New Noise

Track 6 on The Shape of Punk to Come: A Chimerical Bombination in 12 Bursts

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Refused had a brief moment in the light of commercial success with their single “New Noise” in 1998, with a video in light rotation on MTV and a disastrous first (and last)… Read More

Oct. 27, 19981 viewer38.3K views

New Noise Lyrics

[Refrain]
Can I scream? Yeah!
We lack the motion
To move to the new beat
Whoo! We lack the motion
To move to the new beat

[Verse 1]
It's here for us to admire
Can afford the beauty of it
Can afford the luxury of turning our heads
If we can (If we can, if we can, if we can)
Adjust that thousand-dollar smile
And behold the creation of man
Great words won't cover ugly actions
Good frames won't save bad paintings!

[Refrain]
Whoo! We lack the motion
To move to the new beat
Yeah! We lack motion

[Verse 2]
When the day's over (Hey!)
The doors are locked on us
Money buys the access
And we can't pay the cost
How can we expect anyone to listen
If we're using the same old voice
We need new noise
New art for the real people!

[Chorus]
We dance to all the wrong songs
We enjoy all the wrong moves
We dance to all the wrong songs
We're not leading!
We dance to all the wrong songs
We enjoy all the wrong moves
We dance to all the wrong songs

[Post-Chorus]
We're not, we're not..
We're not, we're not..
We're not, we're not.. leading!

[Bridge]
We dance, all the wrong songs
We enjoy, all the wrong moves
We dance, all the wrong songs
We dance, all the wrong songs
We enjoy, all the wrong moves
We dance, all the wrong songs

[Interlude]
Crawling, slithering
Along the edge
Of a straight razor
And surviving

Here we go!

[Chorus]
We dance to all the wrong songs
We enjoy all the wrong moves
We dance to all the wrong songs
We're not leading!
Yeah, yeah, yeah!

[Outro]
The new beat! The new beat!
The new beat! The new beat!
The new beat! The new beat!
The new beat! The new beat!
The new beat! The new beat!
The new beat! The new beat!
The new beat! The new beat!
The new beat! The new beat!

Thank you.

About

Refused had a brief moment in the light of commercial success with their single “New Noise” in 1998, with a video in light rotation on MTV and a disastrous first (and last) U.S. tour to follow. Today, the song is a staple warmup song for hockey and football games. Ironically, their first popular song is also highly critical of popular music.

The song, a live recording further augmented with electronic elements in the studio, pits two schools of modern music against each other: the New Beat, which is vapid, empty pop music, and the New Noise, real, hardcore punk that represents the voice of the people. Refused “lack the motion to move to the New Beat,” opting instead to “dance to all the wrong songs” and “enjoy all the wrong moves.”

The break in New Noise samples Col. Kurtz’s famous monologue from the 1979 Vietnam war film Apocalypse Now.