1. |
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Everything is better than before
Everything is better than before
The sky turned round & blew us into town
The evidence was thicker on the ground
Where the Watsons paled and the Sherlocks failed
We soon found...
That everything was better than before
The wolves in tow were waiting at the door
But somehow they got easier to ignore
And a siren's call under southern skies can drown out...
...a truthful sound so we turned things down
and the answers grew from the ground
so we knelt & we took them in our hands
Everything is better than before
With increasingly relative in store
Among the winning numbers in the draw
Was the priceless haul of a Bogart Bacall & above all...
…a truthful sound so we turned things down
Everything is better than before
I don't remember getting here at all
One moment I was lost then not at all
But there must have been, in a place somewhere in between
…a truthful sound
Everything I better than before - oh so you say
Everything is better than before - I don't see it that way
Everything is better than before - oh so you say
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2. |
From wishing
04:46
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From wishing
From wishing I was somewhere other than where I should be
I've learnt to value poetry over punctuality
And the glaze in my eyes well it's daily applied
from a fog bank that follows me
Been living on the downtime, living on the cheap
And if you try to sell me things I'll say they're not for me
For the luxury wares they can never compare
With the reverie I'm getting free
You're never gonna guess how I got into this mess
You're never gonna guess how I got into this...
Some people have a calling and some others drift along
While either one's as likely to say, hey you've got it wrong
Neither one's satisfied when the answer they find
Is the one they had all along
You're never gonna guess how I got into this mess...
And they will tell you...
Here & now is a present you should buy
But it won't be for lack of trying
So caught up in the wherefores and the whys
That even sometime passes me by
Here & now will be wasted on you all, and I reply...
From wishing I was somewhere other than where I should be
I've learnt to value poetry over punctuality
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3. |
One-time Donny
04:33
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One-time Donny
So he looked on as they boarded the Eisenstein
The coming of age it was finally at hand
The banners were out for their season away in time
All winter they'd worked on their temporal plans
Donny was quiet as they shouted his name.
"Be seeing you ten years ago!"
Don't make a home in this frozen town
Pull out your teeth you're ready
Don't be a slave to the here and now
Don't be a one-time Donny
A one-time Donny, a one-time boy
His father's a younger man & visits him all the time
"If you're trying to embarrass me" he says "You're doing it well."
I won't understand you if I travel a thousand years hence
My father was time-appraised and his father as well."
But Donny's not open to blackmail or shame
No more than he was years ago
Don't make a home in this frozen town…
He's watched them all do their time and year after year return
With stories of days to come and now he's famous, it's true
His father's no longer comes & they wait for him after work
With T-shirts and books to sign. There's often a queue
Donny is quiet, he's thinking it through
Just like he did ten years ago
Don't make a home in this frozen town…
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4. |
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Something this bright should explode
It's four and crawling
A magpie morning
You're waking up in glue
I'm not the cut-glass
I set myself up as
But I know a thing or two
Even though your heart is jumping
Living on the edge of something
is like sleeping in the road
You're a Roman candle fizzing
And every kid is taught that
something this bright will explode
The truth is hollow
And crows that follow
Are your singing telegram
They worship your frown
Their kettle drums drown
All sense of who you are
Even though your heart is jumping…
How I love you, how. How I love you, how…
This city swallowed
Belched and bellowed
you out into the world
Even though your heart is jumping...
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5. |
Budapest hotel
03:50
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Budapest hotel
Match from Berliner hotel
Will burn your books, Reichstags as well
A smile in Idaho Motel
will haunt your days, you know this well
This apocalypse is all around us
This apocalypse has gone and found us
Keep your secrets in a safe place
My face is on fire from what I've been holding back
Match from Westminster hotel
Can light a fuse, bonfires as well
A night in Baton Rouge motel
will cost you dear in kiss and tell
This apocalypse is all around us...
Affairs in Budapest hotels
Will ruin your life, your faith as well.
This apocalypse is all around us...
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6. |
Do it yourself
04:20
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Do it yourself
I died of boredom and came back as me
Stuck in a common sense corner's no way to be
If you're living for moderation
And you're stumbling on a change
Have no faith in your hesitation
And believe me when I say
you can't afford to wait...
Do it yourself…
Looking and checking and watching it all go by
Wishing you're hanging with people you so admire
Contemplating your latest story
Like a re-run in your head
Overstating your greatest glory
From your bedsit in the slums
Don't wait until it comes...
Do it yourself...
I died of boredom and came back as me…
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7. |
Paper man
03:43
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Paper man
When all this was new to me and your love was news to me too
I creased up, I folded, I took on the imprint of you
Did not predict a time I would be whiter than snow
Oh, don't wanna be a…
Paper man, drawn in the margins of a bigger plan
A little slip of paper man
Crossed out corrected, does the best he can.
You leaned in and told me that 180 Grammes you'd allow
I said, forget the weight of me, look at the state of me now
Pumped up on vitamins, white noise and calcium too
You don't want a...
Paper man, drawn in the margins of a bigger plan
A little slip of paper man
Crossed out corrected, does the best he can.
What does it mean to count on yourself and wait for the day to come?
The day's too long...
Paper man, drawn in the margins of a bigger plan
A little slip of paper man
Crossed out corrected, does the best he can
Don't wanna be a paper man
drawn in the margins of a bigger plan
A little slip of paper man
Footnote to history, does the best he can
I felt the rain but I thinned out to filter it through.
Barton Hartshorn - Lead & backing vocals, acoustic & electric guitar, tambourine
Vincent Guibert - Drums, bass guitar, baby grand & Rhodes pianos, Hammond B3 organ, backing vocals
Karim Benaziza - Backing vocals
David Lewis - Trumpet & flugel horn
Olivier Caron – Trombone
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8. |
Wreckinghouse
04:47
|
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Wreckinghouse
Wrecking the house, pulling it down
Knowing that all the years of kindness lie at your feet
How does it feel?
To pull out the rug, to call out time
To put a stamp upon that envelope and send it
With no address
But in time you will recognise your own voice
And your kids will come stay the month of June
Though you never want to hurt her
No matter
Your heart is cowering in the corner
You built a house
From a scene in a Russian play
Move along, there is nothing more to say
Keeping it in, staying so calm
You no longer recognise a kind word when it hits you
You brush it off
Week days are free, dinner for one
Tripping on all the years of kindness under your feet
Like rubble
And in time you're surprised that you forgive her
But the kids are better off without the truth
Though you never want to hurt her...
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9. |
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Looking back for the best
I was born in a lightning age
Curled my fist in a cartoon rage
Had to sing what I could not say
Learnt to kiss from a radio play
Careless me I was moving forwards
and looking back for the best
What did I miss? I can only guess...
Made a pledge on the longest day
My mistakes would be custom made
Saw you undress through a window pane
When you called me I turned away
Careless me I was moving forwards
Never taking was I was offered
Careless me I was moving forwards
and looking back for the best
What did I miss?
I can only guess at what I missed
Don't follow me
Don't follow my lead, no
Careless me I was moving forwards
through the days that were growing shorter
Careless me I was moving forwards
Never taking was I was offered
Careless me I was moving forwards
and looking back for the best
What did I miss?
I can only guess at what I missed
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10. |
Seven sisters
06:00
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Seven sisters
A man who has himself a trade can leave his tools behind
But while my name is Billy Meier by the stars I'm defined
Oh my...
Seven sisters, call me a liar
I don't exist outside their light
Oh my seven sisters
Throw me a line
I don’t remember what is right
What is right?
The friends I had I lost in space
Regrets I've had a few
Some silver foil and trash can lids
My wife can join the queue
with my...
Seven sisters, call me a liar…
A man who calls himself a liar
Can never be believed
But I maintain my stories truth
Now where does that leave me?
With my...
Seven sisters, call me a liar…
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