1. |
Penny Drop
03:48
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Pour the medicine out
Thread an arm through a shirt sleeve
Yeah it’s just the end of the world for you
Boiling into your heart
Comes the penny drop
Swear on all of the blue blood you’ve got
I’ve watched the camera seize
I’ve watched whole films that I’ve made
Yeah well, pour the medicine out
Start afresh with the neighbours
Find a safe topic to butcher all of your time
Boiling up in your throat
Comes the penny drop
Cross your heart with the best will you’ve got
I guess I’m scared of walking all these streets
Filled with blank gable ends
Where the sun only emerges out from behind clouds with half an hour til it sets
I’ve been a small town, grey sky, crippled cheap steel fence in a previous life
And it was shit then
Yeah well, pour the medicine out
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2. |
Hey, Useless
03:08
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I lost four or five clear minutes there
At that ice cream parlour
Sweating over the flavours
A tall double scoop of hindsight was kind enough to tell me I was just getting to choose what one I drop on my t-shirt
I got my aspirations good and drunk
Off the in-flight magazine
I’ve got tastes that are so rich
Well now I don’t taste all those things which
Are real
I got bored and accidentally broke
That bit of plastic that kept
The whole damn thing together
Well yeah I guess I wanted it over
And how much of this fits back in the box?
Since you confetti’d it outwards
Well since you grabbed handfuls for breakfast
And since you decided you don’t want it all along
I got my aspirations good and blitzed
Off the in-flight magazine
Got tastes so rich now I never taste anything
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3. |
Open Sesame
04:50
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Show me the first one again
Yeah I think that’s it, I always do
How something dies every time you try
I lost whole days writing scenes with characters
That you could tell lack the research to make them real
What no one seemed to mention
Were all those towns with their lights on
And signs you’ll roll by
All offering thoughts on your route map
Kid shouts ‘Can I go again?’
Another family smiles through the rain
I walk the kerb, tic-tac-my-toes out the frame
I stalk the scene
Try to pick the lock, tried ‘Open Sesame’
Entry denied for trying too hard or lack of faith
What no one seemed to mention
Were all the signs that you have to roll by
All of those towns with their lights on
What no one seemed to mention
How many towns that would have their lights on
What no one seemed to remember
How many towns that would have their lights on
What no one seemed to see
Were all the signs that you have to roll by
All offering thoughts on your route map
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4. |
Golden
02:44
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Set sail
I thought I saw buried people
Time lapped on the shores of my hometown every day
It polished its edges up as semi-precious stone
I find it hard to look at
There was part of me still stood there
On the bridge when it burned down
So I find myself back there haunting it at night
I hung around too long and the memories I made
They sort of recorded over lots of older ones
The whole thing feels like some kind of scratch that you’ll never itch
I’ve been revisiting moments so often they’re golden
Like toes on a statue you rub for good luck
There was part of me still stood there
On the bridge when it burned down
My book of matches were lighting from below
Your goodbye
So I find myself back there haunting it at night
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5. |
Polygraph
04:10
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See the windscreen reflect in your eyes
It doubles up as you cry
From the back seat in the middle
I drove searching all night
For things you said you could’ve told me if I
Had only asked
If I’d just slowed down a little
Have you got it now?
Step back and finger-frame it now
See if you’ve got it
The answer’s sat waving at you like a polygraph
Hope that you saw it
Post-mortems are flooding my desk
Wish I could stop, seem to insist
On doing one per conversation
Left my office and saw
In-patients smoking out the hospital doors
Wish I was them, cured of sensing disappointment
Have you got it now?
Look back at what you’ve written down
See if you’ve got it
The answer’s sat waving at you like a polygraph
Hope that you saw it
Constellations in the photographs
Pins and string, watch it sprawl towards the door
My perspective made the hall taper
To where damp had started to render
Simulacra in the wallpaper
Asked my neighbour could she see it and
As she stood there trying to understand
It disappeared from underneath her hand
She shot me a look that said
‘Salvation doesn’t work when it’s a back-up plan, you know’
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6. |
Phone Voice
04:06
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Right there you were everyone I’ve ever known
Trapped in your phone voice
Shoulders like stone
I only see you when somebody else comes along
A table booked for six
The Old Toll Bar
Five voices sing a song
We’ve all heard before
An obstacle arrives, yeah I see it
Shining back in the cold whites of your eyes
You give a look like I might scare you to death
It happens all of the time
It happens every time
That moment of shock
Right there you were everyone I’ve ever known
Trapped in your phone voice
Shoulders like stone
I only see you when anyone else comes along
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7. |
So Far So What
08:39
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Katharine Hamnett scrawling foot-high
Letters on my shirt
Screaming out in invisible ink
‘It’s so far so what for me’
Wake with chloroform dried up round my mouth and nose
Locked naked in a cupboard
With my uniform gone
Well I hate to say ‘I told you so’
So I don’t
Burnt bridges for breakfast
Crucifixion afternoons
I’ve made my bed I’ll go lie in it
Wet nurse at the birth of
The moment you gave up listening
I’ve marked my grave I’ll get digging it
So what are you waiting out for now?
I watch your eyes travel six inches north of my head
To that thought bubble
With a bunch of words scribbled out
Well I guess I get
Stuck trying to guess again
Wipe my mouth with my napkin
Raise a toast to the table yeah
‘You made my bed I’ll go lie in it’
Say goodnight with my eyebrows
Find a bar on my way out
It’s not a grave if you’re not digging it
So what are you waiting out for now?
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8. |
Heavy Weather
02:15
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Five says she just didn’t sleep well last night
Ten says he words it wrong when pushed in the spotlight like this
Or fifteen that everything that they’ve ever said Was a lie
Heads he just doesn’t rate a word that you said
Tails he’s just listening to what he’s saying next
Or maybe one day is all he needs
Out this heavy weather that we’re in
Look at me sitting here
With my tie in between my legs
Well I sure feel I could benefit
From any doubt that you might have left
Five says she’s drunk enough to not know she’s loud
Ten says he’s bored now of volunteering ground to them
Or fifteen that everything that they’ve ever said Has felt ignored
Look at me sitting here
Singing hymns from the kitchen floor
Well I still feel I could benefit
From any doubt that you might afford
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9. |
Sword Fights
04:06
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Tunnel out under the floor boards yeah
Sword fights in the hall
Well I build them up your height
And just hold on
As simple as giving your time out yeah
As complex as burning warm
But when you fell down I never quite got up
Well yeah I’m fine
Just sometimes my hands slip yeah
And I hit the floor of what I do wrong
But when I find you in what I am
I feel alright
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10. |
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I’ve walked this dance before
Made a note of the steps and then hid it
It’s the one the band save for last
We groan, then they hit it
Different story but oh
Since I spoke to you last
I’ve buried my head in the ground
To stop what I thought was the best thing to say
From coming out
Never got used to this
The regularity with which I dish it out
You’d think I could take it
But should you ever offer up the chance to meet me half way
Then god damn I’ll take it
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11. |
Monument Road
04:11
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How often do you visit home?
And come on, what’s the reasons you live alone?
Well yeah you never got it
Quite how you wanted it
Sat at 1am discovering
Old letters crushed inside a box
Well yeah you never got it
Quite how you wanted it
Finding missing pieces to the bigger picture
Laying lost in your parents’ loft
Yeah I know you never got it
Quite how you would have wanted it
Finding missing pieces to live without
I guess there’s missing pieces we live without
And yeah I know I never got it
Quite how you would have wanted it
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Quitter Glasgow, UK
Songwriter, lo-fi experiments, yuck vs yum.
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