1. |
Afternoon Meltdown
05:01
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For a moment I have lost my safest ground
Like the ocean we get deeper with the sound
I get closer and you turn the other way
It’s a process, chasing you is my favorite game
For a moment I thought we were done with games
No pretending, no more playing hard to get
I drew closer and I’ve let you take control
It’s all yours now, battle’s lost, the kingdom’s gone
Oh Lord, how I wish I could have said
Stop messing with my head
But you walked away
I’m so tired, I’m falling by the wayside
Because the glint in your eyes
Keeps me paralyzed
I’m gonna leave this fear behind
I’m gonna let me lose my mind
For a while, for a while, for a while
For a moment I thought I’d just be myself
No more hiding underneath the hardened shell
In this moment, as I step into the light
Imperfections made me climb right back inside
Made me climb right back inside
Made me climb right back inside
In this moment I thought we were done with more pretending
No more playing games
Oh Lord, how I wish I could have said
Stop messing with my head
But you walked away
I’m so tired, I’m falling by the wayside
Because the glint in your eyes
Keeps me paralyzed
Once more I can barely look straight ahead
You left me with shoes of lead
Just to ruminate
I realize my Sunday afternoon dive
Means I won’t throw my disguise
I’ll just have to wait
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2. |
Queen of the People
09:55
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A mysterious rider traveling down on the freeway
A beacon in the mist drawing the birds and the beasts to its eerie light
A velvet gown of burgundy
A hooded cape in the wind
The rider tightens her grip
The ropes are tearing at her flesh and bleeding her skin
She mouths a silent prayer
As she did in the darkest days
Her words fading in the dark of things her enemies forgot, until they step on the pyre
Who’s that little lady whose star is burning bright?
Will the people be ready for the rising she ignites?
She shines a light, over the doorways
The cottages are listening, can you hear them breathing? Can you see them weeping?
Candles gleaming into the night
For the hearts of the people. Can you hear them beating?
They’ll carry her to the morning, whoa, whoa, oh oh
A shadow towers on high
The lady flees from betrayal
She’s facing death or disgrace
So she shifts in her saddle, spurs her mount to make haste
But now the die is cast
And peril lies in her wake
So no one can now impede her ever gathering speed to the red line she exceeds
She travels down the earth
She races through the groves
She braves the darkest omens
She’s reaching for the stars
She has the love of millions
Countless faces marching
For a queen they’re protecting
As she flies through the night
She shines a light, over the doorways
The cottages are listening, can you hear them breathing? Can you see them weeping?
Candles gleaming into the night
For the hearts of the people. Can you hear them beating?
They’ll carry her to the morning, whoa, whoa, oh oh
Oh Lady Mary, show your face to me
Sweep her mind you may find so sweet a symphony
But in vain she retains only faith in a photograph
Little Miss Mary, dancing in the moonlight
In the long velvet dress, a nimble silhouette
As they wait for the stars to align and to let her shine
Oh Mary honey, how could they be so wrong?
She would not fade in the night, there she did not belong
Tell me why did she ride for so long against the tide
Mary oh Mary, her time has come
She’s the queen of the people, who bless her as she rides away
Leaving a fiery glint glimmering below the midnight sky
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3. |
Merci beaucoup
09:09
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4. |
Blue Eyes, Blue Focus
09:57
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5. |
Teased by Happiness
05:08
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Sit, wait endlessly
And contemplate a dream that I once made
And I cannot evade
I hear a melody
A way to lay my imagination bare
And speciously declare
It’s smoke and mirrors all around
A fabrication to propound
A fantasy, deceitful and unsound
Scratch the guarantees, the expertise, the good advice
Specially when I am teased by happiness
And I perceive a paradise no less
And suddenly I stop, open my eyes
And see the butterflies cower and hide
So I should bring it to an end
Such a disguise I can’t defend
When it was all in vain
Our hopes evaporate
A rot sets in, we languish and we drown
In a torpor most profound
I’m pushed into the mud
I’m castigated, relegated down to dirt, just blown around
Eviscerate that impolite
and odious child out of your life
She was just another parasite
Scratch the guarantees, the expertise, the good advice
Specially when I am teased by happiness
And I perceive a paradise no less
And suddenly I stop, open my eyes
And see the butterflies cower and hide
So I should bring it to an end
Such a disguise I can’t defend
When it was all in vain
Gliding through the empty space
Try to escape from my disgrace
While burning up the paper trail
A process I think will entail
The shaming of my expectations
They could not survive such omens
From on high, from my own side
Where can I reach my saving grace
When I find myself face to face
With emptiness and loneliness
The feelings no song could express
Until I delve into the void
Step on a magic asteroid
Where I break free
Oo oo oo oo
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6. |
Color-Bland
05:18
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Perhaps she alone holds the remedy to my mind-numbing monochromatic rage
Standing on her stage like a titanium superwoman flash reflector
The beams of light intended for only her
That bodacious French heart-throb thrusting her bust
Operatic climax
Genius!
Speechless kilobytes capturing turquoise-toned flashes by ill-tempered eyes
Try to explain the trauma that's left me all-but-one-color-blind
The majesty of the French maiden unphased
Sprinkled with a wall of sparkling shutters standing on her stage
Untouched
Unscathed
Saved!
The rate at which her blast hit the printing press in the retina of my eye
I've been colorblind since the flash of that camera
I turned colorblind when the camera misfired a chimera
I see colorblind since the fourth finale of the French opera
What type of tungsten light forever changed my vision plane to this one-color game?
The power of her bosom might muster the spectrum into these sleepy eyes
In a world plagued with pessimistic players and partial politicians lies a faint seed of hope for these flash-robbed cavities
A sight for turquoise eyes
All the colors but one
Release me NOW
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7. |
Astrid
04:50
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You’re listening in the light, for that speck of friction
Wondering why it is, she can’t convey emotion
Her words go up in smoke, they vanish in the air
Lethargic as they are, you’ll drown in your own chair
You come into the void, lose your sense of direction
Infantilize yourself, prey to confrontation
Stay out of the limelight, conjure up a fog
She can catch you off guard, you’ll end up at the Grog
If you’re looking for a way deep in your misery
The Beauty auditorium is the place to be
Cuz Astrid will snooze you with her vanity, beware
Choose to resist, get off the ground
All your efforts will come crashing down
Only she’s allowed to generate sound
And she says Socrates polity phenomenology
All that philosophy is a trick to seize the crown!
You can’t materialize, looking for absolution
Forgiveness is in vain, she is on a mission
Break into her spirit, you might get through the day
'Cause if you listen very hard, she’ll blow your mind away
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8. |
These Ivory Trees
04:47
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I listened to her voice
And I swallowed the sun
That warm, sinking, chanting nectar
I closed my eyes in wonder
She smiled at me in answer
Oh when she took my hand and dove in
I pulled the curtain
…And she swam…
I took a walk down the forest
All those trees were speaking to me
Lady, carve a heart out on my skin and fly away
Lady, take me away
Lady, seize the day, they said
Oh when she saw those osmotic birches
All holding hands
…How she cried…
I laid down on my pillow
She made herself at home in my head
That sobbing, marching, electrical blur
I painted the wrong ladders
I caught those rising odors
Oh when water dripped on steaming carpets
The sun walked out
…And she drowned…
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9. |
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Why am I so hard to read?
What makes me act so weird?
A pensive man in a pondering place
Strokes his budding beard
A hand sifts my greasy hair
Reveals my clunky bump
Ten years past this very day
My horn was turned to stump
My bump I always thought was blunder
My thoughts had always seemed to wander
How long my horn would grow
If it was left alone?
I was born a unicorn
With horn and corn attached
A normal boy with arms and legs
But horn it did not match
My bump did not distress
An adolescent love
My scar I hid away
Her fear had come above
She took to me with self reproach
And I with lonely eyes
From unicorn to man by hand
Her hand it found me kind
And from a shared endeavor
Our own connection grew
The tale I would disclose to her
She knew it to be true
See, I was born a unicorn
With horn and corn attached
A normal boy with arms and legs
But horn it did not match
If you were born a unicorn
With two left feet mismatched
Flee from public scrutiny
Keep your horn attached
Why are you so hard to read?
What makes you act so weird?
We are all just unicorns
We are to be feared and freed
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10. |
Do-Re-Mi-Funk
05:30
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Little Suzie dashes out of the village
Her mom goes after her when she flees the playground
Suzie loves to play dead in the bushes
She waits for her mom, and she doesn’t make a sound
Suzie laughs and she laughs and she laughs
As she rolls around in the middle of the grass
Undone by a tickle she submits and must pledge
That she’ll be in her bedroom and study her solfège.
That poor mom is once again out of breath
This time the townsfolk are running her down
She has to pay with her rape and her death
For her brother joining the Roman army.
Suzie looks and she looks and she looks
Finds her inanimate body in the middle of the brook
She curls up against her lifeless mom
Tugging and a-crying she’ll practice her solfège.
Now Suzie goes out to find the Roman camp
She runs in the arms of her uncle and her aunt
Then tells the centurion a curious tale
Of a dangerous and seditious Barbarian chant
Suzie lies and she lies and lies
So the legionnaires make an example of the tribe
They descend on each adult and child
Only departing the village after they’re all crucified
But little Suzie hangs back for a while
She begs for her mom back wearing her biggest smile
Their painful cries of treason are their only reply
But she holds a jerrican, and they wonder why.
Suzie pours and she pours and she pours
And so flows the gasoline at the bottom of the poles
She visited the smith to borrow his burning coals
And ignite the flames that swallow the people whole
Aaaaaah aaaah aah, the wood is crackling
Aaaaaah aaaah aah, her eyes are sparkling
Aaaaaah aaaah aah, that flesh is burning
Aaaaaah aaaah aah, and Suzie is singing:
MI SOL DO MI FA MI RE DO RE
FA LA RE MI RE DO SOL
SI DO RE DO SI DO RE MI DO
MI SOL DO MI FA MI RE DO RE
FA LA RE MI RE DO SOL
SI DO RE DO SI DO RE MI SOL
DO MI SOL LA SOL FA SOL MI
DO MI SOL LA SOL FA MI FA
LA RE FA SOL FA MI DO
RE MI FA MI RE MI FA SOL MI
SOL LA DO RE LA DO
LA DO RE MI SI
SI DO RE MI SOL
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11. |
A Sea of Empty Suits
05:11
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I’m drenched dancing this dance
I’m drenched in this dripping city
I’m not drying off cuz I’m stuck, I’m stuck in this puddle of negativities
Like paying double for a half-empty cup
It’s just another scam, I don’t really give a damn
I climb aboard this boat
I’m not sure it’s afloat
Full of bodies in coats
Cannot avoid the stinking, the sweating of the bodies
All so anxious, listening
Cramped in the armpit of their master
They follow the call of a snaky deceiver
Lose your-self! Lose your-self!
Stick to staring at your laces to redirect your curiosity
Pretend they don't exist, flee the scent of the masses
The mediocre eye of the many
Are not they always there?
Have not they always already been there?
Entangled in ambiguous mess
Automated to your master's summons
Beckoning from the throats of the many
The passive prodigal sons in the barrels of his guns
Lose your-self! Lose your-self!
This park bench is wet, but let us sit
Remind me which self is mine
Through the wetness closed in your eye a tear drops off your cheek
Reminding me that you're real, that you're lost
And I am lost
And lost is what we feel
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12. |
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13. |
What the Paper Says
05:34
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Democrats, autocrats, where are the acrobats
You fight for what's right, get in the photograph
Goliath's dirty mouth fires some tear gas
It's what the post says
Cross the line, making time, and bring those rebels down
They crucify this town, make him look like a clown
But he's our guy, joins the tribe, freedom knows no bounds
It's what the times says
It's so easy to start feeding you news
Gotta get you to stop feeling confused
By what the paper says
Over here through the frontier, deep in the hemisphere
Extra extra coup d'état, don't you believe it dear
Recall and volunteer, bring out the mutineers
Listen to what the people say
Make me president-for-life, take away your voting rights
Goofball loves a shouting match, who cares what he's screaming about
'Cause in the end, freedom strikes, crushes all in its path
Recycle the clichés
We’re ministers of truth you cannot refuse
To hell with those who are feeling the blues
From what the paper says
Oppose and resist, put the flashes to use
Send us some material that we can reproduce
Revolution is in, they have got no excuse
We can blame someone else when they tighten the noose
It’s my time to propagate and further my career
Manufacturing consent, that is what we’re doing here
Stick it in the broadcast of the latest news blast
Give them the party line
(Such as) Weapons of mass destruction
(Or the) Brexit Armageddon
(Plus the) Bernie bros’ agitation
Just blame everything on the Russians
Repeat the lie, falsify and you can fool the crowd
J. Goebbels’ magic phrase
It’s so easy to flood your space with our fake news
I wanna know you are aligning your views
To what our paper says
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14. |
Brown Eyes, Brown Skin
06:57
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15. |
Education Blues
05:28
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16. |
Pray to the Wind
09:11
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Federal Agent Louisville, Kentucky
An original outfit from Louisville, Kentucky, Federal Agent presents an eclectic suite of jazz-infused pop songs, inspired by the sounds of Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan and Sting. The brainchild of pianist-songwriter John X. Paul, the band also features vocalist Julie Baker and a dynamic rhythm section made up of jazz specialists Harris Boyer (guitar), Stuart Wicke (bass), and Brehnan Miller (drums). ... more
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