1. |
God Bless These Days
02:06
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And in that bar there was a glass
That touched her lips when I saw her last
Big bubble letters in the clouds spell out
The words I’d say if I knew her now
On a street where there’s always construction
I’ve been carving nothing out of something
This is how it feels beneath the surface of the river
As the rain comes down
As the depths get deeper
A liquid veil, The Beatles and The Stones
Life is long when you’re living on your own
Coordinates directing to the afterglow
Of a tiki bar where we’re dancing slow
Then the heat of the moment is interrupted
‘Cuz we like carving nothing out of something
Canopy of tears against the autumn city skyline
God bless these days
Forgive these long nights
On a boulevard the houses are in love
A broken home finds the piece he’s dreaming of
Everything in favor of a new ideal
In the interest of saying how we feel
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2. |
Makeover Scene
02:37
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Anywhere there’s a chance of rain
Look and you’ll find me
Wider distances have been traversed
Through black-and-white TV
Every look was a showdown
Every talk was a preliminary hearing
But one day we will be set free
When we film our makeover scene
Freefalling from an all-time high
Carried along by the wind
Doing a modern kind of conga line
Wasted again
Now that’s a complicated issue
That’s a drug they really ought to discontinue
All my worst fears all came true
And it didn’t change a thing
I was getting used to having something to fight about
When I went back to those old hiding places all I found
Was what looked to you like a mystery
It looked to me like doubt
Now all the years that we spent out here
What do they mean?
Now the cocoon I always come home to
Feels distant to me
I think the needle’s well-threaded
I think the light is where we want it for the moment
All the rest we’ll figure out
When we film our makeover scene
One day we will be reborn
When they film our makeover scene
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3. |
Ordinary Silence
03:10
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You’ve been living in a t-shirt gun
Kept in storage in a stadium
All the things you used to do for fun
Stress you out now
Got you burnt out
No relation but you share a name
Muscle memory and phantom pain
Marking time by what gets stripped away
I thought I warned you
But you were born into it
On a boardwalk
The student pleads his case
Bitemarks in his pencil
The wind flipping the page
Ordinary silence
Between the crash of waves
Is it worth it to you, baby?
Is it worth it to you, baby?
So you change the color of your hair
So you change the way you frame the last ten years
Through a crack in the doorway
See the shape of the coming day
It’s a glowing underline
It’s just a sliver of the sky
Ammunition for a mind always at war
Strain to read the subtext
Wrecked against the roar
Ordinary silence
The wind slamming the door
And if you think that less is more
Brace yourself for what’s in store
All along the boardwalk
The student clears his name
Bitemarks in his forearm
The wind against his face
Ordinary silence
Between the crash of waves
Let me prove it to you, baby
Let me prove it to you, baby
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4. |
Butterfly Strokes Home
02:36
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The coming of ages of the songs we loved
The unread pages staring back at us
The smiling faces on the crosstown bus
With no one at the wheel
All the questions that we ask of God
Endless depression or a passing fog
She loves me now, she loves me not
Only you know what is real
Let me tell you how I feel
Above the fruited plain
It felt so good to get so drunk
It was one joke but the name stuck
To come home we swam the butterfly stroke
I miss being your partner and the butt of your joke
Hands held where we can see them
Same chimney, new smoke and the same gray sky
I’m holding out hope but I can’t say why
There’s something cleansing in the scorched earth style
No backup if we fail
I couldn’t give it to you straight, I couldn’t pretend
When you got nothing to lose you got nothing to lend
Still I never thought I’d never see you again
You get lucky now and then
You get lost along the way
At first I heard you everywhere
Then I could only hear you when you were really there
Then I couldn’t hear you at all
I miss being your shadow and the fly on your wall
The bare minimum keeps getting barer
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5. |
Critic Meets Artist
02:33
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To anyone who thinks the best feeling in life
Is a blank page staring at your face
You’re gonna be replaced
And it won’t take long
‘Til you’re crumpled up and gone
You were once the king of the clampdown
The old guard had you in its claws
Confront you with your flaws
Make you apologize
For buying all their lies
Crashing the chart
With a cracked-open heart
Critic meets artist and the fandom falls apart
Death never did us any better
It brought us together
An inauspicious kinship from the start
It’s just as well, any narrative I’d sell
Would serve to tell the same sad story of the road
We all know where it goes
I couldn’t bear to watch
While you tempted fate and God
I live it now like I saw it in a past life
In a sense sometimes I feel just like I did
The dream we had as kids
Better left unbought than sold
What a drag it is getting old
Crashing the chart
With a cracked-open heart
Critic meets artist and the fandom falls apart
Death never did us any better
It brought us together
I love you baby just the way you are
Crash, crash, crashing the chart
With a cracked-open heart
Collapsing stars we loved them from afar
Death never did us any better
It brought us together
An inauspicious kinship from the start
Crash, crash, crash, crash, crashing the chart
With a cracked-open heart
Crash, crash, crash, crash, crashing the chart
Crashing the chart
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6. |
Melody Trail
02:46
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Thought I could prove the world wrong
By unanimous decision
In the rooms that people live in
I wanted to sing my song
From the groom to the bridesmaid
Like a leaf toward the street
Like a dog looking to sleep
Circle circle settle down
See the king and I on a midnight drive in a pimped out popemobile
You live and die in between the lines when you let go of the wheel
I’m trying to get my life back
Moving on the right track
Making it real
Thought I could beat the bad odds
Hadn’t seen you in a long time
Thought about you all night
Took the day off
Though our best effort couldn’t save us
It hurts to admit it
It worked until it didn’t
I just miss you so much
I’m negative degrees of separation from the man I used to be
But if I could just stay here in the damage a little longer I think that I could fix this leak
I’m still trying to get my life back
Moving on the right track
Trying to break free
On the autobahn—I hate this band!
I’m driving in an unmarked van
The way out is clear
All of this to say I save the things you throw away
I got it all right here
At a decent place for a fix up rate on the way to melody trail
Where I was looking for a job and then I found a job… and you’ll never guess what happened next
I got more than I asked for but the story won’t end there
Against my better judgment
Keep the good times coming
Trudging along
And I’m trying to get my life back
Riding on the right track
Time to move on
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7. |
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Dead as the dogs from the films we loved as children
Cut from the cloth that they use to clean equipment
Hanging my own photo in the punk rock hall of fame
My happiness revolves around these three specific women
I’ve been sleeping on the job taking daydreams by commission
It’s a thankless way of buying back my name
So what’s harder than following a breakthrough?
Living in the rubble of the dreams that never came true
You heard that one before
I don’t wanna be a cowboy anymore
Watching newly unearthed footage from the film after it’s shelved
In an afterlife for small change at the bottom of the well
All in all at least an honest way to go
For two lovers in the garden, thought it’d be a simple premise
Now the pain I felt has softened into something like forgiveness
It’s a little bit like pity so I try not to let it show
Is this the same heart that you’re asking me to speak from?
Alone on the range, I’m tired of all this freedom
Don’t know what I’d use it for
I don’t wanna be a cowboy…
Is this the same heart you’re asking me to sing from?
Close my tab at the bar, lock my keys inside the kingdom
Thought it over now I’m sure
I don’t want to be a cowboy anymore
Happy go lucky gone
Goodbye to feeling better
I’m an old country song
Blue right down to the letter
Happy flew into the window
Lucky died at the door
I don’t wanna be a cowboy anymore
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8. |
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Parting the sea
Was unimportant to me
When I had my eye
On parting the sky
The tender economics of a miracle
Leaving some believers on the outs
While the band plays “Twist & Shout”
How can you trust anyone
Who’s not a little bit ashamed of everything they’ve made
All this waiting makes me restless
I want it now
Electric guitars
Abandoned in cars
I was just along for the ride
Singing songs to the sky
Now all that I can offer is the memory
And there’s a notebook with her name
At a lost and found in Spain
How do I keep moving
When I wrote these words to wake
The girl who slept in late
All this dreaming makes me restless
Pack your bags, you’re moving on
There’s no home to return to
That time in your life is gone
Underrated, on the run
There’s no time left to burn through
That part of your life is done
Take the big ideas and the minor ones
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9. |
Look Back Better
02:56
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This is the last song I’ll sing from the balcony
Projecting my voice so the neighbors can hear
Trying to explain what their friendship has meant to me
Sung from the heart though it sounds insincere
Do what you love for a living and you’ll never love a day in your life
I’ve been applying for the position of a gray streak of cloud in your sky
Look back better now
I mean now…
Inspiration arrived in an instant
I felt brave and awake after weeks on the job
But the audience agreed they all hit their limit
And left me alone once again with my thoughts
And your father had the honor of walking you down the aisle hand-in-hand
There was gospel at the Apollo
I was playing drums in the band
Look back better now
In the whiplash
In the flash flood
From the groundswell
Through the underbrush
Floating in the dead air somewhere between drums and space
We’ll get going once you get here at the church of the commonplace
Look back better now
Let your beautiful memory spill out
Look back better now
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10. |
Hard Act
02:28
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On the dead end streets of the world tonight
Something’s shining from the road
The god with the serpent head riding in the sidecar
Watching you scrape the snow
I’d feel better if we take things slow
You’ll be a hard act to follow when you have to go
What’s the objective of all this action?
I guess it just seemed like something to do
Stress-induced illnesses, I don’t think there’s a pill for this
Just try to rest and you’ll improve
All this progress and nothing new
You’ll be a hard act to follow when our time is through
And I don’t mind being alone
I just liked it better knowing you were on the other end of the phone
When I am drunk I can see the future
But I cannot see the past
I’m sick of getting well, feeling tired of getting up
Living everyday like my last
I don’t have an answer but I’m sure glad you asked
It’s just a hard act to follow
You’ll be a hard act to follow in the aftermath
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