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1. |
No Good Monster
03:52
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I don’t want to write a song today
Each new chord’s a picture window in the way
Because every door I open up
Is one door more you could choose to shut
And the No Good Monster will hate it anyway
I don’t want to write a song today
Each new word is much too tired or too clichéd
Because every doubt I vocalize
Is one doubt more in someone’s eyes
And the No Good Monster will hate it anyway
I don’t want to write a song today
Each new bridge is losing bricks in rash decay
Because every brick I cornerstone
Is one brick more that cannot be thrown
And the No Good Monster will hate it anyway
The No Good Monster
The No Good Monster
The No Good Monster’s a slithering bird of prey
Who will judge you in every way
I don’t want to write a song today
Each new verse is like a home in disarray
Because every love I speculate
Is one love more with a permanent fate
And the No Good Monster will hate it anyway
The No Good Monster will hate it anyway
The No Good Monster will hate it
Because every door I open up is
One door more you could choose to shut
And the No Good Monster will hate it anyway
The No Good Monster will hate it anyway
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2. |
A Birthday
02:44
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My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these
Because my love is come to me.
Raise me a dais of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.
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3. |
Spruce Top
03:45
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Your guitar is a coffin I want to crawl into
And resonate my way to the grave
Your guitar is a ship headed for the great open
A refuge from the wind and the wave
Your guitar is a tree growing tall and cockeyed
Don’t you remember when they said
Don’t you remember when they told you
“There is something to be said for voice and a song”?
Your guitar is a mountain that you are sliding off of
A caution from the mud and the rain
Your guitar is the sleeping form of your lover
All collarbone and back of the knees
Your guitar is the earth hiding cold and metal
Don’t you remember when they said
Don’t you remember when they told you
“There is something to be said for a voice and a song and a chord to go along”?
You are a link in a mess of chains
Forwards and backwards at once
And your attention is a puzzle
And theirs is a knot to unravel
Your guitar is the commonplace coloured magic
Your guitar is a box of dust in the attic
Your guitar is a wishful story turned tragic
Your guitar is a fresco woven in fabric
Woven in fabric
Don’t you remember when they said
Don’t you remember when they told you
“There is something to be said for a voice and a song and a chord to go along”?
“There is something to be said for a voice and a song”
Your guitar is a spruce top sorting out how
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4. |
Polish & Keep
03:34
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The sleep on your brow, the still of your smile
Are two of a few on this list I compile
The bend of your knees the stick of your back
All these things I love to polish and keep
To tuck in and ponder in my sleep
To tuck in and ponder in sleep what dreams may come
What dreams may come?
And even when gravity helps you pull the blankets from myself
It still makes the list with kisses, warmth and eyelashes
Slipping from their assigned places
And a woven imprint: the musk of yesterday’s thoughts
I hold them close yes
All these things in chests and boxes
Safe for keeping and revisiting
To tuck in and ponder in my sleep
To tuck in and ponder in sleep what dreams may come
What dreams may come?
What fishhooks to polish and keep?
What dreams may come?
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5. |
Letters
04:17
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This rocky shore’s gone cold and grey
I’ve been missing you since you went away
To the mountains with the elk and snow
From there to where, I just don’t know
Autumn’s come now, hard and fast
Your time in this country’s all but past
You’re taking a plane across the seas
Promise that you’ll write, Louise
I met you in March past the land’s divide
Stayed in a house by the old railside
We liked your jokes and you liked our songs
There’s room in the van, won’t you come along?
Heading South through the glaciered peaks
We told you news of our country
The government’s wrecked, hope’s hard to see
Nodding, “sounds like home to me”
Later that night in a mountain town
The bars were closed and the signs were down
We sat in the corner with head to ear
It’s not our place, but I’m glad we’re here
The snow was cold and the river was hard
Standing together ‘neath the glistening stars
We’ll say the shaking’s just our knees
Promise that you’ll write, Louise
We parted ways in a city vast
Said goodbye then you were gone so fast
You went up and we carried on down
Heading east towards the prairie towns
Spring was stirring in the southern fields
But in the north, Winter did not yield
And I missed your warmth, I missed your smile
Day after day, mile after mile
Later on at the farthest place
Forty below with the lights in space
Or heading west back across the plains
Where I find my love, I can’t explain
I know I’ll find it at my Island home
But still I find it on the travelled road
And it leaves me longing, saying please
Promise that you’ll write, Louise
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6. |
Tombée
03:54
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Pour la seconde fois, j’apprends à parler
Et voilà que je chante à côté de moi
Je n’ai pas le mot juste
Mais j’ai le sourire précis
Et je glisse, et je glisse, et je glisse
Tout au bord de ma voix
Et je tombe, je tombe en dehors de mon corps
Je repete et répète, je répète sans fin
Je chante avec mes mains, j’allonge les silences
Non, je n’ai pas d’accent
Seulement un charme fou
Je renverse les phrases
Déshabille les mots
Je recherche des voyelles
Entre la Terre et Jupiter
Je raconte une vie
Que je ne comprends pas
Et parfois, malgré moi
Je m’efface de mon ombre
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7. |
Gradient Graceful
02:39
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You’ve taught me all the hard hard lessons
You’ve taught me the hard hard lessons
Like how to get bitten by a wasp on the knee
And how to lose at chess gracefully
How to tell stories to spite the fear
And how to hold your loved ones near
You’ve taught me how to miss someone who’s still here
Gradient graceful tell me
Tell me who does know, who knows
When an infant becomes?
Gradient graceful tell me
Tell me do you know, do you
When you’ve come undone?
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8. |
Willows
04:07
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There’s a ghost at the window but he’s not looking in
He’s a life of his own and he’s aiming to win
While his feet long for vale and the fond warmth within
There’s a camera that’s chasing each one of us around
And yours isn’t worried about me
There’s a phantom who’s writing the script for her day
All the things that they’re thinking, all the things they could say
While there’s a breeze in the willows that was sent just for her
There’s a playground of visions building castles of sand
They’re surveying and reaching for the height of the land
While there’s a friendship that’s stretching out a young empty hand
So I’m counting the sins of the spectres I know
Each one of them hungry as a carrion crow
And I covet their hunger and they places they’ll go
Hear their quiet hum de dum de dum de dum dah
Their song, with their song they say
“We are doing everything we can to be alright.”
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9. |
Go Straightaway
03:49
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Standing on the corner with my jacket on
It’s been raining and raining the sky is falling down
No don’t you worry about my umbrella I don’t need it
I’ve got a paper in my pocket and I’m waiting for the taxi to come
And I told the driver
Go straightaway
I’ve got to meet my lover at the station
I’ll give him a kiss and we’ll be gone for good
Go straightaway
I’ve got to meet my lover at the station
Don’t tell nobody, this is just between me and you
I know you’ll think it’s crazy but I have to do it
I’ve been waiting and waiting and now I’ve got to try
I said I love him, oh yes you heard me right
Now I can’t deny it
I’ve got a letter and I’m sending it to anybody who wants to know
That I told the driver
Hush your mouth, close your eyes
I’ve got a big surprise
Careful words, perfect timing
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10. |
Where Has My Love Gone?
03:08
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Where has my love gone?
Where has my love gone?
She flew away
To another time of day
I wonder if she thinks of me
I wonder if she cares like she did
Like she did
She really did
What is she saying?
What does she mean?
I haven’t the faintest
But it came from me
And she won’t know
Until she sees me again
She doubts her love for me
Where has my love gone?
Where has my love gone?
I haven’t the faintest
But it came from me
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11. |
All Day Long
03:20
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All day long been working our hearts out
All day long been working so hard
All day long been working our hearts out
Just to work tomorrow again
All week long been working our hearts out
All week long been working so hard
All week long been working our hearts out
Just to work next week again
All month long been working our hearts out
All month long been working so hard
All month long been working our hearts out
Just to work next month again
All year long been working our hearts out
All year long been working so hard
All year long been working our hearts out
Just to work next year again
All life long been working our hearts out
All life long been working so hard
All life long been working our hearts out just to
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12. |
The New World
03:30
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Dig up to your knees
Plant the apple trees
On tomorrow’s graves
Paint the paper white
Pick what to indict
History’s yours to name
Don’t worry baby honey now
Don’t worry it’s all made
Don’t worry it’s all made for you
Oh and all of our songs will sing our praises
Yes they’ll detail our favoured accounts
And oh all of our tales will cast you heroine
Yes we promise you’ll gain almost every time
Fear the noble wild
Kill it in the child
That scattered to the trees
Don’t worry baby honey now
We’ll hide it all away
We’ll hide it all away from you
Oh and all of our songs they sing our praises
Yes they detail our favoured accounts
And oh all of our tales they cast you heroine
Yes we know that you gain almost every time
So choose the truth you need
Let the guilt shift easily
But knowledge begs for action
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13. |
How Could I Not Sing?
04:57
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If the birds were singing, how could I not sing?
If the bush was blooming, how could I not bloom?
If the world was changing, I’d have to change too.
How could I not sing?
If the sun was shining, how could I not shine?
If the leaves were swaying, how could I not sway?
If the night was coming, I’d live through the day.
How could I not shine?
If the sand was shifting, how could I not shift?
If the tide was moving, how could I not move?
If the water was rising, I’d have to rise too.
If the trees were standing, how could I not stand?
If the young were growing, how could I not grow?
If anyone’s listening, I’ll put on the show.
How could I not stand?
If the wild were running, how could I not run?
If the course was bending, how could I not bend?
If the race ain’t over, I’ll push to the end.
How could I not run?
Lend me your ears and I’ll say what I can.
So many stages, but we all have hands.
Come to the steeple, we’ll make the bells ring.
If the birds were singing, how could I not sing?
If the bees were buzzing, how I could not buzz?
If the voice goes silent, it forgets what once was.
How could I not sing?
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West My Friend Victoria, British Columbia
In the modern musical landscape, it’s rare to hear something as put-together as three-piece Cascadian folk outfit West My Friend - something so layered, deeply symphonic, baroque, and mysterious in its own winking way while still courting an edge of disaster. Simple is safe, but complex is fiery, intricate, and ultimately more rewarding. ... more
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