1. |
Settle down
04:12
|
|
||
Settle down
Let all the dogs run into the night
Let the stars stick in your eye
You do deserve the silence
I love you still
For the stutter in your step
For the splinters in your side
And as the world falls back to violence
I can sit here quiet a while
And smile
How strange to be alive
To love a body
When bodies are breaking all around
To love a mind
When mine cannot describe
Even your right leg
Your small left hand
Unconsciously
Playing in your lap
Your belly laughs
Your fitful sleeps
How you concentrate
How you nod your feet
To a favourite song
I wish I knew the sort
That sent your red coat
Spinning down Cheyne Walk
Can a heaven know?
Can a heaven be?
That could give to you
What you’ve shown to me
And maybe it’s not time to spill
This stuff into your ear
But curse this stiff propriety
And sod these creeping fears
It is
A wondrous thing
To love a body
Beneath the unforgiving night
To love a mind
Before the certainty of time
You’ve got a little more
Left inside of you
|
||||
2. |
Here the Roses
03:38
|
|||
The city lied
And you, you listened
You fell in bed
With all its histories
And did the drink
Get into you?
Or you into it?
You were one
Among a million
Among the several
Other millions
Who don’t know
What you put into this
Who don’t know
What you gave up
And what did I do
To make matters worse?
You, you left without a thing
You left a light on
There was little else changed in the house
Though I found a fresh silence
You were young, you had a choice
You were young, you had a choice
Do you know dear?
Here the roses
Here the roses
Came out today
Do you know dear?
Here the roses
Here the roses
Came out today
Go on, go on
Show you do
|
||||
3. |
One Winter, One Spring
03:13
|
|||
I turned from you beneath the winter
I turned to face a sea
That could swallow me
And oh, oh, oh
I just fell right in
Limb after flailing limb
Though a cradle lay upon the shore
Upon the barren beach
And it lay empty
Oh, oh, oh
Though we had kept it clean
Year after year
And as my feet scrabbled for some ground
And as the brine rushed into my mouth
I saw your hair caught on the wind
But our winters, our springs
They were gone
I called to you
But you only heard the moans
Of the tumbling waves
As they broke me on the stones
And I dreamt that you surrounded me
You picked/fished me out
You showed me home
Amidst your body’s rising, breaking swells
I was never lost
I was never alone
But now I go
Must I go?
Upon the winds
Upon the breakers
Now I go
Must I go?
Between the toes
Of the holiday makers
Won’t you just hold me?
Hold me
Oh, hold me
Oh, hold me
‘Cause you have won me
You have stolen me
You have laid
A blessing on me
Why didn’t I keep it?
Why did I lose it?
One more winter
One more spring
|
||||
4. |
Across the Sea
05:06
|
|||
We meet in the same place we do twice a week
Where your hair turns to straw – turned by the sea breeze
And the reflection of the harbour lights
Just pulls me further into your eyes
Oh me, oh my
But that’s barely a breeze so you make barely a sound
You speak quieter now for the quiet that surrounds us
And the creaks and shudders of the hulls
Are all we have for company, for now
And tomorrow those boats will be gone
And I will wish one took us on
But we’ll still wait
Though you will say and say
You would run
You would run, run, run
You would run, run, run
Really?
Truly?
Will you run?
Or will we, we still, we still
Will we, we still, we still
Slip like foxes to this place?
You can chide me
I’m an impetuous thing
You can curse the slight cold
Keep your hands to your sleeves
I’ve told myself many, many times
It’s not for your own sake that you stay behind
Your father yes he’s a character
And your mother still wishes he’ll marry her
But you can wait a lifetime for another
To want for what you do
Especially a fool
Oh! I want to dance you to the edge of town
Beyond that cruel horizon for once for all
All time
Won’t you speak?
They say you’re not so shy
And I’ve seen them map you with their eyes
And perhaps they’re just boys being boys
But what they’ll privately desire
They will publicly deny
And I have heard too many times
Of women tried for crimes
It’s said they’ve provoked with the blink of an eye
With the brushing of a thigh
And I, I may talk a lot like the rest
And in some ways I’m like the rest
(I would see that blush move from your cheek down to your breast)
But I’m different
I’m different
And there’s a wonderful life across the sea
There’s a wonderful life across the sea
There’s a wonderful life, a wonderful life, a wonder
Just beyond me
Will we, we still, we still
Will we, we still, we still
Stay, just growing older
|
||||
5. |
||||
Don’t touch the light my love
Let it lie
Let it lie
These are rare times
And after them hides
A future we can’t
Quite muzzle with wine
Will my hand seek yours?
Will yours shy from mine?
Despite how we try
To pull the evening down
To wrap it round us
To take the hands from the clock
To share what we have found
To make it timeless
Before the night coughs us up
But time’s never yours
And time’s never mine
And time’s never ours
And the time’s never right
You say the time’s never right
But where’s the joy in being
So briefly alive
But to share our bodies
And to share our minds
All I can do
Is all I will do
All I can do
Is all I will do
|
||||
6. |
God's Luck
03:42
|
|||
It’s a curious thing
Always to hold
The house of another
Dearer than your own
To be a stranger described by
Four bare white walls
To be a shadow, be a midwife
Have so little spring from yourself
But if you’d lay me down
On that big bed of yours
Let me creep between the cushions
While your guests talk next door...
‘Cause it’s you and this house that I love
And I pray for the day when with luck
God’s luck
You’ll rise at my side like the dust in the light
Oh mercy
I knew a woman once
It was years ago
She showed me the whole dance
She let me know
It’s a vicious thing is love
Oh mercy
Did she crumble under me?
She said she did
As I mumbled fumbling at her tits
‘Would you cradle, cradle me?’
Oh mercy
But all those sighed encouragements
Could never be enough
If I was not the first
How could I be the last?
To touch her harsher hairs
Feel her wet
Oh mercy
But if I knock a picture down
Spoil its full beauty
To one you’d squint to see
One known just to me
Something broken I might keep
Oh mercy
Oh would you cradle, cradle me?
I am at the walls
I’m a shriek of jealousy
Loosed through your halls
Before I start to tear
At all that I hold dear
Would you give me, give me
You and this house that I want
I want
And I pray for my sake
For your sake
For our sake
That a heart can be stilled
And a mind may be quietened
With mercy
Will I ever know such mercy?
Will you ever show mercy?
|
||||
7. |
Amongst the Disappeared
02:45
|
|||
Stay longer
It’s happened again
Stay longer
Never take another train
‘Cause it could be you
Amongst the disappeared
It could be you
On a list of names
And it is you
Who feels like family
It is you
Who fills the space
When in the night, the night, the night
Our unborn babies cry and cry
If only your memory survives
What’s to quiet them in that?
The body I press against
As we lay on our bed, our bed
The flesh that I can’t defend
They don’t care how it ends
I don’t know
I don’t know what I’ll do
If you’re lost
I’m lost too
|
||||
8. |
Broken Bottles
04:38
|
|||
Long, long did I
Wait for that boat to show
A white fleck on the ocean
But instead
I watched
As the storm came in stages
Broken bottles on waves
I’m older now
And as the sea
And my belly
Did churn in kind
A few quiet friends
Took my side
And I recalled that day
Your sly pinch
The shuffling crowd
What we avowed
The scattered, shy applause
As thrown petals fell
And we stepped out
But it was rain not flowers there
That I pulled through my mussed hair
As the sea grew vicious
And our horizon disappeared
Oh where are you?
What did you see?
When the waves came
Did you call for me?
As I stood on that shore
A still point in the storm
As the thunder clapped
As the sky collapsed
I faced the sea
That strange, familiar thing
Still beautiful though raging
It showed me an eternity
It showed me an oblivion
But I’ve my memories
And you are borne upon them
Now every time the rain begins
Those petals fall down on me
Those petals fall again
And I, yes I
I can try
To love you all my life
To love you all my life
To love these stormy days
To let the waves remake your face
Though it’s always slightly changed
Enough of you remains
Enough of you remains
Enough of you remains
Broken bottles on the waves
Broken bottles on the waves
Broken bottles
Broken bottles
On the waves
|
||||
9. |
That Easy Way
07:49
|
|||
I watched you in that sudden rain
How you laughed as it fell on you
And I watched you draw your sister near
How she folded right into you
Take your time
Oh lord
Take your time
Oh lord
I recognise it now
In the minutes
In the hours
Take your time
Oh lord
Take your time
Oh lord
I would see my brother laugh
In that easy way that only he can laugh
‘Cause all my life, all my life
I’d wait, wait, wait
All my days, all my days
For change, for change
Take your time
Oh lord
Take your time
Oh lord
I recognise it now
In the minutes
In the hours
Take your time
Oh lord
Take your time
Oh lord
I would see my brother laugh
In that easy way that only he can laugh
It is among us
Without, within
Autumn and summer, winter and spring
I love you Michael
I could burst from it
The world held in your little eyes, your little eyes
Is a glorious thing
So take your time
Oh lord
|
||||
10. |
Only The Night
02:59
|
|||
Come back, come back
I am gone to my seams
Come back, come back
I am burst
I dreamt the tree came down
And what you’d say still resounds
Still sits cold in my brain
‘It is only the night
And the night has to end’
And you would lie with me
Until the day begins
Begins again
Cruel winds they blow
Cruel winds
And all the souls on that raging sea
You would gather them in
If you could gather them
It is only the night
It is only the night
|
Streaming and Download help
If you like Fireworks Night, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp