1. |
the last anaesthetist
03:19
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god don’t let me live
longer than the last anaesthetist
i know i’m going to need her help
when i’ve turned to lung and bone
and my eyes turn to hospital windows
and the trees outside are capillaries freezing up
god grant my friends will be
fortunate in their dependencies
let them always know the moment to give up
let their wells run dry
only once they’ve left them well behind
let their camps be broken long before they have to leave
this is what we come to when we come to our ends
bones as bright as filaments want to shine through skin
this is what we come to
god let this tattoo
last just a little longer than i do
it tells the only story i had to tell
it’s the marking of the place
the painting on the wall of a cave
the graven promise in the willow bark
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2. |
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months away, harbours ago
what can be said?
now that the leaves are coming down
putting one more year to bed next to all the others
but over geneva the moon was rising then
falls away, harvests ago
what can be grown?
now that the earth is salted here
tell me maddy rose, how did i go under again?
the hindmost will be turned to salt
but over geneva the moon was rising then
over geneva the moon was rising then
and for a minute my heart was overflowing then
maybe i was always going to be a crow
oh my sweet sparrow
always going to be a yesterday
oh my sweet tomorrow
the hindmost will be turned to salt
but over the hudson the snow was falling then
over the hudson the snow was falling then
and for a minute i did think we’d be all right then
and over geneva the moon was rising then
over geneva the moon was rising then
and for a minute i did think i’d be all right then
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3. |
a thousand winter coats
03:01
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there’s cracks out there honey, underfoot in the ice
it sure seems a long way out there to you
you can float like a feather like that all that you like
but look at me baby, i’ve been heavy all of my life
oh the winds that blow
she had a thousand winter coats
she turned and said, ‘yeah, the past may be dead,
but its nails still grow’
jesus christ darling we are just like the sparrows
with their tiny chests in this fucking cold
let the frost gild the ribcages, the skulls fill with snow
let the black bear hearts hibernate, let the birds go wherever birds go
oh the winds that blow
she had a thousand winter coats
she turned and said, ‘yeah, the past may be dead,
but its nails still grow’
oh the winds that blow
she had a thousand winter coats
she turned and said, ‘yeah, the past may be dead,
but its nails still grow’
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4. |
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we laid the weaker ones to rest out there
in the great north islands
and we marked each grave with a splintered driftwood cross
washed stained hands and sailed for home
made pacts of silence down below decks
by candle-flicker and the smell of blood
i thought i saw an albatross but it was just an angel
we sailed home through the winter
and we tried not to remember
quite what we'd done what we'd promised to keep hid
beneath constellations of dust and gods
we forgot all the sailings off
and we began to weep for all the ones we'd lost
i thought i saw an albatross but it was just an angel
and oh that broke my old stowaway heart
i thought i saw lost time come back to me but it was just the future
and now i can hardly tell the two apart
we sang songs at home of our great deeds
in the great north islands
double of heart and rough of wing
the crowds wept at our tragic tales
and jesus love me i did as well
though i knew that there were things of which we did not sing
the short straws and desertions
the shrinking cries as we descended on the weaker ones
we chosen ones with knives
we invoked the tragic muses
but all the while we sang the awful truth was whispering
in the pages of our hearts
i thought i saw their ghosts at the curtain call, but those were only angels
oh that broke my understudy heart
and now it's hand-in-hand and heart in mouth, death in life and long lost loves
and buried years unquiet beneath the ground
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5. |
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i’m a great counter of days my love
christmas slipped by in a beat
of the year’s broken heart as it slowly gave out
and raven’d its way out to sea
i’m a palimpsest now, oh the left and the lost
a ledger that registers nothing but costs
jesus they’re spiraling
don’t come to the summer house, i’m breaking down
i miss you, i’m glad that you’re gone
in these dark haunted corners i minotaur round
i can’t pay for the damage i’ve done
i’m a palimpsest now, oh the left and the lost
a ledger that registers nothing but costs
jesus they’re spiraling
don’t come to the summer house, i burned it down
i set fires and traps in the trees
for the minotaur memories roaming the grounds
as they follow their strings back to me
my love lately i am writing down
things that we once knew by heart
i’m a palimpsest now, oh the left and the lost
a ledger that registers nothing but costs
jesus they’re spiraling
jesus they’re spiraling
jesus they’re spiraling
jesus they’re spiraling
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6. |
pines
04:40
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driving through a hangover and pines
i thought of you as i do sometimes
it all came true, the floodings and the tumults
but you were right about the clearings too
you once lied i could live on that coastline
for that i love you still
oh, your lips, they graced some summers
but your teeth, well, they haunt the others
and i was late, and wasted when i came
the cars were parked and you had already waded out
you once lied i could live on that coastline
for that i love you still
i took the pills and when they turned me evil you said
'i forgive you, but i don't think you ever will'
leaving all those houses far behind
i let the frost touch all my lifelines
it all came true, the floodings and the tumults
but you were right about the clearings too
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7. |
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a small town, a violent element
let's get you out of here
you heard me say things that i wish that i never meant
you probably didn't want to hear
let's steal a hearse and go drive the perimeter
i have a theory of you in that dress
i made an equation of some heartbreaking elegance
it sings of the curve of your neck
it sings of the curve of your neck
a photo in a dresser-drawer
a girl in a lightning storm
how'm i going to get away from you now?
maybe i'm a minotaur
it's what they built these mazes for
how'm i going to get away from you now?
if i had a sister oh i know she'd have never let me
sail out into storm clouds like you
oh how i miss that sweet girl that i never met
her dark heart it beats in my breast
let's steal a police-car and sing along with the sirens
their hymns to your hairpin coast roads
their psalms to the secrets of your wild past and underwear
their prayers of your buried lost gold
their prayers of your buried lost gold
a photo in a dresser-drawer
a girl in a lightning storm
how'm i going to get away from you now?
maybe i'm a minotaur
it's what they built these mazes for
how'm i going to get away from you now?
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8. |
when the waters rise
03:40
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oh my pretty saint i lost my way
even with you by me
the rain and ivy and the stripped-bare elms
were whispering sweet nothings to me
where will you be coming when the storm rolls in?
little brother you know it’s always back to us
where will you be coming when the storm rolls in?
oh god help me i was far from home
even with you near me
out in the gales with the soothsayer birds
making their predictions for me
where will you be coming when the waters rise
baby brother you know it’s always back to us
where will you be coming when the waters rise
baby brother you know it’s always back to us
there’s this dream comes back to me
and it’s lovely
it’s my funeral, you and i are there
holding hands and crying
you say, ‘the minotaur’s gone now, never mind,
hey, it’s ok’, and we go and get a drink after anyway
where will you be standing when the saints march in?
oh i hope i can say i’ll be next to you
where will you be standing when the saints march in?
oh i hope i can say i’ll be next to you
where will you be coming when the waters rise?
baby brother you know it’s always back to her
where will you be coming when the waters rise?
baby brother you know it’s always back to her
where will you be coming when the storm rolls in?
little brother you know it’s always back to her
where will you be coming when the storm rolls in?
little brother you know it’s always back to her
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9. |
shipwreck
02:57
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baby just look up and see me
i’m standing right here in all this maritime architecture
and if i am lost to you in the dimming of light
i think i’ll go down like a shipwreck tonight
baby you know how harbours are
they giveth and taketh away all right
once you waited for hours at the dockside for me
but i think i’ll go down tonight like a ship in the nighttime sea
baby just look up and see me
i am the lost sparrow from the psalms and scriptures
god counts the hairs on your head, my falls from flight
and i think i’ll go down like a shipwreck
i think i’ll go down like a shipwreck tonight
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10. |
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sunday finds me my hands in salt water
sifting through scattered things down on the beach
having given up hope that you’d ever come find me
i’d given my heart to the sea
i’d given my heart to the sea
and i filled its place up with cigarette ash
i was doing just fine without if anyone asked
but of all the dark woods the heart’s the most heavy
and when it sinks it is gone beyond recovery
and now all the crows and kites of fife are my only friends
i’ll never come home
sunday finds me at charts of the tidewaters
plotting the far beaches where you might be
oh come and find me i’m tangled and landlocked
i’m fluttering into a murder of me’s
i’ve given my heart to the sea
and i filled its place up with cigarette ash
i was doing just fine without if anyone asked
but of all the dark woods the heart’s the most heavy
and when it sinks it is gone beyond recovery
and now all the crows and kites of fife are my only friends
i’ll never come home
and now all the crows and kites of fife are my only friends
i’ll never come home
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Reichenbach Falls UK
A folk-pop project currently based in Scotland and Canada and widely acclaimed in outlets including the Guardian, Line of
Best Fit, Exclaim! and Music OMH.
Following the home-spun lockdown release 'the past may be dead but its nails still grow', 2024 will see the release of our first studio album in eight years, 'Wayfarer Beware', from which 'Back to Poet's Lake' is the first single.
... more
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