We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Irreloquent

by Stephen Wordsmith

/
  • Streaming + Download

     

1.
I spend so long staring out of my window I'm starting to think it's not staring back It's mind on things more important than I And the train of its thought still firm on its track On its track On its track On its track CHORUS And it's doing a far better job than I Just holding together Holding together Keeping itself in a frame of mind To hold it together Hold it together I spend so long staring out of my window Pretending the foreground just doesn't exist And the longer I stare in this great act of nothing The longer the problems become on my list On my list On my list On my list CHORUS I spend so long staring at my window I've lost sight that there's another side I've made so much effort to not be transparent I set myself up to continue to live a lie Live a lie Live a lie Live a lie CHORUS x 4
2.
Hey, sun, it's been a day or two I've missed your shining countenance It's good to see you out and on the move Let's hang out while you're passing by I know you've got some place to be Don't mind me, friend, you've got nothing to prove CHORUS But before you see yourself out Do you think it might be wrong If I captured you and caught you in a song? x 2 Hey daffodil, what's happening? You're bright any early, and I mean Both compliments in quite the realest sense The invite said September, friend But you don't care, your colours wending All too fleetingly along my fence CHORUS BRIDGE So you'll be there, just as you were When wintry winds begin to stir And whisper in their icy blast That nothing good can ever last Hey butterfly, I see you're out In just your lightest winter coat It brings out your - or something else's - eyes For just one moment as it stands I'll cancel all my future plans To simply watch life live before it dies CHORUS
3.
The shed is my home in the rain of the night A bench for sitting, a candle for light A time to reflect: there's no sound as sweet As the patter when water and shingle meet The world has turned cold, but the wick glows warm The ashes of hash billow out in a swarm And a coffer of coffee compels time to slow A burgundy glass, the wisdom to flow The perfume of concrete and asphalt soaks dry The vaporous tears I once opted to cry The trees become darker and saturate hues As whispered sweet nothings waft in from my muse I sit in the sanctum, and drink in the joys Of all upon earth murmuring its white noise A mind to meander, a pencil to write The shed is my home in the rain of the night In the rain of the night
4.
Dust in the wineglass Build a little galaxy Brew a small infinity inside your Cabernet Rice in the stained glass Colour of a field in flood Shatter in mosaic blood to pave the farmer's way CHORUS Chaos weave your magic fine Paint by chance and not design Work your art when falling stars align Blue jay in a sky form Ride on as the Pharaoh's daughter Clouds beneath your wheels and water drinking in the light Pollen in a rainstorm Swish and billow, swirl and eddy Brush and palette at the ready, paint a drunken starry night CHORUS Ghost of a sipped espresso Grounds in earth's ceramic showing Gather in a river flowing to a forest lake Early evening shadow Rule a perfect line of shading Hip to shoulder bifurcating walls of stone opaque CHORUS BRIDGE And peering from the hinges Scuffed and smudged with peeling paint Of the cupboard in your kitchen Is the vision of a saint CHORUS x 2
5.
The man in red is not the sort for acting without thinking However fast you're going friend, he must insist you pause And it is of no importance just how many minutes late you are No matter what you think you're worth, you've got no worthy cause CHORUS And when I meet the man in red He issues me a challenge To take these seconds, take them slow To take these seconds, take them slow And for an eyelid's single blink I cease to do and start to think Until another guy appears And says OK It's time to go The man in red's a faithful friend although I rarely want him He corners me on corners, gently stops me in my path Pulls me away from the present, pulls the curtain from infinity He doesn't even bat an eyelid as he suffers from my wrath CHORUS BRIDGE I stand upon the sidewalk As the seconds start to add I think a little further On each thought I've ever had Then I sit upon the sidewalk As the minutes start to add And I think a little further On each thought I've ever had Now I'm lying on the sidewalk As the hours start to add And I'm still thinking further On each thought I've ever had CHORUS x2 It's time to go What are you still doing here? Move it already, would you? The man in red is not the sort to stay where he's not wanted He'll give you all the time you need and not one moment more He spends his time with you in only stillness and in silence And holds the door to all that's next and all that went before
6.
She's drop dead gorgeous, literally And she reads over my shoulder But she gets a bit frustrated when I turn the page too soon Her gaze is now all transparent She's still got that little smoulder And a beauty that could make the most intrepid fellow swoon And she spends her afterlife among the shelves, all getting lost in Dostoyevsky, Dahl and Dickinson, and Asimov and Austen CHORUS She's the spirit of the library, where minds together mingle She whispers 'choose me something I might find a little chewy' My hand falls on the spine, I feel my own is all a-tingle And every time I think of her, my eyes start getting Dewey She was once a bright-eyed undergrad Reading history at Oxford Pulling pints and pulling boys and pulling multiple all-nighters Undergraduate at 20 She walked the stage at 21 But at 22 she had a brush with viral meningitis Now her body lies at rest, at Highgate cemetery interred While her spectre is inspecting masterworks and hanging on each word CHORUS She was a minstrel, a late night arrest My feels I fear are becoming transparent She's late with no late fees, a well-bred undead Unliving and unusually well-read CHORUS
7.
A rabble rousing infinitely varied in its swarm A tapestry familiar wove in unfamiliar form An everyday occurrence far beyond my wildest dreams A mystery unveiled to be no more than what it seems CHORUS A sea of different faces I have never seen before A million different years in the making, or yet more A gallery of happenstance, an accident sublime The last leaf on the highest branch of trees as old as time A suit cut by the past to greet tomorrow as it beckoned Biographies with covers read and put back in a second CHORUS x2 And off they flow like rivers braiding through the city streets A horde of chance encounters never once again to meet Each one wearing the face a host of histories contrives To go their separate ways and live a thousand different lives CHORUS x 2
8.
One step forward, and one leap backwards With no boots upon my feet With no feet upon my legs And no legs to middle meet Though the road rise up beneath me And whatever drags me on Is a force I'll never comprehend Until my days are gone I greet each inch of progress With the same old somersault The precision of a gymnast And no ownership of fault Yes, it's all a giddy spectacle For those who stand and mock This old tumbler giving polish To the Sisyphean rock CHORUS I'm the slinky on the escalator Ever on the run My eternal torment is Your everlasting fun x2 Highly strung, and all wound up Not knowing up from down and still I will fight the uphill battle But never going up that hill Ever silent, ever slinking Going silver 'fore my time Face the same old situations With the rhythm of a rhyme CHORUS x 2 BRIDGE I'm a rainbow without colour I'm a circle shy one half I'm as bent as politicians And as empty as your laugh I'm a stoneless, boneless skeleton I'm a feckless, reckless fool And I turn in perfect unison With one old world so cruel CHORUS x 2
9.
When all the fallout settles leaving nothing left to fail The smallest voice cries out its lungs in little more than silence To deal my mind the swiftest blow and rouse me from paralysis And sing out like a dove among the lowly hum of violence It says to me emphatic It's all melodramatic And just one act could strip this darkest magic It all seems too much A single word or touch might Help me find the comic in the tragic It comes as just one thing that's right in everything that isn't A life ring in the centre of the ocean's rising tide The razor edge of light that slips between the bars of prison The sugar crystal in my morning cup of cyanide A simple act of love To heal the hurt I have inside
10.
Kereru crash-landing in the monkey apple tree Kereru crash-landing in the monkey apple tree Off its tiny face on guava that was in the sun too long Kereru crash-landing in the monkey apple tree Kereru making artwork with its body as the brush Kereru making artwork with its body as the brush Turn the window of my living room into a Turin shroud Kereru making artwork with its body as the brush Kereru day-drinking til its flying like a stone Kereru day-drinking til its flying like a stone Plating up itself for predators beneath the Puriri Kereru day-drinking til its flying like a stone Kereru by the armful at the sanctuary door Kereru by the armful at the sanctuary door All the neighbourhood arriving with a hundred birds or more Kereru by the armful at the sanctuary door Kereru sleep it off in the common Lilly-Pilly Kereru sleep it off in the common Lilly-Pilly Maybe next time your imbibing won't be quite so willy-nilly Kereru sleep it off in the common Lilly-Pilly
11.
We spend today committing tomorrow's atrocities Automatic and unconscious in our trivialities Bringing shame and disappointment to each little face at once Of the children of the children of our great-grandchildren's sons And though we don't have platforms Stand on soapboxes well-funded By the suits to reaffirm and bless the sins of many hundreds We all have shows to broadcast In this brave new century And if I offend the listeners, they can always cancel me Cancel me For all the creatures I abandon to their fate Only serving to be severed and then served upon a plate Cancel me For the carbon and danger I've bestowed As I ride my stallion glass and deadly metal on the road Cancel me For all the clothing, both the plain and branded name As I cover up my body in my judgment and my shame Cancel me For all the children I bring new unto the earth As I leave in the hands of fate all those abandoned at their birth We spend today committing tomorrow's atrocities Automatic and unconscious in our trivialities Bringing shame and disappointment to each little face at once Of the children of the children of our great-grandchildren's sons But it's no call to forgiveness for the fiends of history Every segregator, slaver, genocidal rogue, all three Let us toss them in the lake and tear their volumes from the shelves Just make sure we leave enough room in the chasm for ourselves Cancel me x 5
12.
CHORUS Happy little accident x 4 I'd like to get myself into a happy little accident And bend the fender, skin the skin, but not beyond repair To lay a little kiss upon a lamppost by the roadside Let every last nerve effervesce but walking off with care No need to take you down with me, this isn't all about you No need to stop and offer help, it's just my normal wreck I'm happy where I am with all things bent and nothing broken I'm here to risk a sweet escape and not to risk my neck CHORUS I'd like to get myself into a happy little accident And give myself the license to pick up the phone and say I cannot make it in, the burden that I bear will have to fall Upon the weary shoulders of another fool today No need to tear me from my bed and throw myself in prison Unlock my iron maiden with a key stamped in my name I'm happy where I am with all things wounded but my spirit I'll wear the sling if that means I won't have to wear the blame CHORUS I'd like to get myself into a happy little accident A beautiful collision met with nothing but a smile A happy opportunity to bring me to a crashing halt To stave away the daily urge to go the extra mile CHORUS
13.
CHORUS Did anyone capture the moment Or did we all try to forget When the future stopped being a promise And started becoming a threat Did anyone switch on the lanterns To cast it all in a new light The road ahead fading in shadow The past looking ever more bright PRECHORUS They say it gets better It better do soon I hate the new lessons I learn For as we grow older The time I've been killing Is killing me now in return CHORUS Can anyone pinpoint the hour We crossed the horizon of youth Stopped ever on climbing to beauty Descended to horrible truth PRECHORUS CHORUS We never once changed our direction We marched in a line to the grave But we stopped looking forward to the journey And hated the path that we'd pave PRECHORUS CHORUS
14.
It's the greatest and the smallest question anyone could ask When we're trying to find our way through something stronger than we know They look you in the eye but what you hide behind the mask Is the face that more than simply law's forbidding you to show CHORUS And it's hard to make your next move when the world's not paid to care It's not your fault You're not the problem We're not needed anywhere There's answers, I don't have them I'm simply here to say Hey Are you OK? Now locked down all alone we shout into the void together You'll read each word they're saying and not hear a single voice When everyone seems sheltered from the storm you only weather Don't be afraid to be afraid when it's the bravest choice BRIDGE The whole wide world that should be yours Is chained and locked behind these doors For all its iron and fastenings The key's the very simplest thing CHORUS It's the greatest and the smallest question anyone could ask
15.
CHORUS You are enough Yes, you, you're enough You there listening to me You are enough I don't know what it is In a world so big That brought you to my little song But if you ever thought That you weren't good enough Then I'm here to tell you You were wrong You are enough You're enough CHORUS I don't know if you're here By design or chance In the morning or the still of night But if you ever thought Maybe all that I am Is all that I'm meant to be You were right You are enough You're enough CHORUS You who dared to push play You're enough You who made it this far You're enough x2 I don't know if you're here To escape from your woes Or simply to escape into art But if you've never thought You deserved only love Then hear this Now's the time to start You are enough You're enough
16.
A thousand starfish on the beach A thousand souls to save She took the nearest in her reach And tossed it to the waves A thousand starfish on the beach A thousand in the sun Soon the first was joined at sea By just another one A thousand starfish on the beach A thousand lives to lose Every minute, cast away The next one she would choose Until she heard the footsteps fall Of one old stranger, plain and tall Who cried 'you cannot save them all What difference can you make?' She said, as one more star she hurled 'Why, all the difference in the world To this one' and a smile curled With that last word that she spake A thousand starfish on the beach All still in salty clime She brought them to a safer place One starfish at a time And so it is with us In each encounter as they come What may not mean a thing to most Means everything to some So take the time to reach out But a single helping hand Who knows who you may one day save From dying in the sand?
17.
This is the single step That starts a journey of a thousand miles Or starts of well then tumbles off a cliff This is the opening line Of the next novel unputdownable Or paper wasted in a bundle stiff CHORUS Whatever fate is held in store The only thing that matters more In life In love In art This is a start This is the cry that rings out From the first breath of a newborn Who might grow to save or overthrow the earth This is the lonely minute That comes marching after midnight As it challenges the day to show its worth CHORUS And everything that is began from nothing Although you couldn't know it at the time There's something that began the transformation To start the birth of reason in the rhyme CHORUS
18.
I've been spending so long staring out of my window I'm starting to think that it's not staring back It's mind is on things more important than I And the train of its thought is still firm on its track CHORUS And it's doing a far better job than I Just holding together Holding together Keeping itself in a frame of mind To hold it together Hold it together I've been spending so long staring out of my window I'm losing sight of what's on the other side I made so much effort to not be transparent I set myself up to keep living a lie CHORUS I've been spending so long staring out of my window Pretending the foreground just doesn't exist And the longer I stare in this great act of nothing The longer the problems become on my list CHORUS Hold it together x4
19.
Step forth, o soul magnificent Step forth into the light You steal away in shadow You hide away in fright You greet the warmth of morning With your coldest robe of night Step forth, o soul magnificent Step forth into the light Step forth, o soul magnificent And let your beauty shine Hid deep behind the ramparts Of the realm of shade and line Break down the blackened curtain And set free your grand design Step forth, o soul magnificent And let your beauty shine Step forth, o soul magnificent To feed the naked eyes Cast now your shameful cowl aside Strip bare your soft disguise And live for this one moment Before the moment dies Step forth, o soul magnificent To feed the naked eyes Step forth, o soul magnificent Your fairest sun to rise

about

Once more unto the breach, dear listeners!

Irreloquent is Stephen's seventh and most personal album yet - a true journey from start to finish, beginning and ending with the motifs of staring out the window, and exploring both the world outside and the wider world within. See the universe in a dusty wineglass. Smell the petrichor on the sanctum's shingle roof. Meet the man in red and face his challenge. Hear the thud of the bird that flies like a stone. Taste the sugar crystal in the cup of cyanide*, and save a thousand lives from dying in the sand, before returning to the same words that you started with, pregnant with an entirely different meaning.

For the first time, the album has been mastered by Mt. Melodie, bringing together a range of genres every bit as diverse as the lyrics within and the artists behind them - the threads of fate bringing together New Zealand, Australia, The US, Canada, the UK, Germany, Norway, Finland and Bulgaria.

*Figuratively speaking. Please.

credits

released September 22, 2022

All lyrics by Stephen Wort
Mastered by Thomas Meidell
Vocals, composition and production by various artists - see individual tracks for details.

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Stephen Wordsmith Wellington, New Zealand

contact / help

Contact Stephen Wordsmith

Streaming and
Download help

Report this album or account

If you like Stephen Wordsmith, you may also like: