...And Then We Saw Land
When I come home, you won't be there any more
When I come home, you won't be there any more
And you will tear off your clothes and kiss the floor
When I come home, home, home
When I see land you will conjure up a storm
When I see land you will conjure up a storm
And I will tie your hands to the highest mast
When I see land, land, land
And we will hustle, hustle, hustle to be free
Free from all the
Happy thoughts and smiles across the sea
In favour of the
Mean, mean, moves,
And back doors to the heart from where we
Always, always fall apart
And you will slide on the back seat of my bike
And you will slide on the back seat of my bike
And I will ride you home drunken in the rain
and you will win again and again
Now it's your turn you will tie me to the tree
Now it's your turn you will tie me to the tree
And you will sing and sing, forever you and me
And in the dark you wonder what I see
And we will hustle, hustle, hustle to be free
Free from all the
Happy thoughts and smiles across the sea
In favour of the
Mean, mean, moves,
And back doors to the heart from where we
Always, always fall apart
Milly passes from the swing
Runs home for her tea
Wants to twist her wedding ring
And sink in her settee
In the dark she asks aloud
If they can really see
But if you hold it carefully it breaks
On a fairground ride they met
A boy who held her hand
For a moment he'd forget
And she would understand
But the bells inside her head
Were all that she could hear
But if you hold it carefully it breaks
And just like the book says
You might be through with the past
But she's not through with you
We don't give up easily
Drowning out the tide
Drawing black and bleeding sea
At least we stopped and tried
And the crows flock overhead
Moving restlessly
And when you hold it over me it breaks
We don't give up easily
Drowning out the tide
Drawing black and bleeding sea
At least we stopped and tried
In the dark she asks aloud
If they can really see
But if you hold it carefully it breaks
(Eventually)
She rises with the sun
Awakens and undone
The postman passes by
And after thoughts reply, they do
The TV flickers restless
The hours drain away
Blood rushing like a stream
Lie detectors stray, away
Seratonin undertaker
Flooding through her brain
Hits the circuit breaker
The choices will remain
Don't look down or back
All trees have carved a track
On the souls of all before, Oh
Saving for a rainy day
Banks threaten to foreclose
The colour slide to the grey
And nestles in her toes
She rises with the sun
Awakens and undone
The postman passes by
And after thoughts reply, they do
Seratonin undertaker
Is flooding through her brain
And hits the circuit breaker
The choices will remain
A trick of the light, a turn of the tide
A rift in a valley, full moon in July
Red summer sun mourning, a cold April sky,
That lonely October, so cruel to deny.
A Wish for a fountain lost in the wind
A kick from a new life about to begin
A south facing island that floods in the spring
Will call to October new life, it will bring
It will bring, it will bring
It will bring.
A drop in the ocean short of the line
Cursing a feeling caught up by the night
Repairing the ruin reducing the sting
That falling October will bring
Hope that is dreaming, love that is torn
Dancing like dust in the eye of the storm
Truth will be lost when the mocking bird dies
October returns with its cold winter skies
Awe can't be touched, faith can be blind
Fooled by a past that the world left behind
Hidden in rocks that are lost to the shore
Of silent October we choose to ignore
Wander through the wreckage, of the dancing flaws
Faces turn in the light
A stranger on the brink of love, love
Confusion near delight
A cup of something warm in the dead of night
We're friends in need indeed
Lies that only flatter love, love
They whisper until we bleed
Burning blindly like the sun
Our hearts beat in rhythm all alone
All our wishes are undone
Forget those days, they’ve gone
Piling in the back at the end of it all
We're friends in need indeed
Lies that only flatter love, love
They whisper until we bleed
Drifing into days when all is said and done
In blue, yellow and grey
Stuck inside our head are all those names gone by
You're desperate to get away
Burning blindly like the sun
Our hearts beat in rhythm all alone
All our wishes are undone
Forget those days, they’ve gone
And it’s only a weekend away
It’s only a weekend away
Let it be beautiful
When we sing the last song
It’s only a weekend away
Good Arrows
The bicycles inside your skull
Send you away and off you go
Into the streets where all the pretty girls collect their thoughts for you
And aggravate your paranoid
Can you not see a star out there
Where all the bricks are bright and free
Where all the bricks are bright and elegant and free
The lizard skins around yourself
Drop off and let the others through
In reds and whites and blacks and blues
Each facet shines or breaks anew
And in a big tall building she lets out her hair into the street
Where cars and trucks career through it
Until the ends get wrecked and split
Where all the doors are bright and free
Where all the doors are bright and elegant and free
The sun revolves around the sun
And then around a bright black moon
And in a café by the sea you stir your tea and suck your spoon
And when your breakfast comes you're miles away
And all your eggs get cold
You're where the light is blinding bright
And all the windows tilt to you
Where all the bricks are bright and free...
He stands with his head in his hands
In the corridor in A&E
He couldn't resucitate her
And now he'll go home to his wife for tea
We sing as the sky falls down
We sing as the sky collapses
And make what we can of this
It's okay, we're all going to end up dead and gone
He crawls into her aorta
To pull him out of his reverie
And mentally puts her back together
With sticks and glue until she breathes
He crawls like a rat inside her spine
It's a passage to another world
He pulls on a coat of new born skin
And sends a secret message to that girl
Positions himself in space
And looks down on such slight a thing
Swears he'll make what he can of this
Because one day out there we will all be dead
So leave your imprint upon
All the atoms you press against
All the people you press against
Because one day out there we will all be
Leave your imprint upon
Every mouth that you press against
Every word that you press against
It's okay because one day we will be dead
Green hills and enemies
These things they make us sentimental inside
Your words are gelignite
Or just another sentimental aside
We're catching bullets in our teeth
And though it's easy when you know how it's done
They split the secret up six ways before they gave it to us just before dawn
And now we don't remember
Our blood and guts are out
We spread our bones across the table at night
We cut our fingers off
To give ourselves those little extra insights
We're catching bullets in our teeth
And though they try hard not to say how it's done
They always do
They spill the secret out six ways
And beg for our forgiveness
Just before dawn
And now we don't remember
We're catching bullets in our teeth
It's hard to do but they're so sweet
And if they take a couple out
We try to work things out
We catching bullets with our
Heads and hearts and all the darkest parts of us
It's strange to find such light
In such endless night
So sweet to lose a friend
You leave the church and taste
The air in your lungs
Old lies and fireflies
Carve angels on your eyes
And all is undone
You whisper prayers into the dark
Up to a god in whom you've never believed
You always do
You split the secret up six ways
But it won't make it any easier to see
And now we don't remember
We're catching bullets in our teeth
Its hard to do but they're so sweet
And if they take a couple out
We try to work things out
We're catching bullets with our
Heads and hearts and all the darkest parts of us
It's strange to find such light
In such endless night
We're catching bullets in our backs
We sent the undertaker back
Into the garden in the drought
To try to work things out
We're catching bullets with the best resources that we've got
We're happy then again we're not
We shout - through the endless doubt
- King
Lyrics by Ben Bickerton
Four foot nothing knees stained with dirt
When we went hiding why don't you seek?
No one came looking for me
Your head restless with greed
She carried on shoulders like a little king
She is worshipped and adored
Invisibly worshipped and ignored
No one came looking for me
Twisted metal and underground deeds
This weightless town no good for me
Your head restless with greed
Your fate laid down in deep
Here comes another one
Faster than the one before
Here comes another one
Faster than the one we saw before
Another bus another plane
Weve done this all a hundred times before
Lets stitch another one
First one to the ceiling gets the floor
Bright lights block out the sun
No time to sleep all time to turn
Because there goes another one
Stand on the edge and watch it turn
And if you find you feel you're falling through the floor just put your hand out in the dark and feel the bones inside you singing out again
A pint of this will take your legs off at the knees and pull your spine out to a cord and leave it glowing on the floor inside the rain
All decisions pleasure made
Lift up our bodies in the air
Just to feel another one
Fall out of the tube and hit the air
Let's all march into the sun
Friends we remain for friends we are
Walk towards the sleeping sand
Bolted together like we are
And in the morning we'll turn on t.v.
And watch the news and eat cornflakes
As continents divide
It's fine if we are by our side
And in the evening we'll turn off t.v.
And watch the stars
And crack open a can or two
And it's all fine if we are by our side
Here comes another one
Faster than the one before
Faster than the one we saw before
Comments Of The Inner Chorus
Woodcat oh once a girl but not since the incident
Lives in the darkness making friends with the animals
Eyes burning yellow I miss your sweet kisses
I miss having coffee in bed watching TV
The ghost of an image it's just fleeting glimpses
You're there then you're gone through the roots and the nettles
I miss your hard edges I miss your bone marrow
I miss having coffee in bed watching TV
And we all had a lovely time
I'll look for a man to turn me into a hare
Just like they did when you did what you did
And the court came around and the verdict flew out
And the rats ran about and the change trickled down
And they left your brown body gentle and shivering
Back in the clearing with the deer in the evening
And I'll come and find you; small sleek and silent
And we'll live like lovers in an old wooden rhyme
And we're in for a lovely time
Come close up to me, fire in an open hearth
Raised in a vessel of our only action
Some satisfaction, some sweet satisfaction
From all of this everything, spun 'round the middle
And they said it was a lovely time
Red heels and bright blue eyes
Walking a steady line
Fire bombs and mortar shells
Deep kisses through the night
Dancing on thin ice
Chained up at the ankles
I look in your red eyes
And cover my green skin
Twist like an adder
Fall like a slice of snow
Dart between rocks
And I know what the darkness knows
Annie don't cry it's a delicate thing that we made
Sparrow don't cry it's a delicate thing that we made
Blind time, weighed out in time
Smite our own private sea
Time, gargantuan beat
Red and Green
Pick up my skin from the shelf by the bed
I can slip into my old ways, slip down the stairs
Let me make you sweet tea
Let me make you hot toast
Let me kiss you all over my only, my host
And in time, time, somewhere in time
Sail our own private sea
Time, sweet, terrible, sweet
Red and Green
Annie don't cry it's a delicate thing that we made
Throw the knife into the stream
Run away across the fields
Leave me lying where I fell
Rivers running out of me
Meet my Jenny in the lane
Take a car and run away
Get as far as you can get
Before the new day
Your heart beats quick and strong
Your mind pores over it all
Don't worry because no one saw me fall
Sit inside a little chef
Look around but not at her
See my kisses on her lips
See my fingers in her hair
Think of this against your will
See the knife edge slipping in
See the questions in my eyes
As I ask them
I went so quick it makes you shudder that I'm gone
Are we so brittle has your soul turned into stone
And though you loved me I'm not Jenny in the night
Some decisions don't thread back to being right
Your head blurs quickly tonight
Your edges diffuse in the light
Don't tell me that your throat is getting tight
Change your name and find a job
Marry Jenny in the spring
Buy a dog and call him Pete
Push the children on the swings
Think about me now and then
Try to find a peaceful space
Count the days as they go by
Count the lines upon your face
Your heart beats quick and strong
Your mind pores over it all
Don't worry because no one saw me fall
Soft wings and gentle tongue
Mountains that breathe as long as Kipling
Oh sorrow song of it all
All that static air
Old stream tangled hair
Firepower from somewhere
All tongues twisted here
Jaybird on old black branch
Whisper all secrets past
Old man don't be afraid of it all
Jaybird hold your tongue
Whisper all that's done
Deep down lover's song
Where did we go wrong
I saw you kiss sweet William
In a forest of red leaves
The rain ran cold against my neck
The wind lay down to sleep
I walked all night in stillness
And I walked all day as well
I walked across the desert plains
And through the jagged hills
I slept inside the north wind
In a coracle at sea
And in the deepest darkest woods
My dreams sang songs to me
I dreamed I killed sweet William
And I kissed his cold white brow
I washed his body in the lake
And I sewed his eyelids down
Sing a song of sixpence
Battles in the past tense
Picked out by the snow
If I should find sweet William
Lying pale beneath the snow
I'll row out to the deepest depths
And let sweet William go
I'll watch him sink beneath the flood
And back to where he came
And pray to God and death and blood
I might forget his name
You've grown up so much since I saw you all those days ago
Still got that look about you still got those things that we know
Red gilded place in the woods and the words that were said
Black twisted branches that hid all the things that we did
You threaded wasps on to string and you gave them to me
You touched the edges of their wings and the insides of me
All of the years make a picture that's faded and bright
All of the years make us different and faded and bright
Bring back the bodies and lay them out for me
Smooth down their crisp clear white wings in the morning
Bring back the yellow and black of the bodies
Lay them out slowly and string them up gently for me
Small piles of sticks built up like temples to time in the sun
Beds of green leaves laid out where fear and O negative burn
Strange to see you in a suit but your shoes are still red
Strange to see you at the front after all that you said
Your face changed a long time ago
But you're the same underneath this sleet
That whirls around like a line between worlds
And there are birds in here singing lullabies to me
About bodies and you and me and all that we've seen
And you and all that you've seen
Bring back the bodies and open them for me
Lift out their shimmering hearts in the morning
Bring back the yellow and black of the ocean
Let me out slowly and sing to me coldly
Bring back the yellow and black of the bodies
Let me in slowly and string me up sensitively
mother's daughter and other songs
Young girl stuck to the water
Time will tell if you're your mother's daughter
Stone boat adrift on the ocean
Rows for the shore with the devil's devotion
Red girl picture was broken
Stand in the glass the angel's in motion
White swan watch with a wry smile
Raise up your wings for the wind and the last mile
Young girl stuck to the water
Time will tell if you're your mother's daughter
Katie feels a snap and switches off the tap
Walks out to fetch the shotgun from the shed
Feels just a little rush and climbs into the car
Slow down a moment
Drives out along the lane and calmly into town
Stops to let the music come around
Walks down to the bank and draws a quiet breath
Slow down a moment
Switch on, all's fine, burn out, on fire
Stitched tight, beautiful and light
Lights a cigarette, climbs the marble stairs
And waves the gun around
To paint a meaning
Money comes like rain
Feel this; easy feeling
She drives the car away
And laughs and smiles
Stops to count the notes out for a while
And when she's done, drives on
For a sunrise
She washes all the young blood from her hands in the sink
And she knows that the lights will be there for her
Breaks down the bodies to dark subtle ink
And she scrawls on the parchments that hang in the air
She rides a horse over stones in the night
And she closes her eyes and lets go of the reigns
She knows the radios run through the night
And she knows that the lights leave the prettiest stains
She builds a shrine and a typing machine
And she curls up to write down her tales from the black
Prays for a soft breeze and cool gentle rain
And she prays for the bodies that rise slowly back
She knows the dunes where the steel cities grow
And she knows when they jail her they'll grind down the key
She knows the lights lay the heaviest blows
And she knows that the sand must submit to the sea
She builds a bird out of plywood and gold
For to carry the old souls on up to the sun
Turns on the TV and sits in the cold
And she dreams that sometimes she's the prettiest one
She knows the thrill of the chase in her veins
And she knows that the sinking's a trick of the light
Prays for the silence and cool gentle rain
And she prays that the radios run through the night
My old transistor radio buzzing
Hot crazy island dirty she does it
I love this city but does she love me
Work for a paycheck
That burns up on rent day
No sweeter evil would I wish come my way
Bring me song of the sea
Sing me a song of the sea
Hang me a song of the sea
For me and my…
Busy black roadway
Light scattered skyline
No sweeter promise
Smell of this highlife
Hole on my heart where a hill and a tree were
Score for a song thrush in that place where we were
Bring me a song of the sea…
Oh fair Doreen the night has seen
You ply your trade so sweet
And though they come your soul to stun
No anvil shall you be
No anvil shall you be Doreen
No anvil shall you be
Although they come your soul to stun
No anvil shall you be
Oh fair Doreen your treacled lips
That taste of other worlds
Though they may claim your soul be stained
Thou art not Satan's girl
Thou art not Satan's girl Doreen
Thou art not Satan's girl
Though they may claim your soul be stained
Thou art not Satan's girl
Like Watson and Crick
You seem to look
Into my soul
And though my DNA
Is too small for your scope
You make it much deeper
Hydrogen bursts
Inside a star
Don't mean a lot
From whereabouts we are
It's too far for your scope
But you make it much further
I've searched around
Here for the key
But I'm blind to it
And quantum theorists tell me
They've never seen the likes of your radar
We'll come around when the sun falls down
We'll slow retreat from the soft wet heat
We'll amble down when it's all washed out
The burned up the sold up the fools and clowns
We'll say goodnight to the long day's sky
We'll give our souls up to old July
We'll watch the girl with the long soft sigh
You'll come alive with those late night eyes
And surprise me with everything you do
Untie me with everything you see
We'll weld a piece of the light inside
We'll snap the smiles as the black dogs die
We'll stick with Susie because she's got time
You'll show her how with those late night eyes
And surprise me with everything you do
Untie me with everything you see
Well the sun and the rain enters us hoping blind
That it's loud enough to see
And we all sing…
We'll light the fires when the sun winds down
Coil up retreat to the red white sound
We'll scramble down as they all rush out
The burned up the sold up the fools and clowns
Move through the molecules like you do
Let all the moments go down on you
We'll sleep tomorrow it's nice to do
We'll sleep tomorrow it's nice to do
And surprise me with everything you do
Untie me with everything you see
Well the sun and the rain enters my broken blind
And it's loud enough to see
And we all sing…
Pool beneath the pond
The skater shall beware
Touch the sand beyond
You'll be welcome here
Blink and miss the twist
The skater shall beware
Touch it and it slips
But you'll be welcome here
Dead lilies and pond skaters on our pond
This innocent slight tremble in your hand
Safe havens and close alleys and green smiles
This innocent no walks along dark aisles
Red stickleback with white teeth like small knives
Black beetle and dark tremble in it's smile
Dead lilies and pond skaters on our pond
This innocent slight tremble in your hand
