[Verse 1]
You've never shown a trace of human frailty
No-one could ever catch you on the hop:
Each post-modern take on the action
Would find you already, in principle, totally hot
All self-referential commentary
And a marketing man's sense of talk shop

[Chorus]
The sharper the image you cut
The more you seem unreal;
So sharp you could cut yourself
Transparently ideal

[Verse 2]
Yeah, we all know that hard-boiled look
You cooked it up to face down the stares;
I feel like I'm walking on eggshells around you
As though you're already no longer quite there
You acknowledge your trauma
Your neurosis is stripped and laid bare

[Chorus]
The sharper the image you cut the more you disappear;
So sharp you could cut yourself
Somehow this transparency's unclear
[Interlude]
Yes!
Oh, yes!
Yeah, you better check out your style
Yeah, you better check out your face

[Verse 3]
All the mirrors in your playroom
They twist your psycho-epidermis into shape
No doubt you emerged in your make-up believing
Quite simply, believing that you'd got it taped
But the vacancy you offered
Is already a Cheshire Cat gape

[Chorus]
The sharper the image you cut the more you disappeared;
So sharp you could cut yourself – are you still really here?
And the sharper the image you cut the more you seemed a fake
So sharp you could cut yourself, transparently opaque...
And the sharper the image you cut the less you seemed alive;
So sharp, but this open book's transparently jive

[Outro]
You were so sharp you cut yourself
So sharp you could cut yourself
So sharp you could cut yourself;
You were so sharp you made yourself transparent
And transparently unclear