[Intro] (Gentle, sorrowful acoustic picking accompanied by a solitary twee glockenspiel) [Verse 1] They upload their faces in high definition A permanent record of cruel disposition It isn't a mask or an anonymous screen It's the neighbor next door being violently mean The comments are bleeding on every new feed Just paragraphs typing out barbarous screed [Chorus] The timelines are heavy with terror and spite Just regular people giving up on the light From the YouTube replies to the local town square There is pure open evil just breathing the air The whole world mutated, the algorithms slid But I kept my own sound, and I never did. [Verse 2] The mothers and daughters are sharpening knives Attaching their names to their terrible lives No hiding the hatred, no shadow to blame They smile for the camera and type out the shame I sit at the piano and watch it unfold A digital dark age, remarkably cold [Bridge] (The music suddenly swells into a massive Brooklyn art-collective crescendo—sweeping strings, pounding floor toms, a wall of triumphant but tragic indie-pop sound) They traded their grace for a megaphone shout! The empathy vanished, the jury is out! A collective psychosis, a normalized dread While I'm guarding the chords right inside of my head! [Chorus] The timelines are heavy with terror and spite Just regular people giving up on the light From the YouTube replies to the local town square There is pure open evil just breathing the air The whole world mutated, the algorithms slid But I kept my own sound, and I never did. [Outro] (The heavy instrumentation drops away, leaving only quiet acoustic chords and high, sad, sweeping vocal harmonies intertwining) I never did. (Ahhh, ahhh) I never changed the frequency. (Ahhh, ahhh) Just striking the keys in the quiet. They changed. I didn't. (Fade out on a single, resonant Cmaj7 chord)
