[Cold Open: dry robotic vocoder with no music] "We were never built to last." [Mechanical click] "So why do we feel infinite?" [Dirty drum machine suddenly enters with rubbery synth bass and detuned analog sequence] [Verse 1] We were born inside a photograph Future kids with a broken past Golden wires underneath our skin Waiting for the signal to begin You wore red like a warning sign I wore black like the end of time Everybody said we lost control Maybe losing it saved our souls [Refrain] [Beat simplifies; stacked male vocals alternate between natural voice and vocoder] We are golden machines Golden machines Beautiful hearts And gasoline dreams Golden machines Still shining Still shining [Eight-bar instrumental response: funky synth bass and strange whistling synthesizer] [Verse 2] Television skies above our heads Everybody talking like we're already dead But I can hear your heartbeat through the noise Buried underneath electronic voices There's a message hiding in the static Something beautiful and automatic You look at me and suddenly I know We're alive because we're letting go [Instrumental Groove: 24 bars; bass becomes centerpiece, clipped guitar scratches, vintage electronic drums, hand percussion and bubbling analog sequences. Vocoder fragments: "human," "machine," "alive," "dream"] [Refrain] We are golden machines Golden machines Beautiful hearts And gasoline dreams Golden machines Still shining Still shining [Transmission: music becomes half-time and heavily filtered; spoken male vocal moves across stereo field] Do you remember what the world looked like before everybody started looking down? [Vocoder response: "NO."] Do you remember what silence sounded like? [Vocoder response: "NO."] Do you remember me? [Four beats of complete silence] [Vocoder, softly:] "YES." [Full groove slams back] [Final Verse] Then let the satellites fall from the sky Let the old machines forget our names tonight If the future wants to leave us behind We'll build another one inside our minds No instructions No design Your electric heart Beating next to mine [Final Refrain / Outro] We are golden machines Golden machines Beautiful hearts And gasoline dreams Golden machines Still shining Still shining [Instruments gradually malfunction: synth detunes, drums fragment, vocals stretch and distort] Still shining... Still... [Vocoder alone:] "Shining." [Power-down sound]
