1. |
225 lashes
02:12
|
|||
|
I was laying in the grass, watching the clouds pass
Passing me by grinning, eyelids shut my eyes
225 lashes
Flog the sky until it crashes
Down upon my head with darkness like a hammer blow
|
||||
2. |
Bear
01:58
|
|||
|
I am a bear, slumping down in despair
Like a throne, like a throne, like a throne, like a throne
I've been here before, with your bones between my paws
And I howled, and I howled, and I howled, and I howled
I howled for more
My cubs, my babies, you used them to bait me
Made me dance, made me dance, made me dance, made me dance
This bear you destroyed, and you stuffed like a toy
Now I can't howl, I can't howl, I can't howl, I can't howl
I can't howl anymore
|
||||
3. |
Bonaparte
02:34
|
|||
|
A skeleton, a key, a bone, a part
A Napoleon complex, a little upstart
I deserve my own place in the Sun
Won't lurk in the shadows until my days are done
I have a weakness for weakness and fun
I have a strong will and a powerful gun
A skeleton, a key, a bone, a part
A Napoleon complex, a little upstart
Kathmandu, cat man don't
Release a songbird that your cat won’t
Set a price on the gifts that you bring
The dawn chorus needs every last voice to sing
Sing it’s praises, sing out of key, sing for your supper, sing in a tree
Sing in the new year, sing out the old, sing about treasure, silver and gold
I had good grace, and I had a fall
From which I remember nothing much at all
Until I woke up at the foot of a wall
Separating the great from the small
A skeleton, a key, a bone, a part
A Napoleon complex, a little upstart
|
||||
4. |
Canaries
04:38
|
|||
|
Oh my heart, oh my pain
Sending signals to my brain
My hormones, and my blood
My receptors, how they flood
Oh my heart, how it beats
And flutters, like parakeets
Oh my genes, my heartstrings
My canaries, how they sing
My canaries how they sing
I don't understand a single thing
Oh my brain, how it slaves
Night and day, for sine waves
My feedback, loop revealed
My electromagnetic field
My canaries how they sing
I don't understand a goddamn thing
I don't understand a goddamn thing
Still my incoherent heart sings
Four secret chambers, and one great wall
Pumping rhythms, a rise and fall
|
||||
5. |
Circle of Stones
03:39
|
|||
|
I light my fire in a circle of stones
Upon a hillside of granite and bone
I have no fire in my heart when I'm alone
So I light my fire in a circle of stones
Bills keep coming in, while I go out
Out of my mind, til I scream and shout
Shouting is really just a scorched earth game
And you shouldn't play with fire, no, you shouldn't toy with flames
I light my fire in a circle of stones
Upon a hillside of granite and bone
I have no fire in my heart when I'm alone
So I light my fire in a circle of stones
Even the granite's cracking up in shock
There's flames darting out from in between the rocks
Burning embers landing on my boots and socks
Orange fire lighting up my glowing pelt like a fox
I light my fire in a circle of stones
Upon a hillside of granite and bone
I have no fire in my heart when I'm alone
So I light my fire in a circle of stones
In a circle of stones, in a circle of stones
There's no circle of friends, going around on my own
In a circle of stones, in a circle of stones
The moon is waning, while the flames around you have grown
|
||||
6. |
Crazy Horse
04:53
|
|||
|
They gave me a shotgun, forced me to decide
Over and under or side by side
I became sawn off like a dildo or horn
I saw things for which I was not born
One man's Sun is another man's rain
One man's loss is another man's gain
I had nothing to gain, had nothing to lose
I had made my choice brother, I was gonna choose
The path of the righteous and brotherly love
But brother this world just ain't right when push comes to shove
And they pushed me, pushed me too far
So I bludgeoned them to death with an old iron bar
I never buried my heart at Wounded Knee
But I'm crazier than crazy horse, as we all can see
Have a go hero; hold your head up high
Straighten up that back son; you're not ready to die
Let's say I give you a sporting chance
Of cheating death, perhaps waltz the last dance
But if it's a breakdance, then it will break you too
Into tiny pieces, forget about glue
It's a fucking joke, I'm just pulling your leg
Out of its socket and then you can beg
For your life, your miserable dregs
Three your skull cracking open like an egg
Once upon a time, once upon a chase
Twice upon a perfectly symmetrical face
I never buried my heart at Wounded Knee
But I'm crazier than crazy horse, as we all can see
|
||||
7. |
Ghost Town
02:39
|
|||
|
When you invited me to your ancestral home, I could only guess what might have been
I could not spy a single living tree, and the birds we’re nowhere to be seen
I was the only living soul in town, lost or otherwise
It felt like the whole place was passing through me , like it was wearing a disguise
You swore it was true, as long as I was with you, I would never come to any harm
But then you told me that I would never be free, since I was your lucky charm
So you cut off my toe, hung it from a chain, with a lucky rabbit's foot
My shrunken head's still there, hanging from its hair, by the fireplace covered in soot
This ain't love this is magic, of the black kind it is tragic, how you choose to walk that fine line
That used to be my spines, stomping it like grapes for wine, drinking down that warm blood of mine
You made a cup from my skull, and a corracle hull from the tanned skin down my back
You made 3 number 9's from those other bones of mine, and the ground below you did crack
It was one more of your tricks, it was 666, those 3 9's we’re upside down
You summoned my ghost, and an evil host, and together we now haunt the town
It's a ghost town, one big burial mound, don't be coming around
|
||||
8. |
Hell
04:17
|
|||
|
I thought I was going crazy my love
Until I met you
The very definition of madness
That much is true
Life with you was hell and I was dying
So upon pain of death
I had to give you the kiss of life
With my dying breath
My memories are kinda hazy
Until I met you
But I remember that you drove me crazy
Clearly that's true
You were always a backseat driver
Before our breakdown
On the highway, now it's only my way
In this dead end town
If it's your way or the highway
Then there's no way in he’ll that I'm gonna stay
Here with you in hell
Love can make this world a paradise
Or the lack of it a he’ll on earth
That kisses away your nightmares
Or kills your dreams at birth
We're all bound to take some wrong turning
And find ourselves in a dead end
But the road to hell's not the only way
Don't be driven around the bend
|
||||
9. |
Hollow Log
02:52
|
|||
|
Howl o howl o howl o howl o howl o howl o hollow log
Hello hello hollow log, how was your day today
What did you learn about the world, was it all child’s play
Were they impressed with your hollowness, or you with their burning desires
Or was it all rot, cankers and knots knowing you'll never get any higher
O howl o howl o howl o howl o howl o howl o hollow log
How so, how so, how could I know, I'd be struck by lightning and lost
How low, how low can a hollow man go before Jack and hoar he's frost
Freeze don't move roar the spines, between the greenhorns and the crystalline
Freeze don't move roar the spines, between the greenhorns and the crystalline
Howl o howl o howl o howl o howl o howl o hollow log
My heart did sing along with the spring, my eyes like blue speckled eggs
The past don't last like pirate ship masts, walking sticks or wooden legs
Instead of trees I see amputees, hobbling along after me’s
Instead of trees I see amputees hobbling along after me’s
Howl o howl o howl o howl o howl o howl o hollow log
|
||||
10. |
In A Vortex
03:02
|
|||
|
Swimming against the stream
Treading water in a sunbeam
Reflective scales and wet dreams
In a vortex nothing's what it seems
The river of life passed me by
A tiddler, a small fry
On the banks, ferns and fronds
Fiddleheads, waving magic wands
They cast a wandering spell on me
It was a dream of the sea
Of plesiosaurs and prehistory
An ocean of time flowing on endlessly
In time I followed the estuary
Took its advice far out to sea
Seeking a pod for my pea
But all I found were shells that were empty
A hermit's cell, a science lab
A darkness in which to stab
Drowned volcanoes ready to blow
Depth charges and torpedoes
A submarine, snow and me
A restaurant under the sea
Life wasn't just cheap, it was free
For all, for one last killing spree
|
||||
11. |
Jack Hammering
02:12
|
|||
|
Jackhammering, jackhammering
Spastic nerve endings
Jackhammering, jackhammering
One big hole we're in
This kango is a chore
Turns my hands into claws
Breaking rocks should be outlawed
While our lungs turn to dust
Full of silica and rust
In bouncing paychecks we trust
Jackhammering, spastic nerve endings
Jackhammering, and blasted sand blasting
Jackhammering, one big hole we're in
Jackhammering
|
||||
12. |
||||
|
Mancaves and memory holes
Machetes and tent poles
Mexican waves and own goals
Clawhammer style, dancing on coals
I fell into a memory
I fell into the whole of me
Out of the now to how it used to be
I fell into obscurity
Mancaves and memory holes
Machetes and tent poles
Mexican waves and own goals
Clawhammer style, dancing on coals
I fell into a trap
Landing in the devil's lap
I heard those rusty old jaws go snap
Around my little old skull cap
|
||||
13. |
Resist the Cure
02:29
|
|||
|
Resist the cure, men of disease
Resist the cure, and rest at ease
We'll take the highs, we'll take the lows
The middle ground is worthless we know
We do not need an even keel
We only need to feel
Feel the love, feel the pain
Feel the sun and the rain
One day we're up, one day we're down
Life sentences, verbs and nouns
Resist the cure, men of disease
Resist the cure, and rest at ease
|
||||
14. |
These Abyssal Plains
01:55
|
|||
15. |
Until the End
03:45
|
|||
|
Don't cut off your nose to spite your own face
This is neither the time nor the place
There is a time and a place for everything
Everything's gonna be alright
Right as rain, wrong as two left shoes
Beggars don't get to choose
So don't judge a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes
But if goes barefoot, and covers his tracks then you'll know he is bad news
What's a man to do
Defence is the best form of attack
The pot calling the kettle black
Black as our souls
The eyes are cracked window panes to the soul
The soul is a lock up garage, a bolthole
A hole in space and time
They say that time is money
And there's no more time to spend
So I built myself a time machine
Made time and space bend
To my will, until the end
|
||||
16. |
Vibrating Atoms
01:45
|
|||
|
Flights of fanciful Ibis wings
Covered in cobwebs, mummified things
Highly strung lures with cat gut strings
Gutless wonders of the world we sing
Of our hopes eternal like creaky, rusted old bedsprings
These vibrating atoms, in every building sing
In every building sing
|
||||
17. |
Wasps and Bees
03:16
|
|||
|
Nests and hives, locks and master keys
Passwords in two languages, wasps and bees
One will sting you and will die
One sting need not pay with life
One will sting you and will die
One sting need not pay with life
When their lives are so small
They hardly even matter at all
Their lives are so small
And yet without them we'd be lost
Tiny creatures living in the sea
Billions of different ways to be
Every microscopic day begins
Making the oxygen we breathe in
Their lives are so small
They hardly even matter at all
Their lives are so small
And yet without them we'd be lost
|
||||
18. |
Winter Hare
02:59
|
|||
|
I sit on the clifftops and look out to sea
Picture an island that I cannot see
Picture my home and my family
Try to remember who I used to be
Beneath my feet at the foot of the cliff
A rubble of reasonable doubts and what ifs
What if they catch me, what if I fall
What if the drop does not kill me at all
What if this life sentence was a beach
And each piece of driftwood a figure of speech
A living language the dead cannot speak
Of bladderwrack pops and herring gull shrieks
I'm losing my mind high up on the hill
Taking a cow skull like an aspirin pill
A missing body for a lost mind
Headhunting for any scraps it can find
The winter sun fiddles and my crowsfeet dance slow
Like the tracks of a winter hare in the snow
My cover is blown, they're zigzagging fast
If I turn myself in how long will I last
|
||||
19. |
With Me or Without Me
04:21
|
|||
|
Voices inside my head
Head me off of every path that I tread
Poisonous snakes that want me dead
Writing and squirming in my midlife cycle shed
My skin crawls with the things that they say
Gnawing on my cerebellum like squirrels in their drey
In my nutshell they're making hay
These temporal lobes are here to stay
With me or without me
Voices speaking in tongues
Voices screaming at the top of their lungs
Blurting out unspeakable thoughts
Voiceover narrators my last resort
Killjoys, jobsworths, Smith and Jones
Buzzing and swarming, a hive mind of drones
If I cannot make them stop
I won't need a coffin just a bucket and a mop
Kopping up at the end of my days
These temporal lobes are here to stay
With me or without me
|
||||
Yellow Hammer recommends:
Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me
by touche amore
I still play the entire album on repeat. For me, this album has a unique and rare power. That being said, Touche Amore are simply an amazing band
go to albumIf you like Yellow Hammer, you may also like:
Banjo-wielding indie folk outfit drop their fourth full-length studio album of broody ballads and barroom stompers.
go to album
On their self-titled LP, Montreal duo Big Share offer 10 gentle songs, wreathed by quiet guitars and whispering drums.
go to album
Plastic Bouquet
by Kacy & Clayton and Marlon Williams
“Plastic Bouquet” is a country record built in the grand Nashville tradition, with warm guitars supporting carefully wrought vocal melodies.
go to album
The new EP from denitia specializes in big, hooky pop songs that put her smoky voice front and center.
go to album
Make Way For Love
by Marlon Williams
Gentle songs from this celebrated New Zealand singer/songwriter, which are tender, delicate, and moving.
go to album
