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1. |
Intro
00:15
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Welcome to the town that tour guides induce
North American spunk-bubbles to come find their roots
It’s just a spec of dust
On a pink lightbulb
It’s just a single twig in the river
That runs around the back of this town
Where the paint is stripped
And the wall paper’s peeling
Tourists only see it in their peripheral
When they’re looking for the stone circle
They’ll never find them up there on the shittest hill in the world
But nonetheless a hill
Where litter collects and late at night,
Teenage fantasies are met
No, it’s not quite Kaya Scodalario
Well, it could be if you want but I was always too frightened
To let it get as exciting as that
I’d prefer to watch whilst the wheels came off
And legs would collapse under the weight of consumption
Yeah, it’s never quite pink lightbulbs
It’s almost like I never… I never looked hard enough
But I’ve seen the underbelly
Of the tourist trail
I’ve seen people pissing on the rock
That overlooks the bay
I’ve heard people at it in the flats above
The quaint bookshop-cum-café
I’ve seen up past the bed and breakfasts
And the county league training grounds
Where late at night, we’ve trekked across
So as not to be found
I’ve seen people screwing against the wildlife guide plaques
I’ve seen people banging tabs in the bat sanctuary
Well, all that broken glass must have come from somewhere
No, it’s not from the sea
When they see that little secondary school
With its culturally invoking crest
Oh, yeah, but in there there’s teenage lust brewing
It’s close to spewing out and submerging the town in a flood
That happened once but it was just rainwater
It was exciting stuff
To see it all ground to halt
Things got weird and people had to stay at other people’s houses
Until the water went down
And these kind of afternoons are when girls find out
That the boys they thought were just friends
Are actually ‘the one’ and they go up to her bedroom
Whilst her mum is putting sandbags down in the door of the salon
And get it on
Pink lightbulbs and clothes and Bombay mix lips
Nuclear fingertips
The internet is slow but there’s about twenty places
To get a coffee to go,
Maybe we could go?
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2. |
Countries
03:35
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I’ve been waiting
I’ve been waiting around for you to arrive again
Standing under the tangled branches of despair
I see someone
She’s got your hair but none of your definition
Put me in a tough position
Past the park
Past the woods
Past the river
Past the mountains
Past the countries
Where are we?
Past the countries
Where are we?
What are countries?
Where are we?
Just in the ocean, all at sea
I’ve been waiting
I’ve been waiting around for you to arrive again
For your perfume to strangle me to the floor again
Spend an afternoon chasing your lips and hands
It’s worth the weight of the ocean and its depth
Past the park
Past the woods
Past the river
Past the mountains
Past the countries
Past the countries
Where are we?
Where are we? Where are we? Where are we?
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3. |
Breaking Branches
03:52
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You’re like night time in the summer
Uncomfortable and always late
Holy hell, pray-tell hotels
Where the seagulls circle over seafoam
Wait, my dear
Do the seagulls turn to eagles when the weather turns?
Branches turn to ashes when the kindling burns
Fake smile October tides
Where we disobeyed the warning signs
I want to disobey more warning signs
If it’s bites as brown as the breaking branches
That seem to break like brittle plans
Now regret is airborne
And it’s circling you like prey
Do I detect deep down there are
More feelings at play?
Did he try and twist your arm
And end up breaking your wrist?
Dragging and depositing
A heartache longshore drift
Walking on eggshells
Sometimes you’ve got to stamp them in the sand
Loveless alarm bells
Don’t waste your time planting in arid land
Like a tissue comes undone
In the washing machine drum
In bits it all comes
Into bits we all become…
Breaking branches
Bites as brown
Breaking branches
Bites as brown
Breaking branches
Eyes as brown
Breaking branches
Two hearts as brittle
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4. |
Skipped Period Blues
04:17
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You thought he’d got off
With the ballerina who looked just like Kate Bush
And she could sing Wuthering Heights dead good
Mind you, you were smoking drugs
That night, oh in the grizzly between weeks
Between summer and September 1st
Time was going to do its worst to you
Two years of kids converge
As some had done fourth year and some had not
And you met a boy who didn’t take himself so serious
He’s a way out is he?
From your mum’s depression and your dad’s redundancy?
Oh he makes you feel special because
He blushes when he talks to you.
But now, there is another
He’s a little bit older
He knows his culture
And he says so sweetly to you, yeah he says…
“Meet you down in Rino,
Bring the crisps, I’ll bring the vino
And don’t bother changing baby,
Because I like you in your polo shirt”
Before the superglue has dried,
On your final year project,
Sneak out early and come down
“I’ll be hanging around the picnic benches”
So all your friends keep saying
It’s a bit like Manhattan
But you don’t know what they mean
I guess because you’ve never been
Oh he’s a little less embarrassed
To be around you now, he sits with you in computers
And he’s pretty good… Well, he’s very good at English
But now, there is another
He’s a little bit older
He knows the right spot on your shoulder
To put his lips and make you wish you were
Down at Rino
Caught between his chino’s
Sipping chilled pino grizio
His band’s playing the Kino in a month
And you etched your names into the picnic table
Because it’s you and him forever
Even though forever’s much nearer for him
Monday, in computers
You feel like you don’t have to incentivise yourself
You don’t have to be anyone else for this boy
But he feels so far away now
Yeah, you can’t go back to pre-first time and holding hands
You’ve grown too fast
And now you’ve landed smack bang in the middle of skipped period blues
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5. |
Weird Weekend
03:36
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We were in your room
And we were listening to your mum’s old records
You put the White Album on
And said this was their magnum opus
I didn’t know what you meant
But I could see down your vest
And then the grooves got out of focus
“There’s a party on on Saturday night,
You should come”
I said “I’d love to, but the lift in’s a pain
For my mum”
She said “well, you could stay at mine
And it might coincide with my mum
Doing nights in the hospital”
So Saturday came and inconspicuously I
Said I was “going down to town tonight”
I was staying with Darren (yeah his mum was in on it too)
But I was so frightened underneath and uptight
My mum said “are you alright?”
I said “I’m fine!”
Though it ended in a fight, eventually I arrived
She dropped me off
But I wanted to die
I kind of wanted just to go home and watch corrie that night
Enough to sacrifice weird weekends for her?
I could just picture you taking your clothes off
Like it’s so routine and me there feeling sick as per
And ugly
It looks so easy
In 33mm, now we’re dodging bouncers
Standing by the speakers,
And she looks like a screen goddess
But I wonder will she feel like one?
Will her skin go static when I press my fingers up against her?
Now I’m in two minds
If I want your mum doing nights
At the hospital
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6. |
Shatterproof
03:57
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7. |
Sophistication
07:26
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Your brother’s just grown out of shoplifting
And gotten into girls
Your mum is just a stranger bookending the day
Sat at the table with her head in her hands
After you dad left for the late shift girl in the Yellow River Chinese
She’s only 22, and he says she’s warmed to you
Oh that afternoon your mum went in and tried to break her nose
It’s a rubbish month and everyone at school knows I suppose
But tonight, there’s something in the air
Is it the carbon monoxide settling just inches above you around here?
You get a lift to Ciara’s and you both get dressed together
You’ve got a new concoction,
You can make the doubt fade out
Just like some soap, you can bring the theme song on
And the song you’ve got on is sophistication
It’s easy to forget in the mass exodus
To the toilet’s to do make up, “Anthony’s making me blush”
She says “he bought me a drink and said we should do shots together.
Well I don’t know, he’s nice and all but I much prefer Trevor
With his kind-of shy demeanour”
“Ah, yeah, but his dad’s a mentalist”
She says “I don’t care, I want to get myself into this,
Oh, how I’d like to lose myself to him, he is the one I know it”
She says “Well if he’s the one,
Then I’m Olivia Newton John”
And then she says “Ciara? Won’t you roll a fag for me?
I’m going to make him want me, come on ladies, let’s do sophistication”
He’s in the smoking shelter with his stupid gangly friends
Two of them she’s kissed before and one of them
For weeks on end they thought had got Sarah pregnant
But she was just late
She nearly told her mum and everything
(Here’s tempting fate)
You spark it up, start coughing
(Thank god nobody’s watching)
And the rain is beating on the corrugated plastic awning
And there’s an irritating man requesting identification
But he doesn’t ask you because he knows
That what you’ve brought tonight’s sophistication
“Hi, hi I’m Eloise,
Do you have a light perchance? A lighter for me?
A light for my cigarette?
A light so I can light my cigarette?
Because god knows that I need that nicotine!”
‘Oh, god, I’m blowing it’ she thinks
And as he says “sorry, no”, she nearly knocks Christopher’s drink out of his hand
Those hands that snaked their way up her tights
One night last August
And when they’d kiss he’d thrust and thought that they were making love she thinks
That’s Rebecca’s theory anyway
‘Cause she got with him last Sunday
He did the same to her when they were kissing in the woods
And were discovered by some children on an egg hunt
So much for sophistication
Now she’s talking fast about how she
Might have left her straighteners on but
Surely Ciara’s mum would have rang to say the house burnt down?
And then he says “Oh, Eloise?”
And she says “Yeah, Trevor that’s me”
“Is your dad the one in prison or the one that’s banging Xian Lee?”
Oh no! It’s followed you here, it’s got its fingers on the lower of your back
The fear is here, it found you here
You thought that you could change your clothes,
Smoke a fag, drink a beer, strike a pose
And finally that you could wipe the slate clean with some sweet sophistication
Oh this could have been your chance
Yes, this could have been your chance
But that stupid boy had to ruin it
You’ll fancy someone else tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
But you don’t want to go home
You’d prefer to stay forever in this three walled cubical oh yeah
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8. |
Caught Out
02:59
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I’m in deep trouble
I didn’t do me homework last night
I couldn’t care less though
‘Cause I had my hand in her hand
And we were talking in the woods
And as the mulch turned to sludge
I said “love, I don’t want to be your seconds
I reckon that’s not good for either of us”
I want to get caught out
I reckon that would sort this mess out
I want him to come down to the woods
One evening after school and see us making out
You know it makes sense
You said it yourself, he’s nothing to write home about
In the silver rain, as stone turns the colour of slate
And the jeans I changed into take on animal patterns and
I’m hoping that the camera will pan,
Away from the sanctuary
And up to the embankment where
He’ll be advancing
I want to get caught out
I reckon that would sort this mess out
I want him to come down to the woods
One evening after school and see us making out
You know it makes sense
You said it yourself, he’s nothing to write home about…
He’s nothing to write home about
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9. |
Inserts
04:13
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So now you’re back living with your mum and dad
You and him broke up because he had other girls in the flat
On those weird weekends when you were working nine til seven
Down in a crumbling café, where one wall had been knocked through
And they’d say they’re refurbishing
But it’s never going to happen is it?
It’s like you…
Just because you show your inserts baby
Doesn’t mean you get to be used like that
But doesn’t mean you have to show your inserts, baby
To every boy in town
I’ve often dreamt what lies beneath
I feel the picture’s incomplete
Now I’m hanging around waiting for inserts, baby
Every Saturday night
Oh, you’re gloss cured ketamine to the touch
And now you’re living with your mum and dad
Back to the old bedroom where you fell for him so bad
He was not like the others, he wasn’t just a little fun
He was on the run from something
And you wanted to be the only one to know what he was running from
Just because you care to show your inserts baby
Doesn’t mean you get to be used like that
But doesn’t mean you have to show your inserts, baby
To every boy in town
I’ve often dreamt what lies beneath
But I feel the picture’s incomplete
Now I’m hanging around waiting for your inserts, baby
Every Saturday night
Does it take you right back to a certain time and place?
“That’s the one”
Like when you’re in the car and that Dido song comes on?
You know its 2002 (or whenever it was…)
You know it’s him and you forever
Doing everyone in sight to get to each other, come on
Just because you show your inserts baby
Doesn’t mean you get to be used like that
But doesn’t mean you have to show your inserts, baby
To every boy in town
I’ve often dreamt what lies beneath
I feel the picture’s incomplete
Now I’m hanging around waiting for your inserts, baby
Every Saturday night
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10. |
Marlene
03:45
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Now its spider country and she’s Marlene
She was a black and white portrait of boredom
And the disco never ends
And the woods fill with mascara
Are you thigh high in it now?
Branches bowing, twist and snapping
Uh-oh, Marlene
They’re all in bed
Ave Marlene
Now we’re in the red
Uh-oh, Marlene
They’re all in bed
Ave Marlene
Now we’re in the red
She blows a pink smoke ring up the stairs
Miniature sunsets flash as she’s mouthing
Well she’s “got to hit the road now”
She’s a prickly customer
She’s a web of shadows
With double entendre lippy trying to mark your collar
She’s the arachnid whisperer
The envelope sealer
The trap springer
The potion bringer
Uh-oh, Marlene
They’re all in bed
Ave Marlene
Now we’re in the red
She blows a pink smoke ring up the stairs
Miniature sunsets flash as she’s mouthing
Well she’s “got to hit the road now”
(Got to hit the road now)
(Got to hit the road now)
(Got to hit the road now)
Oh Marlene, she’s gone and hit the road now
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11. |
Pink Light Bulb
07:56
|
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Welcome to the town that tour guides induce
North American spunk-bubbles to come find their roots
It’s just a spec of dust
On a pink lightbulb
It’s just a single twig in the river
That runs around the back of this town
Where the paint is stripped
And the wall paper’s peeling
Tourists only see it in their peripheral
When they’re looking for the stone circle
They’ll never find them up there on the shittest hill in the world
But nonetheless a hill
Where litter collects and late at night,
Teenage fantasies are met
No, it’s not quite Kaya Scodalario
Well, it could be if you want but I was always too frightened
To let it get as exciting as that
I’d prefer to watch whilst the wheels came off
And legs would collapse under the weight of consumption
Yeah, it’s never quite pink lightbulbs
It’s almost like I never… I never looked hard enough
But I’ve seen the underbelly
Of the tourist trail
I’ve seen people pissing on the rock
That overlooks the bay
I’ve heard people at it in the flats above
The quaint bookshop-cum-café
I’ve seen up past the bed and breakfasts
And the county league training grounds
Where late at night, we’ve trekked across
So as not to be found
I’ve seen people screwing against the wildlife guide plaques
I’ve seen people banging tabs in the bat sanctuary
Well, all that broken glass must have come from somewhere
No, it’s not from the sea
When they see that little secondary school
With its culturally invoking crest
Oh, yeah, but in there there’s teenage lust brewing
It’s close to spewing out and submerging the town in a flood
That happened once but it was just rainwater
It was exciting stuff
To see it all ground to halt
Things got weird and people had to stay at other people’s houses
Until the water went down
And these kind of afternoons are when girls find out
That the boys they thought were just friends
Are actually ‘the one’ and they go up to her bedroom
Whilst her mum is putting sandbags down in the door of the salon
And get it on
Pink lightbulbs and clothes and Bombay mix lips
Nuclear fingertips
The internet is slow but there’s about twenty places
To get a coffee to go,
Maybe we could go?
|
Laurie Shaw Kenmare, Ireland
Laurie Shaw is a Wirral-born songwriter and producer. He now dwells in Ireland where he records from his mountain retreat. He often gigs in Cork, Dublin and the Merseyside area. He has released around 100 albums to date (all of which are available on request). ... more
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