Song Lyrics in FFXIV: Compilation, Discussion, and Interpretation

[Zero-ELEC]

With the release of the second tier of the Arcadion raid series, we have four (!!!) new lyrical songs: "Ride the Rhythm", "Back to the Drawing Board", "Not Afraid", and "Unleashed".

Here is my attempt to discern the lyrics of "Unleashed":

My thirst for battle
There I see it
My heart [?] racing
[?] battle
There I feel it
It's my soul [?] blazing

[?] my soul on the end [?]
(welcome to my [?] it's time to wake)
[?] to keep them [?]
(all we heard from the [?])

Maybe I'm broken and [?]
(How long can I stand to [?])
How could my [?]
(I'll [?])

They call this a city
But that's not what I see
We're locked in a cell with no key
(I can feel the [?])

They call me [?]
I'm robbed of decisions
With nowhere to go
There's one thing I know

When I climb
In the ring
We lock eyes and that's when I realise

That I'm free
This is me
This is who I was meant to be

Bare my claws
Bare my fangs
My heart's racing, it's the thrill of the fight

As I run
And I howl
At the moon, I know

I was meant to defeat any foe (I see)
There is nowhere that I can not go (Face me)

Come prepared
If you dare
But you'll never bring me down

My thirst for battle
There I see it
My heart [?] racing
[?] battle
There I feel it
It's my soul [?] blazing

My thirst for battle
There I see it
It's my heart [?] racing
[?] battle
There I feel it
[?] my soul [?]

Inside a cage you have to know the faces
([?] nobody [?] who I am)
Don't realise [?]
([?] held by the throats [?])

It may be [?]
(Why should I have to hide all that I am)
[?]
([?])

They judge and they hate me
But they'll never break me
I'll never stop longing to be free
(Searching for [?])

They call me [?]
I'm robbed of decisions
With nowhere to go
There's one thing I know

When I climb
In the ring
We lock eyes and that's when I realise

That I'm free
This is me
This is who I was meant to be

Bare my claws
Bare my fangs
My heart's racing, it's the thrill of the fight

As I run
And I howl
At the moon, I know

I was meant to defeat any foe (I see)
There is nowhere that I can not go (Face me)

Come prepared
If you dare
But you'll never bring me down

I'm free
Don't [?] on me

So come prepared (come prepared)
If you dare (if you dare)
I'll [?], I swear
to bring you (down!)

Loads of gaps where the voices are heavily modulated and overlapping, but the message is pretty straightforward, painting Retsarra's point of view of why he fights.

Some of the other songs from the raid series seem.... harder to distinguish easily, the vocals in "Ride the Rhythm" are very heavily modulated (if they aren't samples?), I can never peg lyrics from the type of song "Not Afraid" is (personal failure, but I'll give it a shot sometime); "Back to the Drawing Board" is probably the easiest one to distinguish and the modulation is still kinda hard and fast. Shouts out to "Now we come to orange/gotta rhyme something with orange/see that nothing rhymes with orange/think that I'll just work without orange".

[Kasaris]

A few possible additions to your "Unleashed" lyrics (or at least what I hear):

Inside the cage you have to know your place
(Everybody tells me who I am)

---

They judge and they hate me
But they'll never break me
I'll never stop longing to be free
(Searching for a place where I belong)

They clouded my vision
I'm robbed of decisions
With nowhere to go
There's one thing I know

---

I'm free
The beast has been unleashed
So come prepared (come prepared)
If you dare (if you dare)
I'll bring all to bear, I swear, to bring you (down)

[Cleretic]

"Back to the Drawing Board" is probably the easiest one to distinguish and the modulation is still kinda hard and fast. Shouts out to "Now we come to orange/gotta rhyme something with orange/see that nothing rhymes with orange/think that I'll just work without orange".

An as far as I can tell pretty accurate lyrical read of Back to the Drawing Board, courtesy of a Youtube comment:

Red-faced, caught red-handed,
Paint in hand, she paints the temperate,
Blue Skies, skies the limit, limit breaking,
Got that green like, green eye,
She's a monster,
Silver bullet, silver lining's,
Lines within the lines, lines within the lines.

Now make me colour in,
Stay strong with will torn,
Your stigma, gon' burn it on
Say-saying this, stop saying it
Red-gold run, I'm on the block,
Got me up to orange,
Gotta rhyme something with orange,
Say that nothing rhymes with orange,
Thinking I'll just work without orange.

Suck it up, pushing off, pick it up, here we go, giving up's not fun (get back to that drawing board),
Drop it off, scrub it off, take it down, gotta go, had enough of that fun (get back to that drawing board),
Pull it off, scrub it off, hurry now gotta go, not a lot left to go.
Don't let them take it too slow, gotta go, hey why aren't you ready?

One, two, three, four, she'll punch you to the count of four,
Then five, six, seven, and, she'll keep on counting up to seven,
Not eight, not ten, not eighty-seven, she'll change it right back down to seven,
No wait, ha, wait, huh, no time, on a dime and she's drawing a line.

Girls, what is she made of?
Sugar and spice, and huh not a bit tastes love?
She's everything nice, and if you're asking her name (What),
I'm gonna tell you her name (what),
My Sugar Riot (riot).

Ring of roses, colourful with pretty poison,
All you'll taste is, (guess what?)
Ring of roses, caught you sleepin', art is drippin',
Running and running around yo,
Running and running around.

Until we're down, we all fall down,
Round and round and round,
We all fall down,
Round and round and round,
We all fall down,
Round and round and
Ashes to ashes to ashes,
Ashes to ashes to ashes.

On the wall, the writing's on the wall yo,
She's off the wall yo, this kid is off the wall yo,
Paint a picture, we're going to paint you a picture,
Strange straight from fiction, and this is what we start with.

Paint, you can't win this war you'll take these lessons lightly,
Put down them sticks and swords, the pen is far more mighty,
All the other worker bots, machines draw nought like me,
All of those bossy low-key artists have to roll the die.

Suck it up, pushing off, pick it up, here we go, giving up's not fun (get back to that drawing board),
Drop it off, scrub it off, take it down, gotta go, had enough of that fun (get back to that drawing board),
Pull it off, scrub it off, hurry now gotta go, not a lot left to go.
Don't let them take it too slow, gotta go, hey why aren't you ready?

One, two, three, four, she'll punch you to the count of four,
Then four, three, two, one, she'll count back down again just for fun,
The one, two, three, four, fi- that's it, she left out six, plus five abit,
Then one, one, no run, no time, on a dime and she's due to arrive.

Girls what are we made of?
Sugar and spice and (yow), know what they're made of!
Not everything nice,
And if you're asking her name (what),
I'm gonna tell you her name (what),
I'm Sugar Riot. (Pick the pieces up)

Ring of roses, colourful with pretty poison,
All you'll taste is, (guess what?)
Ring of roses, caught you sleepin', art is drippin',
Running and running around yo,
Running and running around.

Until we're down, we all fall down,
Round and round and round,
We all fall down,
Round and round and round,
We all fall down,
Round and round and
Ashes to ashes to ashes,
Ashes to ashes to dust!

Hilariously, I think this song becomes much easier to parse when you recognize that it's not saying anything. Not Afraid and Unleashed are definitely trying to convey a message, so specifics start to become very important. But Drawing Board is the ass-kicking theme of a Pictomancer, and there's nothing extra to read into it.

(and, given all the fire and the desert phase in Sugar Riot's raid, she absolutely is not working without orange even if she can't rhyme it)

[Ramiren]

An as far as I can tell pretty accurate lyrical read of Back to the Drawing Board, courtesy of a Youtube comment:

Oh, hi, that'd be my Youtube comment on Uvi's video, the lyrics are being gradually refined and have been updated a lot since your post, I've posted what we currently have below.

You can find the latest draft here at the top of the comment section.

I've highlighted the bits I'm not confident with, the bit that has me most stumped is the second verse from "now make me colour in" to red-gold run, I'm on the clock", I'm 99% sure these lines are wrong but it seems the heavy distortion on those bits has most people stumped.

Red-faced, caught red-handed,
Paint in hand, she paints the town red,
Blue Skies, skies the limit, limit breaking,
Got that green-light,
Green eye, she's a monster,
Silver bullet, silver lining's,
Lines with other lines, lines with other lines.

Now make me colour in,
Since ya'll, been riffed on,
Your stigma, gon' burn it on
Say-saying it, stop saying it
Red-gold run, I'm on the clock,
Now we got to orange,
Gotta rhyme something with orange,
See that nothing rhymes with orange,
Thinking I'll just work without orange.

Suck it up, pushing off, pick it up, here we go, giving up's not fun (get back to that drawing board),
Drop it off, scrub it off, take it down, gotta go, had enough of that fun (get back to that drawing board),
Pull it off, scrub it off, hurry now gotta go, not a lot left to go.
Don't let them take it too slow, gotta go, hey why aren't you ready?

One, two, three, four, she'll punch you to the count of four,
Then five, six, seven, and, she'll keep on counting up to seven,
Not eight, not ten, not eight, seven, she'll change it right back down to seven,
Wait, ha, wait, huh, no time, on a dime and she's drawing a line.

Girls, what is she made of?
Sugar and spice and un-limited taste, love,
She's everything nice, and if you're asking her name (What),
I'm gonna tell you her name (what),
My Sugar Riot (riot).

Ring of roses, palette full of hidden poison,
All here taste it, (can you guess what?)
Ring of roses, heart is skippin', art is drippin',
Running and running around yo,
Running and running around.

I'll take you down, we all fall down,
Round and round and round,
We all fall down,
Round and round and round,
We all fall down,
Round and round and
Ashes to ashes to ashes,
Ashes to ashes to ashes.

On the wall, the writing's on the wall yo,
She's off the wall yo, this kid is off the wall yo,
Paint a picture, we're going to paint you a picture,
Stripped straight from fiction, and this is what we'll start with.

Think, you can win this war, you take these lessons lightly,
Put down them sticks and swords, her pen is far more mighty,
Avant-garde don't work here, got no machine who'll draw ought like me,
All of those bossy, yucky artists have to roll or die.

Suck it up, pushing off, pick it up, here we go, giving up's not fun (get back to that drawing board),
Drop it off, scrub it off, take it down, gotta go, had enough of that fun (get back to that drawing board),
Pull it off, scrub it off, hurry now gotta go, not a lot left to go.
Don't let them take it too slow, gotta go, hey why aren't you ready?

One, two, three, four, she'll punch you to the count of four,
Then four, three, two, one, she'll count back down again just for fun,
One, two, three, four, five, seven, left out six, plus five's eleven,
Then wait, what, wait, huh, no time, on a dime, and she's due to arrive.

Girls what are we made of? (yeah!)
Sugar and spice and (yow), know what they're made of!
We're everything nice,
And if you're asking the name (what),
I'm gonna tell you my name (what),
I'm Sugar Riot. (Pick the pieces up)

Ring of roses, palette full of hidden poison,
All here taste it, (can you guess what?)
Ring of roses, heart is skippin', art is drippin',
Running and running around yo,
Running and running around.

I'll take you down, we all fall down,
Round and round and round,
We all fall down,
Round and round and round,
We all fall down,
Round and round and
Ashes to ashes to ashes,
Ashes to ashes to dust!

[Mota]

Oh, hi, that'd be my Youtube comment on Uvi's video

Jumping in to comment, I used your initial comment as a base when I found it a few days ago but after listening to it for a while I've got some revisions too:

that green-like

The green-light.

(etc)... giving up's not fun (get back to that drawing board)... etc

Suck it up, brush it off, break it down, here we go - getting back to the drawing (board)
Tear it up, scrub it off, take it down, gotta go - getting back to the drawing (board)
Throw it back, shake it off, oh, gotta go - run along work it work it get it
Better not take it too slow, gotta go - hey, why aren't you ready?

The male and female vocals are in sync here, the female vocals just cut out before "board" so that the male vocals can boom through for emphasis. The drawing board vs that drawing board, choosing to believe it's just an intense pronunciation like "tha" given the song name + like later in the song.

she'll punch you to the count of four

She'll give you to the count of four.

Not eight, not ten, not eighty-seven, she'll change it right back down to seven,

Eight nine ten nine eight seven, take it right back down to seven.

no time, on a dime and she's drawing a line.

No time, not a dime, cus she's drawing the line (yo).

Sugar and spice and un-limited taste, love,

Sugar and spice and oh~ none of them tails, love. This is a direct reference to the original nursery rhyme. Boys are made of snips, snails, and puppy dog tails.

palette full of cute and poison,

Palette full of hidden poison. I can understand how the c/k sound bleeds in here but IMO it's just the instrumentals/mixing.

All here taste it, (can you guess what?)

On your toes, yeah, keeping you guessin' (wut!?). Uses the cadence of how she sings "rose-s" to rhyme with "toes, yeah."

Ring of roses, heart is skippin', art is drippin',

Ring of roses, caught you slippin' mind is trippin'. This is half right, the first half is different the first and second time the line is used. The first time it's "caught you slippin" and the second time later it's "heart is skippin." The second part of it is consistently "mind is trippin" though.

Until we're down, we all fall down,

I'll take you down, we all fall down.

Think, you can win this war, you take these lessons lightly,
Put down them sticks and swords, her pen is far more mighty,

Hey, you can't win this war, you're taking her threats lightly
Put down them sticks and stones, the pen is far more mighty

Then one, one, no run, no time, on a dime and she's due to arrive.

Wait, now! Wait, what?
No time, not a dime, then she's switched up her rhyme.

Not everything nice

We're everything (nice). The way she pronounces this is more like "ev~ry~thing."