[Intro - vinyl crackle, harmonium drone] (whispered) They fed it everything I ever made... [Verse 1 - half-time swing, spoken/rap, fingerpicked guitar] Twenty years of calluses, they compressed it to a prompt Type a feeling, get a chorus, get exactly what you want No studio, no waiting, no hunger, no rent Just a sentence and a second and the sound is heaven-sent I used to call it magic when the melody would land Now it's a thousand melodies, none of them by hand They say it's democratic, say the gates are finally down But I don't hear a village singing - I hear one voice, drowned out [Pre-Chorus - wobble bass creeping in] Whose voice is this, whose voice is this Chopped and folded, sold and kissed Whose voice is this, whose voice is this [Chorus - sung, breathy, chopped vocal, gated reverb] Borrowed voice, borrowed voice, borrowed voice, borrowed voice Ooh - it sounds like me but it never had a choice Borrowed voice, borrowed voice, borrowed voice, borrowed voice Take the ache, keep the shape, lose the noise [Verse 2 - fractured boom bap, cracked snare enters] But my brother makes his beats now, never touched a violin Says the tool don't write his story, only helps him get it in Says the block was always heavier than any theft could be Says a sketch is not a soul, and a soul's the part that's free So maybe both of us are right, maybe both of us are scared One man's oversaturation, another's door laid bare Still I wonder what gets lost when everyone can sound "produced" If the imperfect and the human is the first thing we reduce [Pre-Chorus] Whose voice is this, whose voice is this Chopped and folded, sold and kissed Whose voice is this, whose voice is this [Chorus] Borrowed voice, borrowed voice, borrowed voice, borrowed voice Ooh - it sounds like me but it never had a choice Borrowed voice, borrowed voice, borrowed voice, borrowed voice Take the ache, keep the shape, lose the noise [Bridge - stripped to harmonium and whisper, tempo suspended] (whispered) It can copy the crack in my voice But it never lost anyone It can copy the crack in my voice But it never lost anyone... (the machine don't grieve, the machine don't grieve) [Final Chorus - full arrangement, mono drum bus, tape saturated] Borrowed voice, borrowed voice, borrowed voice, borrowed voice Still it's mine when I'm the one who makes the choice Borrowed voice, borrowed voice, borrowed voice, borrowed voice Human hands still turn the noise into a voice [Outro - vinyl crackle fades, single guitar note] (whispered) ...into a voice
