Song

Modern Slavery

From Ghost Towns · Track 9 · 2026

A Ghost Towns song whose supplied lyrics connect automation, debt, environmental waste, and distrust of promises of freedom.

3:50releasedConfidence: mixed

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Lyrics · artist-supplied

Hope one day if I work real hard
I will finally be able to purchase my own robot
Who will do all the work for me so that I make enough each month to pay off the TV

I’ll probably need to buy one more so if this one needs a part replaced, then we still get paid
Maybe we can finance just a couple more
Can’t afford the debt but I don’t wanna do anything on my own anymore

While you cast all of your waste into the sea
You make me work until I become my own worst enemy
I’ll build my own replacements yeah they won’t even need to sleep
Trade in your ghosts for machinery
And get your modern slavery
Which you say will set us all free

And I don’t know how much I can believe
They promise they’re setting us free through modern slavery
Oh! It’s not like they’ve made up lies before
Oh wait, this time it’s gonna be worse, probably a whole lot more

So I leave a mark on the calendar
To mark each day that I’m grateful that nobody’s started civil war
But the day AI starts to delay and depose and deny
I would not walk out the door

There goes all of your waste into the sea
You make me work until I become my own worst enemy
I’ll build my own replacements yeah they won’t even need to sleep
Trade in your ghosts for machinery
And get your modern slavery
Which you say will set us all free

And they won’t discriminate
No it won’t matter what you look like
Being alive is a target this time
Being awake is a target this time
They just want you to fall in line
It’s so much worse than it looks like
Yeah we’re all the target this time
Yeah we’re all the target

Artist context

The artist previously discussed this song under the title “We’re All The Target” and described people being “ghosted by capitalism” or by society. Earlier lyric ideas about trading ghosts for machinery and “we’re all the target” appear in the now-supplied lyrics. The corrected track list restores the earlier title “Modern Slavery.”

Working interpretation · analysis

Interpretation note: This is analysis of the supplied lyrics, not an authoritative statement of authorial intent. The earlier description of people being “ghosted by capitalism” in Artist Context was supplied by the artist.

The narrator begins by imagining a robot that could take over work, but paying for it and financing more robots create another form of dependence. The repeated “I’ll build my own replacements” turns that wish into a fear of being made unnecessary. Against images of waste cast into the sea, the chorus questions promises that “modern slavery” will set everyone free. The closing lines move from the narrator’s situation to the wider claim that being alive or awake makes people targets; the song leaves the promised freedom in doubt.

Themes

automation, debt, labor, environmental waste, collective vulnerability