Enter Shikari - The Mindsweep Album Lyrics

---

The Appeal & The Mindsweep I

This is an appeal to the struggling and striving stakeholders of this planet:
This floating rock we call Earth

Alas, that means you

That means:
Everyone of your acquaintance
Every figure your eyes skim past in the street
Every charlatan still to defeat
Every tender face you find solace in
Now mimic the mindset William Wallace was in

Dismount - disembark - descend from your existance
Slacken your angst and decant your hate
'Cos in the long run they're about as useful
As poruing acid onto your dinner plate

To muzzled masses that lead lives of deafening desperation:
With Excalibur aloft King Arthur earned the throne
But it's our minds we got to wrench out of the stone

Don't be fooled by its simplicity
There was never a broadcat made of such urgency
'Cos at no time before us
Did we grasp the scope of this emergency?

Ladle out love and logic by the boatload
Equipped with that cargo you can take any road
Now grab life; seize time
This fight is for human kind

I am a mindsweeper - focus on me - I will read your mind

I dart through rapids; through streams of thought
Then suddenly I started losing my mind
Catapulting through the uncharted
I could no longer tell if these were your thoughts or mine

And if was as if I held a mirror up to my soul

Who was the author?
And who was the observer?
For at the last analysis our thoughts coalesced

Your are not alone

You have entered volatile territory
You have started a journey; you're part of this story
And this, this was just a glimpse

You've no idea what you've got yourself into...

---

The One True Colour

As one child is taught red on his mother's knee - the one true colour
A neighbor is taught blue on his mother's knee - the one true colour
With a fervour inherited, it will be subsequently delivered
Ignore the spectrum

Dear whom it may concern,

I feel as though I'm about to crash and burn
I think I'm falling and there's no return
But I've no idea to whom this may concern
I'm looking out at all the stars and I learn
There's no one up above to hear me yearn
I'm on my own

In the arena of the endless unknown
Do not stage theatre and call it truth
And when one child is taught red on his mother's knee
It must be subsequently delivered
With all of the spectrum

Someone has whipped the carpet from beneath my feet
Someone upturned the furniture in my mind
But oh how rich the soil
How wondrous the upheaval
It's time to embark...

To dissect is to broaden the adventure
And enrich one's tenure
So do not blunt the surgeon's knife

There's so much to explore; there's so much to absorb
And then the atoms that you borrowed
They are returned to the cosmos
They are returned when you're...

---

Anaesthetist

Doctor, fetch the Anaesthetist. (Anaesthetist.)
Fetch the Anaesthetist, so when I go under the knife I believe in this.
Fetch the Anaesthetist. (Anaesthetist.)
Fetch the Anaesthetist, so when I go under the knife I believe!

You f*cking spanner!
A mystery call from the industry; you're part blind.
You take the blood from the conflicted.
You parasite!
Lay down, if it's okay he'll be all fight.
You suck the blood of the afflicted.
You suck the blood of the afflicted.

Illness is not an indulgence which you should pay for,
Nor is it a crime for which you should be punished.
For this conviction I would endanger my health.
SHUT IT! Oi!
Just cause you break bridges and lust for fame.
No you won't see us participating in that game.
Keep it twisted, take the success.
Cos all I really want is what's beating in your chest.

Doctor, fetch the Anaesthetist. (Anaesthetist.)
Fetch the Anaesthetist, so when I go under the knife I believe in this.
Fetch the Anaesthetist. (Anaesthetist.)
Fetch the Anaesthetist, so when I go under the knife I believe!

We drink to your health!
Practicing death.
This one's on you.
And every day you roll the dice.
We drink to your health!
We capitalise on your condition!
Bad luck; you pay the price.
Bad luck; you pay the price.

Fetch the Anaesthetist.
(Anaesthetist.)
Fetch the Anaesthetist.
I wanna go under the knife I believe in this.

You sold us short!
You will not profit off our health!
STEP THE F*CK BACK!

---

The Last Garrison

Can you hear the war-cry?

The adrenaline bursts through the riverbanks
Welcome to the skirmish
(I can't feel my legs)
Give me morphine
Give me morphine
Give me more!

No doubt
This is a tragedy for all
(But it ain't over yet)
Head's up and thank f*ck you're still alive!

There's still air in my lungs
Still blood in my veins
(We're part of the last garrison)
Still Alive
There's still air in my lungs
Still blood in my veins
(We're part of the last garrison)

I wanna lie here and soak up the sun
But do not alight here, you cannot outrun
"This could be the end” he said, "the end my child”
So I made good use of my face and I smiled

Can you hear the war-cry?

The epinephrine plows through the barriers
Welcome to the skirmish
(I can't feel my arms!)
Give me opium
Give me opium
Give me help!

No doubt
This is a tragedy for all
(But it ain't over yet)
Head's up and thank f*ck you're still alive!

There's still air in my lungs
Still blood in my veins
(We're part of the last garrison)
Still Alive
There's still air in my lungs
Still blood in my veins
(We're part of the last garrison)

I wanna lie here and soak up the sun
But do not alight here, you cannot outrun
"This could be the end” he said, "the end my child”
So I made good use of my face and I smiled

Let's toast to the fact we got this far [x2]

The adrenaline bursts through the riverbanks
(Welcome to the skirmish)
The epinephrine plows through the barriers
(Welcome to the skirmish) [x2]

Head's up and thank f*ck you're still alive!

There's still air in my lungs
Still blood in my veins
(We're part of the last garrison)
Still Alive
There's still air in my lungs
Still blood in my veins
We're part of the last garrison

Yeah, you're still alive!

---

Never Let Go Of The Microscope

Like Socrates I only graze on the slopes
Of the summit of my own ignorance
Like Hippocrates I can affirm that the method of science
Is an appliance that emancipates us from dogma
and slant
and bias
Ah the seasons are changing

The velocities at which we now evolve
Mean we got to dissolve unchecked tradition
But atrocities go untouched under the guise of culture
Committed on another mind another heartbeat
heartbeat
heartbeat
I've got a sinking feeling

Like Sophocles we now wield the paintbrush
So keep a tight grip on a magnifying glass
Our priorities now that we hold the torch
Mean we got to hold it high to illuminate the dark
and archaic
and vile
We swear allegiance to no one

We'll never let go of the microscope
No matter how callous the shells

We'll harness the heat of the sun
And we'll burn you out of f*cking existence

---

Myopia

Drip drip drop - bit by bit - it's the dulcet sound of the glacial melt
Accompanied by the Beluga, singing about the hand they've been dealt The Emperor and the Arctic Fox listen intently...

"I'm beginning to get glimpses of what is called real life"
He says, meaning misfortune
"Yes, they're lost in myopia"

Surrounded by ostriches with mouths full of sand
Their teeth grind the grains, but their faces don't contort
Perplexed, I am unable to breathe in their skin

We are all vertebrates but where is their backbone now?

As the Emperor watches his numbers plummet
They hear him scream:

"They're living in denial of science
They're happy to defile, silence"

Deprived is the polar bear, grasping at straws
To safeguard dividends they depend on disbelief
Perplexed I am unable to breathe in their skin

We are all vertebrates but where is their backbone now?

---

Torn Apart

A naked eye conspires with fear
To form an idea
So destructive and insincere

Reared in the mind
But outside you'll find
That nature does not align

You see,
There's more variation within populations than between populations

Ah for too many years
A myth perseveres
The scars are the souvenirs

Defined by your skin
Forget we share kin
We're torn apart

It feels as though we're sinking
I don't know how we'll get to shore again
Sinking, we'll surface through the waves

Look back to the past
We hail from one caste
The division will not last

Defined by your skin
Forget we share kin
We're torn apart

---

Interlude



[Instrumental]

---

The Bank Of England

I refuse to notice the wind or the rain
To teach me of nature would be done in vain
I ignore all:
I just contain

Predicated on a great disconnect
I don't react and I do not reflect
I just ignore all:
I just retain

The invisible hand no longer guides, it chokes

They blew up the bank of England
The paper burnt for days

In the end we all employ sabotage
No room for ethics now, greed is in charge
I ignore all:
I just constrain

How many barrels are left in the field?
I only care for the coins you yield
I ignore all:
I just obtain

---

There's A Price On Your Head

I am upper class
I - I am upper class
Upper middle lower class

I am lower class
I - I am lower class
Lower upper middle class

I am upper middle class; I am living in the past

Yeh, there's a price on your head
Unknown to you
There's a f*cking price on your head

I am lower class
I - I am lower class
Upper middle lower class

I am upper class
I - I am upper class
Lower upper middle class

I am lower class
I - I am lower class
Upper middle lower class

I am upper middle lower class; I am living in the past

"We must have structure Mr Reynolds"

Born scarred, let us heal

---

Dear Future Historians...

I never walked on the moon
I never saw the pyramids
I was never struck by famine or fortune

I'll never experience the world you inhabit
I'll never experience the world you inhabit

I never swam with dolphins
I never sang from a mountain top
I was no inventor and no archaeologist

I fret not, I fret not
For I've made my own discovery
I fret not, I fret not
For I've made my own discovery
I fret not, I fret not, I fret not
I fret not, I fret not, I fret not
Just put your weight on my shoulders

For when I dive into your iris
My brain erupts
Into biochemical mayhem
And I feel like a man with two hearts, with two hearts

I fret not, I fret not
For I've made my own discovery
I fret not, I fret not
For I've made my own discovery
I fret not, I fret not, I fret not
I fret not, I fret not, I fret not
Just put your weight on my shoulders

Put your weight on my shoulders (x6)
(So put your weight on my shoulders)

---

The Appeal & The Mindsweep II

I am a mindsweeper, focus on me
I will read your mind

It goes on and on...

Through volatile territory
Through the plains of adversity and the ravines of neurosis
Through the veins of gods and the valley of death

But remember you are not alone
And we dance like knights
Here come the cavalry
The same blood gushes through my veins
Feel it surge

Sweep through get streams
Down axons
And across synapses

Mutato nomine, de te fabula narratur

---

Slipshod

"Oi f*cks, let's eat 'ere, it looks niiice"

Get me the manager
"Oh dear, what seems to be the problem sir?"

First of all I was greeted with a grimace
Service with a sneer
He don't want to be here

Second of all I was seated by the window
and the draft was a serious inconvenience

There was lipstick on my glass and it wasn't mine
We put our order in - I can't believe the time
This is a shambles, your cook is a heathen
Your carpet is ugly and your veg ain't in season

My impatience spread like gravy on a tablecloth
And your head looks like it was carved out of a nut

Rory C, well, tell 'em...
I was waiting in line for 10 whole minutes
This is unacceptable - you're pushing me to my limits!

"Please don't raise your voice in here sir
This is a respected establishment,
I'm sure we can sort this out quietly no?"

Oh really? Well that's a great vase you got there,
It'd be a real shame if something happened to it...

Slipshod, kick it.
C*nt.