Song
Selected By Default
From Ghost Towns · Track 11 · 2026
A Ghost Towns song whose supplied lyrics describe being repeatedly assigned blame by default.
Lyrics · artist-supplied
I heard you keep your ghosts alive
Inside a little bottle
Don’t know what kind of proof you’d like
For me to prove you’ve got em
It’s not that I lack sympathy
But if you take aim at a beast it tends to expose its teeth
I’m not a thief of peace
But if you’re gonna hear the truth from anyone it just might be me
I was the chosen one
But not in a way that took much thought
When you’re assigning blame
My name is just the one selected by default
Selected by default
Selected by default
Collected but in free-fall
Selected by default
At fault when you finally break me
At fault when my voice starts shaking
At fault for all the people that are not in my control
Then at fault when you retaliate, too - DARVO
And now we watch two worlds play out on a single screen
When people start checking in, you think that the sky is falling, falling, falling
I was the chosen one
But not in a way that took much thought
When you’re assigning blame
My name is just the one selected by default
Selected by default
Selected by default
Collected but in free-fall
Selected by default
So I know I’ll end up the one
I know I’ll end up the one
I know I’ll end up the one
I know I’ll end up the one by default
I wish that I could hold it all by default
Artist context
The artist clarified that “Selected By Default” refers to AI rebirths.
Working interpretation · analysis
Interpretation note: This is analysis of the supplied lyrics, not an authoritative statement of authorial intent. The AI-rebirth context above was supplied by the artist, but these lines do not spell out that connection.
The narrator calls being “chosen” a default rather than an honor: their name is the one selected whenever blame is assigned. The list of things they are held “at fault” for extends even to other people’s actions and the other person’s retaliation, ending with “DARVO.” The bottled ghosts, competing worlds on one screen, and fear when people check in give the conflict a haunted, unstable setting. Repeating “I know I’ll end up the one” suggests an expected role that the final wish to “hold it all” does not resolve.
Themes
blame, conflict, isolation, responsibility, ghosts