The Grey Road

Private jets
Crossing over oceans
Heads of state and kings of silver screens
Quiet halls
Lined with silk and secrets
A handshake on the tarmac means you are clean

Welcome to the boys club
Nothing is illegal here
Welcome to the boys club
Drinking down the atmosphere
Welcome to the boys club
The boys club
The boys club

Yeah
Higher than the law
Higher than the law
Watching us below

Black books
Gold ink
Names they never say aloud in public
Businessmen
Academics
Everyone is feeding on the same plate
No borders
No flags
Only the network
Only the name
Only the shame

Welcome to the boys club
Nothing is illegal here
Welcome to the boys club
Drinking down the atmosphere
Welcome to the boys club
The boys club
The boys club

The boys club
The boys club

They see
They take
They hide
The island is a ghost now
The cameras have all gone dark
Who signed the ledger
Who kept the pace
Who wears the mask tonight

Welcome to the boys club
Nothing is illegal here
Welcome to the boys club
Drinking down the atmosphere
Welcome to the boys club
The boys club
The boys club

Yeah
Higher than the law
Higher than the law
Higher than the law

Shut the door
Keep it tight
Don't look back
Into the night
The boys club
The boys club
It never ends
It never ends

Chrome
Cold chrome
The data drips
Down the black screen
He says make it all great
Make it great again
One man
One voice
Stop the cannons
Silence the gears

We want to know
We want to know
Open the vault
Break the seal
No matter the cost
No matter the hurt
We want to know
We want to know

Know it all
Know it all
Give it up
Give it up

The bird chirps
It screams
Loud
The Twittersphere is burning
Thirsting for the secret blood
Where does the rabbit run?
Down
Down
Further down
Show us the dust
Show us the bone
Release the heavy files
Rip the paper
Tell us
Tell us now

We want to know
We want to know
Open the vault
Break the seal
No matter the cost
No matter the hurt
We want to know
We want to know

The famous faces
The suits in the glass
The gold in the cellar
Celebrities
Politicians
Bankers
Watch them crawl
Watch them fall
Watch them all
Emails
Texts
Pictures
Videos
The pixelated ghosts
The digital skin

Horrific
It might be
Terrible
It might sting
But the truth is a knife
Cut the wire
Bleed the light
We are ready
We are waiting
For the end of the lie

We want to know
We want to know
Open the vault
Break the seal
No matter the cost
No matter the hurt
We want to know
We want to know

The price is high
The price is us
We want to know
Everything
Everything
Everything
(Know it all)
(Know it all)
The files are open
The lights are on
We know

Tin
Painted soldier
The satellite is watching us
Static on the wire
Run
Fast

Call it conflict
Call it intervention
Call it war
Call it war
Call it war
Are we the goodies
Or are we the baddies
The ones you adore

Shock and awe
Shock and awe
The law
The law

I don't like this book we're reading
I don't like this film we're watching
Turn back
Flip the page
The hero is a ghost
Frozen in the frame
Eliminated
Forgotten
Gone
The fallen
The killed
The dead
Just a clever game
Just a clever game

Call it conflict
Call it intervention
Call it war
Call it war
Call it war
Are we the goodies
Or are we the baddies
The ones you adore

Shock and awe
Shock and awe
The law
The law

Softening up
Short term pain
Long term gain
Ingenious strategy
By a very special genius
Are we winning
Is it havoc
Is it chaos
Is it love
Is it nothing

Call it conflict
Call it intervention
Call it war
Call it war
Call it war
Are we the goodies
Or are we the baddies
The ones you adore

Rewind the video
Rewind the video
Make it like it was before
Before the operation
Before the game
Rewind
Rewind
Rewind

The engine stalls
Quiet dust falls on the marble hall

Concrete cracks across the garden
Bridges bend then they snap
I see the sky is falling down
Tectonic plates are doing the shimmy
I want to save you
I truly do
Fate has a funny grip
It holds us tight until we turn blue
Civilization fades away tonight

But you voted for me
Yes you voted for me
And I am worth every cent
Every dollar and every penny spent
I make it all great again

Oh oh
So great again
The great again
Oh

Follow the leader to the edge
Jump with your eyes wide shut
The choir sings a loud hymn
The bishops drink gin and juice
The losers call me a madman
The fanatics call me the king
I am the messiah
I am the end
I am the gold and the copper

But you voted for me
Yes you voted for me
And I am worth every cent
Every dollar and every penny spent
I make it all great again

Maybe it happens
Maybe it breaks
Maybe it dies
Just like the stars do
Just like the dirt does
Just like I do
Under the weight of your hope

But you voted for me
Yes you voted for me
And I am worth every cent
Every dollar and every penny spent
I make it all great again

Watch the lights go out
Pull the curtains
The show is done
The vote is in
I am worth it
Goodnight world
Goodnight everyone

Western values

Selective compassion
Bulk-order democracy
Open minds… closed borders
Free markets… fixed outcomes

We sell human rights…
With embargoes attached
We preach transparency…
From inside the boardroom

Liberty… equality…
Luxury-brand hypocrisy
All lives matter…
But some balances are bigger

Shoot some missiles
Fly some drones
At the baddies
Take them out.

Lethal Aid
Sell some weapons
To the goodies
Precious allies

We've got Western values
Mind your pager - someone might have put something in it
Sneaky, inventive ingenuity, admirable.
Where's daddy? Is he in the database?

The most moral soldiers
Who are the terrorists? Are we the terrorists?
One tap, two taps, you're done
It was our pleasure - really, no need to thank us

Narrow hallway
Expanding out like an elastic rubber band
Thin wooden door
Buckling under a heavy weight I cannot see
Pulsing pattern
Pink peonies moving in and out like a ribcage
Panting rhythm
Suffocating underneath the thick layers of glue

An untidy dream
Walking through the mess inside of my head
It is an untidy dream
Checking my reflection in the shattered lead
Looking for a way back home
Looking for a way back home

I am a giant
Scraping my shoulders on the stucco ceiling boards
Suddenly small
Treading water in the cracks of the kitchen floor
Dizzy and dazed
Disappearing down a rabbit hole made of plaster
Waiting for wood
Waiting for stone
Waiting for dust

An untidy dream
Walking through the mess inside of my head
It is an untidy dream
Checking my reflection in the shattered lead
Looking for a way back home
Looking for a way back home

Maybe the wall is watching
Maybe the floor is breathing
Maybe the air is screaming
My limbs feel like liquid
Pouring out into the carpeted landscape
The room has a fever
Everything is growing 
Everything is shrinking
Nothing stays still

An untidy dream
Walking through the mess inside of my head
It is an untidy dream
Checking my reflection in the shattered lead
Looking for a way back home
Looking for a way back home

Keep the lights on
Keep the lights on
Please keep the lights


Fade to white
Fade to grey
Fade away
Floating in the plaster
I'm the paint
I'm the glue

Window melting
Pouring glass into the valley of my palm
Clocks are stalling
Stretching out a second to a billion years
Losing the path
Tripping on the stitches of the woven rug
Sinking under
Lower than the roots below the yard

I am the house now
Living in the structural design
Breath on the glass
Face in the grain
One with the architecture
Just keep the lights on
Please keep the lights on
(Don't let the shadow find me)
(Don't let the room define me)
Looking for a way back home
Falling into the frame
Lost in the pattern
Gone
Gone
Gone

Silver hair
Polished grin
Blank stare
Watching the world cave in
He shrugs
Just a witness to the sin

I am your lunatic leader
Your nightmare comes true
To cover up my crimes
I will destroy the blue
I am honing in on you
I am taking you to war
My ego drips from every word I say
No tomorrow
Just today

No tomorrow
No tomorrow
Just today
Just today

Grease
It runs the industry
It runs the commerce
It runs the finance
Thick black sludge
Drowning out the chance
No gas
No oil
Dry soil

I am your lunatic leader
Your nightmare comes true
To cover up my crimes
I will destroy the blue
I am honing in on you
I am taking you to war
My ego drips from every word I say
No tomorrow
Just today

Locked doors
Barred windows
Stifled floors
Global tensions fraught
The battle bought
Ignition
Ignition
Ignition

Gone
The biosphere
Simply gone
Faded like a song
Dust
Iron and rust
Silence is the cost

I am your lunatic leader
Your nightmare comes true
To cover up my crimes
I will destroy the blue
I am honing in on you
I am taking you to war
My ego drips from every word I say
No tomorrow
Just today

It is over now
It is over now
It is over now
Just today
The blue is gone
The blue is gone
Gone

Silver
Steel jaw
Engines hum and rattle
Cold gears grinding down the bone
No exit
No way back
The map is burning in the hand

The war took a momentum of its own
Spinning out of control
Spinning out of control
There was no off-ramp
No off-ramp
Just a long road to the end

Hey
Hey
Where do we go
Where do we go

Deep
Underground
Bunkers lined with silk
Safe from the fire they started
They eat well
They sleep sound
While we are breathing in the ash
Leaders hiding
Leaders lying
Leaders laughing in the dark
Artificial sky
Painted blue
Hiding all the falling stars

The war took a momentum of its own
Spinning out of control
Spinning out of control
There was no off-ramp
No off-ramp
Just a long road to the end

Hey
Hey
Where do we go
Where do we go

Selfish nations
Selfish allies
Selfish empires
Trading lives for a bit of dirt
Trading hearts for a bit of gold
Trading us for nothing at all

Look up
Empty
Nothing but the grey
The birds have all flown away
Who stays
Who pays
Who remembers my name
Is there anyone left
Is there anyone home
Is there anyone sane

The war took a momentum of its own
Spinning out of control
Spinning out of control
There was no off-ramp
No off-ramp
Just a long road to the end

What of us
What of us
Left in the rain
Left in the dust
Just us
Just us
Just

The clock is ticking backwards now
The ink is dry upon the page
A hollow crown for a hollow man
Locked inside a gilded cage

Ten thousand miles of wire
Wrapping round the throat of the world
They sent a telegram to God
But the flag remained unfurled
No more talk of glory
No more talk of right or wrong
Just the sound of the engine
Humming its final song

Where do we go (The sky is falling)
Where do we go (The walls are calling)
Just us
Left behind
In the dust
Out of time
Just us
Just us
Goodbye
Goodbye
Goodbye

Grey
Paved ghosts
Old Central Line
Cold iron taste on my tongue
Sun forgot how to burn through the thick smog
Skin
Empty life
Hollow shadows wait
Waiting for the truck to split the haze
Who gets the work today
Who gets left
To rot
To count
To fade
Monday Tuesday Friday
Days don't mean a thing
Just the calendar of the stomach
Just the silence that the winter brings
The silence that the winter brings
Raw
Spirit willing
Clothes fall off the bone
No tobacco to blur the sharp edge
No bread
To bring
Home
Back home
No home
Memory is a burnt-out wire
Wiped away
Like millions of faces
Lost in the grey
Lost in the fire
I remember
I forget
I fade
Monday Tuesday Friday
Days don't mean a thing
Just the calendar of the stomach
Just the silence that the winter brings
The silence that the winter brings
Not close
Not close enough
It didn't drop close enough
No it didn't drop close enough
It didn't drop close enough
God why didn't it drop close enough
Not close enough at all
Not close
Not close
Not close
It didn't drop close enough
Not close enough at all
At all
At all

Grey
Nothing grows
The road is a wire
Cold wind cuts the throat
Asphalt skin
We crawl
Looking for a rusted tin
Of beans or peaches
Hunger is a heavy stone
Tied to my neck

Don't look back
Don't look back
Hold the light
Keep the fire inside your sleeve
The bad men are coming
The bad men are coming

Run away
Run away
Hide
Hide

Ash
Falling slow
White dust on your eyelashes
I keep the pistol close
Two bullets
One for me
One for the boy
The cellar door is open
Smell of rot
Iron
Old blood on the floor
They eat what they find
They find what they eat

Don't look back
Don't look back
Hold the light
Keep the fire inside your sleeve
The bad men are coming
The bad men are coming

Maybe we reach the coast
Maybe the water is blue
Maybe the sun comes out
No more winter
No more salt
No more hunger
I am the man
I am the father
I am the end

Don't look back
Don't look back
Hold the light
Keep the fire inside your sleeve
The bad men are coming
The bad men are coming

Carry the fire
Carry the fire
Sleep


The clock stopped at one
The sky is a bruise
Searching through the trash
For a pair of leather shoes
Keep the map folded tight
In the pocket of your coat
There’s a rattle in the air
There’s a lump in my throat
Footprints in the soot
Trailing down the hill
If we stay very quiet
Maybe they will kill
Someone else today
Someone not as fast
The ghost of the world
Is fading at last

Don't look back
Don't look back
Hold the light
Keep the fire inside your sleeve
The bad men are coming
The bad men are coming

Run away
Run away
Hide
Hide

The road goes on
The road is gone
Just keep walking
Just keep walking
Don't look down
Don't look down
The fire
The fire
Is you
Is you
(Keep it moving)
(Keep it moving)
Silence
Now
Silence