1. |
Oil
04:50
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The bartenders collect glasses, tell everyone, “Be safe”
Like an exodus, of bible times, we stumble down the street
As the smoke escapes your mouth
Forms a halo ‘round your head
I know I’m drunk and I don’t care
I’m letting everything exist
The urgency has left, replaced by nothingness
I’m just here in my body
No weight on my chest
No knot in my throat
Unimpaired by the impulse
To make sense
Of senselessness
Patterns, in chaos
God, I’m tired
And I’m sick
Of caring about
Where this all is going
Would it be all right
Would it be allowed
If for just a little while
I stopped and smelled the flowers
I don’t know any prophets
Don’t ask me for my oil
That lamp’s been burnt for so long now
I have no more light to give
I’d love to help you out
But I can hardly help myself
I’m just here in my body
No weight on my chest
No knot in my throat
Unimpaired by the impulse
To make sense
Of senselessness
Patterns in chaos
God, I’m tired
And I’m sick
Of caring about
Where this all is going
That lamp’s been burnt for a long time
I have no more to give
No more speculation, about why we exist
So aided by moonlight, I clear my mind
And love this moment as if it were my whole life
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2. |
Industry
04:02
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Scan the room, return a nod or two
Aim for aloof
Exchange cards when cued
They got in with so-and-so, someone brought you
Set to your task, match the wires
Of the network
Red or blue
Red or blue
Were you here in a dream
Are the parts you’re assembled with, faulty or glitching
Though packaged and preened
As they drop names, you’re letting your eyes stray
To rooftops and happier days
You chewed your nails
In the cab, while you were psyching yourself up
Now as you shake hands
You’re leaving a trail of blood behind
Behind
I don’t feel like being charming
I don’t feel like making nice
Always too easy to go to my apartment
Forget to write, and turn out all the lights
Turn out all the lights
I don’t feel like being charming
I don’t feel like making nice
Always too easy to go to my apartment
Forget to write, and turn out all the lights
Turn out all the lights
Will you die obscure
Or suck the dick of industry
Industry
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3. |
Hipbones
03:12
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Cold bodies with warm blood drinks
A blur of clothes and anxieties
All these Daisies and trite Gatsbys
Reciting script from their favorite scenes
They put their hands on my hipbones
And make me feel special, kind of
But they could not make me feel fragile
No, they could not make me feel fragile
They put their hands on my hipbones
And make me feel special, kind of
Cold body, come home with me
An amalgam of my fantasies
I’ll say what you want and buy your drinks
If you sew my shadow for cheap or free
They put their hands on my hipbones
And make me feel special, kind of
But they could not make me feel fragile
No, they could not make me feel fragile
Put your hands on my hipbones
And make me feel special, kind of
But you cannot make me feel fragile
No, you cannot make me feel
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4. |
Unidentified Object
04:38
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If you fall in the forest, do you make a sound
Try to connect with the ground
Are you still sprawled out, with no one to help you up?
Try to believe you’re in real time
And even if not
Somewhere, there’s people who would miss you
If you were gone
There’s no map, no book, no streets
Just what you can intuit without speaking
Stay planted in your own feet
Keep all limbs in, throw your crumbs carefully
The lines blur between brush and your body
And no one to tell you if you’ve made a sound
You’re mist in a graveyard
Unidentified object
Deep in space and haunted
In the caverns of your illness
You will run towards the moon
That swollen pouch of spider eggs, dormant ‘til dawn
‘Til light punctures the dark
You are moved without cause
You have no rest because
You don’t believe in your own existence
Only witnesses prove you were present
Just keep taking those footsteps
Because they’re leaving footprints
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5. |
Creature Comforts
02:57
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This is the purest the air has been, between you and I
As the hammer falls, harsh morning light
How many times can you run away and expect to be excused
Is the dangling carrot sentience or just a license to abuse
I know creature comforts kill cowards all the time
All the time
And I have many things to do before I sleep or die
But the horror of goodbye
The horror of goodbye
Am I in love with leaving
With leaving
Leaving you
Am I in love with leaving
With leaving
Leaving you
How many times can you run away and expect to be excused
Is the dangling carrot sentience or just a license to abuse
How many more goodbyes
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6. |
Star Death Interlude
04:45
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Evidence of past lives flounders, in the cast of present day
Of all the love that has passed through me
Only anecdotes remain
Though I try to make the stories real
Only parlor tricks remain
So I don’t tell time anymore
Just wander through each revolving, temporal self
I took all my favorite swaths
And gave most away
I’m a borrowed quilt, a million miles
Of recording tape
I don’t speak to ghosts, I leave them lost
In realms I can’t see
But my heart’s a home for deaths of stars,
That exploded and created me
Homes I’ve held in my arms
Homes I’ve held in my arms
Homes I’ve held in my arms,
I don’t do justice to you
Stars I hold in my heart
Homes I’ve held in my arms,
Do you carry me with you too
Do you carry me with you
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7. |
Applied Science
04:11
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A glass cage, these photo frames
Untouchable but tangible in a way
Sacred texts, the fairer sex
Unfathomable, but practical in a way
Step right out, out of the storybook, please
You’re just a vessel for days and sensations if you can’t relate
You got to live it out before you’ll ever get it down on a page
Step right out, out of the storybook, and breathe
The absurd is still meaningful
Mixing metaphors like I’m mixing drinks
I force them down, every night
And pass them out, to my friends and family
While I forget what I was trying to say
Compose and only hear the mistakes
Sure, there’s others more inspired and sane
But that’s not what I’ve got to work with
They’ll certainly forget your name
Unless you know how to say it
Step right out, out of the storybook, please
You’re just a vessel for days and sensations if you can’t relate
You got to live it out, before you’ll ever get, it down on a page
Step right out, out of the storybook, breathe
Step right out, out of the storybook, please
You’re just a vessel for days and sensations if you can’t relate
Explore the heights and depths of your consciousness, then tell the tales
Step right out, out of the storybook, breathe
Sure, there’s others more inspired and sane
That’s not what I’ve got to work with
They’ll certainly forget your name
Unless you know how to say it
Learn to say it, babe
Learn to say it
What’s your name
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8. |
Boxing Gloves
06:21
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The table’s stayed set for days now
And supper’s long since cold
You’re busy studyin’ monks on mountains
Their thumbs out on the road
Your stomach rumblin’
Stubborn shaman
Trying to listen
To ghosts of simpler times and birthrights
Babe, you’ve lived too many lives other than your own
But I’ll bring you back and turn you on
If you come here and lay your head down
The interweb, our friend and pet, foam from a trillion mouths
Post-post-modern kids of the millennium, we are all grown now
And accustomed, to information
We are modern, and equipped
To shut all naysayers down
Babe, you’ve lived too many lives other than your own
But I’ll bring you back and turn you on
If you come here and lay your head down
Babe, you’ve lived too many lives other than your own
But I’ll bring you back and turn you on
If you come here and lay your head down
I keep boxing gloves by the bed, babe
If the lights ever turn out
Just stay with me here in real life
And we’ll make each other’s blood hum
I keep boxing gloves by the bed, babe
If the lights ever turn out
Just stay with me here in real life
And we’ll make each other’s blood hum
We can make each other
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9. |
Astronaut Food
05:12
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The future looms, not as bright for most of us
It’s a travesty
Settling for caricatures
But what’s the point
Of putting up a fuss
Yeah, what’s the use
Pretending I’m not one of the ones
Eating astronaut food
Eating astronaut food
Eating astronaut food
Eating astronaut food
Weathervanes point, then spin off left of center
Foreshadowing dim and distant plot twists
Tin and plastic, freeze-dried love and joy
It’s a racket
Compiling dramas without stories
To quell the masses’
Desperate search for meaning
Astronaut food
Astronaut food
Astronaut food
Astronaut food
And when they finally put us in space
Will we still remember our names
Or just portraits of people
We’d hoped we’d become
Before we broke the debt ceiling
And left our lovers for holograms with touch screens
And were saved by technology
Forgot how to live
Deliver us from chemicals
Deliver us from chemicals
Deliver us from chemicals
Deliver us
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