Empire Lyrics
He sits around all day watching videos of blokes hitting each other on the internet. He likes it. So he presses a button on his phone. It's a little heart. It’s acknowledgement. It makes him feel good, and that's fine, so it should. He's my mate, that’s great. He changes the picture in his profile every now and then: Queens birthday, come on England. No fuss, no problem. He acknowledges applause for politicians on doorsteps for kicking other people off othеr peoples doorsteps, and I wincе. He applauds. He red raw applauds. He says we are the Empire, and God will save us all, in the Empire
And you're rubber necking wreckage by the roadside, beeps and swearing silence the sirens, get a fucking move on, things to fucking do, got my work to get to, so fuck you and fuck them too. And you're working out who done what, then they scrape em up and the traffic flows, the feeling goes. Weeks later there's roadside flowers, and your gut takes a hit, Until a fucking little shit cuts you up at the roundabout, makes you late for work by a little bit
And you shout. And you shout. And I shout. I shout
I shout because it's all I've got left. I shout because I'm tired of this shit. This lack of compassion. Governmental hypocrite. Their actions need a reaction and for me this is it. In the Empire
Empire
We live on an island full of poppies and crosses, Union Jack carrots, flagpoles in the sand, rewritten history, industrial wastelands. The pubs back open so no one cares, as the camera pans to billionaires, high fiving in the crowd, loud and proud. The streets are decorated like VE fucking Day
But migrant kids are too scared to go out and play, as I stand back and watch everyone else fight. Just don't tell me my fucking rights. Just remember my former imperial might. God save the fucking Queen and hold my pint. In the Empire
Empire
But we didn’t level up, we levelled through, still the rich get richer so you’re fucked again too. And a new hope, a new haircut, a new fuck all, won't tear down imagined blue or red walls. Because we are the Empire! Either death throes or a swan song, but where oh where oh where did it go wrong? So blame the young, blame the old, blame foreigners, equality, decency, Labour, blame Tories, blame monarchy, blame history, the lot. Just start by saying you’re sorry for every fucking thing you've got, in the Empire
Empire
Empire