Merchandise
This track went from conception to release in less than 2 months, thanks to an outpouring of somber and often emotional writing in the wake of the 2024 election in the United States. It is ostensibly a Christmas-adjacent song, as it references the season and makes a connection between the commercialization of the holiday and the transformation of a certain brand of religious thinking into just another commodity to be sold, by whatever means necessary.
The song released on 18 December along with a music video.
LYRICS
It’s still raining and it’s 75 and climbing
And all the shop windows are dressed to the 9s
All in a line, all dressed up
For Christmastime
I think the reason for the season is not in the namesake
But in the need to find peace of mind through merchandise
At Christmastime, we don’t think twice
We just keep paying the price
Mary, did you know that your baby
Grows up to save me from self-reflection?
Just cut the check
Mary, did you know that you carry
Someone we’ll bury beneath our excuses?
Known by our fruits
A dead faith
Piece by piece, day by day
Watch the Bride trade away the neighbors for a bit of silver
All these kingdoms, all we’ve won
Frightened children, loaded guns
Won’t slip through the eyes of needles
We beat our ploughshares into swords
And seek a worldly reward
And that’s the only kind that’s waiting
Mary, did you know that the ones who
Took your boy from you
Trademarked his name and took it around the world in vain?
Oh, Mary, did you know your creation
Brings transmutation?
Fortunes from Bibles, brothers to rivals
I really meant it, I only wanted to feel transcendant
Fumbling round for the light
People in white stay in the box
Can’t get by the stumbling blocks
It’s just merchandise…