1. |
A Good Routine
04:13
|
|||
Spit the sun up and wash off your face
Drag your feet through the brightening sky
Catch your bus with your friends
And laugh at their jokes
Brush the dirt from your yesterday's jeans
Turn the engine on and watch it work
Catch the chain when it slips from the wheel
Check the time so you know
When to take your break
Sit back down, don't get back up again
It's okay, getting better every day
A good routine to get by
It's okay, a little better every day
Straighten the folds and put everything in place
Make the lock so it breaks in your hands
Put the lock on the latch to the door
Break the door and make your escape
Past the guards
Grab your cheque so it wasn't a waste
It's okay a getting better every day
A good routine to get by
It's okay, a little better every day
Straighten the folds and put everything in place
Every night I come home you're not there
The power's been cut
The dishes broken
Every night I come home you're not there
I shake you off and close the curtain
When you're back, please fold the laundry
I won't be here
I'll probably be missing
I've been wearing these same jeans for weeks now
It's in the machine
The basket is waiting
Every little kid we've made is in pieces
I swept them up
Put them in the ground
Every night I bother coming home you're somewhere
The TV's on
And take-out ordered
When you're back, I'm probably working
With smoke on my hands
And dust in my eyes
If I see you, please have something ready
To eat from the stove
I'll get my own plate
It's okay, getting better every day
A good routine to get by
It's okay, a little better every day
Straighten the folds and put everything in place
|
||||
2. |
Down to Nothing
02:05
|
|||
Baby, shake me ‘til I’m loose
Stumbling backwards break my fall
Roll me in the dirt and grind me
Down to nothing
Get up, grass stains on my shirt
Waistband sinking, one shoe missing
Jeans undone and hair a plain mess
Like a riot
Break me from my cell
And kiss me, grab me, take me
Over county lines and find
A cheap motel room
Cut the handcuffs
And let my hands roam free
Feeling for the switch
That turns me on
And gets me going
Baby, wake me from the noose
Push me through the trapdoor down
To the viewing room and break me
While they watch us
Got a rattle in my step
Like a spray can stir me up
Help me make some art like vandals
On a school night
Break me from my cell
And kiss me, grab me, take me
Over county lines and find
A cheap motel room
Cut the handcuffs
And let my hands roam free
Feeling for the switch
That turns me on
And gets me going
|
||||
3. |
The Minotaur
04:02
|
|||
My love, I dreamt that I felt you beside me
So close to my heart
I touched your body, your substance, your comfort
So real to me
Sweet love, I wake up, I reach out and lose you
Burnt out of my head
One thread untangling quickly in my hand
Holds me to you
So find your way back to me
And join again in my flesh
There'll be nothing but space
Where we used to be
Oh love, I weave through these labyrinths and shadows
Pulling on the strand
It bends and twists into circles and dead ends
With every glimpse I get of you
Please love, this dreamcatcher I've now entangled
Snares me in its fuse
One spark of daylight will send me to pieces
Until you come to me
So find your way back to me
And join again in my flesh
There'll be nothing but space
Where we used to be
|
||||
4. |
Ballad of a Late Bloomer
04:06
|
|||
Should have saved myself the trip
Should have turned around
Now I’m dressed up and laughing
To a toast
Could have stayed at home
When I was younger
And beat on after class
I’d wish I had a few friends
To keep me safe
Snot nosed and bleeding
With my tears soaked through my clothes
My mama thought I was cute
I’d grow out of it
Tucked me in at night on soft sheets
Kissed the bruises with a smile
Teenaged and awkward
Spent my weekends all alone
Brothers and sisters all out
At their friends house
Locked in my bedroom
I’d wait beside the phone
Daydreaming places I’d go
To fall asleep
Now I seem to lack imagination
Got the same damn tie and haircut
Should have kept it to myself
Should have locked the door
Now the whole house is open and serving
Could have had more fun
Got into college with all tuitions paid
Got to the top of my class
And went out into the world
Found an employer who saw a protégée
Just break you out of your shell
You’ll do well here
The flattery undressed me and redressed me
And the whole damn time I liked the touch
Now when I get home there’s someone on the phone
Gossip and talk about what they’ve been up to
Singing my praises to charm their way over
Just let me unwind, I don’t have time
Mama comes to visit on days off
Marvels at the silk sheets on the bed
|
||||
5. |
Street Magic
03:19
|
|||
Shuffling all the cards in my hand
And deal them to the players
At the table blank, count my fate
Scratched the faces from the king
And all his court and cavalry
Storm their walls, rob them blind
Game show hostess smiles
On the street
Window shopping for a new teleprompter
Take my chances now
While you’ve got them all distracted
Blackjack tarot cards are played
With the street magicians
Take another hit, hedge your bets
Lotto scratch-and-win in her purse
I pick it out and give myself a paper cut
On my palm
Gypsy tells me my new fortune
Folds her table and goes to her apartment
Take my chances now
While you’ve got them all distracted
|
||||
6. |
Snow Clouds Drift
03:37
|
|||
I've become lost in the dark
That sleeps upon my heart
And in its dreams selfish things
Take shape and do their deeps
And snow clouds drift overhead
And still the dead inside their chains
And on their backs paradise
Is slowly carried away
And if it reached out now
I'd be too weak to hold it
And if it reached out now
I've become lost underneath
The weight of all the years
Again alone as I think
Of what I did for love
That never came from the ones
Who said they loved all things
That never came, never said
That it would make me right
And if it reached out now
I'd be too weak to hold it
And if it reached out now
I wouldn't want to know it
|
||||
7. |
Hands
02:40
|
|||
8. |
Turned to Water
03:57
|
|||
I was told boy leave your dreams unfulfilled
What’re you gonna have to live for when you’ve found God
I don’t know but I’m not gonna fear
Dying at the tender age of twenty three
With all my life behind me
Too much happiness can kill you
When you get to the top of the mountain
You’ll have no air to breathe
Every smile can crack your lips
When you’re too long in the sun
You become a desert
Now the liquor’s turned to water
‘Cause I only drank half the bottle
Saved the rest for later
Now the water’s boiled off
And I’m dying a drink
Please save me
I was told boy you might die tomorrow
But somehow I don’t think you will
You’ve got your health
You’re gonna grow old and settled with money in the bank
Let your life find you
And anyway boy what’re you gonna do with the world
When you don’t understand the sweat and tears that made it
I don’t know I might die tomorrow
‘Cause today’s really doing me in
I don’t know, I won’t sweat about it
‘Cause I got no water to spare
Too much happiness can kill you
But I won’t get drunk every day
Just get a buzz going
Every way I know of leads to dying
So I’ll get to the top of the mountain
See the sights
Not gonna let this liquor turn to water
‘Cause it cost me a fortune in hard earned cash
Not gonna push this boulder any higher
‘Cause I’m out of breath anyway
And it’s hot in the sun
I don’t feel satisfaction
This wine tastes like water
Every kiss draws blood
Oh I’ve lived too long
|
||||
9. |
Overload
03:07
|
|||
Satellites spinning around my head
Making me dizzy and sick
Radios turned up as loud as they'll go
Drowning me in their noise
Take me home, put me to bed
Close the curtains and sleep
Lock the door, turn off the TV
Get undressed for me
Telephones ringing inside my hand
Asking me what I think
Billboards standing above the sky
Telling me what I should do with my time
Take me home, put me to bed
Close the curtains and sleep
Lock the door, turn off the TV
Get undressed for me
|
||||
10. |
||||
Winter child the sun is in your eyes
And you go blind as flowers
Open in the snow
Days grow longer
Ages passing
Summer comes and warms your face
And soon you'll flow into the river
And be swept away
Winter child the sun is in the sky
And water flows in rivers broken
From the ice
Tides are rising
Ages passing
Summer comes and melts way
The ones you played with in the cold
And who told you their names
|
Streaming and Download help
If you like Michael Clappison, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp