1. |
Deserted
03:17
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Spend a week with yourself
Or risk a tangle with death
Take a dose of relaxation
With your circulating breath
If the calendar’s the same
Then the time doesn’t pass
Flicking through the days
Another member of the cast
Holding
Out from your future in an echo chamber
Strap in
You’re gonna be waiting a long long time
Island
Living is what you always dreamt it would be
Nowhere
To land
Take my hand
No promises I’ve just got stories
You’ll still be alone
Did you recover something that
Grew up alongside you
Sitting on a shelf
While the world passed by you
An artifact of nothing
With a can of gasoline
It can’t cure your maladies
But it sure can burn your dreams
Crumble
To dust at the touch of an invasive species
Blocking
Out memories from a time best forgotten
Stillborn
Into the world unharmed unbroken
Nowhere
To land
Take my hand
No promises I’ve just got stories
You’ll still be alone
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2. |
Sharing Colors (Emily)
03:30
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Emily was sitting alone
In the cafe
Waiting on a change of heart
She’s just afraid of being on her own
Even for a day
Who knows what trouble it could bring
Gracie had just gone away
She’d left a note
Half-folded on the bedsheets
That was still where it remained
Only slightly moved
Disturbed by a teardrop
Sharing colors
Across the sky
Too much of a good thing
Can never last
Gracie crumbles
In the night time
While Emily longs for another try
With a little less love
Gracie’s out swimming again
The water’s cold
But she wants to be colder
To forget about the nights that could’ve been
She can’t be thawed
With no one to hold her
Emily looks down at her drink
The surface is still
But she knows a touch will
Send a ripple that causes a spill
So she stays away
Convinced she doesn’t want to get burned
Again
Sharing secrets
After school
Careful not to go too far
Gracie stands up
On her own now
Emily tries not to watch
Gracie crumbles
In the night time
Emily doesn’t know
She just looks down
Into her coffee
And tries to stay afloat
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3. |
Mary Byrd
05:40
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Mary Byrd, Red Cross nurse
Was the standard that others aspired to
Daughter of mr and mrs so-and-so
Perfect to her parents and her peers
She could do no wrong
No no
Do no wrong
Sleepless nights, they all had led to this
Now she slept with ease and with comfort
Knowing that she was doing her best
One patient at a time she was laying the groundwork for
A safer world
A better world
Mary was called in one night
Interrupting her well-earned rest
There’s a couple just arrived at the hospital they said
We need someone to help see they’re awfully distressed
And you’re the best
You’re the best
William M. Strowd Johns
Was born that night to James and Billie
Mary knew that something was wrong
And the very next morning little William was gone
If only Mary knew
There was nothing she could do
James and Billie tried to get across
That Mary Byrd wasn’t to blame
But somewhere in the tears and the screaming and the silence from behind the closed door
The message was lost
Then Mary knew
And from that well Mary drew
The next year came and James went to war
Billie stayed behind and kept their lives in line but
Mary Byrd, Red Cross nurse
She didn’t have a system and was running out of time
She was the best
They knew she was the best
Mary Byrd worked until the end
She didn’t know what else to do
She went to her parents and then to her friends
They just laughed and cried impossible
Mary Byrd doesn’t get blue
Thank god prohibition was through
Mary found herself in the cemetery
She felt closer to those stones every day
Some lines of prose stood out from a saintly man
Before she’d gotten through it she was sprawled across the grave
Soon enough it bore her name
Mary Byrd, servant of today
Red Cross nurse
We shall love
And we shall praise
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4. |
Lungs
03:18
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Everyone I’ve ever met is coughing up a lung
At least they’ve still got one to spare
There’s a sickness going round it’s infecting the whole town
And soon enough I’ll succumb to all these dirty stares I’m getting
How dare you live the way you are
I’m forgetting
What it’s like to exist under constant pressure
Next year I’ll have my own room with a nice big double bed
You can come and stay the night if we’re together
I still can’t turn my amp up loud the way I like to hear it
But maybe in a couple moves we’ll have a soundproof studio
So I hope you don’t have to take the fall
When I go
I’m balanced on one of those circus balls
And for now I feel so tall
So tall
I can look and see the future
It’s not murky anymore
At least not in the parts that really matter
Can’t tell what I’m gonna end up doing but I know it’s gonna be fulfilling
With another hand to share the load there’s no need to see the ends of the road
These clouds creeping in we’ll just push them out again
That’s my view that they’re obscuring and the sun’s not getting in
The little life that’s left is hanging on
It’s hanging on, but I don’t know for how long
My lungs are filling up with smoke from the fires of my past
Specters creeping up behind saying where do you think you’re going
The ball and chain weighs heavier today
Now I’m out of breath from dragging all this weight around
It’s time to join the ragged choir for good, for good
Yes it’s time to join the ragged choir for good
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5. |
Labor Day
03:50
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Playing guessing games in a college bar
They don’t cater to the sound of heart
We’re welcome here but we don’t know who should start
There’s a soccer match on the opposite wall
It’s a rerun so they’re playing on
I’m just watching so that I don’t have to talk
I don’t forget the things you didn’t do
Your apologies that never rang true
A connection lost but you faked it one too many times
And too late I saw through
Late night journaling turns to
Early morning stressing
Trying everything to fall asleep
Like I’m a kid again
On Christmas Eve
But there’s nothing waiting downstairs save a flash of real and a half-hearted grin
All those same mistakes
Every sullen face
I think I’ve changed this time for good
Spent all Labor Day
Picturing you praying
I don’t believe in god and I didn’t think you ever would
I don’t forget the things you didn’t do
Your apologies that never rang true
A connection lost but you faked it one too many times
And too late I saw through
I was on the brink and you pulled me back time and time again
I said butterflies but my face said lies oh I wish it hadn’t
I wish I was fine
With something great not something mine
Never proud only sorry
Don’t be sorry
Don’t forgive me
I don’t love
I lie
I don’t forget the things you didn’t do
Your apologies that never rang true
A connection lost but you faked it one too many times
And too late I saw through
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6. |
While the World Burns
02:38
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Locked up in my chamber
Got good people on the line
Papers say the world’s on fire
But in here I’m feeling just fine
Jackie’s on the phone
Says my music taste is great
But it’s gonna take some time
She’s 600 miles away
My other friend is closer
But she doesn’t like my tunes
Think we’re better friends that way
There’s nothing I can do
Hold it, hold it
Hold it together out there
There’s something paranormal beyond our eyes
I want something to go back to something I recognize
Can’t watch scary movies
Cause they’re getting in my mind
Omega Man’s too real
I don’t want to be the last line
I missed your face before
Right now I just want it gone
Things that sometimes bring me joy
Are switching off and on, off and on
I’m sick of one word lines
I’m sick of one word lines
Maybe I’m not giving my all
But you’re accusing me of not trying
The cops are treading water
We’re laughing at their plight
But we’re not swimming smarter
We’re just living longer lives
There’s a piece of you sitting
In the corner of my room
I’m sure you’d like it to be more
But I don’t want these ties in my tomb
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7. |
||||
We drove out to where the houses came to an end
You told me that you came out here often
It’s not breaking in if there’s no one to defend
This empty place that I’m sure once was something
I’d like to say we hopped the fence it rolls off the tongue
But there wasn’t much left to jump anyway
I crept around dodging puddles with my new white shoes
You said the path looked like a gateway
So we crawled around in the dark
Finding our way
In a familiar place
Navigating by starlight
There were picnics here once, on hazy summer days
Mosquitoes were never a problem, no not in this dream
They held races, and contests, and fairs
And the children ran free in the glen
Now you turn and you ask me what’s hiding out there
To invent a monster waiting in the grass
Or the woods on the outskirts, denser than iron
Waiting for the end of some weekend knitting class
So I thought but I couldn’t come up with a thing
Nothing that haunted me, no fears to sing aloud
And I felt at ease in that uneasy realm
Then you sighed and you called me back home
But the people out here had no cares and no fear
The car was warm safe and claustrophobic
This message wasn’t meant for your ears
It was guided by starlight
And this time it got the wrong guy
Shut it down
Take the long way home tonight
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8. |
Subway Song
02:46
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The train pulled around the bend
I got a chill on the platform that left me shaking
Left here on my own again
In the city with no end
I dreamt about your sister last night
I hadn't seen her in years
Trust me it was weird
And Rachel says she knows where I should go
But I don't quite believe her
Oh
Oh no no
I caught myself looking through the window
One more time
Than I said I would yesterday
I'm all out of reason--they're out of rhyme
I've lost your cigarette to lead the way
Have you ever escaped from a black hole
I've been working for a year
I'll tell you when it becomes clear
And Rachel says she knows where I should go
But I don't quite believe her
Oh
Oh no no
I told Rachel that I don't like it here
She said give it a year
The clouds'll leave and the sky will clear
And we'll clean up the mess
You've made
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9. |
Play the Melody
05:09
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We haven’t hung the hammock in the lawn
Today’s a perfect day; I haven’t processed that he’s gone
Only met him twice but I could feel it
The twisted insides tucked away, did you steal it
Your expression’s locked up in a tower
It’s been a while but I still remember
How you turn when you’re feeling bothered
A shadow falls, wishing you had daughters
But you don’t
And a melody plays
Alone together in an unsolvable maze
Explaining to my new friends but they never understand
The pale horse’s rider black is no more than a man
An architect creating works of beauty
One thing they could never house, a family
Build your own
A melody plays
They came from out of nowhere looking for a place to stay
On that day the cool passed on for good
What else is there to learn? I’m sure he’d teach it if he could
Empty streets, the wind plays like an evening song
Parallel to the rules there’s nothing wrong
At the end we all were forced in line
Helpless watching as our idols crumbled and died
God’s improvisation has betrayed us
And haphazard structure cannot save us
Today the room is empty for the pictures on the walls
No more shouting no more music fills the halls
The people who were in charge say they’re coming back
Will the names etched into the desk still be intact
We’ll be there
A melody plays
Even without him it goes on anyways
Still it sounds
A melody plays
We’ll be listening somewhere for as long as it stays
It’ll play
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10. |
Daze/Filling Space
03:51
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Been seeing ghosts for the last week or so
People I love but mostly people I don’t know
They’re appearing in the places I’m scared to go now
Passing my nights in a daze til tomorrow
Counting a million ways to put off all the things I gotta do
Forgot them all after one and two
If I’ve told you this before don’t remind me
Too close I might just slip and lose it all
You’re nothing but a figment
Something deep inside of me
So what do you think you’re doing
Showing up outside my dreams
My skin is crawling crawling
That’s not how it’s meant to be
I swear I didn’t think
That you meant that much to me
Saw Mike he looked like Ethan in a dream
Hanging in the royal suites with the queen
The train to London lost my gaze in the steam
And I drifted off
Had my amp too loud and I coulda sworn
That I was hearing voices through the door
They were mad, the walls are thin
But I wasn’t plugged in
My memories don’t align with what I’ve seen
I can’t handle any more of these strange scenes
Don’t want to unearth the blank space underneath
I’m filling space
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11. |
Time Travel
03:42
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Go out to a country town
But not to get away
Quarantined against your will
Supposed to call them family
All the shitty drinks in the cooler
Can’t get you through Christmas dinner
So you end up in a moral debate
With the side of you that would turn into a sinner
But you cannot fix what’s broken with a dark room
And you cannot mend your wounds with wine
A telephone can’t transport you out of there
Can’t travel forward to a better time
If you could travel through time
Tell me what good would that do
Do you think it would really help you
Where would you go?
Any place draw a line on the map
From here to there
If you could go anywhere
All those essays about Greece
Don’t strike your fancy
Sit among the olive trees
Teach a few things to Socrates
But think of who
You’d leave behind
People out there who care
I promise this time
You cannot stop what’s hurting with a beach
You can’t just shut the world out with a mountain retreat
A cry for help can bring a temporary salve
Don’t sell your soul out for the here and now
If you drop out cause you don’t have a plan
Then what was the point?
If you block out the voices around you
There’s no one left to disappoint
In the dingy bars you’re still breaking hearts
But no one can get to yours
Give someone a chance on solid ground
To know you cared you’ll have to stick around
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Marine Anthropology Washington, D.C.
Band split between DC, New York, and Scotland. We'd like to be experimental. It's hard.
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