1. |
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Here I am again, writing songs instead of living
and everything's the same as it was almost a decade ago.
In fact I could wake up tomorrow in 2001
and I'd never realise that I travelled back in time.
Every chord I play sounds strange and every word I sing is strained.
If you can see yourself heading somewhere else you're lucky.
I can't see past next week. Tomorrow. An hour. Five minutes.
A hard thing to accept is that soon I will forget to breathe
and they won't know what they should say about me or my life.
The only thing I've learnt today is how to lose at video games.
A heart too heavy is an art to envy, yes a heart too heavy is an art to envy!
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2. |
Gather Everything
02:33
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Keep it all inside, they could kill you if they want to
and they could be you.
Steal your life if you like.
So strengthen your mind, swot up on plots from comic books.
Now you're prepared for the worst.
For the worst.
They're burning down the city, they're flooding all the streets.
Evacuate the buildings if you want to live.
Gather your possessions, gather everything.
This media paranoia you've got me believing has got me on a string.
Keep it all inside, they could kill you if they want to
and they could be you.
Steal your life if they like.
Strengthen your mind, swot up on plots from comic books.
Now you're prepared for the worst.
For the worst.
They're burning down the city, they're flooding all the streets.
Evacuate the buildings if you want to live.
Gather your possessions, gather everything.
This media paranoia you've got me believing has got me on a string.
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3. |
Beat Nostalgia
02:24
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I've been lying under artificial light
where I can never feel satisfied that you can beat nostalgia.
All my flaws are magnified when my friends are successful
and I have never even tried to beat nostalgia.
I'm gonna book myself in a cheap hotel
and tell everybody I'm going to find myself.
Not till I count to ten will I feel safe again.
I won't keep promises.
I won't keep anything.
Not till I count to ten will I feel safe again.
I won't keep promises.
I won't keep anything.
Disappointment is a common outcome
when I'm trying to do something that I've never done before
So instead of making necessary calls
I'm writing unnecessary songs
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4. |
A Hundred Ways to Hide
02:17
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This disease is the kind that starts off inside,
it flows through your veins and your mind.
It lets itself out through your fists and your mouth.
Pick up your gun we are leaving.
You will lie
You will lie every night.
And I don't understand the future yet.
If every last word was meant to be heard
then maybe someone could explain
or write it all down
'Self Help For The Dying'
and live off the royalties for life.
You will lie
You will lie every night.
And I have found a hundred different ways to hide.
If every last word was meant to be heard.
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5. |
Inside a Swill Bucket
03:09
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You're putting your faith in the hands of a stranger.
Who's posing as God in the form of a writer?
Put your hands up now!
As Orwell said 'advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket'
Put your hands up now!
Put your hands up now!
You are the liar of this town.
When a teenager kills someone in the name of his country
he's heralded as a saint, the nation's hero.
Stick your hands up now!
You are the criminal of this town.
The newspapers are always adamant that they're reporting for you,
about a country swamped with violence,
about a country swamped with news.
You don't call yourself a patriot
and you're not a violent man
but if you catch the cunts responsible
they will feel your iron hand.
They will fear your iron hand.
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6. |
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Our work will hang in the Tate someday
as an expression of free speech.
Independence will prevail,
but for now we will have to make do with the streets.
We will have to make do.
We'll buy paper and blu-tack and paint
and set up our own gallery.
The underground won't hold us forever.
No, the underground won't hold us forever.
Those middle-class citizens,
all they want is their piece of rebellion
hanging on their walls, hanging in their halls
to prove that they're still alive.
The clinics and the councils couldn't stop us.
Paris and London couldn't stop us,
but the cities won't hold us forever.
No, the cities won't hold us forever.
If we put our paintings up for sale,
auction them to the highest bidder.
Who will that reward?
No one will applaud this capitalist measure of success.
If ideas create a sense of worth
we don't need money to make it work.
But we can't remain penniless forever,
our bodies they need food and they need shelter.
Those middle-class citizens,
they shall have their piece of rebellion,
hanging on their walls, hanging in their halls
hanging on their walls, hanging in their halls!
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7. |
Tokyo Fashion Crisis
02:04
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Make your mistakes while you're young, while you still can
and choose all your friends by the size of their record collection.
In a Tokyo fashion crisis no one really panics.
In a Tokyo fashion crisis everyone's prepared.
Pretend to appreciate modern art and literature.
Classic cinema should mean nothing to you now.
In a Tokyo fashion crisis no one really panics.
In a Tokyo fashion crisis everyone's prepared.
But reading's not the same and people aren't the same,
music's not the same as it used to be.
Cinema's not the same, art is not the same.
No, nothing is the same as it used to be.
Make your mistakes while you're young, while you still can.
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8. |
No Sea
02:32
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I need a lie to keep myself alive,
if I decide it's not enough to satisfy.
I can't leave it alone.
And there's no sea so I can never really leave
but I will drown in expectations I will not acheive.
I won't leave it alone, I can't leave it alone.
There's no trees, no leaves that I can hide underneath
so that you don't see that I am just pretending to be anyone but me.
This is kind deceit.
Keep myself, I'll keep myself occupied
so I don't ruin any other lives.
I can't leave it alone.
I won't leave it alone.
So keep yourself seated honey-bunny,
it's a lot to ask you see.
So I will speak a language no one understand but me,
and you know me.
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9. |
Bedroom Backlash
01:40
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You could buy everything if it only had a price
but it's worth was questionable.
Even you can't see your side.
Figure out, figure out, you figure out you'll feel alive
by writing "you can't see the truth, consumer open up your eyes"
Can you feel like it's all in your mind?
Can you see that it's all in your mind?
Spend or save? Spend or save? Spend or save? You have resigned -
that once it starts you cannot see the end - it is an endless line.
You cannot see that it's all in your mind.
You can't see that it's all in your mind.
You can't believe that it's all in your mind.
You concede that it's all in your mind!
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10. |
All Good Creatures
03:36
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You found an old shoebox where you put all the things
that you'd like to have with you at the end of the world.
It's coming, or so they tell you.
A newspaper printed on the day you were born,
the headline is faded and the pages are torn
but you can almost make out the date at the top.
If all good creatures survive you won't be one.
There's a well-read copy of 1984
annotated by someone with a left-handed scrawl
and a habit of spelling Winston with an E at the end.
You say you started it three times and finished it once
but you started it four times and didn't finish it at all.
A note from a lover you haven't seen in a decade
but his handwriting brings back a thousand bad memories.
You both lived for the future but it turns out the future ends here.
Cause when the winds start to pick up the houses will crumble
and human existence will be nothing but rubble.
You have no religion but that doesn't worry you at all.
People will panic but you will stay calm
because you've placed all the things that you've ever loved
inside a box with your name written on.
Every bad photo is taped up inside.
There's the vinyl you bought before you could play them
and the cassette you made for
- but never gave to -
a friend who is probably doing the same as you.
People will panic but you will stay calm.
The planet will smoulder until there's nothing left to burn.
If all good creatures survive you won't be one.
If all good creatures survive you hope you're not one.
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Captain Polaroid Birmingham
My fuzzy, shambolic lo-fi pop is thrown carelessly out of a bedroom window in Birmingham, UK.
Everything here can be downloaded for free.
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