1. |
The Hollow Call
03:16
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Away, away, they stole it away
I could have seen it coming but my thoughts went astray
And now the laughter’s all gone, the dancing has ceased
Since you charmed the birds out of the trees
Is this all, is this all, this strange hollow call
That somehow flicked the switch from solitary to swarm
I awoke to silhouettes of women and beasts
Where you charmed the birds out of the trees
Like the roaches in the larder or the humble cicada
Scouring for booze in matching tattoos
In enchantment or war, the last key bolts the door
Is this all we were put here to do?
So take my hand, take my hand for one last dance
The rhythm around us didn't get here by chance
Before silence drops down like leaves, sing to me
How you charmed the birds out of the trees
Away, away, they took it away
Every certainty we hold will someday go astray
And so the laughter’s long gone, the dancing has ceased
And you charmed the birds out of the trees
You charmed the birds out of the trees
You charmed the birds out of the trees.
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2. |
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On the grandest night of the season
I got a bin bag full of reasons
To turn tail and get lost
Last year was a blast
But I can't live in the past
Now I'm truly counting the cost
And there ain't no map could lead us home
On the grandest night of the season
I found myself believin'
After just one flick of your fringe
I put my doubts to one side
To get along for the ride
But even now those words make me cringe
And there ain't no map could lead us home, no
On the grandest night of the season
Looking through a jaundiced prism
Of a plastic that won't decompose
The ground below us is frazzled
We're up the creek without a paddle
No one knows where the shit truck goes
And there ain't no map could lead us home
On the grandest night of the season
at home with the demons
Sermonising for the moths and the beers
A box of candles never burned
A love given but not earned
There's always another year
And there ain't no map could lead us home
Cos there aint no roads to take us home
No there ain't no map could lead us home
Cos there ain't no roads to take us
Ain't no road’s gonna take us
Ain't no roads to take us home
Take us home
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3. |
Be Careful What You Say
03:06
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Ain’t no devils in this world, no devils in this world
But just say their names, you could conjure them to be
They'll torment you night and day, because once summoned they won't stray from your vision so
Be careful what you say
And there ain't no love in this world, no love in this world
But if you said those pretty words couldn't I just pluck some from a tree?
We’re messing with powers we can't restrain
Sparking fires not contained by our passion so
Be careful what you say
To negotiate a way along this cliff top path
You gotta hang on to your righteousness and hold tight to your staff
The fog is rolling in, it's a treacherous road
So pay close attention, you gotta share your load
There ain't no demons or romances that won't one day fade to dust
Without due diligence then everything we love will flee from us
So let me put you in the know
Before I lock it up and throw away the key
Be careful what you say
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4. |
Secondhand Valentine
04:42
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Gaudy pieces of card held in hands
Organised and signed and stuck down with stamps
Posted under safely gated village lights
I'm in the market for some wild, grand gestures
kicking crushed twigs into roadside cambers
Because you and you alone make me feel alive
So to get out the message, to send you a sign
I'm gonna cross out that name, replace it with mine
And write it on a secondhand valentine
The sky is split up in grey compartments
The roses all filed in hallways and vases
On empty tables and overflowing bins
Seagulls going off like car alarms
Where the tunes on plazas once nailed through our hearts
Is it so hard to pinpoint the moment true love begins?
could you edit my face back in to that time
Undo the present, paste in my best lines
And burn them on a secondhand valentine Solo (B section)
Snatching the moments before the conclusion
Love embraces us briefly then heads back for seclusion
While bikes stand chained in pairs down by the stream
It's too slippery and cold, to have or to hold
It would promise you a world that’s rusted and old
So we make up our endings, we conjure disasters from dreams
Were you ever so selfless, so kind or benign
As when you wrote out his name, and you crossed out mine
And sent it on a secondhand valentine
I got lost in the darkness, misread the sign
You wrote his name, and you crossed out mine
It seems I'm just a secondhand valentine
Secondhand Valentine.
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5. |
Lost in Time
05:02
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Behind the musty closed window
Of an empty place by the coast
We judge the world and list all it lacks
Over the stained plastic chopping board
With salt blowing through the door
We couldn’t shut out all the voices that nag
But with the untamed dance we go neither up nor down
With the untamed dance we are heavier than clouds
With the untamed dance we cannot be contained
We are lost in time
Left behind
Hanging on like toughened roots
The face of cheap silent booze.
We jumped in and threw it about
Recorded on too many times
On agile and strange minds
She waltzed her existence inside out
But with the untamed dance we go neither up nor down
With the untamed dance we are heavier than clouds
With the untamed dance we cannot be contained
We are lost in time
Left behind
The old angle-poised lamp
The pipes and the creaking tap
We shuffle past each others lives
Down paths tearing across our skin
Thoughts drifting on the wind
To soaring deluded heights
But with the untamed dance we go neither up nor down
With the untamed dance we are heavier than clouds
With the untamed dance we cannot be contained
We are lost in time
Left behind
We go neither up nor down
We are heavier than clouds
We we cannot be contained
We are lost in time
Left behind
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6. |
All This Rain
05:18
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Squinting hard to read the number
That's staring back from the unlit empire
Where are you tonight?
Too numb to tap to you warm comfort
Battery's dead, sodden glove round my thumb
But where are you tonight?
Take shelter where you can
The hollow rocks from the blustering wind
That would cut the sky in two
And drag the covers off all that we cling to
What if all this rain never stopped
And filled up all the sea
To float your heart above every wall
That keeps your love
Keeps your love from me
Summer waves in the same dark water
We threw our clothes at the shore, oh god but
Where are you tonight?
We joked about how the blue grey clouds
Plotted maps to a future that we never found
But where are you tonight?
Take shelter where you can
The hollow rocks from the blustering wind
That would cut the sky in two
And drag the covers from all that we cling to
What if all this rain never stopped
And filled up all the sea
To float your heart above every wall
That keeps your love
Keeps your love from me
Our song now played on a baby grand
Behind the glass overlooking the sand
But where are you tonight?
We who have nothing, we look to the sky
And we look to the sea
And find nothing there
But here are you tonight?
What if all this rain…
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7. |
Grit in the Shell
04:48
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I want to watch for the lightning through the open tent door
Over lakes glossed by old Nordic skies
Drunk but not stumbling, joined at the hip
We never see what's in front of our eyes
But oh, give me strength to drag it onboard
Give me time to accept it ‘cause it's news to me
That we're gonna have to take on a little grit in the shell
Before we kick out this pearl to the sea.
Now there's nothing on the table, the woodstore’s all burned
Where we shrunk all the t-shirts, forgot all we learned
You’ve got to lay out your screws in a logical way
If you take your love apart
But oh, give me strength to drag it onboard
Give me time to accept it ‘cause it's news to me
That we're gonna have to take on a little grit in the shell
Before we kick out this pearl to the sea.
But even after this, the world still goes on around us
The universe don't care for lovers stumbles and blunders
And the splashing on the seafronts,
The pebbles on the pavements,
The seagulls and the stars don't fear for us
But there’s a wave that never breaks that never falls upon your shore
While I'm still rolling in the same sleeping bag as before
But from the end to the start
It’ll crash round my heart
And if I close my eyes we won't fall apart
Did we leave any trace in the mud in the dark
That could lead a way out of this mess?
Was it all just a little too easy?
Can we forgive what we're scared to confess?
Oh, give me strength to drag it onboard
Give me time to accept it ‘cause it's news to me
That we're gonna have to take on a little grit in the shell
Before we kick out this pearl to the sea
Before we kick out this pearl to the sea
Before we kick out this pearl to the sea.
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8. |
Automata
04:22
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Beneath a tiny model clock tower
Astronomy and solitaire
I brush against your sleeve
I cross you on the spiral stair
Marbles tapping at the woodwork
It's getting cold, I'm getting numb
On an elliptical orbit around your darkened sun
In a wild and graceful arc
We swing in and out of life
Every time I think you’re close
A reaction and a swipe
Is it probable or certain how
Unfamiliar we’ve become?
Clock watching, catastrophizing
Swung on your goddamn pendulum
I get a feral urge to slam and to curse
Until it's cursed and slammed away and I'm a human again
While you purge your mechanical hurt in my face
And our time just ticks away
I'm stuck like a particle
To your oscillating wave
Just a broken wooden figure
Going round on the same rails
Again and again and I can't carry your load
Still you click out my tempo
On your goddamn metronome
I get a feral urge to slam and to curse
Until it's cursed and slammed away and I'm a human again
While you purge your mechanical hurt in my face
And our time just ticks away
You jammed a stick into the mechanism
It can't function anymore
The cogs and wheels and springs
Scattered piecemeal on the floor
But time marches on, you keep writing the same lines
Again and again and again, god damn automaton
I get a feral urge to slam and to curse
Until it's cursed and slammed away and I'm a human again
While you purge your mechanical hurt in my face
And our time just ticks away
I get a feral urge to slam and to curse
Until it's cursed and slammed away and I'm a human again
While you purge your mechanical hurt in my face
And our time just ticks away
Ticks away
Time just ticks away
Ticks away
Time just ticks away.
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9. |
A Different Moon
03:30
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When we look out in the night-time
From the window of your little room
Count the stars on the ceiling
Of the sky til you're dreaming
And every night see a different moon
Every night we’ll see a different moon
So sleep tight now, my little darling
I'll weave a spider's web cocoon
To keep you safe ‘til the dawn
I'll stoke the fires to keep you warm
And I'll keep an eye on that different moon
Yes I’ll keep an eye on that different moon
In the darkest lonesome places
We don't know when we'll next see a light
Memories still trace the shape of your face
And the planet holds tight to its satellites
So when you can't sleep in the night-time
Look out the window of your little room
Throw a star out to me
Where I can't bear to be
And every night we’ll see a different moon
Keep an eye on that different moon, yeah
Every night we’ll see a different moon
Keep an eye on that different moon
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10. |
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An empty bench with a name engraved
I take a photo and hope for the best
Somewhere a mattress gives way to your shape
In my soul the last love wrestles with the next
Purposefully striding over cracks and kerbs
The same journey thirteenth time today
The song of your sweet gentle lips I heard whisper
Tell me baby, when did we change?
We burned all the bridges, but did we cut out the rot?
Will we ever make it across?
We are growling and grinding and howling and laughing
Carving out our hearts
But show me the end, my love
The end, my love
The only place to start
We are gouging and grabbing and screaming and fighting
Dissecting every part
But show me the end, my love
The end, my love
The only place to start
Your clothes hung like a parade for inspection
The trees whisper snidely about my haste
Shifting and facing in different directions
I held you tight but didn’t see your face
When we burned all the bridges, did we cut out the rot?
Will we ever make it across?
We are growling and grinding and howling and laughing
Carving out our hearts
But show me the end, my love
The end, my love
The only place to start
We are gouging and grabbing and screaming and fighting
Dissecting every part
But show me the end, my love
The end, my love
The only place to start
We’re born to wander
So let your boots make their marks
To escape from a future that’s chained to your past
There’ll be no grand finale
No round of applause
When the road ends again and all is as it was
We are growling and grinding and howling and laughing
Carving out our hearts
But show me the end, my love
The end, my love
The only place to start
We are gouging and grabbing and screaming and fighting
Dissecting every part
But show me the end, my love
The end, my love
The end, my love, the end
Show me the end, my love
The end, my love
The only place to start
An empty bench with a name engraved
I take a photo and hope for the best
Somewhere a mattress gives way to your shape
In my soul the last love wrestles with the next
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Julian Gaskell UK
Described by angry locals as the bastard son of Waits, Strummer, Reinhardt and Rachmaninov, Julian Gaskell’s music over the last 20 years has followed a wayward path of withering agricultural-folk, klezmer accordion, overly-lyrical punk, gypsy-jazz guitar, tangos, waltzes, rhumbas and skiffled-up boogie-woogie piano. ... more
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