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1. |
Ecstasy
02:45
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I ran so fast I barely stayed in my shoes
With nothing so urgent and no pressing news
The dogs yapped, the wind tugged at my hair
Against the odds I’d get this kite in the air
An upward draft and I’m in ecstasy
The fact of flight and I’m in ecstasy.
Our souls alone met and then were two
My heart was the very least I could give to you
A shaft, a gear, a purring synchromesh
I smell your sweat, you clutch at my flesh
Another thrust and I’m in ecstasy
I come inside and I’m in ecstasy
And now they’re pumping in the medicine
It slows me down, I don’t think I can win
The bustle outside goes on and on and on
See my dust, suckers, I’m long gone
I’m flying now and I’m in ecstasy
I fade from view and I’m in ecstasy
My love for you is my ecstasy
My love remains, it is my ecstasy
My love for you is my ecstasy
My love remains, it is my ecstasy.
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2. |
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On the morning of the revolution
I looked into your eyes
As chaos raged around
It’s you and and me against the world now
You and me,
dancing in the street
Standing our ground.
We ranged across the urban wasteland
as the sun begins to rise
and nothing made a sound
you and me in burning the desert
you and me,
no fear of defeat
with fire in our souls
Half a world away from the revolution
Lying under alien skies
with wonder all around
I look at you and sleep contented
Still you and me
unbowed and complete
in each other’s arms
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3. |
A Good Time
04:52
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Her image lasts longer than the scar of a good time
or a cut, deep in the flesh of the face at the front line.
She takes what you give, she sucks off your guilt
‘til the flowers of expectation dry out and wilt.
I went to her room and we talked about my breakdown.
I was Hegel, I was Kant, but she saw a clown.
La commedia è finita, I started to cry.
She took me in her arms and I stopped asking why.
I fell in my corner and I tried to resist
my small time emotion, her slap on the wrist.
I was Rimbaud’s rude poetry to a desperate Verlaine
‘til the stroke of her rebuke cracked the whip again.
“Regret nothing you silly boy,” she said with a grin,
“You’re a Samuel Spode, not a sexual Solzhenitsyn.”
I strutted like a cock from her boudoir to the hall,
pecking up my clothes, half blinded like St. Paul.
There on the floor were the remains of my last meal
and a shredded book of poems she had tried to conceal.
The birds clucked and fussed as she saw me to the door.
Her final act of cruelty, a kiss, was the last straw.
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4. |
Letters to Daniel
03:21
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You think that you know me
I think you’ll always be mine
Forever and ever
One body, one mind
But Daniel sometimes
I can feel it slip away
It’s clouding my judgement
And why I can’t say
I guess I’m losing trusting you
I guess I’m losing trust in you
I guess I’m losing trust. In you
You sit at my table
And you drink my wine
Your pour your heart out
It spills into mine
But Daniel sometimes
I can feel it seep away
It’s clouding my judgement
And why I can’t say
I guess I’m losing trusting you
I guess I’m losing trust in you
I guess I’m losing trust. In you
My letters to Daniel
Are kept in a box
The evidence is that I did
not expect a response
I came round at midnight
I saw the light through your door
Then I heard the laughter
I couldn’t take anymore
Alone in the darkness
a flash of silver and pain
I run from the garden
You betray me again
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5. |
Give Away
03:53
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He has spent a lifetime yearning
running from the truth he’s always known
standing in her kitchen waiting
for the ringing of the telephone
Believing that tomorrow’s just
as cruel as every other yesterday
His love for her was another of
the things she would gladly give away
She was very good at torching
bridges that were built to bring her home
standing in the ashes weeping
for a life spent mostly on her own
not feeling that another’s trust
was worth the price that she was asked to pay
His love for her was another of
the things she would gladly give away
In a dream she comes to him
and slowly puts her hand upon his thigh
telling him she loves him madly
and without his love she would rather die
But in the morning there’s still dust
on the side of their bed where she would lay
His love for her was another of
the things she would finally give away
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6. |
Mention The Dawn
01:56
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Well I was sitting on a rooftop
with this good friend of mine
We were smoking something strong
which made our words all rhyme
And we spoke of the state of the land
And why birds nest in the sand
Of our lawn
You always mention that lawn.
You always mention that lawn.
So I was playing funky guitar
with some old man I knew
And when he snapped a string
I was thinking of you.
We spoke of the state of the land
And why young couples hold hands
Until dawn
You always mention the dawn
You always mention the dawn.
Now we sat up all night thinking
of the meaning of love
I love you and you love me
but that’s not enough
So we spoke of the state of the land
and why suicides must be planned
and you yawned.
I’ll always remember that yawn.
God, I remember that yawn.
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7. |
Grahamstown Fever
02:17
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I’ve got to get back to this crazy town
To see a good friend of mine
To talk of old times, and start some new
And take it to the end of the line.
Oh Grahamstown fever
Comes creeping up on you
Your want to start something new but
you can’t leave here.
I found you sitting in that same sleazy bar
You smiled and looked up at me
We picked it all up where we left off last
And for the rest of the weekend, we had a blast
Oh Grahamstown fever
Comes creeping up on you
Your want to start something new but
you can’t leave here.
Oh Grahamstown fever
Comes creeping up on you
Your want to start something new but
you can’t leave here.
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8. |
Boom & Bust
03:25
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There was a time I was young and thin
I had more hair and a cocky grin
Me and my mates would drive around the town
Something was up if there was nothing going down
Our glory days, the cut, the thrust
I’d dust my broom through boom and bust
Jim drives an Uber, a software CEO
Me? Who knows? I’m always on the go
Some people spend their lives tethered to the ground
And others tumble down from the hills they’ve climbed
Me, I don’t know, as long as I’m bound
someplace else, well, I don’t mind
Someone passes, and whispers in your ear
It’s a ship of fools, there’ll be one less next year
the sirens wail, a sailor cries
on an ocean becalmed everyone dies
Live your life like you sail into the sun
Live it hard like there’s more work to be done
Who cares how, what will be will be
If it slips away, hold on to me.
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9. |
The Disease
03:18
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I woke up early this morning
with a noose around my head.
I was dead-weight on my pillow,
I could not get out of bed.
Outside the wind tore into the trees;
this must be some disease.
I’ve worked hard all my life,
and I’m not going anywhere.
But I don’t complain, oh no.
Do I say it’s not fair?
Have I ever asked for a life of ease?
This must be some disease.
She said “well, now baby
what is wrong with you?
You can make me so mad,
I don’t know what to do.
Oh baby listen to me please!
This must be some disease!”
The only thing certain is death and taxes,
And that this world goes round on its axis,
Indifferent to you, devoid of any meaning.
It was an easy birth, why are you still screaming?
I woke up early this morning;
I thought I might be dead.
The dark clouds through the window,
my limbs are made of lead.
The Devil’s whisper rasps through the trees.
This must be some disease.
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10. |
Lost and Lonely
04:24
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Was there ever a cut deeper or more unkind
I’m beyond consolation; I’m quite out of my mind
Wounded now, I’m winded, I’m blown beyond reason
It’s been a long, cold and rough, inhospitable season
And I’m drunk with regret, rum-loathing and despair
When you said you’d left me
crows circled in the sky
they could tell without you I was lost
and certainly would die
Please don’t leave me, baby
Please don’t leave me, baby
Please stay with me, baby
Or I will die.
I’m lost and I’m lonely and I don’t even know why
Suspended mid-motion not looking a thing in the eye
My shoes are like shining uranium, I can see my face in them
Reflecting this middle-class hunger, raging inside me again.
I’m scared, I am scared, I’m terrified you’re not there
When you said you’d left me
scavengers circled round
to peck at my body before it was
buried in the ground.
Your promises all were hollow
and my hopes in funeral black
when a love is lost for sure
you’ll never get it back
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11. |
The Mirror
05:47
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And I am a mirror, said my father,
Everything you see in me is in you.
Don’t turn away from your reflection –
My eyes, my nose, my mouth, you have them too.
There’s no escaping, it’s flesh and bone,
However far you go, you’re coming home.
Searching for a new Jerusalem,
I danced with the devil and came back again.
If anything ever were written in stone
It’s that in all directions you’re going home.
I am a mirror, said my mother,
The light you shine on me will dazzle you.
A spitting image of what went before me,
And a shade of all that will follow when it’s due.
In every heartbreak, and in tribulations,
You’ll come to know that what I say is true.
Searching for a new Jerusalem,
I danced with the devil and came back again.
If anything ever were written in stone
It’s that in all directions you’re going home.
I am a mirror, said my brother Drew,
My life and death silhouette in you
And what’s more, it all casts a shadow
And a fog of fear chokes everything you do.
This stuff of nightmare, this misty vision
Is not a haze you’re going through.
Searching for a new Jerusalem,
I danced with the devil and came back again.
If anything ever were written in stone
It’s that in all directions you’re going home.
I am a mirror, the last survivor.
There are only echoes left and their sounds decay
Where there was life there is nothing but shadows
And the reflections of my tears as I walk away
I see myself in your window pane;
I know I’m never going home again.
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12. |
The Circus
03:49
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There were hooting cars, there were flashes of light
As joyful people spilled out into the night
“Zip up your coat, it’s getting quite cold”
My mom said, and I did what I was told.
They say it’s time but I don’t want to go
I stand in line watching footprints in the snow
The flakes were falling as we made our way
Towards to big top, it was Ascension Day
“Thank you Jesus for this break from work”
My dad said and nudged me with a smirk.
Some people take to the flying trapeze
Others tame lions all with seeming ease
I lived my life while waiting my turn
Like Job I believed there was a lesson I’d learn.
I am plucked from my seat as the circus roars
My shoes dusty with sawdust, I’m deaf from applause
The house lights go down, a spotlight’s thrown on me
I freeze in terror, as he shines his light on me
On the day that I leave this world
There’ll be no flash of cannon nor flags unfurled
A slow release until I feel no pain
And I hear your voice calling out my name.
You call my name as I head into the snow
You call my name as I head into the snow
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13. |
The Lonely Sky
06:47
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As in the myth of Moriah, a father takes his son
Along a winding cliff where once walked another one
Stoic in his sacrifice, the boy cries out “why, why, why?”
The wind takes the ashes, but there is no reply
I wrestled with my conscience on a bench on Peniel Hill
It could not get the best of me, it could not break my will
Instead it broke my silence, instead it touched a nerve
I cried like a broken man, I wailed without reserve.
There is nothing out there I believe
It is our lonely sky, our lonely sky
Alone in our ecstasy and grief
Below a lonely sky, our lonely sky
When I came to know myself, there was a famine in this land
But plentiful above were stars, peppered like grains of sand
Near Bethel we scattered you like the dust of the earth
I stood there like the stone that marked the place of my birth
There is nothing out there I believe
It is our lonely sky, our lonely sky
Alone in our ecstasy and grief
Below a lonely sky, our lonely sky
If there were a point to this there’d be a god above
We’d shine below like angels basking in his love
But as it is, all we have is each moment until death
We count these off like shekels, more precious with every breath.
The stars glance their light off the black sea
It’s quiet on the windward and the lee
The silence offers answers we reach for with trusting hands
The world we know grows smaller as the universe expands.
There is nothing out there I believe
It is our lonely sky, our lonely sky
Alone in our ecstasy and grief
Below a lonely sky, our lonely sky
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The Sighs of Monsters London, UK
The Sighs of Monsters is a band from the south of England, though none have the same passport. The Sighs of Monsters love albums - the classic albums you can listen to from beginning to end - so that's what they set out to make.
The Sighs of Monsters recommends:
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Our singer/guitarist Dean's other band, with more of his brilliantly quirky songwriting.
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Terrorlove
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No one finds the turns of phrase to pick relationships apart and to get to the heart of them quite like Matthew.
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One of the most inventive composers out there, with a matching knack for a great lyric. Always a joy to listen to.
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