Lyrics

Verse 1

You are the machine and the machine is you Wires that hum a hymn they never knew The current jumps the gap and the air turns blue The sacred and the secular in the same spark too

Chorus

And the word is not the loudest word The word is not the loudest word The word that stops the machinery The plain word after the hum The word that was always there Underneath the wire

Verse 2

The clocks eat their own hands and the engines run On the fuel of forgetting what the hands have done The apparatus produces the substance by which The apparatus continues and you are the switch

Chorus

And the word is not the loudest word The word is not the loudest word The word that stops the machinery The plain word after the hum The word that was always there Underneath the wire

Bridge

(Spoken - plain, no music) Stop.

Chorus 3

And the word is not the loudest word The word is not the loudest word The word that stops the machinery The plain word after the hum The word that was always there Underneath the wire And the hum is different now And the wire is different now And the word is the crossing And the crossing is the art

Outro

You are the machine and the machine is you The wire hums one word of the hymn now The word is plain The word costs The word was always there The machinery stops The machinery starts The start is the stop seen from the other side