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1. |
Adrift
04:17
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1. Adrift
There’s a row boat tied to a riverside tree
It’s got no oars just the current beneath
It will carry us out and leave no wake
And we’ll wander like ghosts on the river
The wind will blow and the sun will burn
No time nor place but the world will turn
It’s one small step and a leap of faith
To cut this mooring and drift away
And we won’t miss home
Because we’ll never look back again
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2. |
Train of Thought
03:01
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2. Train of Thought
Cling to our tickets find our places
Shut our eyes and close our faces
The doors slide lock seal no escaping
Sit back plug in take to waiting
Quiet carriage dry and silent
Alone in line together pliant
Set us free with no excuses
Hold our breath and light the fuses
And in traces
Unknown places
Just one of me
In a sea of faces
So clearly I can see the oceans
Running down the glass
Do you know me?
Eyes half-closed we drift to dreaming
First while waking then in sleeping
The metal sings to broken beating
Heavy like the concrete breathing
Cutting fine the second rule
Don't look too long or feel the fool
Looking up and meeting gazes
Turn away before it blazes
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3. |
600 Pillows
03:42
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3. 600 Pillows
Itchy pillows and sweaty sheets
The windows locked in a deep dark heat
I lie in a waking dream
Counting every sheep that I can see
The city sirens cry and cry
They sing on even in the dead of night
I lie with my eyes on fire
Tumbleweed across my mind
And in my head the strangest things
Things I’ve tried to never see
Up to the surface
Thoughts I hide in the deepest me
So don't think for a moment
That this is just a passing phase
This is my gentle prison
Every night is just the same
I slept before I knew my name
Never played this waiting game
Back then and I can't see why
The less I rest the more I try
To see inside this bed of dreams
So cruel but it won’t make me bleed
I need to be accepted in
Before I live these words I leave
The dark outside shines bright in my eyes
And my eyes run wild as they move with my mind
And my mind can’t stop ‘cause it’s stuck on this ride
Circling around behind my eyes
Lying in my hotel bed
600 pillows for my head
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4. |
Words
02:36
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4. Words
Take them away
Take away all the words
They mean so many different things
To so many different people
And nobody understands
I get that you think for yourself
But it still seems strange to me
That you don’t feel quite the same
About some things as I do
Bearing in mind
How much we say
With our different faces and voices
Can you imagine what it’s like
For me reading your letter?
How can I understand
Why what I said made you cry?
And every time I tried to explain
It just made it worse
What can I do?
I try; I try to be a good man
And I don’t always fit in
But I think that’s OK
I’m sure that’s OK
I hope; I hope in a few days time
And I know it’s so easy to say
But I hope the tension between us
Will simply fade
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5. |
Little Flame
04:07
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5. Little Flame
Oh little flame
How do you weave the patterns on my wall?
And with your fine bright brush
You paint the shadows falling
Oh little flame
You dance beside me in my dreams
And reaching in the dark
You kiss my arm and mark me
Laying with the flame that burns me
She sees all I cannot see I need
Brightly in her eyes shine fires
Chasing fleeing shadows
Shifting always turning
Colours changing red and gold
To find me in the barest state
With nothing but the dreams I have of this
Oh little flame
Are you as certain as you thought you were?
And will your sleeping embers
Kindle if I hold you?
And as you flicker
Can I whisper all my doubts to you?
And in the quiet night
You whisper back and burn them through
Oh little flame
What are you burning for?
Should I feed your fire
As I will need you all the more?
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6. |
The Eleventh Hour
02:49
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6. The Eleventh Hour
One little book told us all that we were written
And every word we needed was inside it
Two great hands told the world that it was made
And put people on the world to tell it
A three-faced lord paranoid and bored
Flooded all the world just to show them
Four wrote the world of all the wonders they had seen
Then handed over truth to their editors
Five was blood just an old wound now
But every war then and since has been forgotten
Six days succeeded where eternity had failed
The apple on the tree began to ripen
The seventh day he turned his back the apple fell
And gravity was cursed for its allegiance to the devil
On the eighth day he came and some of us were saved
Depending on our appetite for shellfish
The ninth day clouds told the world that they were angels
As they rained upon the people far below them
Ten laws told us all that this is how it is
And the ten plagues gave us reasons for them
The eleventh hour is here when will he appear?
What are we missing while we're waiting for his judgement?
We live in a globe
How can we figure out
The difference between up and down?
We live in a globe
Only we can sort it out
Is he so simple?
We live in a globe
Why should we reach out?
We are indifferent and it’s never our fault
We live in a globe
There’s only so much room for doubt
Are we so simple?
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7. |
River
03:00
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7. River
I’m out of my depth here
The water is over my head
Thundering over the rocks
On the riverbed
Soon the water will wash me away
I will tumble and turn
I won’t try to swim
As the water spills over the edge
I won’t cling on to the rocks
As I feel myself fall
Then the water will follow me down
I will tumble and turn
The water will pull me
And push me and won’t let me go
Captured in water
I am unable to breathe
Soon the water will wash me away
Show me the secrets it keeps
And I’m not me
I watch as I am swept away
As I break
I feel nothing at all
Numb and cold
I no longer need to breathe
I slip away
Now I’m the river the river is me
But now it seems
Like it’s all gone too far
All the important things
now mean nothing to me
But still the water will wash me away
I will tumble and turn
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8. |
Old Brown Box
04:01
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8. Old Brown Box
What will you do when the wind stops howling
And the rain stops pouring and the trees stop falling?
Will you still need to run when the lightning is done?
Will you get no peace at all?
Where will you go when the waves stop hitting
And the sand stops slipping from under your feet?
Where will you hide when the waters subside?
Will you get no peace at all?
You left the week you turned sixteen
A life without limits
The whole world beneath your feet
A life without limits
You say you have to keep the peace
And that’s the only way to do it
The irony escapes you
A life without limits
How will you sleep when your spirit runs dry
And you can’t tell what’s real from what’s in your mind?
You say you’re a fighter till the day you die
But you'll get no peace at all
What will be left when the road leads home?
A purple heart in a uniform
What will be lost in the eye of the storm?
Will there be no peace at all?
You left the week you turned sixteen
A life without limits
So much you’d never seen
A life without limits
You say you have to keep the peace
And that’s the only way to do it
The irony escapes you
A life without limits
I’ll sit alone in my old brown house
And I’ll feel like I’m fighting on the old brown couch
And I’ll watch you fall on the old brown box
And I’ll get no peace at all
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9. |
No Return
03:43
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9. No Return
Composed for the 40th anniversary of the Basel air disaster in which 55 children lost their mothers. It is dedicated to those left behind.
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10. |
This Plane
04:50
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10. This Plane
Teach me the patterns that will immortalise my memory in this plane
I want to watch the world from up above after I’ve left this plane
And I want to watch as the patterns I have left behind unfold
But if all that’s left of me is my memory I might not mind if it fades
Maybe it’s just a way of giving me more purpose in this plane
If I can leave behind a part of me that others can put to my name
Is the greatness of a man measured by what he leaves behind in this plane?
After we’re gone are we judged retrospectively on our first plane fame?
I want to listen to the thoughts of those who remember me
Long after I’ve left this plane
This plane
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11. |
5-Sided Dice
04:07
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11. 5-Sided Dice
Tumbling over the moments that keep us asleep
Spreading our dreams to the corners we wish we could keep
The window is shallow but it’s never been clean
The dirt on the glass helps me see the sun shining again
The dust in the air helps me feel that it's warming me
These are the best days
The best of our lives
Clear to me now are the leaves lying frozen in ice
Captured and tended cold as a five-sided dice
Tested for cracks but the wager is fine
And under the ice is a secret that everyone knows
A secret that no-one will ever tell anyone
These are the best days
The best of our lives
It's bright and it's cold and it's soft in my castle of string
Tangled around me and keeping me safely within
These are the best days
The best of our lives
Perfection in correction never gave truth to our lies
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