[Short Instrumental Intro - restrained, dark, slowly building] [Verse 1 - reflective, controlled, quietly bitter] They said that freedom opened wide, a thousand roads, a thousand lives. We learned to speak its borrowed name, and call dependence choice. Freedom is not the absence of masters or chains; it’s just the right to choose which addiction remains. But every path came pre-assigned, to find some comfort in designed confines. [Pre-Chorus - low, tense, unresolved] Born and lost. Born and lost. Is this the only freedom that remains for us? [Chorus 1 - heavy, clear, anthemic] Freedom means stand still, freedom means wait. Freedom means your future gets signed away. Same old king, new old name. Freedom means nothing has to change. [Verse 2 - heavier, grieving, accusatory] They fenced the many to borrow years, and guard the wealthy few. Called it duty, called it care, while narrowing the roads ahead. The future was bartered, tomorrow sold, the owners stayed safe and dry. And those with least were told to wait, and call it right. [Pre-Chorus - low, tense, unresolved] Born and lost. Born and lost. Is this the only freedom that remains for us? [Chorus 2 - darker, more forceful] Freedom means stand still, freedom means wait. Freedom means your future gets signed away. Same old king, new old name. Freedom means nothing must change. [Verse 3 - cold, hollow, quietly devastating] The engines roar, the bright things gleam, to sell the feeling we still move. We fill the silence up with things, and decorate the halls of the dead. A freedom sold as having more, a prison dressed in polished doors. The road stays fixed beneath the wheels, newer names, the same old game. [Bridge - exposed, grave, slowly intensifying] Freedom— where did it go? Was it ever real, or only what we’re told? And now, to still be called free, must we again be feared? [Break - sparse, suspended, dark sustained tension] [Final Chorus - full, heavy, final, hopeless] Freedom means stand still, freedom means wait. Freedom means your future gets signed away. Same old king, new old name. Freedom means nothing ever changes. [Outro - fading, ghostlike, unresolved] Born and lost. Born and lost.
