Automatico Lyrics in English by Café Tacvba

This song feels like lying in bed, half awake, while the world outside gets louder, more aggressive, and more obsessed with power and money. The singer keeps saying he is “en mi cama ensoñando con un mundo automático” [“in my bed dreaming of an automatic world”], almost like he wants a world that runs on its own so he does not have to join the madness. While he is in this calm, dreamy space, he hears others getting ready for conflict: “Ya los escucho entrenar / Con sus botas dispuestos a zapatear / Ya los escucho entonar / Cantos de guerra” [“I already hear them training / With their boots, ready to stomp / I already hear them intone / War songs”]. The contrast is sharp: they prepare for war, he stays in bed imagining an easier, automatic reality.

Then the song changes from soldiers to office people: “Ya los veo lucubrar / El complot sin parar / De corbata y celular / Solo me quieren explotar” [“I already see them hatching / The plot nonstop / In tie and cellphone / They only want to exploit me”]. Now the “war” is in meetings and phone calls, and the enemies wear ties instead of uniforms. Later he watches them run off “Por el gozo dejándonos atrás / Buscando sin saciar” [“for pleasure, leaving us behind / searching without ever being satisfied”], while he stays with his same dream of an automatic world. I love how simple the lyrics look, but they bite: soldiers, businessmen, and pleasure-chasers all blur into one group that uses and forgets others, and the only escape he gives himself is that lazy, stubborn fantasy of staying in bed while everything around him keeps speeding up and getting harsher.