1. |
Division
02:40
|
|||
|
Division
---------
I don't know what you're doing
But you're doing it all over me
The signals that you're sending
Spare me details of catch and release
Or I'm cutting you off at the knees
With your smart mouth and agenda
We've all figured what you're trying to prove
You should know, patience has limits
But dandy Sherlock, you're without a clue
Man they've already forgotten you
All this fine talk of forgiveness
Well, you know it really ain't my scene
Rather lay back and forget it
It already seems like a dream
How did we ever mean to be so mean?
|
||||
2. |
Fifty / One Fifty
03:19
|
|||
|
Fifty/One Fifty
----------------
Unsure of what has passed
An anxious vacancy is set
Word wise enough to know
This errant naïf has rendered mine inept
And I don't know what I've left
Thoughts writhing in the air
The frequencies and rhythms numb
No sober word nor sound
Escape suppressed, this mortal drum
And I don't know if I could
Smiting bone instead of wood
In between
Something's missing
Absence of words deflect mine
Blood is chilled
Drained of expectation
Left in passive desperation
To resign
In your womb
What proteins have conspired
(Woe found release)
Anomic
Our recklessness reviled
(Gave birth to a beast)
A barren glimpse
Of faltering desire.
(Of fear and unease)
To span resentment's breach
The pained aside, the steely glare
Is this paranoid dream of soft assault
Beyond repair?
And I wonder if you care
I pray that you still care
|
||||
3. |
Hybris
03:14
|
|||
|
Hybris
--------
Come out, come out
End this senseless plight
Let sorrows fall
And fade with morning's light
Still haunted by the hanged man
Undaunted by the fool
Caught wistfully as torn desire
And ultimatum duel
But which one did you save
And which one did you cast away
(And lay to waste)?
What weary thoughts arouse your tongue
Both graceful and profane
A whispered faith on trembling lips
Lust coursing through your veins
And every time you came
You couldn't bear to speak my name
(But returned the same).
|
||||
4. |
Chippy's Lament
03:30
|
|
||
|
Chippy's Lament
--------------------
Hazardous and dark, this bitter cold
Unshackled to endure this time abroad
Pray your master carpenter bestow
Protection of his quarters down below
Quarreling of the gods compel you
Where the water meets the wind
Where Aeolus slights Poseidon
There your odyssey begins
Reluctant executioner pursues
Captain's orders, marching two by two
Over cries of protest from the crew
Nothing for a castaway to do
Trembling thunderous and mighty
Moans Endurance from within
Splintered over ice and lichen
Burying your last defense
Hazardous and dark, this bitter cold
Unshackled to endure this time abroad
Pray your master carpenter bestow
Protection from the forces down below.
|
||||
5. |
Flood
02:52
|
|||
|
Flood
-------
When the river wears the levee down
And we've got to run to higher ground
When fear and flood are all around
And it feels like we won't be for long
When the waters well up and the floodgates give way
And the tears all but drown what you're trying to say
When your quivering voice is submerged in dismay
And it seems you can't suffer the storm
Waters may rise, hard rains may fall
And wash all the blame from your hands
Well after the storm, when fear changes form
You'll find your feet buried in sand
It's the kiss on the lips of infatuous tongues
It's the taste of the mouth stealing breath from your lungs
It's that moment in peril, as time lingers long
It's the sound of naïvete's song
So let tears of the surf salt your eyelids with mist
As the tides take you further into the abyss
For solace and heartache shall soon be dismissed
By an ocean, indifferent and strong.
Waters may rise, hard rains may fall
And wash all the blame from our hands
But after the storm, when fear changes form
We'll find ourselves buried in sand.
|
||||
6. |
||||
|
Nothing to Do But to Wait
-----------------------------
Pin my arms until I break
Pin my innocence away
Take my hand, take my spine
End my body for the time
In your cold, estranged embrace
Obscuring memory and space
Though I don't want you,
I don't want to let you go
-------
While the verses may sway you from focus
As the hours take root in your brain
Done living this paperback novel
Last time was the last time you claim
When you feel like you grow five years older
Every time the telephone rings
The small of your back has grown calloused
And the back of your shirts have grown stained
When you can't catch your breath in the morning
Never losing that smell of decay
And you're hearing the voices speak softly
Though you can't understand what they say
Caught up on this weird roller coaster
And pinned down to a mattress and frame
Surrender yourself to this bad dream
You're already too gone to blame
Now it's fading off in the periphery
Though your eyes are still swimming in haze
And it takes all of your concentration
To pretend you can alter their gaze
Time to roll off of your sorer shoulder
Let the other one carry the weight
Just let yourself study the woodgrain
For there's nothing to do but to wait.
|
||||
7. |
Follow You Down
03:34
|
|||
|
Follow You Down
--------------------
Chase your wet dream across town
It's a sick race you run
Singing follow me down
But she's already won
When your feet hit the ground
Can you tell what's been done
Just one shot in the dark
And you fumbled it, son
And that cupid shot back
To the heart, worthless arrow
In a silent attack
Caught off the straight and narrow
Yeah, you wanted her back
And it rings through the air
But there's nobody there
There's nobody there
On your back
On the floorboards you lie
Saint Sebastian's arm strains
To cover your eyes
Black stains on a desktop
In answer to why
But responsible minds have stopped asking
Why that cupid shot back
To the heart, worthless arrow
And that panic attack
Cuts deep into the marrow
And why you needed her back
Her perfume still in the air
But there's nobody there
There's nobody there
To follow you down
To follow you down
To follow you down
|
||||
8. |
Bad Mark
03:33
|
|||
|
Bad Mark
-----------
Circadian rhythms
And the unbridled id
Invite crippling visions
Best keep your bad mark hid
To resuscitate nothings
In a heart drained and bled
Screaming blackest at nighttime
Your bad mark's made its bed
Choked whispers acquiesce
To love's joyous refrain
But those whispers find a voice
Catch the wind and abstain
Now unfettered panic
Both stammered and sped
Shatters hope like fine crystal
Your bad mark struck it dead.
Choked whispers acquiesce
to lust's joyous deceit
But those whispers find their voice
Catch the wind and retreat
Your whispers, they give way
To love's tender refrain
But when whispers turn to tears
Find the earth and abstain.
|
||||
9. |
Alms
02:32
|
|||
|
Alms
------
Now I know what you mean to conceal
Ousting every fate that you'd feel
Gather alms in the dark before your curtain call
Turn your eyes, turn your back, turn away from them all
In a passive and meaningless ruse
Until they stop bothering you.
It's pointless to invest much at all
In a hopeless diversion determined to fall
For to suffer this sorrow again like before
Takes your name, takes your form, takes your song from my door
This grift leaves a spiritual bruise
A fading impression of you
So let the demons well up in a storm
A prophetic burden
Painstakingly formed
In your eyes, hollow set
In a cavernous chest
Lies a broken reminder of what you do best
In a skin thin from scorn and abuse
It's heartbreaking thinking of you.
|
||||
10. |
Ghost / Miami
08:08
|
|||
|
Ghost
-------
Waiting for the wound to heal
For flesh to scab, humours congeal
For scars to seal and then conform
And damaged nerve to burn, reborn
I swore the gash was half its size
And didn't dream to cauterize
For once occurred but to regress
And fall in step with idleness
And longing for a gentle touch
I've wanted it so much.
Wanted you so much.
These lustful whims call out a dare
A cry for chest and lungs to tear
And stricken, quickly rise for air
But will not find it anywhere.
Will not find you anywhere.
For blood and brain but host
This parasitic ghost.
*********************
Miami
-------
These words alone hold no significance
Empty echoes of impermanence
A fading vessel's transient tone
But now:
So crisp, so clear, so do not hesitate
To grasp this cold lucidity
To savor hunger pangs anew
From what is shown, one can not speculate
If it arrives to simply devastate
To smother embers trying to light aflame
These fragments hint at being infinite
But without a stream, a compromise:
They die, withered upon the vine.
This devil's ruse, this sheer absurdity
To glimpse the all, in its futility
A trick of love, of loss, of future days unknown
A restless mind finds sport in fantasy
There it whispers boredom's lies to me
Another signifier heeds sensation's call
A face, a gaze, a form, an awkward gait
Too stark, too unaware to hesitate
Enthusiastically you beam to some new sound.
|
||||
11. |
Ballad of a Prawn
03:02
|
|||
|
Ballad of a Prawn
--------------------
I've got blood stains on my shoulder
From a quick, hard blow to the ear
A firmly clasped shard of glass
Has found a new home in there
And I think it should be quite clear
There are things I was not meant to hear.
I've got scars up and down my forearm
Beneath them lie long shafts of steel
For I ventured too close as they pointed the hose
Doc said it's the worst break in years
Though the water's the worst of my fears
'Twas the gravity brought me to tears
Now my sockets are sore, relieved of their orbs
I've been blessed by not seeing their fate
Though I cannot recall what's become of them all
For I opened the lids up too late
I just figured some shut-eye'd be great
Who'd foresee this unfortunate state
So tonight I will rest in my hospital dorm
Dreaming someday I'll take my revenge
On these colorful ghosts clad in corsets and hose
Painted faces and dangly fringe
I'll just lay here and plot my defense
If my fortune and flesh ever mend
If they don't, then I guess I'll pretend
I'm not certain if phantoms have friends.
|
||||
If you like Birds in the Night, you may also like:
Move To The Trees
by Winter McQuinn
Winter McQuinn mixes soft rock and psychedelic folk for a sound reminiscent of classic pop purveyors like Cut Worms and the Lemon Twigs.
go to album
Colourless Green Ideas
by Misty Lanes
Psych-rock from Sydney with hints of ’60s pop in its fluttering melodies and twinkling instrumentation.
go to album
Rundgren-esque rock with big hooks and a hint of the baroque, recommended for fans of Jon Brion and post-Kill Rock Stars Elliott Smith.
go to album
Juxtaposing poetic balladry with roaring feedback and warped piano lines, the Vermonter's music is as stunning as it is unsettling.
go to album
From London comes this beguilingly mysterious folk-based album with skeletal acoustics and melodies.
go to album
Changes Happen To Everyone, Everywhere
by Chet Sounds
Recorded in a shipping container, the Australian artist's quirky second album is a love letter to 70’s classic rock, folk, and psychedelia.
go to album
24th Street Blues
by Tom Heyman
Tom Heyman documents life in San Francisco circa 2023, refusing to succumb to easy characterization & instead capturing the city’s nuance.
go to album
