When we were young I fell in love easily Down like a stone It felt like you tempted the blue from my eyes And promised me everything beautiful under the sun Oh when we were young When we were young We met at the cinema And I held your hand As we walked to the back row And we kissed through the trailers and most of the film Now I don’t even remember which one Oh when we were young When we were young Your face got kind of pale And you lost all that weight So we went to the doctor Who said we’d be lucky if you made it til Christmas By Valentines day you were gone Oh when we were young When we were young I fell in love easily But now I confess I don’t think of you nearly as much as I should ‘Til I see dreamy teenagers lost in their love just begun Oh when we were young Oh when we were young

Vanity! Vanity! The whole damn world is vanity The casual depravity, the downslide of humanity Pray for a saviour, elect a polar opposite But that’s alright cos everybody knows about it Infamy! Infamy! Everybody’s got it in for me This timeless bastard symphony has a dark prophetic ring for me I keep on rolling, trying to find a better fit And that’s alright cos everybody knows about it Monetize! Monetize! Dollar signs in vacant eyes Cut, divide and polarise like a herald of free enterprise I get real paid but every penny is a counterfeit But that’s alright cos everybody knows about it Integrity! Integrity! The flip-side of celebrity Turned out so respectably for late nights with the secretary You’re so damn cool, you’d sell your mother for another hit But I don’t care cos everybody knows about it Elevate! Elevate! The weakest fucking candidate Let ignorance proliferate and then welcome your new head of state The charge will stand, even if I am a hypocrite But that’s alright cos everybody knows about it

I want a lover who can tear me apart Carve your initials into my beating heart Like a prison tattoo This sentence will I serve for you It’s just something deep inside of me Leads me to love and hate unconditionally And for this faith I will lie And on this hill, prepared to die I may not behave the way they say I should But I’ve lived my life in the service of a greater good Yeah I cheat and I kill But if I don’t do it the bad guys will So I’ll take up this rag And I’ll wave it like a flag And take the pledge Now in the twisted wreck of parliament Both sides lead with their weakest argument And offer up nothing more Than insults traded across the floor It’s all filthy truth and honest lies There are none so weak as those who would compromise It’s a lesser concern To calmly watch the whole world burn Than to give up an inch The invasion happened quietly No boots upon the beach at Normandy Instead you came home and found The Fuhrer in your dressing gown And he looks like your dad As he waves that goddam flag And takes the pledge We kept dancing when the music stopped Kept the faith long after the penny dropped And although we all knew We didn’t know what else to do But I remember when it all began I wanted nothing more than to be your man Whatever it takes Now this tapestry of grave mistakes Is all that I have So I wave it like a flag Yes I’ll wave it like a flag And take the pledge

I knew that summer wouldn’t stay I’m not that kind of fool Just thought we may get one more day But the storm was cold and cruel I had you for a moment there Now it’s forever in the past And pretty things They were never meant to last Just like a Sunday afternoon I take some pills and sleep While you cook your shit up in a spoon And sell our childhoods cheap ‘Cause when you pull that thread It all unravels crazy fast And pretty things They were never meant to last Late at night when the world is still I wonder where you went And in these moments I have to kill There’s a lifetime to repent ‘Cause I had you for a moment there Now it’s forever in the past And pretty things They were never meant to last

I have no fear of all I don’t know What a man cannot see will not hurt But lately the way you’ve been sneaking around’s got my mind Laying down in the dirt And I don’t need to know The where or the whom It’s going to kill me just to know that you lied So darling, spare me the details That’s where the devil resides I’ve never been, oh the jealous kind No flash of green in these eyes So I don’t want to drag these suspicions around Or the fear of some ugly surprise And I want to believe Every word that you say And Lord only knows how I’ve tried So darling, spare me the details That’s where the devil resides And envy may well be the deadlier sin but it Aint so dishonest as pride I’ve always been A creature of faith I have stood up and taken my vow So what then, would all of these years have been for If I start in to question it now? So I don’t want to deal in the wrong and the right Cos I’ve already chosen my side And darling, spare me the details That’s where the devil resides

I cannot raise a smile I cannot raise a fist I cannot comprehend the cost of all these opportunities I missed While I was waiting for an intervention While I was waiting for the phone to ring These creatures jumped the walls and sunk their teeth into the heart of everything Or did it happen while I wasn’t looking Did I just step aside and welcome in the wolves in poorly fitted sheep’s attire, The lambs adorned in wolfish skin? The words are separated from their meaning And truth is separated from the fact The vermin have consumed the trail of breadcrumbs Now I’m scared there’s no way back Aint that the way you slide A sleepwalk to the darker side And love is not the answer I’m afraid The moment came and I just stood and watched it happened And I’m ashamed I spend my money in the usual places I buy a lot of shit that I don’t need I recognise the frailty of the age in terms of lust and hate and greed But never see it in my own reflection I don’t consider that I’m one of these oblivious, self-interested fools Content to live and die on bended knees Like I’m the servant of a natural order And never happier than when I’m crushed beneath the looming, loving leather boot of that sweet oppression I’ve come to trust like it’s the only thing that keeps me grounded that helps instill in me a sense of pride the daunting odds I strive to overcome but in truth I barely even tried Aint that just the way you find Your aspirations get resigned And love is not the answer I’m afraid The moment came and I just turned and looked away And I’m ashamed Everybody tells it like it is But every day the same old sun comes up on days like this I cannot raise an army But I will not raise the flag I’ll call myself a rebel, scream seditious words into a paper bag And make believe that it could make a difference And maybe this time we can start a fire By preaching eloquent, impassioned testimony only to the choir It’s not important that you stand for something You just need something you can rail against The mortal sin of the poorly chosen word Or a joke that may just cause offence But any God without a sense of humour Is not a deity that I could love And who would choose eternity in a stern, unsmiling paradise above? But that’s just the way you slide The scripture will not be denied And love is not the answer I’m afraid The moment came and I just stood and watched it happen And I’m ashamed Can we not raise the standard of our discourse Much above a howl of neatly scripted indignation Punctuated by cries of peace and love It’s not enough to hold a firm opinion The counter-argument must be eviscerated in some frenzied moral outrage All damnation, no debate You see the meek stand to inherit nothing Unless they have the will to lawyer up Or fight so dirty as to contradict their claim of meekness And there’s the rub I’m well aware that I’m the one who’s shouting Don’t think the irony is lost on me A call for sober, calmly measured reason screamed in bold hypocrisy! It’s gonna take a whole lot more than words to tame the dogs of war And love is not the answer I’m afraid My generation blew its chance, now let’s get the hell out of the way

I’ve been in love before I am no stranger to that sweet little rush You feel when your hands accidentally touch When you start out with somebody new I’ve been in love before Danced home from Sunday school giddy with joy To scribble, “Dear diary, I just met a boy And I don’t care what consequence it brings” I’ve been in love before Dragged by my mother to church to confess, “Forgive me dear father my sins of the flesh” But I did not repent anything I’ve been in love before Deeper than any heart could possibly fall Some lover whose name I no longer recall Whose face I cannot picture any more Yes I’ve been in love, I’ve been in love before I’m not a liar so I’m not going to say I have not thought about you in that tender old way But falling in love’s not so simple as when we were young So if I don’t swoon like all those sweet seventeens It doesn’t mean you can’t be the man of my dreams See, I just don’t dream so much any more Cos I’ve been in love, I’ve been in love before I’ve been in love before He promised to care for me, build me a home He gave this illness to keep in my bones And took off with everything else I’ve been in love before And love left me beat up and broke at the seams So if I say, “It’s complicated”, well, you know what I mean Don’t know what’s left here for you Or what the hell else I can do It’s just a feeling but you can never be sure Cos I’ve been in love, I’ve been in love before