About the song
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Words from the artist’s archive
What Can't Be Stopped lyrics
Artist-supplied lyric sheet, matched by title. The sheet may differ from this released performance. Production notes and alternate promotional cuts are omitted.
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Intro
Five chairs in a circle, cheap bulbs humming white Five mouths, one fracture, five versions of night Nobody came to fix it, nobody came to pose They came with what the body knows
Verse 1
Sight wore a smile with a polished little frame Tilted the skyline till the hurt looked tame Glass made the tents disappear from the scene Bills cut away, tired faces wiped clean "Beauty ain't gone, let me show what remains" But angles can flatter while hiding the strain Phone held high like a roof from the facts One clean picture, all the people pushed back
Chorus
Stop trying to stop what can't be stopped No lens, no price, no perfect shot When the feed gets loud, let the phone drop Palm against palm says, "You are what's hot" No speech can match when your on top Stop trying to stop what can't be stopped
Verse 2
Hearing hit the chair, made the metal leg ring "Listen to the layoff hiding under the spin Sirens by the curb, rent slips at the doors Panels sell panic from carpeted floors Pocket keeps buzzing like a debt with a voice Anger gets packaged and branded as choice Notifications peck at the back of the brain Noise keeps a body too charged to explain"
Verse 3
Smell closed both eyes, let the present go thin Steam from a pot brought the old house in Before grocery aisles felt built like a test Before home wore worry like smoke on its chest Cinnamon, soap, starch pressed in a shirt A scent found the child under decades of work Memory can comfort, then charge for the stay A scent opens doors; it can't rebuild the day
Chorus
Stop trying to stop what can't be stopped No lens, no price, no perfect shot When the feed gets loud, let the phone drop Palm against palm says, "You are what's hot" No speech can match when your on top Stop trying to stop what can't be stopped
Verse 4
Taste gave a laugh with a coin in the throat Cart full of comfort, card barely afloat Sugar on credit, feast on a fee Little boxed heavens with a monthly decree Full plate, blank spirit, tell me what it fed Sweet hits the tongue while the worry eats bread Interest seasons what comfort we buy Mouth says "enough," but the hunger asks why
Bridge
No one won the circle, no point got crowned The room met a silence too heavy for sound Sight set the phone by the leg of the chair Hearing quit wrestling the air Smell let the old room close, ended the chase Taste let the bitter sit bare in its place
Verse 5
Touch did not promise the system would bend Did not sell comfort or promise an end Reached through the circle and rested a palm Not to erase it, just lend it some calm "Maybe the game has a lock on the gate Maybe old seasons refuse to rotate But I am right here, and your pulse answers mine" Five chairs went quiet for the first honest time
Chorus
Stop trying to stop what can't be stopped No lens, no price, no perfect shot When the feed gets loud, let the phone drop Palm against palm says, "You are what's hot" Five chairs, one hand, and the arguing stopped Stop trying to stop what can't be stopped
Inside the recording
Five chairs in a circle, cheap bulbs humming white Five mouths, one fracture, five versions of night
Stop trying to stop what can't be stopped No lens, no price, no perfect shot
Stop trying to stop what can't be stopped No lens, no price, no perfect shot
Excerpts from artist-supplied lyric files matched by title. Lyric sheets may differ from the released performance.