Doomed from the start

They paved the river
Then named it a town
Put gold in the corner
And called it a crown
Built walls on a fault line
Then slept through the shake
Signed every paper
With the same old mistake


We stacked it higher
On borrowed ground
A little more fire
A little less sound


It was doomed from the start
(Do it anyway)
It was doomed from the start
(We called it fate)
We dressed up the fall
And called it art
It was doomed from the start


The market was smiling
With blood on its shoes
The law wore a halo
And still chose to lose
We fed it our hours
Our hands and our names
It drank from the skyline
Then lit up in flames


We knew the ending
From the first stone laid
Still kept on pretending
That debt would fade


It was doomed from the start
(Do it anyway)
It was doomed from the start
(We called it fate)
We dressed up the fall
And called it art
It was doomed from the start


Now the windows are empty
The marble is cold
The ones who wrote history
Are breaking the mold
If there’s a lesson
It came far too late
A dream made of concrete
Can still crack under weight


It was doomed from the start
(Do it anyway)
It was doomed from the start
(We called it fate)
We dressed up the fall
And called it art
It was doomed from the start


Still we keep building
With tremble and scars
Hands in the rubble
Reaching for stars
It was doomed from the start
It was doomed from the start