[Verse 1] We grew up underneath the TV glow Saturday mornings with nowhere to go Riding our bikes till the streetlights came on Mom yelling from the porch, “Where have you been all night long?” Cassette tapes and a quarter in the arcade VHS movies that we rented for days We didn’t have much, but somehow we had enough We had dirt on our shoes and a whole lot of love [Pre-Chorus] Now everything moves a little too fast We’re chasing the future while holding the past Everybody’s connected, but nobody talks And the world keeps changing while the clock never stops [Chorus] Welcome to the new age Everything’s changing on a brand-new page Machines are working while the people lose pay Is this the future that we wanted to make? I wanna go back, back, back To a time when we didn’t know what we lacked Before every moment was recorded and saved Before we traded our freedom for the new age [Verse 2] There was one telephone hanging on the wall If you weren’t home, nobody knew where you’d gone You’d knock on your friend’s door, “Are you coming out?” And somehow we’d find something to laugh about Now AI can write, and robots can drive Machines are learning how to keep businesses alive The factory’s quiet, the paycheck’s gone And we’re told to reinvent ourselves and just move on [Pre-Chorus] They said technology would set us free But freedom feels different when you can’t make ends meet The world’s getting smarter every single day But who’s getting richer when the jobs go away? [Chorus] Welcome to the new age Everything’s changing on a brand-new page Machines are working while the people lose pay Is this the future that we wanted to make? I wanna go back, back, back To a time when we didn’t know what we lacked Before every moment was recorded and saved Before we traded our freedom for the new age [Bridge] Take me back to the summer of ’85 When a Friday night could make you feel alive No GPS telling us where to go Just a full tank of gas and nowhere we had to know Take me back to the neighborhood streets When you knew every face that you’d happen to meet When growing up meant scraped-up knees And dreaming about the future didn’t come with a screen [Breakdown] Maybe I’m just getting older Maybe the world’s just getting colder Maybe progress isn’t what we thought Maybe we miss the things that money never bought [Final Chorus] Welcome to the new age We’re standing on the edge of a digital wave Robots don’t sleep, and machines don’t age And we’re wondering what happens when they take our place I wanna go back, back, back Not because the past was perfect like that I just miss a world that felt a little more human Before the future came running through the door [Outro] We were kids with the whole world ahead Now we’re watching machines do the work instead Funny how the future we dreamed about Is the future some of us wanna get out Take me back… Just take me back… Before everything became The new age.
