1. |
Lavender Doe
03:54
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Lavender Doe
(For Dana and The Eleven)
Pumpjacks tilt in slow motion, but steadily—hypnotically
The air is heavy, heady in the swampy night
And the darkness is leaden, quashing every trace of light
Each glimmer, Love, but that of your eyes
I can’t seem to see clearly, but it’s not for lack of trying
In fact, maybe I’m trying too hard
Squinting into the distance: oh, but everything’s obscured
And everything is just a blur but your eyes
Gulf winds, tinged by sulfur and sludge
Toxic spillages and drillers mud:
Is this paradise or what?
The girl they found along the seawall
A beauty in her lavender blouse
She was someone’s darling, surely
She was someone, Darling: full stop.
Is this paradise or what?
Is this paradise or what?
Is this paradise or what?
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2. |
Ordinaire
02:44
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You’re a regular gem
Shining and quiet
Whatever I’m pining after:
Darling, you supply it
I don’t have to be clever
I don’t need to be scintillating
Or really any more than
Merely ordinary
Somehow I’m sufficient
When I’m viewed through the prism
Of your eyes
I’m a terrible fool
And my vision is skewed
I can’t see past the last bad dream
Or through the next Big Mood
I don’t mean to seem bitter
I don’t want to be grim
But, often, I’m feeling caustic
Often, lost and broken
But none of that matters
In the scattering light
Of your eyes
I’d looked everywhere
For someone to care for me
Through even the dullest of lulls
In every tantrum and tear
But none of that matters
In the scattering light
Of your eyes
Somehow I’m sufficient
When I’m viewed through the prism
Of your eyes
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3. |
Good People
02:45
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“It’s gonna be okay”:
You’ve heard it before
You’ll hear it again
Today, you’re sure
It's funny how the whole world’s full
Of prognosticators
You take it on the chin
You take it in stride:
However you take it
You’ll be traumatized
Stuck inside the airless confines
Of a terrorized mind
And you’re tired of the trite lines:
Are they white lies
Fed by the good intentions
Of good people?
You step into a room:
It’s stifling hot
You wonder who’s talking about you
And who’s not
And why you even bothered
To show up, anyhow
Well, you’re tired of the trite lines:
Are they white lies
Fed by the good intentions
Of good people?
Should you just be grateful?
Maybe it’s true; maybe they’re right
Maybe you’re just a little blue
Just a little frightened
And maybe those skies are gonna clear
But you don’t need to hear it, you don’t need to hear it
You don’t need to hear it, you don’t need to hear it
You don’t need to hear it, you don’t need to hear it tonight
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4. |
Phantom
03:17
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I don’t mind bad coffee
I don’t mind cold tea
But you used to dote on me:
Now you’re disappearing
‘Cause you’re a phantom, Darling:
Spread thin
Held together by the threads
Of your desperate longing
Settle down, My Dear, you’re making me nervous
Is there some way I could be of service to you?
‘Cause I’d like to help you—I’d like to help
Well, I’ve got breakfast working
It's such an absurdist offering
When I know you won’t be here
To receive it, anyway
‘Cause you’re a phantom, Darling:
Spread thin
On the verge of bursting open
Or just dissolving into nothing—nothing
Settle down, My Dear, you’re making me nervous
Is there some way I could be of service to you?
‘Cause I’d like to help you—I’d like to help
I’d like to help
I don’t mind bad coffee
I don’t mind cold tea
I don’t mind bad coffee
I don’t mind cold tea…
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5. |
Millennial Pink
03:43
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The Budweiser sign, against a rose gold sky:
Rose gold was trending, but its reign is ending
…And ascending…
…Is a new hue, and a New You to glimmer through it
Perceptive and self-possessed
Not like the rest of us, who just don’t get it
Are you crying again, or is that shimmering streak
There on your cheek just a mark of distinction?
Green absinthe in Montparnasse or mink on a summer’s evening?
Then there’s the Budweiser sign, against a rose gold sky:
Rose gold was trending, but its reign is ending…
…And you’re ascending
(Darling, ooo-ooo)
And you’re ascending
(Darling, ooo-ooo)
And you’re ascending
(Darling, ooo-ooo)
And you’re ascending
(Darling, ooo-ooo…)
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6. |
Upstart Palaces
01:56
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The Angel Moroni triumphantly perches on his spire
A recording of the Tabernacle Choir
Plays somewhere in the distance
While the incense smoke rises—rises to the sky
Seen any Wonders lately amongst the stately houses
Or in these upstart palaces, veneer and vinyl?
In the Sanctum someone douses out the fire
As a prayer rises—and the smoke still rises
Rises, rises, rises, rises, rises…
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7. |
Casual Observer
04:15
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The casual observer, the voyeuristic lens
The sight of God, the eyes of cool clinicians
You, pulled apart and sorted through
Repositioned, pinned, and put on view
All the despicable things you did
In an attempt to earn love
All the despicable things you did
The avaricious visits, deficious recompense
Little sighs, devised to stifle your indifference
Long silences in dusky rooms
Stale water for the hyacinth blooms
All the despicable things you did
In an attempt to earn love
All the despicable things you did
In an attempt to earn love
All the despicable things you did
Such pedestrian pleasures! The measured bêtes noires
Peering through the cracks and tapping at your doors
So timidly, it seems that
Even your dreams are somewhat anemic
Rearranged, you slip into the street
Beneath the precious few
Stars that remain and you relax:
You see it’s just a comedy in four grim acts
You, pulled apart and sorted through
Repositioned, pinned, and put on view
All the despicable things you did
In an attempt to earn love
All the despicable things you did
In an attempt to earn love
All the despicable things you did
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8. |
Dilettante
03:04
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Another platform for rejection
Another way you can feel inferior
It’s becoming clear:
You’re going nowhere
All of the gifts you’ve vaunted:
They’re not what the people want
Honey, you must see
You are just a dilettante
Another means of deprivation
Where is the love that you crave? And so
You’re left wondering if the world is even
Worthy of the goods you’re offering
All of the gifts you’ve vaunted:
They’re not what the people want
Honey, you must see
You are just a dilettante
Once I dreamed a dream myself
But dreams grow dusty on the shelf…
…Inevitably
Honey, you must see
You’re not what the people want
You are just a dilettante
All of the gifts you’ve vaunted:
They’re not what the people want
Honey, you must see
You are just a dilettante
Just a dilettante…Just a dilettante…
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9. |
Mustang Grapes
04:08
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Mustang grapes: you and I
Traipsing through the woods at dusk
Taken by the fragrant musk
Of the fallen trees and the wilding rhapsodies
Of mockingbirds, coyotes
And the comforting lull of someone calling
Oh, there were delusions, too:
You thought you were the Moon King
With half the world, swooning
Before your cool radiance
Unlike the sun, so blithely glorious
You were a lucent pool of quiet reflection
Time is a funny thing, eternally vanishing
And we just take it as it goes
Leaving us in its wake of shadows
Mustang grapes: you and I
Trapsing through the woods at dusk
Now you’re just a ghost, a trace, a husk
A phantom, a phantom, a phantom, a phantom
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10. |
Party Dress
03:24
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Crashing on my birthday:
There isn’t much to say
And not much I can do
To impress you, like I used to
Like I used to
But I’m open to suggestions:
Lessons on a weekly basis?
Perhaps I could come over
Try to draw you closer, like you once were
Like you might be again
You had blazed into my life
Just to burn out quickly
Now we’re drifting, Darling
Through a darkness so thick, we can’t even see ourselves
All those flashy little dresses
Full of spangles and lace
And tangles of fringe
Are just the flimsy remnants of our decadence
And decadence always fades away
Crashing on my birthday…crashing on my birthday…
Crashing on my birthday…crashing on my birthday…
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11. |
Door To Tomorrow
02:38
|
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What to do? I don’t know
Once there stood a door to tomorrow
And I walked through it with you
But the door’s closed, and I can’t go through anymore
Not exactly romance
Not a spark, but something like it
To light the darkness rolling in
Tell the same jokes, and I’ll laugh like fool again
The boy she’s here to see
Says he loves her dearly
Isn’t that what you’d said of me?
Chances are, chances are: she’ll wind up lonely
What to do? I don’t know
Once there stood a door to tomorrow
And I walked through it with you
But the door’s closed, and I can’t go through—
No, I can’t go through anymore
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12. |
Too Afraid To Sleep
03:45
|
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Awake and wired, but exhausted
In through the frosted windows gleam
Either streetlamps or starlight—
Whichever, it seems
Quite lovely to me
But I’m too afraid to sleep
I’m too afraid to sleep
I’m too afraid, ‘cause…
…Last night I had another bad dream:
Went tumbling down another rabbit hole
With no one to talk to
And not a single soul
Whose hand I could hold
So, I’m too afraid to sleep
I’m too afraid to sleep
I’m too afraid to sleep
Of all the little cruelties in the world
The perils that have swirled inside my head:
The thought that I’ll drive you
Away, somehow
Is the one I most dread
And I’m too afraid to sleep
I’m too afraid to sleep
I’m too afraid to sleep…
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