Turn It Off
From Outlandia
Turn It Off
“Now turn it off,” the mob’s victory ended, and this is the album’s set piece, built like one: a coup that unfolds in real time across nearly six minutes, in F minor at a taut pace that never lets the pulse settle. The concept isn’t just narrated, it’s engineered into the arrangement. Rose set the rule that every chorus strips instruments away, and he keeps it: the first full chorus arrives as industrial weight, then the guitars vanish, then it’s drums and bass only, and by the last pass ‘Turn it off / The country cannot answer back’ is little more than a baritone and power-line hum. The music enacts the shutdown it describes, which is a colder and smarter trick than most protest songs ever attempt. The clipped call-and-response of the opening, a female operator reading the kill list and Rose answering each with a flat ‘Off,’ has the deadpan menace of Roger Waters at his most clinical. The emotional center, though, is the quietest passage: a housekeeper’s account over sparse low piano, ‘The children noticed after supper / The oldest asked about her mother / No one had told her which one,’ where the whole abstract machinery suddenly lands on one frightened family and a hallway lamp left on. That she closes on ‘morning comes / when someone opens the curtain’ is the human counterweight the piece needs. The closing address, ‘We are the same… but better. Better Outlandia,’ is chilling by design, though the mock-fanfare button risks tipping the finale toward the theatrical. A demanding listen more than an easy one, and closer in spirit to a radio play than a single, but it commits fully and it holds the room.
Lyrics
Turn it off
Internet backbone Off
National news relay Off
Cellular network Off
Satellite telephones Off
Independent radio Off
Printing distribution Off
Close the road Before the answer Close the mouth Before the word Close the distance Between command And what the nation Can have heard Turn it off Before the country answers back Turn it off Remove the signal from the fact Close the road Ground the plane Give each window one command Turn it off Then tell them darkness was the plan
Station Tower Paper Port Server Bridge Exchange Court Take the keys Replace the guard Seal the room Remove the card Borders
Closed Airports
Grounded Interstates
Blocked Newsrooms
Entered Who has the emergency codes
Your office Who gave them to us
The men who said It could never happen here Close the road Before the answer Close the mouth Before the word Close the distance Between command And what the nation Can have heard Turn it off Before the country answers back Turn it off Remove the signal from the fact Close the road Ground the plane Give each window one command Turn it off Then tell them darkness was the plan
The Guard reports unrest At several government sites There is a foreign threat What foreign threat The one requiring you To remain at your bases We have no confirmation
Confirmation would compromise The classified nature Of the confirmation Place them on alert Against whom Anyone approaching the capital Without my authorization
The phones stopped first The children noticed after supper The oldest asked about her mother No one had told her which one The refrigerator light remained The water ran The building breathed Outside, no car crossed the avenue At midnight, men in red shirts Changed the locks below the kitchen They did not search my room Employees rarely hide the state I put the children in one bed And left the hallway lamp switched on The youngest asked when morning came I said morning comes When someone opens the curtain
Chaos is the stuff of change Not because confusion builds Confusion clears the counters Power enters empty fields Let each office call another Let each call return no tone After twenty-four dark hours People welcome any voice Turn it off Before the country answers back Turn it off Remove the signal from the fact Close the road Ground the plane Give each window one command Turn it off Then tell them darkness was the plan
Hour six No national broadcast Hour nine No interstate movement Hour twelve Regional officials awaiting instruction Hour sixteen Independent printing ceased Hour twenty Remaining stations secured Hour twenty-four Unified transmission prepared
Turn it off The country cannot answer back Turn it off There is no signal but the act No road moves No plane leaves No printed word escapes the hand Turn it off
Citizens of Outlandia Yesterday, violent enemies Attempted to destroy The greatest country that ever lived Your government acted With speed and strength The borders are secure The streets are orderly The networks are protected The transition is complete We are the same ...but better Better Outlandia
First things first