Over the last two albums, there has been a bit of a focus on phrasing, lyrics sprinting through relatively static chord changes. This sort of approach I guess I began testing from songs that have inspired me to try to work in a similar way (e.g. “Beyond Belief” and many others by Elvis Costello, some of Paul Simon’s Rhythm of the Saints, etc., etc.).
Like the other songs I have written, the overall thematic intention doesn’t reveal itself until I am already pretty far into it. In other words, I didn’t intend to make this song overtly political but it has been pretty difficult to get around writing songs like this over the last few years. It is easy to feel isolated when you see a distinct lack of conviction from people in positions of power . . . It’s a pretty old story, finally, but deserves retelling again and again.
lyrics
I don’t really even want to know you
With your backstage wisdom like a boarded up window
Who are we to go and make big plans?
Married in a fever, children in a panic
Deep sea diver, advertising ruin
With the underwater fire, state sponsored pollution
Closing our eyes, blindly to town
Hoping that Mama does not see us now
We’ve become the world’s first millionaires
You know, the ones who just don’t care
Can’t even taste it but it’s really nothing new
And it smells of compromise with subtle hints of confusion
Holidays are working days to us now
We are lifting dead weight and embracing self-doubt
The shirt with the wine stain, the car is not running
A policeman laughs but it’s really not funny
Who will save me when I’m feeling this down
All God’s children are useless to me now
We have come for solitary fun, debonair
You know, for the ones who just don’t care
All of the innocents we’ve yet to cast out
In a hesitating nation on the way to nervous breakdown
In a certain way, I’m sitting pretty now
I have a hundred dollar bill to plug the politician’s mouth
It’s written in the paper, there’s a fever taking hold
And now it’s everyone gather ‘round the toilet bowl
What a shame, and what a letdown
You will be dead before the bottom drops out
All is well so long as you say your little prayers
You know, for the ones who just don’t care
When you are the one who didn’t care
And you are the one who just don’t care
credits
from New Fragility (Deluxe Edition),
released February 12, 2021
Alec Ounsworth: vocals, guitars, keyboards, hi-hat
Will Johnson: Drums
Britton Beisenherz: bass
