1. |
Cul-de-sacs
03:53
|
|||
|
The sun going down
spitting past bars and parked cars.
At the edge of town
the fence clinked shut.
It’s a friday night
poked open by kitchen lamps
round culdisacs
like a campfire engrained in my eyes,
I’m reminded of what it must have been like.
The moon fades to streetlamp,
beaming down on parking lots,
heavily heaving with hurt.
Barely able to stand,
I'm reminded of the way things were.
I watch my friends grow up around me,
while I'm just the stubborn rust in their chain.
Trudge past potholes and bike tires,
I'm realising just how far along I could be.
Flood up my eyes with caution,
keep me firmly planted,
in these final moments.
Let it tremble in the window well,
just not able to get out,
just not able to.
Those frosted out pictures
recall grinning teeth -
the only call to god
that ever spoke to me.
And I miss that tired, giddy feeling.
I miss our desperate ache to be free,
because it still means everything.
Let it tremble in the window well,
barely able to see out,
barely able to.
How could I just let it all go?
With pink streaks blazing through clear skies,
shooting barrels of light into swollen eyes.
It's bigger than me now
and impossible to conceal.
Let me love.
Let me stay.
Let me heal.
|
||||
2. |
||||
|
It's the way that when I shake,
I shake out of my skin.
It's the heavy pullout mattress,
in the tiny room
below the attic.
I'm blown away by the sky
layered velvet in your eyes
and my fear of fucking this up.
It's the way that if I could
I'd write something better.
It's the gratitude I have for the ache that's slowly getting thinner.
With the skin growing back round my fingers
and your head rested on my shoulder,
if they let us lay here forever,
I would.
These photograph smiles,
they start to look like angels.
And the fire in your eyes -
I've seen it burn out too many times.
And if I say anything
it'll be a spilling of my heart into your hands.
And if I find stability,
it'll be when I realise that this is all just in my head.
And I'll be counting down the seconds
until it's safe to breathe again.
I'm sorry for getting like this.
I'd lay back and give up everything for times like these.
I lay back and saw stars in your eyes.
I saw the pink lace reflect off the airplane glass
side by side.
I saw the stars realign.
You showed up right on time.
And these fragile smiles -
they saw the cracks in my solid stone.
And the fire in yours eyes
filled my lungs with what looked just like home.
|
||||
3. |
We're Gonna Be Okay
03:39
|
|||
|
In an existential moment of faith,
spitting through your broken and crooked teeth,
you coughed up your braces when you turned thirteen.
Capturing moments through a little plastic lense,
you want to make your life look perfect for all the friends
that you don't miss.
But that's a little misguided, don't ya think?
I think it sucks I'll never see you again.
This ship gave me an anchor
and this mast gave me a sail
and this car gave me a tire to swing from.
We speak of salvation like it's something found in God
but it's something I've been looking for in people.
And If I swing out too far,
I'll join the surviving houseboats.
We all have a place in the stars.
So these feet gave me an anchor,
this spine gave me a sail
and this ache gave me the power to sing from.
This time I've got the balance to swing off from,
cus we speak of salvation like it's something found in...
Capturing moments through a little plastic lense,
you want to make your life look perfect for all the friends
that you don't miss.
But that's a little misguided, don't ya think?
I think it sucks I'll never see you again.
Again.
|
||||
4. |
Namelessness
02:31
|
|||
|
They caught the killer -
a darker day than it should have been
for the kids in the skeletal playgrounds,
maybe it was for than they really needed to see.
But at least you know where your tax dollars are going.
The day time felt like roadkill,
it forced the rejection letters a day early
so advertise the institutions
so you can rub it in their faces.
It's okay that right now I feel a little worthless
cus my soul has a way of easing it's own pain.
All I know and all I believe in is always dripping from the strings.
We're all the same.
The world's at war and God comes rambling from the church.
I saw the sun decay, for the bomb display
and love was crying,
desperate from her hearse:
"I'm living for the sound of children laughing.
I'm living for the joy of creative birth."
So as the crowd swells for punks chaos
and the soldiers take a rest to ease their pain,
"End the violence" chimed from protesting masses
cus we're all the same, we're all the same.
We're all the same.
|
||||
5. |
Cherry Cheeks
03:02
|
|||
|
And so far, allowing
to take over me.
A gentle reminder to keep me breathing
some sort of honest energy.
A godess, a puzzle piece,
the tenderest of cherry cheeks
and I've never been sure of anything but
I'm sure you're what I need.
I forget whose air I'm breathing
it felt like falling.
It fed the fire in my lungs.
I hope that you can hear this -
my awkward, vulnerable truth.
I belong to what I am in love with
I belong to you.
On every day that I'm lucky enough,
there's a streak in each golden eye.
Take me over like a late tide,
all the heart of a pink sky.
Thanks for letting me feel alive.
|
||||
6. |
The Days To Come
03:49
|
|||
|
The days to come
are always the hardest,
the most sobering.
Always my weakest,
but I'm living for this afternoon
not thinking of the days to come
A loaded gun,
sitting on my doorstep,
stalling while reality returns,
leaving all of us just a little torn.
If
If we win this war.
So grab the keys and we can leave tonight.
If we had the balls and weren't so terrified of what's in store.
Maybe we can leave all this behind.
I'm coming home,
the tears will dry,
the sun will rise
and all alone, I'm coming home.
So grab the keys and we can leave tonight.
If we had the balls and weren't so terrified of what's in store.
Maybe we can leave all this behind.
These screams could peel paint off the walls,
these girls skirts could watch governments fall.
The sky turns from concrete to road kill,
the kind of push that makes the world start to stand still.
And in the dark, watching innocent fall,
I'm getting sick of doing nothing at all.
Be the crack in the road, in the riot.
No Gods
No Masters and finally silence.
So grab the keys and we can leave tonight.
If we had the balls and weren't so terrified of what's in store.
Maybe we can leave all this behind.
|
||||
7. |
Curtains
03:44
|
|||
|
It's hard to feel safe in the arms of another.
So I'll shut my eyes and lean into the fall.
And I know that these days are ones I'll remember
cus all I can think of is you.
It's hard to stay strong when the sun starts raining.
To form a river that smells just like her perfume.
The seasons change and seep through the curtains.
This house feels warmer with you in the room.
I scratched your name into my vanity plate,
but love is elusive and so is grace.
I thought this was exclusive and that must have changed
for you.
So I will start again
back at my beginnings.
Where sense was auctioned off,
I sold my fingers for this guitar,
Have I learned nothing at all?
|
||||
8. |
The Crisis Theory
03:03
|
|||
|
They sit blinded by the souls that need saving,
cus they drained out far to fast.
As the drive by shootings outside the school gates
paint miserable pictures of the past.
I'm so busy worrying about the future
while the present refuses to last.
But rejoice in the fact that we're alive and awake.
We'll walk out of the fire, holding hands.
They'll sign off on your execution
and they'll bless you when you are dead,
before they head back home to their mistresses,
tied firmly to the foot of their beds.
But if we stay in their faces long enough,
oh we're bound to bust into their heads.
So rejoice in the fact that we're alive and awake
and the fire will not take us again.
|
||||
9. |
Her Roots
03:18
|
|||
|
She was so patient -
thousands of years, planting footprints in the soil.
She said "It's happening.
Don't wait for them to let you start living, Man.
We're in motion."
And her smile lit whole cities,
as the train tore up the tracks.
And she'd just sit there, crying
and holding them up.
She'd sing "Run, run, run, because there's not long now to go,
and growing up means finding peace from nothing.
If we all fall and join the fires down below
we're just as terrified as those decaying."
And sometimes I get scared
that we're just really good at faking it.
Her smile spurred whole mornings,
in the wake of the void of evenings long gone.
And to dance upon her roots,
with eyes up to the sky,
she's waiting patiently for us to grow up and move on.
Forever, time and time again,
we'd sit and listen
for her revolution songs.
Where's the revolution
of our generation
after she's gone?
Oh where's the revolution
after she's done singing
"Run, run, run, because there's not long now to go,
and growing up means finding peace from nothing.
If we all fall and join the fires down below
we're just as terrified as those decaying."
And sometimes I get scared
sometimes I get scared
sometimes I get scared
that we're just really good at faking it.
|
||||
10. |
Everything Can Change
04:09
|
|||
|
Well I guess everybody's sick of the way they are,
fell so deep into submission, I feel dominant.
I start
to force myself not to do anything stupid again.
I learnt that everyone breathes fire
I learnt we all beg for shelter
I witnessed as the world bled with anger
and my eyes popped out of my skull.
And as the world clamoured with fear,
I was empty
I was clear
for a second -
a bottle emptied into a hole.
You said it's all in my head
but the voices are drunk again.
They told me to watch
with an open mind
and know that everything can change if we don't hold on tight.
You said "If you wanted to find piece,
you could have found it on your own a long time ago."
But this bedroom begs to be lived into
it begs to be exactly what I need.
I never once asked for acceptance.
I've begged my whole life for forgiveness
but the world never promised anything
and that was never guaranteed.
You said it's all in my head
but the voices are drunk again.
They told me to watch
with an open mind
and know that everything can change if we don't hold on tight.
As the world goes down swinging,
it fought like a champion.
My chest keeps on burning.
I told myself to stop complaining.
I want to be proud of who I am.
I want to be proud of who I am.
|
||||
Graeme Miller Leeds, UK
home grown 'n' messy
If you like Graeme Miller, you may also like:
Virtual Heaven
by Infinity Crush
Despite its themes of isolation and loneliness, Caroline White's latest batch of folk-pop confessionals is an LP brimming with confidence.
go to album
Dope indie leaning, folk inflicted, pop record, pieced together in 5 bedrooms spanning Brooklyn to Chicago.
go to album
The latest from Shana Cleveland is a Californian fantasia that conjures worlds both real and surreal.
go to album
A vibrant vision of "Central Americana" from the Costa Rica-based artist, blending heartland devotionals with playful Tropicália grooves.
go to album
JESSICA's second album was recorded live solely with vocals and piano.
go to album
Australian singer Jessica tempers ornate baroque folk with stark gothic poetry, infusing sadcore with transcendent sensibilities.
go to album
Sweet and honest bedroom pop made with the sparest of instrumentation and topped with poetically melancholy lyrics.
go to album
