1. |
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Can we put it in the diary?
Can we make it a regular thing?
Find a table, sit and wait
Once you’ve ordered your coffee and cake
Can we put it in the diary?
Catch me up on your latest escape
Over carefully clinking plates
So sorry that I’m running late again
Squinting past popcorn prints
Trying to tell a tale
To keep you there
Then I wake up
And the details fade away
Can we put it in the diary?
The weekend would probably be best
On the floor of the Friday night living room
I could tone down the high-mindedness
And unfurl classroom scandals
Who said what
And who’s still friends with who
Still laughing as the names fade away
Can we put it in the diary?
In the most unexciting way
No turn-ups for the books
Just repeating the same old takes
A scheduled debrief
All the chairs assigned
And I can keep you there
Then I wake up
And the details fade away
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2. |
Surface Noise
03:43
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Above the water, against the wind
Feel the stones through your soles to your feet
Trying to get away from
Or make up for
Another cut glass sleep
Hiding away past Norfolk Street
Exactly where you're meant to be
Shattered voices break the surface the noise
And shattered bottles too
Then your hot-stepping feet
Are dodging debris
Down the back lane route
Where clapped-out cars creep a yard or two
The beat the warden’s pocket book
Four-storey buildings chill the streets
You pull up your scarf to your chin
Certain that you’ve had enough of yourself
But you come round again
You grant yourself a side-eyed grin
Every no-one deserves a win
Your breath breaks through the surface noise
You tighten your scarf round your throat
Sometimes the grind
Gives what you need
And sometimes it won’t
Sometimes it gives what you need
Most of the time it won’t
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3. |
Tomorrow
02:46
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Sometimes
The best that you can say
Is that tomorrow
Might be different
No promises
For perfection
Might not even stretch to
Any better
When each step
Seems impossible
Barely conceivable
At some point it will change
And in a year or two
This particular routine
Will be a vague memory
Remember?
Remember those days?
Crazy, wasn’t it?
Inconceivable
And you’ll be far enough
Removed to laugh
And put it down to
Experience
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4. |
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When you first meet
You make out you are both the same
Same inclinations, books
Frequent the same cafes
But as the blossom falls
The consonance might wane
It's not quite a lie
Please don't feel betrayed
When you're in love
Your repose might begin to fray
Oscillations such
Your nervous system shakes
So one misunderstanding
Sets your thoughts aflame
Sit your anger down
You'll both make mistakes
When you’re apart
Your equilibrium might fail
Vexations once brushed off
Assume a grander scale
Freedom to do what you like
When you like can’t sate
The unexpected lack
The leaden-legged ache
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5. |
It Takes a Long Time
03:19
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It takes a long time
And if you don’t get started now
It’s going to take a long time later
It takes a long time
And the feeling sticks around
Save your strength for when you need it later
The tension rising up
Is a warning
You can heed it
And still not stop
It takes a long time
And the ending slips away
You’ll wonder how it seemed so far later
It takes a long time
But in a week, a year from now
You’ll be glad you didn’t leave it later
The tension rising up
Is a warning
You can heed it
And still not stop
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6. |
Start Over
03:10
|
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How many times
Have you stopped
And thought
I do not have the strength
To carry on
But you button your shirt
And you brush up the crumbs
And go
How many times
Have you taken a breath
So deep it’s as if
You’d been holding your chest
For an hour or a day
Then you exhale again
And start over
Hold your ambitions down
Til the evening comes around
And don’t be too hard
Since you made it this far
Start over
How many times
Have your eyes scraped their lids
As they make their way down
Past capillaries ridged
So you rub them again
Sit straighter and then you
Start over
And on another day
You might humbly try again
But ‘til then steel yourself
With expectations shelved
Start over
And don’t be too hard
Since you made it this far
Start over
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7. |
Keeping Up with Jessica
04:35
|
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There’s always something happening with Jessica
She knows everyone
Keeps up with everything
Her wild-named brothers and sisters
Lead charmed lives
Adventuring
There's always pressing news about Jessica
She's been everywhere
You'd care to mention
You have to wonder how she dishes out
Her attention
But if you’re feeling sad enough
Or shy enough or strange enough to tag along
With her
I don’t mind but will you forgive us
When we can’t quite keep up with Jessica
Everybody wants to sit next to Jessica
I won’t be surprised
By an empty chair
And if she’s late then something extraordinary
Must have kept her there
One day you’ll forget about Jessica
We’ll imagine her
Making new friends
And making pressing news in a new place
Not too far away
Everybody sometimes feels shy enough
Or strange enough to tag along
So we don’t mind and won’t feel sad
That we can’t quite keep up with Jessica
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8. |
High Time
03:53
|
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It's high time, high time
You said goodbye
To being disappointed in
Everything you’re not quite
It’s long past, past time
To better use
The urge, an itch for scratching
There’s no easy satisfaction for you
It's high time, high time
To break the rules
You painstakingly crafted
And kept in place long after they did any good
It's long past, past time
To step outside
The spot you're painted into
No matter how precisely it was justified
It's high time, high time
You said goodbye
To being disappointed in
Everything you’re not quite
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9. |
The Last Day
03:03
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The sports hall thick with rumours
Of last day bad lad schemes
Heads down, steer clear
Just like the last five years
Shirt-signing, fake farewells
People I’ve never spoken to
And won’t when I see them next
Testing times in a week or two
On the last day
Are you ready?
A quick change and confidence
Blind eyes behind the bar
Not the first time, not the last
We’ll say we’re older than we are
Getting rowdy, getting loud
Tempers fraying like the chintz
Head down, disappear
Just like the last five years
On the last day
Are you ready?
No need now to make a plan
We’ll have all summer long
And anyway there’s nowt to miss
Nothing changed, nothing gone
No, not a single to miss
Nothing changes then it’s gone
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10. |
The King of Growing Up
02:31
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To notice what you thought before
And accept you might change your mind
To see an ocean still unknown
And dip your toe from time to time
It’s okay to be unsure
It’s a strength and not a flaw
It’s not weakness to defer
Until you know that you know more
I see myself so clearly now
In all your fears and travails
At least amidst it all you'll have
My arm around to keep you safe
I'm not the king of growing up
I'm just reciting my mistakes
I overbear but pure in hope
That you make fewer of the same
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Daylight Saving Records Sunderland, UK
Home to the extra-curricular activities of Field Music's Peter and David Brewis, as well as SLUG and other esteemed associates.
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