Chorus Decapitated head of John the Baptist Speaking out ‘Hah!’ through fiery, chapped lips Cowards! The powers put me on their blacklist You’re all preach and no practice Verse One Artist-in-residence, all about your practice A voice in the desert gonna push you into cactus Dry your eyes, mate and fumigate your mattress We’re tired of your beard And your fear of paying taxes Weight of the world? You’re miscast as Atlas You said you wanted to fast Now you’re saying ‘Fact is My practice requires three square meals’ Wanna know how camel hair feels On the back of your neck When you’ve trekked With the goats and the crows? Days that you burn, night that you froze Now the blood is dripping out my nose it’s all over your studio It’s all over your clothes Whatcha gonna do now? Get really verbose? Or huddle in a corner And double up your dose? I don’t see you praying for your foes Or laying in the road Oh shit, now you’re playing with the pros You can die slow, ‘When the Wind Blows’ Or you can grab a biro and get to taking notes Do you hit squads? Do you flip modes? Do your fuckin’ homework, learn the lingo But you oughta know if you live by a code Somewhere Salome is sliding down a pole The enemy can cut Through your spine and your throat And you end up dumped on side of the road Chorus Decapitated head of John the Baptist Speaking out ‘Hah!’ through fiery, chapped lips Cowards! The powers put me on their blacklist You’re all preach and no practice Bridge Furious, I bleed on the big banks That breed the big tanks That mutilate the quick and the damned Furious, I point out plot holes Pour out hot coals Without ever lifting a hand Furious, I plead for the stepchild Living in exile Drinking like it’s New Year’s Eve Furious about the misfortunes Of widows and orphans Smitten with a new disease Down in the dungeon, soon elevated Spit out truth, decapitated Verse Two Anything you wanna die for? fight for? Five, four, three, two, one You cannot buy more Time, the stakes are as high as the tide And they got a small child at their side And the water is wide At the border they cried Passport denied Everything that they tried They swallowed their pride Hitching a ride through the greatest divide And they paid for a guide But they’re aching inside Cuz their other boy died They gaze at the sky What a waste of life! Coastguards might just wait for the right Time to puncture the dingy; goodbye! Can you relate to those seeking asylum? If you could, would you pay for their flight? Or basic supplies? Look me in my bloodshot eyes Have you forsaken the fight?

Joel the Custodian: Male psyche, big Lebowski Piss on a rug, you never had the house key Try vulnerability, try consent I’ve never been too cool to cry with friends Rod Powell, Ross Spencer I found, my lost temper Why this conquest, life as a contest? All bets off if you die in a bomb fest Islanders weep and they’re wiped off the map No silence or sleep when you’re fighting off attacks Of the pipeline man camp hush-hush killings Expelled the shaman, high on gold rush feelings Chorus You can be masculine and not toxic, bro There’s a pathogen, that neo-Nazi glow But are we advocates of Mr Darcy? no Cuz we’re battling the orthodoxy, yo But it’s on and on with the programme Got turned on by a slow jam Thinking we’re Don Juan, oh damn Caspar Grant Young male ego, listless, ASMR-loving self to sleep Scratching notches on bedposts Devil-on-shoulder whispers in ear til head bloats Echoing with crass chat-up lines and sex jokes Aging heartthrob with a beer gut and a beemer Peacock in high-octane Arm-wrestling while chuffs in a barmaid Steadied any doubt boy still got game Swinging dicks like conkers Knew the playground routine Like the back of his hand Piss around property and move to the next one Haven’t inserted the flag in the sand Til it sinks On account that his attitude stinks A long list of his flaws Gripped in his jaws, stuck Struggling to catch forty winks

Verse 1 Shoulda got a cool tattoo Or written ‘just do what you do’ To the victim of a cruel review Memorized Ephesians 2 Coulda made a decent brew Paid out an IOU Ate a little Irish stew Or something else tried and true Shoulda said ‘why don’t you?’ There’s no time to lose Coulda said that I love you Yeah, coulda gone to Dudley Zoo Taken in the lovely views With the little motley crew Me, Andy, ‘who that other dude?’ The fella with the ugly shoes Shoulda said ‘Nah!’ to the beast Coulda shown a lot more teeth Housed a couple refugees Considering all I believe Shoulda watched The Bicycle Thieves Or the sun rise in the east Gone to the graveside to grieve Wiping my eyes with sleeve No limit to what I can achieve Is that a lie we believe? If they downsize the police Should we breathe a sigh of relief? That would be kinda naive What’s that device on your knees? Sir, what’s that device? On your knees! Chorus A Hands in your pockets if you’ve got ‘em Side, side-eye, cuz somebodys plottin’ Urgh, it’s like waiting for software to install The summer that we did fuck all Down? I’ll race ya to the bottom Found one, two slippers, rock ‘em We couldn’t cobble together a pub crawl The summer that we did fuck all Verse 2 Shoulda taken a trip to the coast The tumour was misdiagnosed Now, who will pay out the most To fam when you’ve decomposed? Yeah, that’s a little morose Driven from pillar to post Imprisoned in cinemascope Ain’t no proposing toast You’ll never say hi to the host I’m digging your clothes But you live in the world of the ghosts Chorus B Everyday day of the dead What was the book that we read? Doctor, yeah, go ahead We waited and waited for hospital calls The summer that we did fuck all Now I just lay on your bed Remembering something you said When you dialling the dead, we’re sorry They can’t answer your call The summer that we did fuck all

Chorus Keep feelin’ like there’s more to life I hit a ceiling, a borderline Wanna live like the mortified Am I really that sort of guy? No The setting sun is kissing our sweatshops The first round of judging Is my name and my headshot Just delete it off my drive and my desktop The empire thrives In the pride of the desperate despot The moment of the Death Star explosion Frozen in the cinema Ever been a Jonah to a Nineveh? Ever drunk the wine mixed with the vinegar? Been forced to endorse or serve Denethor the 2nd or someone similar? It’s not as simple as saying ‘Buck the system’ We lack a lust for wisdom We don’t listen, just trust an algorhythm My deadliest bars: I think we missed em I spit darts and then demand some recognition? You switched off and that fed my inhibitions My inconsistent inner visions Simply emphazing the system Sisters of resistance end up dying in prison I’m tired of lying saying ‘I admire the wisdom Of the Christ’ Could I live a life that’s entirely Christian? This iron can’t sharpen any iron Cuz irony isn’t A substitute for substance No fire, I’m just fizzing I’m the groggy hip-hop equivalent of malnutrition How brave would I be Were I the target of drones? Tag my name on the wall On which the martyrs are thrown And it starts as sparks in the dome and it barks and bites through the bone And works its dark magic In the hearts and the home No damage is fantastic When it’s as cold as the chrome Who the hell is watering the seeds That they’ve sown? when the land reeks of warfare And I’m there broke and alone the prayers of the saints Will pull the sword from the stone Chorus Keep feelin’ like there’s more to life I hit a ceiling, a borderline Wanna live like the mortified Am I really that sort of guy? No

Joel the Custodian: Judged by the mumbling mass A White Bear shuffling past Words come tumbling fast Abandon your National Anthem, Handguns handed out at random Man is just a phantom Viper strike, I played dead, A playtest on a scale of 1 to 10: great sex I told you ‘I can handle it’ But I’m totally inadequate I’m Jean Val Jean with the candlesticks Me? The nice guy? A force of trauma? A guilty conscience can always outsource karma Said I’ll be right back But I messed up, did a nosedive Can I be that cat, all pissed up on the roadside? Catch every other word like bad telepathy, it’s I / Don’t / Love / Like / You A lack of empathy It’s certainly not how it’s meant to be, Don’t remove the balaclava Beware, do not enter the entire history of you Every hip and thigh that said ‘Kiss me, you fool’ Drip til I’m dry, get cancelled soon My lips are on fire and my pants are too My crocodile tears wonderfully understated Cracked black mirror Yeah, I’ll come right out and say it Shoulda shut up and danced But spilled the beans Hang the DJ, smash it all to smithereens Hook The harder you look, look, look, look The deeper the deeper the darkness MStork: Feeling like my worst enemy, arch nemesis Well knowing every weak joint pressure point Soft spot blemished deficit Worse still is trying to edit it out the psyche Mikey, real nicey, Crikey, it’s dicey Like playing craps When the seven turn around And bites your ass Luck runs out without a doubt So long forgotten, it’s rotten like sauerkraut Double the point, I’m on point, okay Made an eight fall the hard way Moaning on all fours to win back my heartache It’s a hard card to play At least the floor's sure as fuck there Don’t wanna get stuck there Nevertheless It's better than floating round upstairs Levitating burns fuel faster than I dare Take handbreak turns on a hairpin Formula one The map's upside down Oceans fall into sun Ground’s clouding the sky Fire, down it in one Found my mountain to climb Or die trying Click, click, ignition Check the transmission One eye on you One eye on me One eye on star-chartered journeying Far out self-love regardless Life in a nutshell's like the Tardis The harder you look The deeper the deeper the darkness Hook The harder you look, look, look, look The deeper the deeper the darkness

Sprint towards the circular saw sunset Blood red sparks Come and see a celebration of violence Mud makes marks Bodies on the streets: can’t bury em Or get caught in the crossfire Creative Commons images Just attribution required Top tier in my war crime ranker Can’t give it all to Christ Satire is pissing into the wind Just a poltergeist Lucifer, you’re landing crosshairs On enemies Or the adjacent mosque Claiming your erasing the boss, Now all the faces are lost Mic is active, five eyes open Files redacted, chest cam broken Please sir, please sir, please sir Hail Caesar Plead for the lives of others Gerd Wiesler He listened to your breathing Knew you were a light sleeper Months of neat notes A meticulous timekeeper Way down in the hole, wire And the red right hand Damn - now - Voila! Entire website scanned New Stasi, new skill set Build tech nano The Old West wakes up In cold sweat camo Outta sight, outta mind Never mind, We’re already blind to the CCTV You want the KLF Or Kuenssberg on the BBC? Mic is active, five eyes open Files redacted, chest cam broken Newly arrived from the slum Listen in to the hum of the hum drum Blacklisted phrases shared With just a thumb cannot be undone Who’s on the other side of the algorithms Harvesting your data? Arming the dictator, charmless invaders Parameters set once All the red meat stakeholders have chosen Bullet points cloaked in a black moon But they gotcha open Baby steps to surveillance state Snowdon He put a feast in your plate Check all the dates: Verboten Subcontracted then made an escape Drones awoken He’ll be hunted down: X-24, clone of Logan Mic is active, five eyes open Files redacted, chest cam broken Who’s asking the deeper questions now? *not including Chomsky* He’s ASMR, a calm sea Oddly almost godly Phone records more accessible Than you perhaps realized The grinding boredom of surveillance Has surprise, surprise, survived You have given explicit permission Triggered voice recognition You just didn’t read All the terms and conditions Tiefe Traurigkeit Ja, das Leben ist Weltschmerz the cabinet abandoning welfare And basic healthcare The sound of your grave being dug Is not the static of Michael Winslow When I wanna get dramatic, I go in close Mic is active, five eyes open Files redacted, chest cam broken The failure to address the tragedy of Ian Taylor Weep blood, Le Chiffre He coulda used your inhaler There was a hospital just two streets away According to the evidence released today No bottled water for Taylor, increase the pain Got five eyes on it So maybe cover your lenses They got the key to the lock in your house And all the sensors Self-appointed Sherlock Your password mind castles ain’t strong enough Against the unflappable multi-millionaire With the common touch Fictions slithering through perfected teeth Friends, this is destiny We’re all gonna get along splendidly It’s funny as in weird; your raw data is here But you yourself have miraculously disappeared

Yes, applaud the NHS, yes I’m the fear stoker, the beard stroker Occasionally congenial Amenable to the ‘dear voter’ I’m not a civil servant but a competitor With a hell of a recent history editor, Yeah, I’m way ahead of ya The back tracker, the fact hacker The war in Iraq backer I stopped listening when you attacked Thatcher’ The capitulator, the news faker, promise breaker, The Ulster/Leinster/ Munster/Connaught identity mistaker The white powder sniffer The-stander-not-deliverer The ‘Cocktails with Claudia Schiffer Floating down the River’er The crude stooge, the offshore tax haven scrooge Well-rehearsed bullshitter No rush, no blush, no rouge The hawk, the hack, the all-talk Keep the economy on track Zero hours contract and military combat The gaslighter, fast writer, class war fighter Free school meal voucher miser Turned supervisor The Number Ten dweller, such a likable fella Dogwhistler for white terror Born into the right era The media charmer Mates with the puppeteer behind Starmer Awkward selfie with a farmer Wearer of white power armour The Eton graduate, privileged to be inadequate The most dispassionate, arrogant Member of the cabinet The double-speaker, heat-seeker Feeding-on-the-weaker A to-conclusion leaper Friendly with the housekeeper Midnight mauradin’, piggish Wolfish, acting sheepish Mansplainer, ‘can’t change’r Coarser than sandpaper I’m the protester kettler, your pro-West meddler The immigrant unsettler You’re sleeping with the devil, sir The sexism tolerator, blundering debater, Might have a red-tint to my lightsaber But I write a white paper The vindictive gin sipper Show-no-teeth thin lipper, Skinny dipper The investor in the bodybag zipper The demagogue defender Ayn Rand cult member The big spender My best mate bailout money lender The Unicorn cake baker Gove and Vine double dater The universal credit shitshow understater The frontbench napper, Coldplay toe tapper Po-faced, old age, road rage, soul sapper I’m the three homes owner, austerity condoner I troll Remoaners Priti Patel, if only we only clone her I’m the stick-wielding, carrot dangler The word mangler Warhorse wrangler Receiver of glares from Angela The face twister, the lover of the Tate vista The new drug ‘no, you try it first, mate’ insister The ashes of Grenfell under the carpet sweeper School nativity innkeeper now the Grim Reaper The subtle racist or am I the other kind Key phrases to underline: ‘When I see faces, I’m colour-blind’ Working-class-into-debt driver, rottweiler Distilled water stockpiler, I’m a survivor In order to save lives we must act immediately Let’s say: in a fortnight I’m the master of expediency The everything by GDP assessor Official story stressor The Windrush scandal suppressor The NHS photo op arranger Let me check the stock exchanger I didn’t know Khashoggi was in danger The child benefit freezer The little Englander appeaser Dagger ready, next in line to Caesar Dreamer of atomic health Believer in the commonwealth Why won’t those Romanian Fruit pickers just come and help? The orphan child tear drinker I’ll monetise the freethinker Last little bit of hope in your heart sinker Online criticism: I can take an unhealthy amount But since you know all this Why am I not being held to account?

Long, long ago is a house I remember, Painted the gate in the ultramarine, Gone are the trees that were gold in September, Oldest of friends we’re still hoping to see Fish in the tile on the floor wished you welcome Now just shards in the flotsam and wire Next door neighbour, we went in to help him Is he a ghost in the smoke and fire? (Based on a traditional Norwegian lullaby)

Are you a hundred percent comfortable with, with The way that everything’s unravelling now? Maker of all, galaxy expander Grand evolver, What do you consider slander? You get labelled a bystander If we saw your nostrils Would they flex and flare with anger? And are you whispering your answers? Cuz we filled up our heads With social media dancers You hit the hip flask When we murdered the reefs? When our chemicals killed off All the birds and the beasts? Did you cry all day, every day When we did that? Aren’t you the original miserable empath? Numinous one, Humans have run the planet ragged If we had a big enough dagger we’d stab it Through the earth We can’t fathom its true worth And still we weep when we witness The beauty of new birth Ugh, we’ve mutilated form and function We’d even throw a unicorn Straight into a torture dungeon Is there still a measure of grace? It doesn’t really matter, Cuz either way we’re gonna spit in your face ‘I breaks it down to the bone gristle’ How deep is our love? About as deep as a wolf whistle Are you a hundred percent comfortable with, with The way that everything’s unravelling now?

He struck your skull The club slew and was broken, was broken Your blood cried out Enraged, the ground soaking Sacred O hatred, avenge me, avenge me Sacred O hatred, avenge me, avenge me A mountain of lifejackets Blanket the shore Your blood went cold As you sank to the floor Hit with a force Taking shoes off your feet Your blood wept Holy water onto the street Ancients, Ancients, please see me, receive me Ancients, O Ancients, just see me, receive me Sweltering passion The treacherous kiss Still Your blood pleads Tenacious insists Brothers, sisters, it’s all here, it’s all here It’s all in the blood Brothers, sisters, it’s all here, it’s all here It’s all in the blood Brothers, sisters, it’s all here, it’s all here It’s all in the blood