1. |
Albion Ferry
02:40
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Another disgruntled customer
Bad service reviews
Of course I will
Inscrutable forgotten muse
Lonely bay, sinking attitude
Altitude of the sunken lover
Solitude of the woeful brother
Prophecy of the saddest sucker
Now clap your paws for the hapless fuck up
Waiting for an end
Drink the water, dream the sludge
Sunk so deep it cannot budge
Moored to a memory
That dangler's gonna damage
Got hooked on a feeling, too heavy to carry
Indefinable spirit smudge
Teenage vampire in cedar mulch
Lying low on the waterfront
Staying out of the sun and out of touch
Oh baby, you’re all dried up
You’ll shrivel up, you'll shrivel up, you'll shrivel up
Sighing down the old dock hoes
Waiting for a ghost ferry
It never comes
Thought about New York
Planned a little marriage
Got some stitching done
On the undercarriage
Had a little crisis then I just stopped caring
I regret the night I met you
At the Albion Ferry
And I’m praying for the end
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2. |
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The blackening
The whitening
The reddening
The sharpening
The softening
The deadening
The loosening of ties
The body rife with flies
The writhing mass
That knows not where it's going
It's coming on strong now
No room to doubt
Someone blew your birthday candles out
The old mythic practice
Prayers for the dead
Wishes and fishes
Lightning bolt for the mud
Black holes merging
Like a trillion suns
Somewhere way out yonder
Past that bowl
You call a head
Florentine yellow
And the great mogul
Lament the loss
Of the fabled jewel
Your greed gets so high
Built up like a palace
Mirrored halls grow
The flower of your hubris
Better tie your kerchief tight
It's not a pretty sight
And your looking pretty pretty pretty
Pretty vacant
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3. |
Salamander
04:35
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“I am neither young enough or credulous enough to believe you can manufacture out of nothing, something to replace the song I had” (Zelda Fitzgerald)
The melody begins, precarious and strange
The night flower opens it’s throat
A technicolor scream
In the dusk coming on
Dusty hot and slow
Never a thing to do
Til the boys come around
Heads tilt back and slide away
Light on the water swings and sways
Lift your dress up to perform
A drunken Swan Lake
Taxi cab through the street again
Oh the glamours of these glamourous men
Who’d rather see you dead my friend
Than ever see you be free
I believed I was a salamander
And the beat went on and the night was tender
Morning comes after the bender
So tenuous and rare
The thread dissolves that tethered you
Leaves you stranded in the air
So shake that last ribbon from your hair
Lie down in the gathering gloom
Smoke fills the locked room
The weather will come cool again
Stars speckle the drum of the sky
I will poison any who drink from my well
As I regain my sight
I shed my scaling skin
Consumed by the fire
'Can one become as char
And yet remain entire?'
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4. |
Slow Tide
03:00
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Slow tide
Seven o clock in the morning
Halfway alive
Chasing shadows
The houses, hedges, and Toyotas
Dissolve in meaningless line
It’s not a long way to go
We left there an hour ago
What happened to the cityscape
Like I never lived here before
True crime
The neighbourhood watch has disbanded
So you can do what you like
Wherever we go
There's nothing to notice
It’s not good or bad
Like one time you said
Everywhere is just Maple Ridge
But we were just stupid kids
Sometimes everywhere really is
And you can’t make records when you’re dead
Cold times
Losing the buzz isn’t easy
But you learn how to abide
And get going
Perpetual adolescence notwithstanding
It loses the shine
The bloom is off the rose
The dandies have all gone to seed
Gotta learn to let it go
Leave some room to let it breathe
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5. |
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Haunted, haunted
By all that you wanted
By decoded answers
Of pretend necromancers
You were all that I thought of
All along Jacksons Garden
Now who would’ve thunk it
I’m taking it to Vaudeville
But Erik, be level
Are you indeed the devil
Well, what did you conjure
What ghastly cadaver
The long longed for message
Was a fraudulent ‘Forgive’
I heard the papers mention
Your aerial suspension
Guess it pays to be tragic
Mama shake me, I’m magic
But Erik, be level
Are you indeed the devil
Cuz I’m still in the grip of you dangling three floors up above
A well dressed crowd on a Thursday at The Vancouver Sun
How did you ever get down?
How did you get it undone?
Could we be mistaken
Our confidence breaking
We exposed false idols
We vanquished our rivals
Still I trace your footsteps
And I wait for an answer
But you know that kind of thinking
You know that it can be poison
You know that it can be poisonous
It can be as poisonous, as poisonous as cancer
So Erik, be level
Are you the devil
Now listen to me Weisz
Do you even believe in the bible?
So he just had to try him
And at Detroit Grace
He got away
On All Hallows' Eve
No more tricks up his sleeve
But oh Rosabelle
Do you still believe?
Can you understand
Ten years is long enough
To wait for any man
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6. |
Berry Days
02:31
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We're like little tinkling coins
Removed from circulation
Currency from a country that
I've never visited
On one side's a profile
Some elder statesman on his horse
Of irreproachable integrity
Not a thief or a murderer of course
Oh the golden glory days
When men were men
Let's sigh and bow our heads
For what will never be again
The tails side is a cedar bough
Or a row boat, or a flowering branch
Commemorating our history of
Summers flown too fast
So swing me round to a cover band
A couple of dancing queens
I don't make a good fake daughter I guess
I've never really been
Oh the golden glowing days
Ripened on the vine
I wanted to thank you
I never ate
So many berries in my life
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7. |
The Wrestler
03:29
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Central fire and the unseen body
Tumble deftly through the dawning
The shell is lost, the will goes on
Shades of forgotten forms
Comes without warning
Slowly falling
I hear it calling
Stumble back in the bleak hereafter
Always was the oblivion you were after
Sneak a kiss to your dying master
All hail the king in his darkest chapter
Wavering in the sky
Commemorate in a lullaby
Debase frail consciousness
Forsake vain sorcery
Get down on your knees in fear
The death knell of an ego trip
Bring the shell close to your ear
A broken code in lieu of prayer
Transmissions over
‘The Giant was here’
While the lights dance all around
What was lost can now be found
The show is about to begin
The curtain rises, go on in
For what it’s worth
I hope you win
Every fight
You imagined
That you did
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8. |
Oh Boy
03:30
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It was all a fever dream
A desert isle
Lilliputian schemes
Of a hurting child
Wild and unreasoning
It was big and bold and oh it was loud
It reduced the one to a crowd
And for years it drowned out all the screaming
It said lay your soul down here
We will tend it for you
Which in truth proved a little misleading
Come the broken bonds
And the cupboards bare
You've got nothing for me to believe in
That's the virtue buried in the vice
The wisdom won at an inordinate price
Find a heart made of gold
Not of lead or of tin
Find a safe harbour
With a good companion
Hear it from afar
Slightly out of tune
Perform the pattern required
By your harlequin suit
For your million friends
Everyone sleeping
But it aches now always like a rotten tooth
Losing track of days
No one mentions it's lose
Oh the sin of not paying
Enough attention
What happened to me
Will happen to everyone
What happened to me
Is gonna happen to you, too
Come the broken bonds
And the cupboards bare
There'll be nothing for you to believe in
In the end, you get nothing but time
All the time in the world to lose your mind
Oh boy, coming over and over
Oh boy, sing it tender and joyful
Here it comes, here it comes, here it comes
Oh boy, coming over and over
Oh boy, sing it tender and joyful
Bring it back, bring it back, bring it back
To a heart made of gold
Not of lead or of tin
Find a safe harbour with a good companion
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9. |
Gifted
05:51
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I’m a canopy bed
In snowflake pattern
A Barbie dream house
Christmas morning
A prom dress, ruffled and shiny
Disney and a sweet sixteen party
Convertible in the driveway with a big red bow
I’m going to Mexico
Over the Holiday
I’m a full set of new clothes
To start off the year
I’m a little right now
Save some for later
I’m going away to college
Mother cried as she taped up the box lids
Convertible in the driveway with a big red bow
I’m going to Mexico
Over the Holiday
Convertible in the driveway with a big red bow
I’m going to Mexico
Over the Holiday
Do you know what it is to be gifted
Do you know what it is to be gifted
Do you know what it is to be gifted
Do you know what it is to be gifted
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10. |
Shangri-La
02:30
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A cave man unthawed
They'll et you up in a zoo
There's a field trip coming through today
Do you remember what you saw
Before they stuffed you in the hall
An artifact from before
To set a mood
See the olden days in a creep show case
Out of true
Take a look back now
There is nowhere
To go back to
There's no Shangri-La
A humble pile of bones
Tagged and catalogued
In between the beadwork and canoes
I give up all my dreams
To escape from the museum
I'll stay here forever next to you
See the olden days in a creep show case
Out of true
Take a look back now
There is nowhere
To go back to
There's no Shangri-La
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11. |
Transition Hold
03:29
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Golden rings from the dollar store
Dried petals found on the floor
I must look up
How to attach anything to anything
What can be used to bind
How do you go about moving forward
Find more to life
Make the transition hold
Scared to leave what you've known
There's something I used to know
Something's missing
I am sure
Some way I used to be
Able to see
Can't seem to find anymore
Transmission by tone
Your voice on the phone
Your voice in my head going over and over again
Long after you've gone
I still hear the sound
How do you bind anything to anything else
Transition hold
How do you bind anything to anything else
Transition hold
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Valerie Graham Vancouver, British Columbia
Valerie Graham was born in Ontario in the 80's. She lives in Vancouver and writes sad, pretty songs for herself with her
partner Jordie and writes angry, funny songs for her punk band Spring Breaks, and plays bass with LeMaster..
springbreaks1.bandcamp.com
lemaster.bandcamp.com
... more
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