Works When It's Down
Plays in the dock at the bottom of the page, so it keeps going while you read on.
Lyrics
No bars on the wall out here
Deep in the warehouse, the signal's gone
But I got my list, I got my hands
I don't stop just 'cause the network's wrong
Load it up before you go
Carry what you need before you leave
Then when the tower drops the call
You keep on moving, you don't have to grieve
It works when it's down, oh oh
It works when it's down
Save it, queue it, send it later
Still get the job done, still wear the crown
It works, it works when it's down
Two hands touch the same line
Somebody's gotta say whose truth wins
Write the rule before the fight
Then nobody's data ends up thin
It works when it's down, oh oh
It works when it's down
Save it, queue it, send it later
Still get the job done, still wear the crown
It works, it works when it's down
Show me green, show me waiting, show me why
Don't just leave me guessing in the dark
A little light so I believe
That my work's not lost, it left its mark
It works when it's down, oh oh
It works when it's down
Save it, queue it, send it later
Still get the job done, still wear the crown
It works, it works when it's down
Oh oh, it works when it's down
Oh oh, wherever you're found
It works, it works when it's down
The band
The Hum
A bright, conversational lead, the band joining the hook in unison, and a wordless whoa-oh you can sing without knowing the words. Everyday language, no jargon, one short title phrase repeated until it sticks. Warm even when the point is a hard one.
None of these bands are real. Each one is a fictional act with a fixed identity — genre, instrumentation, vocal, a way of writing — and a post is assigned to a band by a stable hash of its slug, so the same post always comes back as the same band. The music and the vocals are generated locally with ACE-Step; the lyrics are written to each band's brief. No musicians, no recordings, no one to credit.
Where the words came from
The lyrics were written from the post Designing Mobile Business Applications That Still Work When the Network Does Not.
Enterprise mobile applications can't assume a perfect network. Designing for offline operation, synchronisation and recovery creates software users can rely on wherever they work.