1. |
||||
|
I've been here before
or I never left
just me and my skin
me and my best guess
how strange to stand
and disconnect
the things the mirror
and mind reflect
don't say you don't
know what you want
I want to leave the memory inside the muscle
and keep that last authority
I've got the answers that i need
I'm gonna get it together
then I'm gonna get out and seriously
maybe another name
the greatest of temptations
I could just let it take the lead
you want to wait for the right words
you want to make it look easy
oh, keep that cowards tongue behind your teeth
as good as blood
as many years
what do my sisters
and brothers fear
to look too long
to leave to soon
to be revealed
a bald buffoon
|
||||
2. |
||||
|
I'm still awake, I'm worried now
I know
That kind of love, declared too loud
I know
You don't surrender, you explode
A dozen rumours disagree
But that's all part of the show
He's coming home
To a name that was saved
By a memory well behaved
To a shallow grave
Where his reputation waits
Don't you deserve it now?
Didn't you earn it then?
You and your bold embrace
Of romance and suspense
And you were stitched a seam
A mile wide and mean
Like the father before
Like the kid in between
Two arms too long
And all that love allows
A coward's compliments
A braggart's endless bows
I get this feeling like save yourself
Get out
But I give up, get dressed, black belt,
Get out
And as I walk, weigh the words in my mouth
Is there a sentence I can stitch
Across the wounds of our house?
|
||||
3. |
Handsome Travellers
04:36
|
|||
|
What's that sound?
A bargain in blood
Such an edge on that blade
Such easy love
The creased palms of thunder
Buckling my knees
Knocking me out
How long has it been, I wonder?
A winter's night
My memory brings
City bus on a bridge
We were handsome and traveling
In an ocean's inversion
Sunset saturated
Bright blue black
Faded golden edge of immersion
We've been here before
Where the hypnotists sleep
The famous frontier
The dead end ten years deep
The relief and the weight
Of the truth
As we finally leave
This shoreline and shell game state
What will you do?
I'll try to be kind
But I'm old and I'm drunk
And a crime is a crime
Does a night's brief redemption
Stand against
The day's bewildering
Momentum?
We've both been undone
By warrants and ransoms
By sawdust and sand
By daughters and sons
By the little black vein
In the riverbed's rust
That weak heart
Serving a body of dust
Serving a body of dust
Those bodies of dust
They don't speak for us
Tell them they don't speak for us
I've said the words until they're strange
And so the words change
Softened and stitched heel to head
Each to the other is fed
|
||||
4. |
||||
|
Where were you? Forgotten
Forever but the blindness at the bottom
A face passing unseen
A place nobody's been
Just forgotton
Where was I? Remembered
A photograph, a face the same as ever
A patchwork of young years
A voice you think you hear
You remember
And now forgiveness
Looks a bitter little business
A passing grace
Excusing an escape
Now we are thieves
Take what you can and leave
An instinct overturning all the world I once believed
You sleep through slaughter
We don't owe you the whispers lost in the running water
No corner of our house
No view to the days rolling in and out
While you sleep, we slaughter
Wake up now, we've finished
Lost in a fire or whatever, there wasn't a witness
Nothing holds us here
Everything's as it appears
We've finished
|
||||
5. |
||||
|
After the dance
In the darkness, the breathing
The animal and its audience
The flight, the applause that evening
I've been away
I've been away too long
Too long for such a humble return
Bringing my hunger to your table, taking the comfort of your songs
I'm so scared and sorry
And a curse doesn't carry the weight
Of a kiss, dead in the distance
My darling, my dearest
My favorite, fearlessly now
No more escapes
Was it going to be
Someone would lie down on me
Lie down like the snow on the air
And be the body of the wind, or the surface of the sea
But now I'm back at feeding furnaces
Hot smoke and sandwiches
Drifting back behind the beginning
Reliving those casual promises
|
||||
6. |
Start Again Starting Now
03:45
|
|||
|
I said a prayer
I said something like a prayer
I said what I would want to hear
I said I don't know
And I won't guess
If it was worth your blood and your breath
But I'm proud
Proud to say
I knew you
But I don't know why it ends this way
I said I don't want my money back
I said I know that you are crooked and queer
I said I know I know I know I know
I said what I would want to hear
Didn't I do alright?
Didn't you see me draw the line?
Didn't I do my time?
That's the song and dance
That's shaking head and hands
As the b-beat lifts and lands
Even at my best
Towering and teethless
Sensitive and sleepless
I'm thinking I can win
Splitting hairs and stretching skin
I'm thinking I can win
I'll start again
Starting now
I'm just as obvious and unknown
I should have said
Darling oh darling
Let's have our way
Let's have it all
|
||||
7. |
Constellations
03:55
|
|||
|
Until last night
A smile for the excitement
Each modern day beloved
Each indistinct enchantment
Until we lost count
Each minute and its glory
Exclaimed and embroidered
Our sentimental story
It's always there
A word away
Ever escalating
You'd have their hearts
The understated stars
Of your constellation
You leave again
Because fair is fair
Because love's no fever fading
No matchstick struck
And spent, go try your luck
And then maybe we'll be waiting
It's love!
It's love!
And it's always waiting
|
||||
8. |
||||
|
What's going to happen?
What's the worst that we could do?
So much unspoken
Doesn't mean we never knew
Leaving was easy
What else would anyone expect?
Within an orphan's empire
What other choice was left?
We would shake, we'd shout
And double all our doubt
The wilderness
Was childish
Just a circus of hunger
Underneath our tongues
Every reunion
A bonfire of better days
Sympathy's sinking me
In a summer famous for its lakes
We're acting older
Embarrassed by our sudden grace
The string of second chances
That came to us so late
From a well with a rope
Drawn up through our throats
Strategies
Enemies
The venoms and vanities
That lived unknown
|
||||
9. |
||||
|
Such small movements
Such a slow alignment
Little clocks cutting days
Little angles that i claim
With the big armed ease
Of a beast in a field
I've called it machinery
But it's less and less an industry
A wild reflex
The black beard of madness
Pulled from the ocean
Less and less a captain
Just eyes on horizons
I've got the wrong idea of depth and distance
I'm no pilgrim, I just want to be someplace different
A comedy
Of opportunities
And changes of scenery
|
||||
10. |
I Meant to Draw Blood
03:39
|
|||
|
Are we the same, are we sister and brother?
Your heartbeat in one hand and mine in the other
Let's have a code, a curve in our fingers
A black and white photo, waist deep in a river
Reveal yourself, reveal yourself to me
Relive whatever led you into this city
What do I look like? I never do know
Do I look like I want to say something that you don't
In the morning i wake up
At the limits of my skin
And I don't know where I've been
But it's going to be different
In a future sketched holding our breath
Against possession, against theft
Are we the same without the memory
Of the day's many debts holding us down on our knees
The same forgetfulness and flattery
The same insistence on apologies
No need for kindness now the code is undone
Let's replace the dedication
Are we alone, each to our own weak rhythm
No hands, no heartbeat, no voice, no vision
I meant to draw blood
But the wound was there waiting for me
Unsolved and impressive
Something I can't leave
So this is all that's left
So this is all I need
|
||||
Galen Hartley Bordeaux, France
If you like Don't Say You Don't Know What You Want, you may also like:
Here in the Pitch
by Jessica Pratt
On her fourth album, Jessica Pratt blends up 60s pop and bossa nova into a spooky mix of soft psychedelia.
go to album
Tell Me What You Miss The Most
by Tasha
The alternative artist's latest album offers songs for reflection.
go to album
Forever Only Idaho
by Harrison Lemke
Big, strummy songs that recall the heart-on-sleeve earnestness and lo-fi glory of early Mountain Goats.
go to album
Pittsburgh artist Merce Lemon makes tender and open-hearted indie pop with echoes of Frankie Cosmos.
go to album
But There's Still The Moon
by Tasha
The Chicago dream-folk singer releases her first single since the release of her debut album.
go to album
Durham, NC singer-songwriter Skylar Gudasz makes intimate Americana delivered with dry wit and stunningly precise vocal acumen.
go to album
So Romantic
by Allie Crow Buckley
L.A.’s Allie Crow Buckley comes to Bandcamp, with moody songs that combine R&B with Laurel Canyon in the ’70s.
go to album
