Song Meaning
The outro of "Take Care of the Proper Paperwork" is a stark, repetitive command: "Shred all the paperwork." This isn't a gentle suggestion; it's an insistent, almost desperate plea delivered over an instrumental fade. The sheer repetition hammers home a singular, overwhelming feeling. It suggests a desire to obliterate bureaucracy, to erase the tangible evidence of obligations or perhaps mistakes.
The dominant emotional tone here is one of catharsis, or at least the *desire* for it. The act of shredding implies destruction, a violent undoing of something that has become burdensome. It's a visceral reaction to being bogged down by administrative tasks, or maybe a more profound need to escape the consequences represented by these documents. The repeated phrase acts like a mantra, a way to mentally distance oneself from the oppressive weight of the "proper paperwork."
The effectiveness lies in its bluntness and sonic texture. The fade-out with the repeated command creates a sense of unresolved tension, as if the act of shredding is ongoing or perpetually desired but never fully achieved. It leaves the listener with the echo of that destructive impulse, a potent distillation of frustration with systems that demand meticulous attention to detail. The lyrics don't offer a solution, but a raw, emotional impulse to simply make it all disappear.
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