1. |
Limbs
03:20
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Cold-sweat-sleeping my way across the South-West
feel like I could slip through the cracks in the pavement
nothing makes me tear-up like a brass band
or David Attenborough's broken sentences
It always stayed just out of my grasp
like trying to remember a smell
it always strayed just beyond my grip
like loose-limbed dancing and your finger tips
I'm riding 'round on flat tires
a guitar with two strings
winking at the priest
from the back of the christening
I live for snatches of your morning breath
and no one speaks ill of the recently dead
"write about loss" and steal lines from your friends
I've misplaced half the things that I've owned
like the Decepticon car stolen when I nine
that I innocently thought vanished in the grass
I've got hair growing in places where it wasn't before
wanna be recognised by more than my dental records
I could've been a star of marine science
but the lies on my entry form got spied on
co-incidental, like how his initials are a virulent disease
I somehow got your attention
without resorting to Plan B
and lying down in front of your mini
I was all limbs from five
driving deep beneath the bedding
you said you didn't mind
but your big eyes were pink and tired
working a sixty hour week
will never leave you at your peak
and for all the time I sit about
I'm always left with chest pains on Thursday and Friday nights
At the Great Museum of the North
they've got mammal skeleton's hung on a board
they all look more than a bit like you and me
a cat, a whale and a chimpanzee
and if/when I heed the call of the sea
donate my bones to osteology
there's a vacancy for my species
to scare, pin my arms in the air
You were all limbs from five
twisting yourself up in the bedding
I really didn't mind
my brain had been racing for a while
creating a fictional crisis
that evaporates when i get up to wizz
come back cold and wake you up just to hold you
It always stayed just out of my grasp
like trying to remember a smell
it always strayed just beyond my grip
like loose-limbed dancing and your finger tips
Two AM at the supermarket chiller
you just take my hand and lead me away
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2. |
Before I Got Fat
03:34
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I barely remember
all those nights in Sheffield before I got fat
I'd happily intervene
in night club dust ups to restore the calm
shaking the bouncers off my arm
but when she went away
I'd refresh my emails twenty times a day
the dial-up tone's an alien tongue
the biology of anxiety
cortisol, ACTH, the reason why my stomach aches
(when this world began, it was heavens plan, there should be a girl, for every single man)
Always request read receipts
check inbox, check inbox
Sometimes you can live too close to a beer-off
calculating ratios of percentage to pounds
sweet memories of spooning in a room half a world away
but how soon will it dawn, what you missed while you swooned?
The terrace rows look like skyscrapers felled
from the bowling green snow where I sprawl surrendered
after a few drams too many
cos you've told me the distance
has grown further in your heart
and the nothing i have to offer you
is no longer what you want.
(when this world began, it was heavens plan, there should be a girl, for every single man, to my great regret, someone has upset, heavens pretty programme)
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3. |
Late Nights
02:35
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My ribcage is the shape of an inverted heart
from my perspective it is the bones that hold us
and it keeps swelling and creaking
with each tired and nervous inhale
head rushed with too much oxygen to ever fail
fortified wines from fortified islands
flood through my veins and dismantle my defenses
Feline friends with tiny minds watching while i sit and cry
and I have learnt the distance when it's your turn to call
Buy me a glass I need to unwind
I need a cigarette, do we have time?
Those things will kill you, they are a curse
while i think that life will get you first
(Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay, where you die I will die)
I never got a reply from the TV company
re: the sitcom that I half-wrote about you and me
suppose there were problems with the denouement
when she left through the window
you don't build characters if they keep fucking off and leaving
I hope that I am happy
I know that I'm to blame
People always stay the same age they were when you first met them
still with the hopes they had when they first met you
Buy me a glass I need to unwind
I need a cigarette, do we have time?
Those things will kill you, they are a curse
while i think that life will get you first
(Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay, where you die I will die)
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4. |
Kingfisher Dave
03:28
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What have I achieved since my twenty-third year?
Just some self-obsessed songs that nobodies heard
made i sign for my music room that reads
"You've accomplished NOTHING"
Found a girl who likes to cuddle
made a motivational mix of songs and fell asleep in the bath
til the grubby, saline water was cold
Work, sleep, hold you tight
work, sleep, sit in at night
pretending to read
as my eyes slip to the screen
Just a few months and now everything seems changed
you feel the nerves creep up the back of your knees
colours more vivid
but everything's lost some value
even your old friends
When you're happier, you wanna drink less
so why've bought these nine pint mini-kegs?
I'm developing, now when I'm nervous
I still scratch my penis, but no longer sniff fingers
Help a stranger down a flight of steps with a pram then
run off with her handbag
Maybe Cotton Mather was right and there's evil circling our homes at night
Just a few months and now everything seems changed
you feel the nerves creep up the back of your knees
colours more vivid
but everything's lost some value
even your old friends
I look embarrassed
but say it's sunburn
when maybe I'm hiding some lethal guilt
and the suspense felt
by Dr Crippin on The Montrose
caught by a pyjama top as Ethel parades in his wife's clothes
Woke up with a big man's beard like snakes pouring out of my pores
like fear
Even though it was only onion tears
i put my arm round you and I held you near
What have I achieved since my twenty-third year?
Just some self-obsessed songs that nobodies heard
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5. |
Toughen Up
03:04
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I've gotta toughen up
don't take it lying down
Why am affected by
the slightest change in your facial expression?
As the sadness rots my stomach
and you blink in Morse code
and chew your nails off and on again
I've gotta toughen up
don't take it lying down
Our bodies hold their own memories
involuntary interlocking
and raising hands to cheeks
and I've stopped remembering my dreams
I couldn't tell you whether I'm happy or sad right now
I've gotta toughen up
don't take it lying down
Tasting all the metals dissolved in your blood
when it's this quiet I swear I can hear your skin breathing
living the life of a sedentary animal
stabled and dry
lying face-down on the carpet
as the cat pounces at my twitching toes
but tonight we're both totally all alone
although I make you laugh I know that's not enough
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Outside Your House UK
Outside Your House are a two man operation.
Faithful Johannes is part spoken word
poet, part folk singer, part laid-back rapper with an eye for detail.
Sweet-singing Jonathan Swift‘s musical scrapbook of vinyl samples, live instruments and cut-up beats delivers the pop backdrop.
The melancholy of brass bands, chest pains, beer-offs, weight gain & David Attenborough
... more
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