Thinking Clearly

By Kae Tempest

On Nice Idea

Released on April 22, 2023

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[Verse 1]

Um, whose mind is this?

Mine or the block behind?

My timeline, can't lie, I've not got the time

To consider when exactly I began to figure

That the bigger the picture the smaller I feel

It's good to restrict the field, it feels clear

I rouse up my hate and agree with the image

The memes in my mind come to life

I've made my opinions streamlined like they were designed to do

Uproar

But what I could really show up for is box fresh kicks and a Mark IV Supra

Who needs a past if you can't have a future?

Who needs a future?

I want the features, I want approval

The horsemen are coming, their hooves on the rooftops are brutal

Back to the feudal

Your worth, your weight and disapproval


[Chorus]

Thinking clearly, staying focused, taking care

Thinking clearly, staying focused, paying attention

Thinking clearly, staying focused, taking care

Thinking clearly, staying focused, paying attention


[Verse 2]

Everything's gone and the battles are won

Were weren't half the time I spend getting things wrong

I've become a repetitive clone, I can't think, can't speak

Except to say, I do what I want

When the heavens all sunk, the ground rose up

The rebels got drunk on the pound, nose blood for the struggle

Saying, I'm out for justice

Humble past, luxury cars full of bougie giraffes

Whose eyes are unplugged appliances, broke but I'm priceless

I'm not buying it

When everything's wrong, like, it's wrong and you've settled for so much less than you thought you would have done

When the treble's too loud, the frequencies drown out the deeper reserves and down to now

Decency walks round, murderous look in her eyes

Ready to die for whatever the program decides you will benefit from

Being fed no lies, no truth

Just profitability

Which new cause? Which old cause?

Which press recall? Posted, don't get bored

You are what you want, have to want something else

The ads know you better than you know yourself


[Chorus]

Thinking clearly, staying focused, taking care

Thinking clearly, staying focused, paying attention

Thinking clearly, staying focused, taking care

Thinking clearly, paying attention


[Verse 3]

The national demeanor is fever

Cash rules

The cleaner the counter the deeper the stain

Another avatar, aggressively public

You just need someone to freak it how you want it

Build in the muscles, ah, can't have the weakness

He's been lost in the mirror for weeks

Can't throw a thing away, bona fide hoarder

She's been blocking the source to fine water

Can't beat the creepy suspicion that

Nothing you do is effective or means a damn thing

The prime composition for social cohesion

With the one nation under the thumb system

Is general unease

Wishing for more

Keep up appearances, boost your position

Feel like you're drowning?

Get with it

Look at everyone else swimming

Get it how you can, get it on loan or credit

Get it on your phone

So the drones update your records

All you need to do is embrace competition

Give yourself over, acquisition

The itching in your skin, no, will never be relieved

The void in your stomach that will never be filled

The more you put in, the bigger the thing grows

No deeper truth is reviled

Greed is a hell of a

These are Orwellian

Grief for the relative's freak

Will the legacies be something better than we

Never meant to be servant of devils of our century

Please


[Outro]

I'm thinking clearly, staying focused, taking care

I'm thinking clearly, I'm staying focused, I'm paying attention

I'm not thinking clearly, I'm not, focused, can't take, I'm thinking clearly, I'm not, um, I'm paying, um