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1. |
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For all the doomed lovers out there
Just know it’s all your fault
You had what so many others would kill
Would pay would trade their own children for
You let it slip away
For all the doomed lovers out there
There is nothing to confide in
A million other crushing doubts will mount upon
A pile of justifying platitudes that will forever haunt you
Take it back she said
It’s all or nothing
We pray the past it counts for something
Maybe the frame hanging a life painted a cheap, loveless grey
For all the doomed lovers out there
Don’t fight what’s pre-determined
You wrote this script in romantic blood
That spilled from brave and younger bodies clamoring for comfort
And a faithless, angry, hungry need to be connected
To a void you taunt with a fatalistic destiny you will fulfill
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2. |
Concentrated Living
03:50
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All my friends who taught me how
Concentrated living
To know me is to forgive me
To love me is to be given a light cast over years still left to go
To be here is to celebrate our lives
Throw money in the middle, we share this ecstasy and wine
All my friends who taught me their religion
It’s called concentrated living
Who will be the first to say goodbye.
Who will be the first to die.
We grew up together, heartbreak will stay
a part of this method, it’s just our way
Me and my friends we won’t let go of concentrated living
Concentrated living
We’ve got the scars to show for it
No point getting sentimental now
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3. |
Tristesse
04:29
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You never saw yourself like this
Keep flirting with the fatalists
Outside
Your body is all that is foreign losing track of your mind
full of dreams at 17
bored and jaded by 23
half alive
stare at the ground when you’re walking outside
don’t care what passes you by
if we are the good guys then we’re working undercover
if we wanna last we gotta start taking care of each other
if we don’t ever recover
at least we were the lovers
don’t tell me that you’re doing fine
how could you even find the time amongst
your faltering heart the great upstart comes apart before his prime
she said I don’t know why I’m so smart
and my body is a work of art
others might decay and toil as I languish in spoils of squandered excess
we drove with our eyes closed (almost) when we were the lovers
(we were the lovers)
We let the last train pass and laughed ‘cause we were the end
(the end)
You let me sob in the gutter heartsick we were brothers
Oh tristesse made me a mess when we were friends
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4. |
Lie Laugh
03:53
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She told me she was coming but she didn’t want to give it away
I couldn’t help but notice that we’re on tonight, we’re on tonight
So the city can stay
The walls are caving in the floor’s collapsing but we’re still dancing
The future’s looking grim we’re suspended in this weird doom
It’s old death we’re chancing
Oh I can feel it
It’s so close I can feel it
I told you I was leaving and I meant it ‘cause I said it I never lie
I can almost feel New York 300 miles as the lovesick spirit flies
Happiness’ a strange bird, fickle and fleeting it might just fly away
We’re gonna ride this thing out my love, all our brilliant madness to use against the day
Finally know there’s nothing we can do
So we’ll die laughing
The future isn’t real we’re here, one rule:
No lie laughing
We got away with everything we still do
Keep courting trouble
I’m enamored with the grace you hold your blues
All your shining colors
Paint the sky with all our stupid words
She smiles, please just touch me
We’re running home before the star comes up
All that burning energy
It’s inside of me
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5. |
How I Pray
03:09
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Always tell your friends you’ll be honest with them
Then lie the best you can, make them understand
There is no need to fear
They’re hearing what they want to hear
Elucidate this moral torpor
Delineate a failing order the path will lead to us far past the point of trust
The factory wrecked your hands
Clench them ‘till they understand
You know we can’t accept our inheritance
Leave it unspent, denying
That there is living proof, absolute truth
Courage caught you lying
A kiss is how I pray
Never tell your lover you’ve been with another
Lock it up inside if she doesn’t ask you haven’t lied
The guilt is yours to bear
Confession isn’t really fair
Say 1000 hail marys
How many others? - (and that number varies)
You treat your girl so mean
Now your slate is clean
a forgiveness so convenient how could god really mean it
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6. |
Love Is Real
03:59
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Roll your pretty eyes ‘cause you know it’s true. Love is real. Love is real. Carry weary wisdom mischievous that’s all. Collecting fleeting kisses this is the sweetest way to fall. A long drawn out mess of tangled sheets and lonely streets praying
Love is real.
And I know I’ve waited so long
After everything you’re all I ever wanted
Give up all the dreams and bars I’ve haunted
Stop trying to figure out it’s all a perfect mystery
Blankets on the windows no light can come in. Poring over scripture nobody’s listening. Perpetuate the species I’m not an animal, Molly Bloom is singing life can be so dull. Seems the best times were spent down alleys we never meant to be in love is real. Love is real.
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7. |
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The epigram is washed in silence
a squall of hiss and aural violence
swept away into the place of dead songs
wait all day for the final message
our hearts' last grasp at the advantage
over epidemic boredom
we're not listening to what they're saying
I don't ever want to feel I've gotta give up
if there's any life left, life I loved you so much
fill this needle with melancholy
euphoric tears, and then you call me
whisper words of pulsing veins
we hopped the fence we straddle centuries
what could time have ever meant to me
but a framework to make sure that love means everything
we're not listening to what you're saying...
we're not looking for a brand new start, want to unravel not break apart
just a little grace, then we disintegrate.
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8. |
Waking up to Motown
03:35
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Waking up to Motown
In a cabin on a beach late summer
If I corrupted you
Then I corrupted you
Do you do things now you never thought
Did you abandon those things you were taught
Are you scared more now that you’re doing wrong
Or you wasted precious years blindly dragged along
You catch yourself thinking some
When I was young, well I’m still young
Waking up soaked in sweat
What clarity accepted death
No defense, no doubt, no ‘down the line’
That great destroyer, that brute called time
Do you feel things once you had condemned
Are you losing interest in your closest friends
Take the darkest path towards ecstasy
Gave up everything now you’re gaining me
Waking up to Motown
In a cabin on a beach that winter
If you sorta tamed
I guess you tamed me
We know now the earth is dying or maybe it’s just us
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9. |
After I'm Gone
03:10
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Baby after I’m gone
Please don’t be sad you know I’ve always been free
Baby after I’m gone
It turns out the sun is god
We should have known that all along
Everything I give you is to make your heart sing
Our shadows are deformed and evil grows wings
What’s here before us but madness and torment
A flashing of light and memories made in a coma
The bluebirds are graying in blizzards of ash
The highways are pockmarked with potholes and trash
What’s now behind us are warnings and terror
Things have to get better it’s our only chance at paradise
I was a disaster red lipstick a head full of wine
You called me sweetheart in the bathroom line
We kissed in the hallway said, ‘baby won’t you follow me down?’
I hope we last
At least outlast our mistakes
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10. |
Innocence=Lust
02:58
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Midnight and we’re back at your place
We ran through the rain pray we don’t make a mistake
And pick the wrong one there was plenty to choose
You were coming on coy and sweet how could I refuse
It’s all up to us now
This is all right
Stumbling through shoes on the stairs
All her roommates are home but who really cares
They’ve got ice cream and blaring tvs
I sit on her bed she said she’d be in right after me
It’s all up to momentum
She’s coming out of the bathroom
Oh, this is alright
She says c’mon just touch me
This is as alive as we’ll ever be
You’re still a mystery
Lights out too sober to be brave
Her eyes shine bright, they say boy you behave
This is a gamble it’s a blind kind of trust
Throw ourselves at the mercy of this greedy kind of lust
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11. |
Nameless
04:59
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Oh winter lightning, illuminating the frozen tundra
Long forgotten feeling stranded out there
I wasn’t dreaming
How’d we let ourselves forget we were friends
My memories are mixed up which is to say
I don’t know my story
When you’ve got too many records
You let them pile up
You’ll never find the one you need
I can’t go on. I’ll go on. It’s kinda funny
Black sky flash and the river raging breathless waiting
The cars are wet static above us on the overpass
When this is over then I owe you nothing or I am the same
Spin the chamber I go first, won’t close my eyes
Nameless. Unnameable. The knowing click. The light’s a trick.
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12. |
Cacophony
02:46
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I know you’re living wild
I know you’re living wild
I know it ‘cause you’re tired of fighting back
I know if there’s an us
I mean if there’s an us
We share a damaged lust for blackouts and tumult
Brother I want you to know
We’re courageously failing beneath the very same darkness
So lonely when you’re beside her
So empty when you’re inside her
If you said it you’d be a liar
It just don’t matter much, anymore
In pages you look for answers
There’s no such thing as answers to the things you’re asking
That’s why your first one’s in the morning
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The City Streets Edmonton, Alberta
Rick Reid, Matt Leddy, Mark Chmilar. 2005-2013. Edmonton/Montreal.
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