Annotations for The Handler

Lyric: [Outro]
Annotation:
The riff before the outro symbolises the protagonist fully escaping the control of their oppressor, a bridge between begging for freedom (the rest of the song) and breaking free forcefully (the outro).

Lyric: And I, (I, I) I will execute your demands
Annotation:
The pause after  And I, and repeating of  I again shows a loss of will power. It also denotes a feeling of weakness from being under mind control. The demands are not the choice of the protagonist but she feels powerless and ultimately gives in.

Lyric: [Verse 1]
Annotation:
Even though the vocals are sung by a male vocalist, the protagonist of  Drones is a female. In an interview with XFM, Matt even gives her a name: When I think of it in a filmic way – especially songs like The Handler that deal with really dark brainwashing stuff, which I probably can’t talk about publicly –  I imagine them as female. I think women have a much harder time in the world. In my head, it’s a woman called… Mary.”

Lyric: Leave me alone
 I must disassociate from you, yeah-yeah
 Bum-bu-dayuh, bu-dayuh, bu-dayuh, bu-dayuhohoh
Annotation:
Embark on a new path; face fears and become anew.  parting is such sweet sorrow.“ from Shakespeare’s  Romeo and Juliet.   https://genius.com/William-shakespeare-romeo-and-juliet-act-2-scene-2-the-balcony-scene-annotated

Lyric: And I am no longer afraid to walk alone
 Let me go, let me be
Annotation:
Once the shackles of mind control are shed, fear is eventually lost. Then confidence returns and one feels as though they can go it alone.

Lyric: And you (You, you) are empowered to do as you please
 My mind (Mind, mind) was lost in translation
Annotation:
When one is in survival mode, it creates mental walls in their mind. This gives an oppressor the ability to control their victim’s thoughts and emotions.

Lyric: You (You, you) were my oppressor
Annotation:
Once one realizes who their oppressor is, the oppressor loses power. It is akin to a veil being lifted. Like an “a-ha” moment in therapy, one’s entire game plan of life changes. Hence the past tense  you  were my oppressor.

Lyric: Leave me alone
 I must disassociate from you
Annotation:
There’s a feeling of anger with this line; being so direct about one wanting to be left alone brings voice to the feeling. Standing one’s ground against an oppressor is liberating.  The use of the term  dissociate is no coincidence: one of the results of trauma-based mind control  is the so called  dissociation, i.e. a mental health condition known as  dissociative identity disorder, with the creation of multiple personalities in a single individual. Here the meaning is overturned: this time the girl will dissociate only from her handler’s grip.

Lyric: And my heart (Heart, heart) has become a cold and impassive machine
Annotation:
The protagonist has lost empathy due to mind control and, most likely, torturous training. Like the  Unsullied of Game of Thrones, she has become a human drone that will do anything, no matter what, without empathy intervening.  To add another spin on it, she has become “alienated” from her own substance in the Marxist sense. Her heart no longer beats to her own desire; rather, it is the “cold and impassive machine” that serves a functional object to the system to which she is enslaved to. In psychoanalysis, especially from Lacan, the Real is intervening as The Handler in a traumatizing experience of overpowering the protagonist. This results in the subject, the girl, to come out of the trauma as an entirely new subject, one that has lost her previous substance, and his reflexively recreated according to the traumatic experience.

Lyric: I am escaping from your grip
 You will never own me again, yeah-yeah
 Bum-bu-dayuh, bu-dayuh, bu-dayuh, bu-dayuhohoh
Annotation:
This is the protagonist’s turning point. She is beginning to realize  her own power and that the oppression is coming to an end, hence  escaping. Though it is not yet fully realized, the protagonist’s will to never be owned again is further solidified with a self confident  yeah. http://youtu.be/GxBSyx85Kp8 https://genius.com/Usher-yeah-lyrics

Lyric: Behold (-hold, -hold) my trance formation
Annotation:
Trance Formation of America, written by   Cathy O'Brien, was the first  autobiography of a purported victim of government mind control. According to her book, Cathy was a subject of the CIA’s infamous program, MKULTRA. The goal of MKULTRA was to develop chemicals and techniques that would enhance the ability of CIA interrogators to extract information from captives.  One document from 1955 confirms the attempt to create a substance that would “alter personality structure in such a way that the tendency of the recipient to become dependent upon another person is enhanced”. In other words, to allow someone to be controlled by The Handler. In 1980, The Canadian Broadcasting Company’s news division broadcast an in-depth report about MKULTRA on the show  The Fifth Estate. Muse’s  MK Ultra also speaks about this program.  It also sounds like “transformation ”, either referencing the transformation of being turned into a drone, or the transformation of breaking free from the conditioning.

Lyric: And I will no longer do as I am told
Annotation:
The protagonist has finally decided to rise against and to be free. This verse is also a throwback to the verse of  United States of Eurasia, where the protagonist ask himself “Must we do as we’re told?”

Lyric: I won’t let you control my feelings anymore
Annotation:
The narrator is breaking the handler’s hold over her. This is also a throwback to the first verse of the title track of  Showbiz with its line “Controlling my feelings for too long”. This is the point where the protagonist of the album switches and starts to defy her oppressor.

Lyric: But now (Now, now) you are my handler
Annotation:
The Handler, seen on the cover of the album as the man who holds the joystick that controls the human drones, has essentially “programmed” the protagonist of this album’s story to become a human drone himself. This song discusses the fight of the protagonist against the forces that seek to keep her in her current state as a subversient servant.

