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. |
Lowhum - Hey, Sun!
03:38
|
|||
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. |
Corey Stewart - Faces
03:48
|
|||
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. |
Pete Murphy - Kereru
02:24
|
|||
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
|
If you like Stephen Wordsmith, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp