Division Of Assets
From Outlandia
Division Of Assets
The album’s whole arc of appetite reaches its logical end here: the planet itself, carved up in the language of a settlement contract. This is a six-minute operetta of atrocity, and Rose builds it as a duet between a high baritone and a profundo bass, two men dividing the world over a bandoneon and low strings that keep collapsing from an imperial waltz into the cold 4/4 of a boardroom. The genius is in the diction: nobody raises a voice. The regime choir chants “Balance is restored / Every asset has a chair” with the same serenity you’d hear in a hymn, and by the final chorus that chair-and-heir refrain has curdled into “File the dead beneath ‘secured,’” the melody untouched, the meaning gutted. The roll call of ministers answering “Assigned” to Energy, Food, Medicine is where the piece earns its dread, deadpan clerks turning survival into inventory. And Rose knows exactly when to let a human voice in: the nanny’s retrospective verse, sung plain, about children bringing home maps with “no country names, just numbered zones” is the one moment the machinery cracks, and it lands harder for arriving so late. If it asks a lot, it repays every minute. That closing line, a single hand drum growing under the word “Puerto Rico,” is the only mercy on offer, and it’s devastating, and it opens the door for the two human tracks that close the record. The album’s other peak, and it earns it.
Lyrics
Global settlement session Participants verified Civilian populations Not present
You wanted the throne
I obtained it
I wanted the map
You waited long enough
I knew you would require A quieter world Before you could hear the price
Draw the line below the northern ice Follow water where convenient Give Outlandia the western half Every port and field and island
Europe falls beneath my ledger Every capital and rail Every border marked in pencil Every government for sale
Territory Labor Mineral Grain Shipping Currency Water Name
Measure the earth In columns and shares Remove the people The totals improve Measure the earth By what can be taken File every language Under approved
Balance is restored Every asset has a chair Balance is restored Every country has an heir Stamp the sea Divide the land Place the living where they’re scored Close the books Balance is restored
Asia may be sorted locally Provided trade remains aligned
The sacred cities can be granted By whichever antique claim Best stabilizes shipping lanes And keeps the cameras entertained
The African account remains Rich in cobalt, gold, and hands
Remove the names from every contract Call the people labor bands
You have learned administration
You have learned to wait
I taught you leverage
Donin taught me leverage
Where is Donin
No longer relevant
Then the payment is complete
Measure the earth In columns and shares Remove the people The totals improve Measure the earth By ore and access Anything living Can always be moved
Balance is restored Every asset has a chair Balance is restored Every country has an heir Stamp the sea Divide the land Place the living where they’re scored Close the books Balance is restored
Energy
Assigned
Food
Assigned
Medicine
Assigned
Transport
Assigned
Housing
Keep that under family management
All major companies Are now national property Operational control Granted to approved private stewards
Private profit Public force One direction One resource
The children brought new maps from school No country names, just numbered zones Blue for markets Red for minerals White for places not yet owned One child asked where Toy was born The index offered Sector Nine Melatonin closed the atlas And said the lesson started late At supper, fruit arrived from islands Now assigned to Western Grain A sticker covered the old country With the Doctor’s newer name
We stand as equal powers now No The world has been divided Yes I hold the western hemisphere And I hold what I purchased What did you purchase The proof That you can be purchased
Remove that from the transcript Removed It remains true Truth is what survives the record Correct Balance is restored Every asset has a chair Balance is restored Every absence looks repaired Stamp the sea Divide the land File the dead beneath “secured” Close the books Balance is restored
One territorial refusal remains Where Puerto Rico