All... All our ugly friends... All our ugly friends are coming back Dial down the decay, turn up the attack Dial down the decay, turn up the attack Turn up the attack Someone's still Following you, I can guarantee From the Young Man's Terror Society On your back, the Young Man's Terror Society

The truth is our dead, they don’t carry messages Like ghosts with secondhand code… But still, still, still, still, still I’ll turn up my ears If my mother appears and speaks to me out in the snow It was cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold as it gets The worst of the Midwest. No accident We stripped what was left of her out of that house While my father made plans to skip town And if there’s any kind, kind, kind, kind of kindness in the world That’s the last time I’ll go back there I took photos and dishes and decorations for trees And my sister, she did what she could Hell, it’s been a sandstorm year That’s the last time I’ll go back there Well it looks, looks, looks, looks, looks like while your back was turned God built the perfect mousetrap. No accident Dust and ash of man, extinction plan Shaking hands, just sand on sand Birth of man, extinction plan Birth of man, extinction plan Birth of man, extinction plan

Sundown, Detroit, ‘91, I sat out and counted time Saw the clouds and the trees and sunshine all get segmented to hell by the power lines I was stitch-lipped while there was way too much noise outside Head down, block out, lock arms, learn what shame comes on about School full of pricks, white skin makes me sick, can’t say a thing out loud It’s not the static that you’re hearing, kid, just how you learn to tune it out But who needs you now, who needs you now Who needs you now, who needs you now Who needs you anyway? Who needs you now, who needs you now Who needs you now, who needs you now Who needs you now, who needs you now Who needs you anymore? Are you slow? Are you dumb? Are you fucked in the head? Are you cruel as they come? Cigarette on the ground, are you deaf to the sound, are you passing all that stuff down? Dogs howling in my veins and I still hear ‘em if I come around But who needs you now, who needs you now Who needs you now, who needs you now Who needs you now, who needs you now Who needs you now, who needs you anyway? Who needs you now, who needs you now Who needs you now, who needs you now Who needs you now, who needs you now Who needs you now, who needs you anymore? Snow on the ground, we were hospital bound in Jenn’s sedan Distance of years, vacant empire heirs, it doesn’t change where the sound began Just hear the surgeons out, try to make some plan if you can and I can! Every song a satellite to where we are Wrapping arms around a bruised guitar Every pulse a star A tattoo just like a cross-shaped scar Won’t get too far Shudder soul strapped to an ICU bed Tremolo through the floor instead To loose each thread To wait for this drop in time When our nerve turns lead It’s the grief that sets my hair falling out My scattered boy scout doubt My last blowout And all the shit I keep seeing now That I can’t tell the doctors about Slow learner, but the future comes on steep A code I can’t outthink The clock’s clean sweep Now we’re just two bodies passing away Into waves of stone black sleep A tattoo just like a cross-shaped scar Every pulse a star A tattoo just like a cross-shaped scar Every… …pulse a star Every false alarm or daydream Every sinking sound Every loss of ground or sunbeam Every heart attack Every don’t look back, a warning Every dealer’s choice Every shaking voice still learning Every pulse a star Every stolen car or airbag (Who’s that rattling after us?) Every bought and sold Every heart of gold or white flag (Who’s that rattling after us?) Every iron gate Every birthday cake uneaten (Who’s gonna come to Earth for me?) Every scorpion Every champion unbeaten (Who’s gonna drain my memory?) Every missing friend Every bitter end (Who’s gonna come to Earth for me?) (Who’s gonna drain my memory?) (Who’s that rattling after us?) (Who’s that rattling after us?)

Never had to go to rehab, never had to sober up But I was seeing stars, heads in jars on the day I joined up With the Young Man’s Terror Society Down a splintered road, heavy load, hide out in the lost and found The dark side of every ride when you know you’re losing ground There’s still your lifelong brothers in anxiety All built by design to get weirder all the time It’s always been these hard times in a long, long, long, long line from you to me Til the cheap shots and dark thoughts found someplace else to be Away from the Young Man’s Terror Society This is the year I declare war on my mind This is the year we leave our weakest behind (Okay!) Now there’s roots they found inside our skulls, there’s tardigrades in our veins Our hearts’ freeze-dried, our lungs flash-fried, soft news’ll keep us sane In this Young Man’s Terror Society Well just as soon as it’s clear check for word out there, but whatever you do Change the locks, don’t go to the cops, you know they’re in on it too Watch the sinking state of the enemy Oughta be proud, we got in where we ain’t allowed Our fear’s been swallowed whole, fuck our souls, squad cars pulling up where we were There’s nothing new we won’t do to put our crooked brains in stir Let those longtime villains come and see This is the year we slow our system decline This is the year we declare war on our mind

Like a holy triangle sleeping in the Midwest I traced three points around Lake Michigan, then I came to rest Well if the future don’t get here soon, I swear I’m coming for it A place where I won’t ever get old, a place where I can’t get sick But I believe, believe, believe they’ll save my brain I’ll be the same Only newer While you’re trying to hear the birds as they sing to the catalpa tree sway Every scene dissolves into all the things that could take it away It could be a crash or a knife or it could be a shock to the chest Just like the last thing my mother ever sensed On a bathroom floor at St. John’s I felt my stomach twist White noise as the doctors insist We get ready I was thinking about my behavior and my buried first name Came home from the wake feeling tired and ugly and ashamed When I was a kid I couldn’t tell what was swimming around in my brain So what came out must’ve seemed cruel and insane And I believe, believe, believe that’s why I changed my name But what stayed the same Just got older But I believe, believe, believe in what’s to come In songs unsung In the future I believe, believe, believe in what’s to come

Let me try to explain this again As the tanks come rolling in As the tanks come rolling in and there’s an army at… An army at my back I’m the worm in your heart’s heart The threadbare catalyst spark I’m your dying dog’s last bark That faint pulse that says you’re not coming back I won’t be waiting to see for myself The rot of disease and failing health The day is coming soon when I’ll… I’ll rewire death Work our way up from the swamp! Work our way out of the stocks! Work our way up from the swamp! Work out way out of the stocks! No more heart attack! Second class! Built to last! Take it back! Talk about release from the weight Of your soul and your brain’s clean slate Now this whole damn world is gonna Feel out of date Let me try to explain this again Patience has been my best friend You got a fuckin lot of nerve To think this is the end Work our way up from the swamp! Work our way out of the stocks! Work our way up from the swamp! Run through the mud and the rocks! Work our way up from the swamp! Work our way out of the stocks! (Pull your boots from the pull of the mire you’re in) Work our way up from the swamp! (Just to shrug off the weight of original sin) Work our way out of the stocks! (Til the crush of heavy cogs rolls us back down again But I’ve got a bomb at the base of your heart And a blueprint to rebuild it from the start)

(Instrumental)

And these days I’m the hammer banging on your wall And these days I’m the number you don’t think to call Reversed back to a starting crawl There’s no sky out here for you to see Just the ugly sex we’re still having And who would stand me in front of your crowd? It’s the slow way my brain turns these things around My mouth just couldn’t form the sound You’ve aged in a way I couldn’t stand And me in a way you couldn’t understand

And I thought a song might make you feel better About what happened to your brain I was sure I knew how we were gonna die I was wrong but I can’t explain We move, electric dawn Space and time, pistols drawn Fuck the ages Fuck excuses Hit the switch Now we might outlive the wolves at the door That made us think sin was a sin Bide our time stomping on the floor Til the roof in hell caves in We move, electric dawn Space and time, pistols drawn Fuck the ages Fuck excuses Unwrite the pages Your angry bruises Lunar phases Whoever loses Hit the switch

In my heart there’s a black stone buried There’s a black stone buried in my heart Where we’ve been, who we’ve called and carried Where we’ll all be buried for our part Don’t you feel like it all got scary Like it all got scary way too fast? In the past like a bad memory Of the times you’re cut free from at last Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah We never tried that hard Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah We never tried this hard before In my head there’s a dark thought growing There’s a rude stream flowing through the fir Been so long we couldn’t trust our feelings Couldn’t risk revealing who we were The backslide that we let decide How we’ll stay inside from now on All the pricks couldn’t find a vein And the Big Bang came with a yawn Can you hold it back? Won’t last the drought! Can you make it stand? In fits and shouts! Is your gun in hand? Without a doubt! Is your next life planned? Good looking out! In my chest there’s a slow pulse beating Like two cold winds meeting in my chest Short on time, friends and family we’ve lost Blowing seeds across the Midwest In my soul there’s a thin break spreading There’s a dull ache treading ‘cross my soul There’s a breach from a rising tide There’s a judge deciding what we owe In my heart there’s a black stone buried There’s a black stone buried in my heart Where we’ve been, who we’ve called and carried How we’ve all been wary from the start Da da da, da da da da dada Dada da, da da da da dada Dada da, da da da da Da da da da

I’m on a snakebite, rolled tight, get out before it falls Here’s the steeple, show the people the things you’ve learned so far And through the wall I hear another voice This one saying, “In another life I’d’ve married the bitch by now” You gotta be a monster to wear a monster’s clothes Dark and handsome, a cold hand’s ransom, and now it shows That you’re hardly a person, hardly a person at all Hardly a person, hardly a person at all You’re hardly a person, hardly a person, hardly a person at all And you’re hardly a person, hardly a person at all When you, when you, when you first knew When you, when you, when you first knew When you, when you first knew your mind Was gonna kill you When you, when you first knew your mind Was gonna kill you And you’re hardly a person, hardly a person at all

Whacha don’t understand is these are parting words Fighting the pounding jangle to be heard It could be years before this’ll make much sense So speak your piece but ready your defense Now they’re all gone Now they’re all, all, all gone We gotta hide that stuff inside a melody This patient lapse in our insincerity Buried under the fragile shit we make Unique as your grief and twice as hard to shake But don’t come runnin’ Don’t come runnin’ Don’t come runnin’ after your dead Don’t come runnin’ Don’t come runnin’ after the dead Don’t come runnin’ Don’t come runnin’ Don’t come runnin’ after the dead Don’t come runnin’ Don’t come runnin’ after the dead Don’t come runnin’ after the dead Don’t come runnin’ after the dead