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Algorithm

I am ambivalent about this song. But let’s get it over with.

Lyrics

We check all your transactions
It’s just part of the plan
And we track your occupations
Boy, girl, woman or man
We know what you are thinking
Cos we follow your feed
We know just want you want
And we predict what you need

We know where you are going
And where you are
We’ve got satellites that tell us
We’ve got chips in your car
We know what you had for dinner
What you had for tea
And we’ll pass the data onwards
For our usual fee

It’s part of the algorithm
We’re all just part of the algorithm

Your fingerprint, your iris
And your mother’s maiden name
Full address and postcode
If you want to play this game
You can unsubscribe from offers
Or sign up to read more
By agreeing to our terms
We can help your credit score

And somewhere in the deluge
Of bits and bytes
There could be somebody who loves you
Somebody that’s right
They could be sitting right next door
Or in outer space
And you’ll never even know
If that’s their real face

It’s part of the algorithm
We’re all just part of the algorithm

Background

Meh. I actually wrote the bare bones of this some years ago – basically the see-sawing, el-cheapo keyboard riff that is the backbone of the song. The band (probably correctly) were having none of it, but on a few occasions over the last couple of years I’ve found myself noodling around with it (I might even have blogged about it here before).

Anyway, like most of my songs I just can’t get rid of it from my mind until it’s done. I’ve suddenly found myself with a bubbling sea of half-finished tracks – almost two albums’ worth – and I feel some kind of compulsion to get them flushed out of my system. Only this morning, for example, I was up with the dawn chorus, fucking about with basslines on about 6 separate songs.

There’s a lot I like about this song really – the lyrical conceit is fairly timely… the choppy bassline in the second verse… some of the effects… the fact that it’s over in only just over 2 minutes… but somehow it’s a sort of bastard offspring that I can’t bring myself to love.

Anyway. Now that I’m declaring an end to it, I can move on – hopefully – towards finishing other songs I feel a bit more warmly disposed towards. And actually, this might find a place on my third album: which includes a few songs that are similarly sour in tone.

Ah fuck it. I’m off for a pie.