1. |
Diag F
00:07
|
|||
Diagram of heaven
|
||||
2. |
I Struck Gold
02:28
|
|||
Gold plated Gene
Is he still with us?
Who's keeping count?
I kept you around
My standards have dropped, dropped, dropped, dropped
Into a crevice
A thin vein
I thought there was better
Caught in the torchlight
A trail of a tear
Divided a rock face into sediment years and years and years
Because I struck gold
I struck gold
I struck gold when I found you
I struck gold
|
||||
3. |
||||
A sum total of insolent blank
A one way ticket amounts to a plan
A sum total of...
I wrote a poem for future saint
Nobody ready it
Nobody will
A sum total of...
I took a picture of Schoenberg's tomb
A pointless act for living room
(It doesn't really look good anywhere)
That's the spirit insolent blank
We fought the war for money banks
A sum total of...
Mechanical models were based upon
The inner workings of insular men
(Like her, like them)
Remove the bandage from my eyes
The rapt attention was all inside
A sum total of..
|
||||
4. |
||||
All very twenties said the asp
Took a plumbline to cut your bob
I could rest a Bible on your eyelashes
Roaring lioness, where is the catch?
The Weimar Republic was always dear to her
Her words fog the crystal ball
Its browny glass shatters rather rudely on Kristallnacht
Her butcher beheads a fawn rather proudly
Sticks it over the mantel
Calls it a ritual
Proclaims it natural
Why wouldn't you follow in line with the wrecks and clergy?
Beggars born to only ask for money
Sequinned lioness, where is the catch?
Took a global pandemic to lose my job
Under snowflake martial law
Me and Karl Marx have got the whip hand now
My caring forever withdrawn
Red tide to purify
And blood-rinsed collection plates
Along an unlit fire escape
The march to April ends in May
Gather wood and fill your flask
The pyre will singe unholy flesh
We could burn a Bible while we're at it
Greying lioness, you just don't get it
All very twenties said the asp
Joined the breadline to look the part
He said the food banks were just like a club
We could come along if we were good
Took chest high seawater to change our ways
Under the wilderness of natural laws
Sod and Groucho Mark have got the last laugh now
Our labour finally withdrawn
All very
All very twenties said the asp
All very twenties
All very twenties
All very twenties
All very twenties said the asp
|
||||
5. |
||||
6. |
We Drew Lots
02:29
|
|||
Further episodes will answer what all the grown ups knew, Sir Lancelot
That suit of foil's not fooling anyone
Baked at home in furs and forced upon
By a reign of dragons and a rule of thumb
That screws the low born serfs 'til kingdoms come
What if it's new?
What if it ain't?
Tear the knights of the day right off the page
Oh, we drew lots
Failing at first to further the plot
But straw-clutchers aren't proud
We'll remove their gloves now
Oh, we thought lots
Thinking at first to unstop the clock
But time wasters are still allowed
To express love for the unbowed
Reverse stories can't answer what all the pin-ups grasped, Sir Lancelot
That suit of his was big enough and grew
Played at home in furs and forced you to
Through a reign of rights and rules and rage
Bypassed your will, your heart, your age
What if he's real?
What if he ain't?
Rip the knights of the realm right off the stage
Oh, we bought lots
Guessing at first to further our cause
But pearl clutchers don't always love
How we remove our gloves
Oh, we drew lots
Failing at first to further the plot
Tie breakers break the best of men
Your will, your way, absolved again
Oh, we drank lots
Clearly at first to uncork some block
But us bottle drainers are a dying breed
The perfect ditch still appeals to me
|
||||
7. |
Twelve Imperfect Men
02:23
|
|||
One is free of crime scene gargoyles
Two is tied to a chair
Cultivated married men left her all their hair
Now, they're sad and alone
Three drink Night Nurse in the daytime
At least four mix it with rum
Make believe they're in the Carribean
Betting on the setting sun
They're really sad and alone
Five is lucid but fairly flaccid
Six is harmless....clearly useless
Seven is workshy
Eight's in a shed
Nine's having a stroke next week
Ten's already dead
Eleven's a leg man
Twelve's in jail
She claims to have loved and lost
Where others tried and failed
Twelve imperfect men
Twelve imperfect men
Twelve imperfect men
Twelve imperfect men
|
||||
8. |
||||
Gather round
Settle down
Here is something you will not believe
His ears
Made his money in broken crockery
He's independently wealthy
Middle managerial
Ad-hocery
He gave me some frivolous financial advice
Sported an apron twice his size
Decorated with scenes of Cotswold village life
And Jumbo Book of Revelation
I met the man who milked the cows on Malted Milk
Both of them
I met the man who milked the cows on Malted Milk
|
||||
9. |
Bit Into A Madeleine
01:17
|
|||
I bit into a madeleine
It was a bit like the last madeleine I'd eaten
That's how deep I am
That's how long I've lived
Objectif papier-mâché
Volumes pulped and sieved
Are you still working through les temps perdu?
He got the girl was cute
I ain't no Marcel Proust
I want to run you down
And the fortune you're sitting on
Not a white camelia plainly
You will have to educate me
Bit into a madeleine
Not one from another time
Not from a book or film
No, this shell-shaped cake is mine
|
||||
10. |
Inconvenient Ruth
02:57
|
|||
Oh, two two oh
I tried to get beyond the news
That you know loads
Of men in beds
Not flower beds
Inconvenient Ruth
Not the version I wanted
Oh, two two oh
I tried to dial your number with my nose
But you were out
Like you're always out
And there's no self improvement
Inconvenient Ruth
Not the version I wanted
Oh, two two oh
We got ahead of ourselves
In hard times act tough
Those experiments in love were good for us
Just not the version I wanted
Inconvenient Ruth
Inconvenient Ruth
Oh, two two oh
I am not Lou Reed
I took a wrap of speed
But I could not keep up
Look up
At least not the version I wanted
Inconvenient Ruth
It's the attention economy
Look up, look up
Inconvenient Ruth
Inconvenient Ruth
Inconvenient Ruth
Inconvenient Ruth
|
||||
11. |
Lump Sum
03:54
|
|||
He bought a facelift with the lump sum
Made him smile like a dachshund
None of the ladies found him fetching
If they could only see his lump sum
He's going to spend it on them
The wait now is weighing him down
It's not like it's an ill-gotten gain
Lump sum da, da, da, da
Try and buy a sense of humour with your lump sum
Try and shrink that tumour with your lump sum
Has life added up to this?
Does he have enough to make up for
Time he spent being frugal and poor?
Facing bald facts, he needs new friends
They won't care if he has hair or not
They're going to come around
And stick around 'til he's in the ground
He's going, he's going to waste it on them
Like he's never had money before
With my naked eye
I could see the red in Jupiter
Every earthling needs our lump sum
Here lies a lump sum of existence
The gravedigger will not wash his hands
The vicar's forgotten your surname
It's good the widow has still got blood in her veins
She can laugh over the trifle
Making plans to drink sherry in Spain
There's no way to add up a lump sum
For that figure will not appear again
|
||||
12. |
Correction Fluid
00:37
|
|||
13. |
Ludwig Wittgenstein
03:26
|
|||
I am searching for a subject to blame
I have double standards to maintain
Misinformation does not compose itself
PR exercise has worn us out
This is love
This is a surface
Can you see the difference?
Can you wipe it clean?
I know what I wanted and it wasn't this
Can you say what it is?
Can you leave it alone to be its own world alone and lonely?
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Wrote all kinds of truths but lies still stalk the world
In ancient form and the plainest sight
Comprehend the words
Apprehend the world
I am looking for an object to tame
I have empty propositions to entertain
This is a verb
This is an action
Can you forget its name?
Can it exist without one?
I know how it felt and it was more than this
Can't say what it was
Bit I can't leave it alone to be a world adrift and lonely
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Found all kinds of lies in the lines of causal form
Wrapped around the world as thin green twine
Wrap it up
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Forged all kinds of truths but lies still stalk the world
In ancient form, in the plainest sight
Comprehend the words
Apprehend the world
Recall the tune
Comprehend the words
Apprehend the world
|
||||
14. |
Further To Cut Element
01:20
|
|||
Further to cut element
Further to cut element
Blotting you out
Health kicks, health kicks, health kicks
Don't work
Further to cut element
Long division, long division, long division
Don't work
|
||||
15. |
||||
How you butcher fish finger?
I cut lengthways with twig
It take ages
What's your secret, mister?
I don't have a secret
I have technique
So, how you butcher hair, mister?
Good question
Mostly, I singe them in zig-zag
With magnified rays from our nearest sun
It keeps me busy
|
||||
16. |
||||
What sounds did you hear?
Horses' hooves
Voices
Nothing to do
Nothing to do
You're gonna learn about the force of nature, boy
Who knew life and limb were still becoming all consuming?
The oxygen, the sap, the spit, the opiates
The frugal sons of cautious men have turned to drugs
No pregnant pause to interrupt the drinking cup
We are prone
We are prone
A discharged carriage with evergreen wreaths on its wheels
And pink scallop shells on both sides
Spelling out the name of the sender and the addressee
Bring us to a clearing with blue bells and long grass swaying
A salt grey channel beyond our tongue
We are prone
We are prone
Nothing to do but to tear blades, grass blades longways
For hours and hours and hours and hours
Nothing to do
Tear blades, grass blades longways
For hours and hours
Nothing to do
Tear blades, grass blades longways
For hours and hours and hours
|
||||
17. |
||||
18. |
Stay Up, Sindy
02:28
|
|||
There are never enough hours in the day for you
So, why don't you try those long night hours?
You could rise as the moon and the stars come out
Make nocturnal time your daily allowance
And avoid the worst rays of the sun
Stay up, SIndy
Don't be so quick to go to bed
The night is begging
They're other ways to rest your head
Stay up longer...linger in the dark
Pause your dream
The night needs our company
There is no stimulant in the day for you
So, why don't you use those wild night hours?
Stay up, SIndy
Now, not so keen to go to bed
The night is begging
They're other ways to rest your head
Stay up longer...let us linger in the dark
Pause your dream
The night needs our company
Stay up, SIndy
Why are you so keen to go to bed?
The night is begging
They're better ways to lose your head
Stay up longer...let us linger in the dark
Replay your dream
The night needs our company
|
||||
19. |
||||
Donald's building a space force
To conquer a teenage foe
Inadequate man
Can't let the girls go
Everything's still....everything's still....still normal
We're straightening the leads
Can't wait to plug it in
Say it'll be ready in three weeks
Trust he'll be dead by then
Everything's still....everything's still....still normal
Found a B-movie plot thought lost
Generates a general salute
Drew the triangular patches himself
To match the sky blue space boots
Everything's still....everything's still....still normal
"Space...gonna be a lot of things happening in space
Because space is the world's newest war-fighting domain
The space force will help us deter aggression
And control the ultimate high ground"
Every leader needs a raygun
In their tiny hands
To vapourise the enemy
And convince their fans that
Everything's still....everything's still....still normal
Evil forces doubt his mission
He needs the aliens' names
Gonna colonise Mars
And live in their caves
Everything's still....everything's still....still normal
|
||||
20. |
Pet Project
01:01
|
|||
21. |
Taste Is A Shallow Actor
05:03
|
|||
One careful application of taste
I know it will stick
I know you won't wait
Had the hem on the way in
Let her down on the way out
I saw the green brim
Very Scandinavian, well-chosen
You know they bleach oak
Oh God, what have we done?
Apply the dye to your hair
There and there and not there
Suffered four heavy losses
And made a poem of them
I know they're coming
See my good side
Taste is a shallow actor
Taste is a shallow actor
It's an easy come back
We have a cause
We have a calling
All I know is where and when to say the right thing
Taste is a shallow actor
It's a minor player
It's no loving counsel
It's no cure for night terror
It's a converted chapel
It's a modest truth
It's a shallow actor
I've been asking after
I know they're coming
See my good side
Taste is a shallow actor
Taste is a shallow actor
I have one thing left
Taste
It's too young a being
It stops you seeing
Taste is a shallow actor
Taste is a shallow act
Taste is a shallow actor
One careful application of taste
I know it will stick
I know you won't wait
|
||||
22. |
Inner Life
02:54
|
|||
I never listen to the shepherdess
Picked up a perspex prism
It was covered in scratches
The ink stains mean nothing
To the waking masses
The mist has cleared to reveal more mist
Is this the inner life you warned me about?
Close your eyes full of pollen
A cup of blood, vessels in motion
I never saw the final veil
If I had, would I be certain
This is the inner life you told me about?
Is this the inner life you warned me about?
|
||||
23. |
The Thaw Came Quick
00:28
|
|||
24. |
All Rivers Misled Me
04:47
|
|||
On the idle banks of the River Severn, age five
Caught a glimpse of my future bed
I'd made it myself
So, theory goes, I should lie in it
Knew already I could not stand it
On the bat swarm bend in the River Thames
Sat this close to the blondest picnic
She'd asked me there herself
So, theory goes, I should enjoy it
But I could not stand it
On the pillowed east slope of the gawa Edo
Every red face follows the fall of fireworks
We are in our own world of a thousand million insects
And no part of me can understand it
What brought you along the river?
Like a thick twig through the reeds
So many things, so many things could have delayed you
So, how then?
Why then?
All rivers, all rivers misled us
All rivers, all rivers led me...misled me
All rivers, all rivers, all rivers misled me
|
||||
25. |
Quadrangle Deviant
00:08
|
|||
26. |
Lights Line The Way
01:51
|
|||
Tree tops are thick with émigrés
Casting throat code into thermal fates
It's a pleasant evening when the lights come on
At the convenience store where I pay my bills
The staff all know me but pretend not to
It's easier this way for all concerned
The air is charged with the lust of looters
The tramps are nettles
The bats are local
You look unmoved by these fairy lights
Along the river front at new expense
The flightless mortals are pedestrian
They never look up
They never look up
|
||||
27. |
Outside, It's Bedlam
02:00
|
|||
Put your head on straight
Pull the blanket up to your chin and beyond
Cover your nose if you need
Bury your head in the night
The six o'clock sun is not the real one
The seven o'clock sun is not the real one
You can ignore them
Outside, it's bedlam
That's for them
That's for them
It's not for us
|
||||
28. |
Musical Chairs Blasphemy
00:11
|
|||
Opens at page seven
What time do you call this?
|
||||
29. |
Hidden Away
04:04
|
|||
Hidden away under a bridge at home
Hidden away with a choir of trolls
Stealing drinks in fluorescent light
This mother of invention has diluted time
Halting forward motion in the glacial days
Before the kids come home and she's hidden away
Affix gaze A
Return gaze B
Cement that stare
Eternally
All hands 'neath the cotton in trembling submission
To the voices in the daytime demanding you listen
Do not let on you ever felt this good
To the neighbourhood watch that would love you locked up
Affix gaze A
Return gaze B
Cement that stare
Eternally
Affix gaze A
Return gaze B
Cement that stare
Eternally
A heart trampled
By her bare feet
Gain carpet inches
From there to me
|
||||
30. |
Routine Routine
03:19
|
|||
Routine routine, routine routine
Routine routine, routine routine
When you say it often enough, it'll start to sound exotic
Like fountains found in foreign lands with French as the father tongue
Ochre spots and chevrons stabbed rough on spears of green
The mist of Eden as a lifted skirt only conceals more routine
Routine routine, routine routine
Routine routine, routine routine
To find yourself in the routines of others is to enter another world
Through doorways of cabin peat, thick pamphlets of Braille pen
Sense the chaos of sapphire riches and the liberation it would bring
To lowly specks of cosmic dust who cannot comprehend these things
Is the mystery, is the mystery, is the mystery a dream?
Routine routine, routine routine
Routine routine, routine routine
Routine routine, routine routine
|
||||
31. |
||||
32. |
Tempt Fate
01:49
|
|||
Ain't it a bit early, baby
For your mid-morning drink?
Can't you force down a slice
Of something brown and dry?
Ain't it a bit early, bright spark
To be settling down?
Think of the freedom I get
From my life of debt
Ain't it a bit late, soldier
For the self-help searches?
Being fertile is a memory
Colder than your family
Ain't it a bit late, honey
For a mid-life crisis?
More stomach for pension funds
Than digesting Jung
Ain't it a bit late, baby
To throw yourself off a bridge?
Eulogies keep you afloat
When you're composing your note
Always too soon
Always too late
So, tempt fate
Tempt fate
|
||||
33. |
||||
Whatever it takes apart from that
We'll manage, dear
We can go without
We can live on love
We can move abroad
Earning less but living more
Whatever it takes apart from that
If we resort to that, we'll know we've failed
Don't let us sink into that quicksand
Or their prised trap of finding fault
However long it takes you, darling
I will be blank, impassive, waiting
You have to tell me, "It's not helping"
Please dissuade me from declaring
Whatever it takes apart from that
We'll get by, dear
We can live without
Everything but each other
Every single thing but each other
|
||||
34. |
Progress
02:24
|
|||
Progress
Progress
Progress
Progress
Progress
Progress
Progress
Progress
Progress
Progress
Progress
Progress
Progress
Progress
Progress
Progress
|
||||
35. |
||||
Normal led us here
Normal led us astray
Normal needs you to lie awake and worry
About how you're going to pay for it all
You think normal brought us together
When normal broke us up
Normal is an endless commercial
For you not having enough
So. let's not go back to normal
Let's not live there anymore
Let us dwell in a cave marked 'home of the strange'
Let's not go back to normal
Normal got us here
Normal made it worse
Normal wastes your time
Normal makes you work
Normal made a profit
Yet normal made you poor
Normal rewards dominion
And always needed more
So. let's not go back to normal
Let's not live there anymore
Let us dwell in a cave marked 'home of the brave'
Let's not go back to normal
Normal cuts down trees
Normal cuts the grass
Normal needs finite resources
Normal does not need things to last
Normal made you unhappy
Then sold you happy pills
Normal made you care about celebrity
Normal made you ill
What's more normal made you stupid
Normal made you plain
Normal's made you empty
That's how normal kept you sane
Normal is constructed
Which means normal can be undone
Normal made forever chemicals in a lab
Normal never wants you to learn
That normal is a church
Distant riches require some faith
Normal needs you to believe
That normal is the only way
So. let's not go back to normal
Let's not live there anymore
Let us dwell in a cave marked 'home of the strange'
Let's not go back to normal
|
||||
36. |
||||
37. |
||||
Four lanes, four lanes of memory merging into new histories
Someone will form an ideology from them
Maudlin reports that had you dead at eight and revived by nine
Skirt the filthy walls
Wipe your hand on your gown
There is no clean route home
This is no time to act alone
Her last salute to Duke for his comic overture
About a Welsh town overrun by six white goats
Unlike most masked impatients, he died mid-sentence
Saying, "you plump the pillows, I'll supply the jokes"
Still viral blossoms in the longest corridor
The traitor who brought lillies will have to learn
Our minister keeps us plied with unsound advice
And a thoughtful stream of empty urns
Ask to be interred with peat and loam
This is no time to act alone
Two lanes, two lanes of history fading into cold purgatory
Someone might watch over you...just not me
The time travel reports had you admitted at three
And long dead by four
Skirt the blood-spotted walls
Wipe the tears on your gown
For there is no safe route home
This is no time to act alone
|
||||
38. |
||||
I do
I do, too
There's confetti in my muesli
There's red rice in her hair
The breakfast scene's our altar
We paused a moment there
Of course, we've put on weight
We live on wedding cake
Getting married every day
Think on Rikugien and June azalea
Under a silken head of Hermes
I'll always see you there
There's champagne in my slippers
They're always wringing wet
The tiara looks a picture
But do you need it on in bed?
Your train covers half the floor
Kneeling proposals are the norm
Getting married more and more
Live your life again
From that moment then
Engage in every April
For relentless wedding march
Complain about the DJ
Until death do us part
We're always drafting vows
For romantic tax allowance
Getting married here and now
Think on Rikugien and its black contortion pine
An exchange of gold and silver
To buy us precious time
Sixteen years of wedlock
Just ten days of honeymoon
But ask me if I love her
I'll always say I do
Unrelenting wedded bliss
Would probably make you sick
Getting married all the time
Plant what you know now
In that green tea house
Although the icing's thin
We have to pay the mortgage
Moved to make a will
Even though I thought it morbid
Never think what's yours is mine
Getting married all the time
|
||||
39. |
Love Is The Destination
04:22
|
|||
I've not been looking nor seeking or yearning, no
I've not been listing or keeping a count of the days
That you've been away
Because times seem longer
Each room is quieter
I can see the future and it's getting harder
And with this reveal, I elect to step hard on the brakes
If love is the destination, why is the journey so long?
OK, the destination is love but the time does not go on and on and on
We are clearly running out of road
Wipers weeping for the love adjacent
Thinking this passenger can't be consoled
With glovebox tissues and my night vision say-so
That claims, love's been arranged to reach this stage
I've not been looking nor seeking or yearning, no
I've not been listing or learning
Or keeping account of the time that I've been ignored
The times seem shorter
Each scene is darker
I can live with this future even if it's lacking drama
And with this release, why would I choose to step on the brakes?
O, because love is the destination
And the journey is long
The destination is love
And it's true, the time does not go on and on and on
We know we are running out of road
Foglights illuminate the space pre-hedgerow
For us passengers who can still be consoled
With habitual kisses and the songs of old
That tell them the love's been changed to reach this stage
The love's been changed to reach this stage
|
||||
40. |
Fluid Correction
00:23
|
|||
41. |
Empty Hours
04:14
|
|||
This slowed-down age of gifted months to fill
Kept all awake by wormholes being drilled
Into the nothing years of drifted time
Scenes of friends lost in nightclubs fluffing party lines
Still mortify me in my adult bed
Think of all those empty hours with her instead
This arrested era of time stood still
Is a chance to indulge in nostalgia for the unfulfilled
Expanses of your life where hope still applied
And not the daily resignation in which you now specialise
You say you'll catch up...and that's touching...but it's always late
Were all those empty hours worth the wait?
Another minor role for a bit part player
With all the advantages you had
Your underachievemnet was spectacular
A lie lip-synced with relief
Collides with this unpopular belief
A dose of corrosive boredom is good for your health
No need to journey inside yourself
Those twisted figures cannot apply
For they could never equal you plus I
Regret retreats with lust and loss
So young schemes can be filed away
All those empty hours were worth the wait
|
||||
42. |
Opiate
00:37
|
|||
43. |
The Home Help Won't Help
01:52
|
|||
Is there anything I can say
To prepare you for the end?
Only so much I can do
To ready myself
You said you'd try
And follow my advice
But it only makes you mad
When I don't nurse you well
I know tears have to fall
And the home help won't help
We knew from tear one
This was no dry run
They can change your dressing
Tell you why it hurts
But when you hide somewhere
Who finds you first?
Who brings you back
To pastures past?
Walking through English fields
Not this vision of hell
I know how to do this
I know the home help won't help
|
Santa Sprees
The Anglo-Japanese band Santa Sprees have been advancing the art of unpopular song since 1994. Making questionable progress from the low-skilled, no-fidelity, no wave of their earliest cassettes to the largely futile primitive avant bubblegum of today, releasing ten collections to date on a trail of defunct labels and media. ... more
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