1. |
Infant Hours
02:03
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In the infant hours
Of a cold winter morning
With nowhere to go
With nothing to do
I trade sleep for certainty
I guess
Everybody’s got a piece of advice
That’s better than yours
So much better than yours
It’s about zinc or exercise
They sleep better than you
So much better than you
Mind racing like a snail on crack
Thinking of this
And then thinking of that
I give up on sleep
And coffee my blood
Again
Everybody’s got a happy little life
That’s better than yours
So much better than yours
They ignore the pain and power through the strife
‘Cause they’re better than you
So much better than you
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2. |
Circles In My Heart
04:59
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Sometimes I can’t
Sleep at night
Because the monsters
In my head give me
Such a fright
That’s not true
They’re not monsters
But they’re really in my head
Invited or not
They’re all there and undead
And damn, they keep me awake
Till my zeroes and ones
Get all demagnetized
And my brain gets so angry
At a beautiful sunrise
Cause it’s one more confusing day
One more hazy day
When I’ll be away
From my deepest wants
And my deepest needs
Away from them
And myself indeed
Oh it’s so bright
And I’m so tired
So I stay awake
And wake my stay
And write it out until one day
I can feel comfortable again
And my guts subside to quiet
It’s a lot of hurt
And a lot of tears
A lot of piling on the years
Toward the certain
Inevitable something I must be
And the worried ones
Run circles in my heart
Till it skips a beat and beats a skip
The doctors can’t chart
On the fanciest charting machine
In the whole ER
But that’s not my whole heart
That’s just the electronic part
So I stay awake
And wake my stay
And write it out until one day
I can’t feel comfortable again
And my guts are never quiet
It’s a lot of hurt
And a lot of tears
A lot of piling on the years
Toward some certain
Inevitable something I don’t wanna be
Cause there’s too much time
All stuck in the past
Not enough is left until the last
Breath I will take
To get done what I need
So I stay awake
And wake my stay
And write it out until one day
I die
And my life subsides to quiet
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3. |
A Million More
02:54
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When I was a little boy
I made a million things
They mostly live in boxes now
Bundled tight with strings
When I got big
I went and tried
To make a million more
To write some words and sing some songs
The world could not ignore
But here I grasp and grope around
With the wordings that I write
And nothing quite seems good enough
And everything feels trite
Little me didn't worry
About what was trite or not
He had some fun and had it good
And had a fucking lot
But here I grasp and grope around
With the wordings that I write
And nothing quite seems good enough
And everything feels trite
Yeah here I grasp and grope around
With the wordings that I write
And nothing quite seems good enough
And everything feels trite
Everything feels trite
Everything feels trite
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4. |
Threads Of Light
04:28
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All the happy poems
In the world can’t save me from me
When I’m like this
And all I know is to sing, to write,
Myself to sleep tonight
It’s been one more
Empty day
One more
Fade away
And that's not much
But they can’t take that away
From me
They say the earth is done
And one day that the sun
Will grow then shrink and then explode
And all the creatures will just die
And so will I
The space between here and nowhere
The switch that lightning flipped
Will be unflipped again
No where, no why, no when
Without me
And there I go again
Mistaking myself for the world
I just love the narrow bands of light
That can sustain thriving
Life all the way through to the dawn
I’d be so sad if it were gone
And what’s right now if not just hanging on
By threads
Of light
Of light
Of light
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5. |
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If I could sleep
If I could sleep against all this noise
Then I would sleep
But like a thunder cloud, it's so loud
And I'm in deep
The cars say "beep"
If I could sing
If I could sing and be distinguished
For one salient, sentient sentiment
Then I would sing and have it sung by
Speakers in the town square
Hung up in the town square
If I could draw
If I could draw with my right hand
Half as well as most folks can
I would take up the pen and then
I would draw a breath of free air
I'd draw a breath of free air
If I could fail
If I could fail I'd fail at failure
And frame and put it on display
A triumph of humanity
Hanging next to a Monet
Up in there in that Louvre
It can't possibly improve
If I could build
If I could build I'd build a tower
Stretching toward the sun so tall
And the bunkers with their missile beams
Wouldn't stand a chance at all
That's why they're underground
Subterranites all around
No sunlight to be found
If I could preach
If I could preach to all those people
Sitting in the their pews and rows
I'd talk about the time they'd spent
Manning heavy spades and hoes
In the garden of another man
His Eden, while you toil and plan
He takes and takes and takes
And don't let go!
If I could cry
I'd cry for all the children
And the child I was before
Your culture bath drowned out my soul
Left stillborn on the floor
Through no fucking happenstance
It barely ever had a chance
And soaring to the surface
Now it's screaming out for more
If I could speak
If I could speak in every language
Then I wouldn't have to spend
So much time talking in English
'Bout why all this shit must end
I'd talk in all of them
I'd talk in all of them
If I could sleep I'd rest my weary eyes
From staring at the screen
But for now there's so much horror
That daily goes unseen
And it's left out of all the papers
And the glossy magazines
Left out of conversation
Gently filtered with a screen
Left to bounce about like babies
On some distant trampoline
Out of sight where it can't scare us
Into finding a vaccine.
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6. |
Goodnight
02:04
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Now the day is done
Now my song is sung
Enemies are slung
Over my shoulder
Off to sleep and dreams
Metaphors and themes
Come in rolls and reams
Into my brain
'Cause all my work is done
All my songs are sung
Lingering notes are hung
On memorable hooks (memorable hook)
Everything feels right
And I will sleep, not fight
Against dreams tonight
In a rainbow-skyed landscape
Goodnight
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I'm Not Dead/I'm Not A Robot recommends:
Lost and Found
by The Broken Bicycles
This is so pretty and will get stuck in your head. I helped with edits in the mastering, but received no compensation. Buy it and tell them I sent you. I'm hoping for at least 10-15 high fives as pay.
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The new EP from Steve Gunn pairs the guitarist with Mdou Moctar, Circuit des Yeux, Bing & Ruth, and more for five evocative songs.
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The St Buryan Sessions
by Sarah McQuaid
Recorded live at St Buryan Church, the latest from Sarah McQuaid is a showcase for the simple power of voice & guitar.
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The sixth release from Steve Gunn is a dreamy gift of hazy melodies and ambient introspection.
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