Read the lyrics to “Cannibal” and Brian’s statement on the song below! Pre-order The Singles Collection vinyl box set HERE.

CANNIBAL

when the king comes down to speak
with animals
animals…

with his claws out for a feast
a cannibal
cannibal…

when we crawl out to the brink
to meet and greet
with a wink…

pull the rug out from underneath
this cannibal
cannibal…

who is gonna break the ice
no room for shallow alibis
who will be the first to bite
or do we keep on playing nice
until the next time…

hey
it’s too late
i’ve been here before the change
this latest phase…

if the king bows to our feet
a cannibal’s
a cannibal…

who is gonna break the ice
no room for shallow alibis
who will be the first to bite
or do we keep on playing nice
until the next time…

Artwork by Asako Narahashi

“There’s a fundamental sound that comes out of the four of us and it’s going to be in there no matter what. So what we’ve learned is that we can move all over the place and it’ll still sound like us. When we decided to do this collection, we did a couple of songs with Jacknife – one ended up on a 10-inch for Record Store Day and ‘Cannibal’ is the other. Structure-wise, it’s really simple but in that short amount of time, we wanted to be constantly throwing new information in there. We wanted it to feel surprising, even though it’s a pretty straightforward song.”  – Brian