Nowhere Generation Album Lyrics
Music written and performed by Rise Against (Do It To Win Music/ASCAP)
All Lyrics by Tim McIlrath
1) THE NUMBERS
We’re biding time as we wait for the signal
Sharpening blades while we wait out the storm
These cold nights are almost unbearable
But purpose keeps us warm
Pledge allegiance while crossing our fingers
A bark with no bite, no teeth just a roar
You’re not a thorn in our side; you’re a splinter
We are ready but we’re bored

Just holding our place in line
And everything moves too slow now
Breaking away in time
They have the power
We have the numbers now
It’s all just a constant illusion
Of control

They break us like horses
How long will we drag their plow?
What will continue to be
Is what we allow…
And still we worship at altars so empty
Consumption of something we don’t need at all
Holes we can’t fill
A never-ending song;
“Again, from the top now…”
Textbook cases we all fit the profile
Mass surveillance we opened the door
Prey on the fears, the blurred lines of right and wrong
Sped up ’til we can’t slow down

And at this velocity
One wrong move and we go down
Brace for the reckoning 

They have the power
We have the numbers
It’s all just a constant illusion
Of control
They break us like horses
How long will we drag their plow?
What will continue to be
Is what we allow…
Heavy are the chains
We fasten to ourselves
Gathering the thorns
To shape into a crown
Is this saddle comfortable?
Do these reigns feel tight enough?
Will you gallop when you’re kicked?
Or throw the rider off
Are you the willing and the able
Or are you spoken for?
Destined to serve what you abhor
Until it all gives out
Listen
Fuck what you call normal
And this pressure to conform
(Break free)
It’s your trail to blaze
Or your bridge to burn

They have the power
We have the numbers now
It’s all just a constant illusion
Of control
They break us like horses
How long will we drag their plow?
What will continue to be
Is what we allow…
2) SUDDEN URGE
We are names and we are faces
Not listed in the pages
You’re searching line by line
The voices in the wire
The glass under your tires
The panic in your eyes
And when we start to lose control
And when we start to lose our minds
That’s when I close my eyes and feel
A sudden urge
To watch this whole town burn
Light up the whole damn sky
Like the Fourth of July
The Fourth of July

I am as a patient as a volcano
A butterfly in a landmine field
I am the dandelion making guns go silent
Sticking out of every barrel cold as steel

In this fight you started
I’m a moving target
And I’m sick of running
But the pain keeps coming
Like a sudden urge
To watch this whole town burn
Light up the whole damn sky
Like the Fourth of July
The Fourth of July

Searching for something worth saving from this fire
Try to envision the glass half-full
Give me a reason to smother these flames out
Before they begin to grow

I can't stop the sky from falling
all I hear are voices calling
Asking “have you come to heal us?”
Touch my shaking hand you’ll feel a 

Sudden urge
To watch this whole town burn
Light up the whole damn sky
Like the Fourth of July
The Fourth of July

From branch to root
We are black inside
Scorching the earth like it’s the Fourth of July
If everything you knew
Was a goddamn lie
Would you up and explode
Like it’s the Fourth of July?
3) NOWHERE GENERATION
We are the Nowhere Generation
We are the kids that no one wants
We are a credible threat
To the rules you set
A cause to be alarmed
We are not the names that we’ve been given
We speak a language you don’t know
We are the Nowhere Generation
The Nowhere Generation
One day
All the walls will come down
All the doors will open
All the roads will lead home

But right now
We are spiraling down
And the longer we wait
The further we go
Are we slipping through the cracks now
No place left on your map now to call home?
We are the Nowhere Generation
The kids that no one wants
We are a credible threat
To the rules you set
A cause to be alarmed

We are not the names that we’ve been given
We speak a language you don’t know
We are the Nowhere Generation
The Nowhere Generation
“For your sweat, you’ll be rewarded”
They told us every day
“There’s a land of milk & honey and
it’s not that far away”
But the finish line kept moving
And the promises wore thin
The smoke on the horizon
Was the burning promised land
This place used to be somewhere but they
Sold it out from under us
Our voices all ignored
We are the Nowhere Generation
The kids that no one wants
We are a credible threat
To the rules you set
A cause to be alarmed

We are not the names that we’ve been given
We speak a language you don’t know
We are the Nowhere Generation
The Nowhere Generation

And yet we climb these burning ladders
Still, we raise for them the hammers
Swinging low
“What exactly are we after?”
They will ask
And we will answer
We are the Nowhere Generation
The kids that no one wants
We are a credible threat
To the rules you set
A cause to be alarmed
We are not the names that we’ve been given
We speak a language you don’t know
We are the Nowhere Generation
The Nowhere Generation
We are the Nowhere Generation.
4) TALKING TO OURSELVES
We’re waiting for something to happen
But nothing is snapping us out of this trance
Our eyelids are heavy and soon we’re all ready
To obey every single command

I feel lost
No map in front of me
I don’t know which way is up
Wishing we could just hit pause
Just enough to breathe
(Why can’t I shake you awake from this dream?)

I never wanted to disturb the peace
But it feels like no one’s listening
Are we talking to ourselves
Are we just talking to ourselves?
So good at speaking out of turn
And talking back, I have some nerve
If I said this all to your face
Forgive me
Sometimes I forget my place
So what’s it going to be
Will you dig in or give up
Lean in or just get lost?
Drift away from here
This demands your attention
Hear me when I say
I never wanted to disturb the peace
But it feels like no one’s listening
Are we talking to ourselves
Are we just talking to ourselves?
What are we trying to say
Tell me what it would take to pry open their eyes
I would wade in the water I’ll stand in the fire
I am not afraid
I would break down the door if you give me the sign
For the chance to be yours I would lay down my life
I am not afraid
I swear I never wanted to disturb the peace
But it feels like no one’s listening
Are we talking to ourselves?
Are we just talking to ourselves?
5) BROKEN DREAMS, INC
I have seen what you call progress
Every warning sign ignored
There’s a muffled voice of reason
But we can’t make out the words
Though the balance we struck was delicate
There was a sense of right and wrong
We tried to stem this flow with a tourniquet
But now the patient’s dead and gone
When we owe more than we’re worth
And they’re changing the locks on the doors
We raised glasses high to the bottom line
On a street engulfed in flames
But on goes the show…
When the city streets are barricaded
A chaos we ourselves created
When there’s nothing left, tell me where will you go?
When the factories are automated
Broken dreams incorporated
Gather your things, but there’s nowhere to go
We are children of lesser gods
Better angels, darker days
But we’re holding on to this cause
Like palm trees in a hurricane
We chase every second
In clothes that we slept in
But they still got away
When the city streets are barricaded
A chaos we ourselves created
When there’s nothing left, tell me where will you go?
When the factories are automated
Broken dreams incorporated
Gather your things
But there’s nowhere to go?
Nowhere to go
Was this place ever our home?
Were these lines ever our own?
Are we just reading from the pages
Just putting on a show?
Are you along just for the ride?
Keep all hands and feet inside
Will you steer us all to safety
So at least they know you tried?
Broken dreams
Broken dreams, inc
No longer asking
We are taking
Tomorrow will be
What we make it
6) MONARCH
I feel the same
No different than before
There was a time when what you thought of me once mattered
I put weight behind your words
Then something snapped
Deep down inside me
Tectonic shifts aligning
Soft image into focus
Snapped finger break hypnosis
Light through the crack and then
Everything went black
I am not the person you remember from before
The one you patronized and stepped on
The one you hurt
I have pulled the arrows now my skin has become stone
No longer am I prisoner
To your empty fucking words

I carried every single word you said
They stacked up high they weighed me down
But underneath it all, I didn't notice
I was growing strong somehow
Lean backward through an open window
Nothing left can save me now
I hear the cry of the approaching sirens
Right as I countdown

Then something snapped
A lightbulb moment
Like sighting land from the ocean
Pure water in the desert
A thirst that can't measured
The first breath of a child
Released into the wild
I am not the person you remember from before
The one you patronized and stepped on
The one you hurt
I have pulled the arrows now my skin has become stone
No longer am I prisoner
To your empty fucking words
Your pain is an open secret
It spills with every breath
This game that you played is over now
Gone are the days I was helpless and afraid
Gone are the walls that kept me in
I’m not the person you remember from before
Do you remember?
7) FORFEIT
I’ll meet you in the shadows that come at night
I’ll listen to your cries through the door
If you won’t let me in I’ll just wait outside
Until you’re ready I will just be ignored
I’ll find you when you hide in the darkest cave
I’ll be there when you emerge
I will shield your eyes from the blinding light
Is there a prayer to lift this curse
Because you’re in trouble
You’re in deep
When you can’t wake up
But you can’t sleep
When it starts to slip away
And the world forgets your name
I will not give up
I will not give up on you
Come fire and flood
When the earth shakes I won’t move
No matter what
No matter what you say or do
I will not give up
I will not give up on you
I will wait for you at the forest edge
And feel each season change
I don’t care what anybody else says
They can leave but I will stay
I'll save you a seat when the tables set
Hold your place until you return
I will light a candle by your photograph
If and when you say the word
I’ll come running
Down these streets
As fast as my feet will take me
As the crowds all go away
When the world forgets your name
I will hide the pain that I push through
Put a brave face on for you
Choke back tears all meant for you
I will not give up
I will not give up on you
Come fire and flood
When the earth shakes I won’t move
No matter what
No matter what you say or do
I will not give up
I will not give up on you
8) SOUNDS LIKE
If everything that we love
Will burn down
Then should we love no one and nothing? 

If all that we build
Falls down
Then I will dig the deepest hole
Dig down, down
All the things we don’t say might mean something
Somewhere to someone
Because nothing here is ever good enough
So we close our eyes and wait for something better
Not knowing what we’re even waiting for
With our hands cupped to the sky
We wait forever
Sacrificing light we’re given
Never knowing what
We’re living for

Can I have your attention, please
I’ve played the game, you see,
To make all these ends meet
But it’s not enough
The fabric we all share
All starts to rip and tear
We’re sending thoughts and prayers
But they’re not enough
Words without action-equal nothing
They’ll say where we’re gone
We’ve heard your excuses all before
And this is what they sound like:
So we close our eyes and wait for something better
Not knowing what we’re even waiting for
With our hands cupped to the sky
We wait forever
Sacrificing light we’re given
Never knowing what
We’re living for
We’re living for
And this is what it sounds like:
So don’t close your eyes, don’t wait for something better
Know exactly what it is you’re waiting for
Put your empty hands away, don’t wait forever
Don’t sacrifice the light you’re given
Know exactly what it is you’re waiting for
9) SOONER OR LATER
We burned the boats to ashes
After beaching on the shore
Looked back across the ocean
And said we’re never going home
Our shadows killed the flowers
Our footsteps spoiled the land
It seems we’re always in the way
No matter where choose to stand
Can we just wait until this is over
If we know that our precious time is running out?
Sooner or later
Comes a time when we will reap what we have sown
Sooner or later
We all have to go home
Sooner or later there’s a time
To face the music, face the sound
Sooner or later we all have to go
Home

From the gods we all seek favor
With every sacrificial lamb
But the bodies all pile higher
And the blood just stains our hands
And soon we’ll feel the panic
In our breath and in our veins
When you know there’s no tomorrow
And you’ve realized too late
Still, we wait
While our precious time is running out

Sooner or later
Comes a time when we will reap what we have sown
Sooner or later
We all have to go home
Sooner or later there’s a time
To face the music, face the sound
Sooner or later we all have to go
Home

Are we just passengers so sick of waiting
For this final destination?
Where we all will end up, I would die to know
Die to know that place
Sooner or later
Comes a time when we will reap what we have sown
Sooner or later
We all have to go home
Sooner or later comes a time
When we’ll have nowhere left to run
Sooner or later we all have to go
Home
10) MIDDLE OF A DREAM
I still chase your ghost
I still walk the streets and feel your hand inside my own
Why do we have to run away to feel at home?
We spend lifetimes waiting
So what’s another day
When hope is the only way we tolerate the pain?
I woke up
In the middle of a dream
Chasing someone or something
A hidden face I never see
where were you when
I woke up?
To a world without your voice
To sing me back to sleep
Don’t let it go
Are you letting go?
I steady myself at the altar
And spell your name inside my mind
We’re all someone else
When the sun sets
Every time we close our eyes
There’s a world less complicated
Somehow we’ve buried it alive
It flows like a river in the dead of winter
Deep underneath the ice
I woke up
In the middle of a dream
Chasing someone or something
A hidden face I never see
where were you when
I woke up?
To a world without your voice
To sing me back to sleep
Don’t let it go
Are you letting go? 

Two worlds that I am caught between
Which one is real?
Which one is just pretend?
Because you’re a door
I cannot close
A static voice that comes and goes
A fatal crash and I can't look away

I woke up
In the middle of a dream
Chasing someone or something
A hidden face I never see
Where were you when
I woke up
To a world without your voice
To sing me back to sleep
Don’t let it go
Are you letting go? 

Still, I am wandering
In search of anything
That brings you back to me
That brings you back to me
Circling the sun two thousand times
I will follow you into it’s light
This time it's personal
Even if the air’s too thin to breathe
I will be solace that you seek
I've never let a damn thing get to me
But this time it’s personal
11) RULES OF PLAY
Sister, I have come to clear my name
Or at least try to
Is there something to free me from this pain
Oh what did I do now
Following so many rules
Making so many mistakes
It keeps getting away from me
Because this life is a game I don't know how to play
So many lies and disguises I can’t tell what’s fake
But I can tell by the same sad look on your face
You and me
We are the same
Like stepping into traffic with a hand over my eyes
Feeling helpless to the tide
I try to run but its the same thing every time
We fight this war from different sides
But we never knew the rules
Bend follow or to break
Lost in this place
Because this life is a game I don't know how to play
So many lies and disguises I can’t tell what’s fake
But I can tell by the same sad look on your face
You and me
We are the same
Under my breath
I've said your name
A thousand times
I'd save your life
If you’d save mine
I feel your pain
Do you feel mine?
Because this life is a game I don't know how to play
Because this life is a game I don't know how to play
So many lies and disguises I can’t tell what’s fake
But I can tell by the same sad look on your face
You and me
We are the same
This life is a game that I don't know how to play