagining herself in a movie scene
A random fluctuation
Background music hesitation
Tape chewed up! It's panic station
Consumerist disintegration
I won't buy this cos I don't need it!
I won't buy this! I cannot afford it!
I can't stay in- but where's the exit?
Wide awake it's automatic panic in the supermarket
She got a ticket but she can't use it
Offer ends in twenty minutes
No ID and needs to prove it
Check-out full of cheque-card carriers
Barges through the human barrier
"Let me through I'm in a hurry"
Store detectives in a flurry
Don't let her out! She hasn't bought it
Don't let her shout! Just keep her quiet
What happens now? The price is riot
Someone pulls an automatic panic in the supermarket
She got a bullet with no name on it
It was generic it hit her wallet
Got compensation, a month of credit
And someone fixed the tape machine
To keep the shoppers in a dream
No-one recalled the shooting thing
Til they put it in a magazine
You must buy this! You won't believe it!
You can't resist! is how they feed it
Just one more thing- top up your basket
Impulse buy on automatic panic in the supermarket
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6. |
Can't Complain
04:11
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7. |
Faster
02:45
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FASTER
Fast technology made a problem
And advertised its own solution
Buy the latest speed it all up
Drive off into Science Fiction
Longing for a new sensation
Found one at the intersection
Adverts smiling for attention
Missed the turning - blew the engine
Bought a new one, fuelled the process
Link roads linking speed to progress
Got there faster, missed the views
Lost the meaning, blew a fuse
Bought a new one different shade
Of image on the screen displayed
In carparks at the service station
Home from home disorientation
Crossed the point of no admission
Commuter terminal collapse
Someone pull the plug on this one
Before the wire runs out and snaps
Get a spare one! It's too late!
Half a headline in the paper
Someone drove too fast to mention
Here comes another edge to go over
Up to date but running on empty
Knew the risk, forgot to check
Heard, forgotten, and repeated
Social scrap-yard full of wrecks
Here's a new promotion tactic
Unplug that and plug in this one
He who hesitates is dated
Make the most of what we make it
Repeat consume and undervalue
In the style of double bluff
You say you don't need it
But you can't get enough
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8. |
Phone in Sick
02:28
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PHONE IN SICK
Queuing up for jobs that we don't and demean us
Want to be a shop assistant? Lavatory cleaner?
Spent a bomb on uniforms to justify low wages
Qualify by turning up and having smiley faces
By the way your appearance isn't what we call supportive
You put your image up for sale the corporation bought it
Just do what we tell you to and keep the job forever
Or at least until we sack you cos computers do it better
Woke up with a job one day and didn't wanna work no more
Get a life before it is too late, phone in sick of it all
When the only thing that jobs entail is endless repetition
Stacking up and pulling down and making no decisions
It's time to re-evaluate your actual position
How far does an opportunity become a prison?
All our creativity is waiting to be used
If it's not what you're working with, find better things to do
Work and play should be combined together, make it fun
Don't waste your life regretting it, cos it's the only one
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9. |
Refugees Go West
02:34
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REFUGEES GO WEST
It's all-channel mindset in Western World style
Between TV and work we all roam
While mad politicians cause wars and divisions
In places a long way from home
Political power-crazy generals on hills
Are bombing the people they know
And making demands claiming rights over land
Til their ain't nowhere safe left to go
"This is religion and so is this too
And one of them therefore is wrong."
It is the same old excuse to support fascist views
"You may live here, but you don't belong"
Family gathered to see what was left
On the borders of what was once home
The country next door said, "You're welcome I'm sure
But the law says you'll soon have to go."
The phrase "ethnic cleansing" is dressing in words
Racist oppression and death
When the last refugees have come out of the east
How far will they have to go west?
The refugee's story gets left in the cold
As we turn off the TV and go
Easy to ignore til it's at your front door
Then it is time to "stay" and not "go"
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10. |
Backlash
05:58
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BACKLASH
They're shifting the blame for the problems
Away from the people who made them
Pointing the figures and fingers at those
Who have already found the solutions
The squatters who took themselves in
Reducing the homeless and using the homes
The travellers who said goodbye to it all
And hello to anyone else on that road
The kids are ram-raiding their boredom
Reproducing themselves on TV
With no aims or future before them
The future got faster to see
"They" are the headline writers
"They" are the faces on screens
"They" are the seekers of status
"They" are the words in a speech
Prepared for the total rejection
Of all that they say they can do
After the strikes and the backlash
The people will want something new
But instead of reversing the process
And listening out for ideas
They'll turn the attention to lifestyles
Untouched by their stirring up fear
And divert the anger and protest
Away from their actions, inactions
Fictions, denial, contradictions
Image-forming, status-building power-games
Names with titles, mind-games
Diverting the blame by diverting the problem
"Yes, but now look at THIS situation"
Here we all go attacking the minority
Same old thing, but a different label
Pretty soon we'll all be in one or another
Dividing the majority is keeping them stable
It's basically a case of replacing the reality
Of people living out their own variety
With misinformation about the state of the nation
Being down not to the Government
But a lack of morality
The only morality they understand
Is a belief in control and the status quo
Anyone succeeding in escaping these things
Becomes a target when the fuses blow
Me, I've never squatted nor lived on site
But I've seen enough to know what's right
I've watched both sides of this lifestyle fence
And it's more than politics it's common sense
Nobody does what they don't want to
The state exists to promote itself
Given alternatives of what you could do
You wouldn't need the state, nor would anybody else!
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11. |
Friends
03:24
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FRIENDS
I've got friends who are there to the end
Sharing past experience rejecting all the trends
Seeing through the everyday and leading their own lives
Creating tunes and phrases that help us all survive
I've got friends who chose to settle down
Mortgages and babies, getting married, saving pounds
So when I get to tell you these friends are all the same
You start to get the picture - the shock is in the change
Growing older separates experience from 'now'
What once was one big family is caught up in a row
Based on what we used to be, divisions causing stress
Looked upon subjectively, it all seems such a mess
Sat in stupid corners thinking we're all alone
Not counting friends who went the way we never used to go
While they're sat in the same corners feeling more or less the same
How many rules were broken to lead up to this game?
How much freedom do we need before we give me of it away?
Opinions need to loosen up if we really want some change
If every boundary we create excludes more than it retains
Then old friends are excluded, and you have to think again
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12. |
Skin
03:34
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SKIN
Growing skin last washed forgotten when
It would be getting rotten but for the rain
Solo times zero to shut out the refrain
"How come we never got to see you again?"
Not so much trapped as preferring to hide
Don't open the door unless you're going outside
Living on nothing getting too expensive
Turned it inside out and lost the friendship
With a mood of defiance and not wanting it
Becoming reliant on the fact it exists
Searching for something better that this?
Throw out the pieces that never would fit
And throw out the jigsaw you coming for miles
Emptied the bin with a, picked up the phone with a
had a few words with a, wrote it all down with a smile
And time stood still like good times do
While bad times hovered in the recent past
Talking them over lets you know you can choose
Between cutting them dead or letting them last
And the choosing is the using of your own self-esteem
Did you like it as it was? Or has it never really been?
Some people want it dirty and others like it clean
Denying there's an area that's lying in-between
Watching the blind leading the blind
Gives you the time to use your mind
Plenty of skin to grown back again
Plenty of room outside the one you're in
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