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Wait, don't laugh; I'd like to enlighten you
Look upon my eyes
Can't you see it's raining inside my mind?
Thoughts were once filled with my life's song
A song that you've never known
And now that I grabbed your attention
Would you kindly care to mention
Why have I followed you so near
Wasted the mere breadth of countless years?
Couldn't you have stopped me before I knew
That this cumbersome side would soon show through?
Instead of extending a hand of sympathy
A spiteful smile slowly spreads from ear to ear
'Cause all your lost trials
And the things that had made you so sick you couldn't stand up straight
Now fill you with a righteous pride
You're teeming with a hate that cannot be staved
You won't be saved and I won't behave so I walk away
I balk from your disgrace
And I want you so but can't be near you anymore
These thoughts they must subside and I must move on with my life
There's so much more to pine than chasing my desire
Unrequited desire
Lyrics © 2011 Jason Vitelli
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2. |
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Seems I’m back to where I began
Thought that fortune has left my hand
Many moments gone since I wrote
But it's been all too long since I’ve spoken
What has happened since that yesterday
When I sung the lines from two years ago today?
Can I trust it this time?
Had to slough away a stifled skin
To creep my way around this pen again
To find out how much more I need to say
Instead of just running away
Like returning to a sad old friend
Who’s not fickle with an ear to lend
Can I trust it this time?
Told my story yet, have I still more to tell?
Mind's falling from the weight of lies caught between time
Just a pile of words I am
Decaying from disuse and approaching despair
Grown weary of the sound of my voice
But I have no choice
Have to write me down once more
Filling up an emptiness
Harrowed lines detailing an existence
Likely to unfurl the blight
That was well hidden from your reckoning eye
With lights gleaming off the glassy reflections
Of newly minted rhyme
I turn the past inside out
Once sightless and submerged
Lyrics © 2011 Jason Vitelli
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3. |
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Alarm has rung its fatal suite
It’s begun again
Drown a sole forlorn refrain
Every time I miss a beat
It calls my name, hears a lie
Falling back on top again
Second hand's an hour fast
It’s waiting for me to turn from its past
The chimes won’t ever cease
Their purpose is blind and there is no release
Why can’t I see what’s happening?
The stolen time makes it hard for me to breath
Looking through rusty windows
It's begun again
What was new is now begone
As your scent of summer skin
Painful splits, pare me up
Into pieces of has-been
Garbage heaps in the streets
Containing the objects that once were of need
Tourniquet then stops the flow
Half eaten rinds lay within the falling snow
Why can’t I see what’s happening?
The cold inside caps a landfill within
Spirit sun take me above
I’m running from oscillations underground
Floating past rotting entrails of worry
Particles ailing me; concrete pulverize me
Lyrics © 2011 Jason Vitelli
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4. |
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Patience never bid me well
Shoves me to a corner
No response; must call on her
And make this time illuminate
I’ll make it shine for free
Will she shine for me?
And maybe I’ll discover once in a while
A little piece of heaven latent in a smile
And maybe I could wrench free any moment I wish
Box it up; put it in the best suit I can find
While pacing to and fro
Decide to take a shower
Spindly cold does not bother
Razor clears my scuffed malaise
She’ll make me into Remus
Could she be my Venus?
And maybe this will all last more than a day
And a little piece of treasure will surface in our wake
And maybe I could wrench free any moment I wish
Box it up; put it in the best suit I can find
Maybe this will all last more than a day
And a little piece of treasure will surface in our wake
And maybe I’ll discover once in a while
A little piece of heaven latent in a smile
And maybe I could wrench free any moment I wish
Box it up; put it in the best suit I can find
Lyrics © 2011 Jason Vitelli
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5. |
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I made a promise to you and I don't even know why
But I saw your reflection in the window pane crying out
It said "It won't be long; I'll sing my song"
But just the same, you're not who you are supposed to be
What did I say; what did I do wrong?
Did I write too many love songs and not make a point to be strong
And to belong to myself instead of belonging to someone else?
Wait until the day is done; you won't fight anymore
Look inside, see you're alive and that's all you need to know
The fear beside you is soaking wet
Filled with the tears of yesterday's regret
As you pour the strife into a lonesome well
It comes to your senses that you'll never be alone
Oh you never will be alone
So you pour your heart into a savior
Be it truth or God or love or the music that plays you
And the sky will open wide
And tears roll down your smile
And you'll curse the day you kept you inside
You kept you inside
So don't you fret, oh no
Just sing to me again
Lyrics © 2011 Jason Vitelli
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6. |
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A painted rose, an ivory coast
Rolling hills, sand polished stones
Why haven’t we noticed this before?
Seems like it’s always been so barren and low
It’s like we discovered a new taste
Silly grins jumping through sea sprays
It’s like I had no sense of my own
And all these pitches rose until they bled through my nose
Garbled grunts
As a bear fishes the floodplain soul
And those spotted snails and gypsy moths
Washing over the kale leaves
We’re up upon a spiral jet
Of this coursing, fervid river inlet
It’s like our purposes are so clear and demure
And no more
Than just sitting here
Feeling the moist soil upon our pores
I’ve been unlocked and I’m now careening
Twirling beyond the confines of Bowie’s maze
Before was just a phase
As I pour my eyes into a paper cup, they smile up
Say it out loud and scream and shout; sorrows are falling from me
I say it out loud and scream and shout; sorrows are falling from me
I say it out loud and scream and shout; sorrows are falling
Say it out loud and scream and shout!
Say it out loud and scream and shout!
Lyrics © 2011 Jason Vitelli
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7. |
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He sits in a chair, looking so spare
Drinking some lemonade in the moonlight air
Gazes at the blade he set upon my kin
The ground glistening their sordid end
I am calm as I lay beside his path
With a notion to ambush a man savoring his wrath
Reverse my course as thoughts start to flood
Memories remind me I was once so pure
Had enough steam for a million dreams
Now where can they be?
Step beneath a fountain to wash away soot
Gathered from my escape route
But an infection resides just under my skin
Endless turmoil turns innocence gangrene
Any earnest expectations have gone to seed
I've always been just like him
With contempt for those who win
So where do I go from here?
It's my move now; nothing else remains
But to crawl back in haste, where my enemy awaits
Dripping all over I grab him by the nape
Knifing a slice, a big happy face
Ripping flesh ear to ear all over the place
Streams of him wasted mix with the shards of glass and lemonade
And it tastes so sweet as I lie down to dream
Upon the concrete, I lie down to dream
"Ain't life sweet?" I say as I lie down to dream
Lyrics © 2011 Jason Vitelli
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8. |
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Working, a-working, a-working all day long
Fingers missing nails, teeming with toil
One shouldn’t be alone
When walking toward the bedroom door
Age reeks through the bones
Parasites turn tissue into dung
Body wrinkles up, eyelids so heavy
Sallow skin and bones, fingers decaying
You were once a towering tree
Now you're just mulch and weeds
And you just sit there wondering "Can I be happy?"
Countless calculations, crunching lines
Bring a salary, some kids, a wife
Steam runs out the chimney
The intercourse brings heat to all in need
Growing stronger every day
Does meaningless work turn to meaningful play?
Body wrinkles up, eyelids so heavy
Her arthritic hands, they don't look so pretty
You both were once as sharp as knives
Now you're picking up each other’s lines
You just sit there wondering "Can we be happy?"
I’m vying to be cured of this working disease
Would anyone care; does anyone care to join me?
I say does anyone care; would anyone care to join me?
Lyrics © 2011 Jason Vitelli
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9. |
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Picturing you sitting in the living room
A sense of gloom in that emaciated chair
An overcast sky supplies the light for you
And my hands on knees, I’m begging please
What do I need to do to please you? I need you
Stirring the storm, the misty lows
Showering batters the pane glass windows
I look toward eyes so ossified
I thought I saw upon them a smile
It's just a quick and easy fix
To a lost and rusty time
A rival is beyond the door
He was my friend ages ago
And he understood the reasons behind this game
And it's painful to know that it was me and not him
That became the roaming soul behind sand and glass
In perfect isolation so I have neither/nor
As the showering batters and the thundering roars
I look toward eyes so ossified
I thought I saw upon them a smile
It's just a quick and easy fix
To a lost and rusty time
Remembering when this was all an accident
Pilfering truth to hold onto your innocent sin
And say all of this, fantasize, yet my cries
Are a fruitless labor to bring you and him back to life
And as the storm is realized
Torrents paint the rooftops red
Swerving their colors grey
That was once to all such a glorious day
I look toward eyes so ossified
I thought I saw upon them a smile
It's just a quick and easy fix
To a lost and rusty time
Lyrics © 2011 Jason Vitelli
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10. |
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Wait for a second; wait another second
It’ll be just a moment
But can never seem to get this right
I won’t be alive; I won’t be alive
I sit here and bide my time
But it's not easy to stand naked
I won’t be another wasted life
Generated by anxiety
But my way doesn’t pave a way
Toward any sort of possibility
So I slide on by
And I want you as mine
And I try and I try
But the minutes are like fire
I sit by the phone and say that it's OK
A mantra fed existence
Pouring out of a starving heart
But the ringing in my head rings true
And it shivers down my spine
I never felt so out of sorts
Driven mad by a singularity
Connection bursts me through the lines
My lips worn icy chapped now are moist
Color flushes into my face; I cannot think straight
It was my sigh of relief that pulled apart my insides
Revealing some sort of shape for here and now existing again
And the voices that sped my turbines to feverish pitch
Now sing to me such soothing whispers
Lyrics © 2011 Jason Vitelli
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11. |
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Spinning wheels, covered carts
Colored with line art
Spitting coal, a traveling circus mall
Could it be any trouble at all?
Bearded ladies, contortionists
Blurring the past into present tense
The glorious burning presence
Acrobatics, mirrored glass
Bodies mangled by sleight of hand
Three armed shaman juggling sacks
Dour Latin crosses pagan charm
Such an enticing series of games
Throwing night into the day
Roaming droves with homes unknown
These gypsies fly through deserted time
Into deserts, cacti needles puncture
The thoughts that pride had long solidified
Whisking the townsfolk in wondrous sight
Lifting their grounding through perilous flights
Turning taboo into such glorious insight
Insight
Lyrics © 2011 Jason Vitelli
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12. |
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She thought I found the way to her home
Through the naked room
Her kind eyes shining upon the hearth
Instead I made it up and said it would be alright
But it’s not alright; it’s not alright
No
Took the scissors off the shelf
I took a stab at my vein
Took it out in the same way
I cut her blind all the while
Her empty porch still lit as I walk down the road
I’m swaying back and forth
Strong gales pitching rocks at my mug
I know I don’t belong here no more
No more
Took a left at the ridge
Keeping to the lines in the highway
I don’t know which way to turn
But my steady gaze endures past the shame
Yet I trip through her malice
Borne in lieu of the love I could never return
Can’t return
Smoke signals to the next town as the sun’s rising up
Her eyes a single speck upon the event horizon
Could only picture a spring when times were so right
And the leaves were all green
And we were dancing in the streets
And she was smiling at me
She was smiling at me
Lyrics © 2011 Jason Vitelli
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13. |
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If I could burnish the sky
With your smile tonight
It would be a guide for me
Upon the circuitous River Nile
As I am running away from the evils in the fray
And I’ll be free, in a way, in a way
From the crying of the miscreants aloft
Through the spirals off another tide
On I row upon your starlight
Emerge from the south lands
Safely flow through the canyon's pass
Forgetting oceans by and by
Amazed at what's come to fly
If we are running away
From a desperate war they wage
Will we be free? In a way, in a way
Though the monsoons could disturb our perfect sleep
We'll cast them aside for a better day to keep
In a place with landscape set so far beneath
Will the reaches of our former ties
Betray our time living asunder?
As we’re thrown headlong into the turbulence
Have we brought it upon ourselves?
This river surges, swallows our weary sighs
Embodying strife, those waves so far behind
We are running away from a world that can't be tamed
And we’ll be fine anyway, anyway
Beyond the white water, I can behold a calmer sea
As your shimmering cascades brighten my day
Show me the way
Show me the way
Lyrics © 2011 Jason Vitelli
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14. |
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Stay away from the words that mean so much
That broke her spirit when you stole them away
As your bodies entangle so close
Can you contain the rhythms that will be
In step to some new fashion?
You "lie" there accursed and all too aware
Of the revelation that overcame you last Sunday afternoon
In the coffee shop
Couldn’t tear yourself from such hourglass curves
Striking eternal time; you stopped on a dime
Wantonness can enable a natural unrest
Gripping the loins so hard
That a cast iron will couldn’t tear it loose
And what was said before is last week’s news
As you defile, you desecrate; you set the bait
While fishing around for the next muse
So stay away; you make it rain till the tide overflowed reason!
Glance at the girl over at the kiosk looking so fine
Flying away on a jet plane to God knows where
Catch her pants; see her outline of fleshy taste
So make haste to the moment that ripens with delight
After you trouble to pick up her number
Dominos in your head tumble into dread
For the outpourings of your heart that unfurled intense devotion
Instead betray a lecherous duplicity
So what is real?
Where does fate bring tomorrow
When neither does answered your call?
And what does a conscience harbor
When no regrets taint it at all?
Lyrics © 2011 Jason Vitelli
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15. |
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I recall so many places ago
When endless thoughts churned so slow
I was stuck in a grind
Oh yes, I was stuck in a grind
Rhyming the same old line all the time
A circle of crime
Aching with all the hopes and the love
All the hopes and the love I've never known
But now I'm here with you
My friends, my tribe, my home
Lyrics © 2011 Jason Vitelli
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16. |
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You’ll feel better when you’re sleeping
You’ll feel better when you’re eating
The words you tried so hard to keep down
And you’ll never know when they’ll next come around
May patience always keep you in line
And when in doubt you’ll feel better next time
Run baby run,
Hold back those tears and the needs you will shun
Run baby run,
How could you allow your freedom to be sold out?
You'll feel better when you’re choking
Upon those leers of fear and loathing
You’ll feel better when you’re dying
Nailed to your losses should they find you writhing
And I don’t know if I can stay any longer
When all I’ve tried to do was make you stronger
May patience always keep you in line
And when in doubt you’ll feel better next time
Run baby run,
Hold back those tears and the needs you will shun
Run baby run,
How could you allow your freedom to be sold out?
How can you feel better
When you’re leaving your love behind
The joys you once knew
And the days you thought you could never lose?
Oh run, run baby run
And how can you believe your freedom is still gone?
Lyrics © 2011 Jason Vitelli
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17. |
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I pick up a small token and now can remember
We made it rain whenever we wanted it to
Those mystic clouds ran in sheets of whitest heaven
We thought they washed away the blood from bruise
But empty houses instead lie in pledges of allegiance
With pitted roofs sinking deeper every year
The faded newsstand still sits near our old cement stoop
Front of Sammy’s Pool, full of the same old fools
We’ve risen on but are drifting aground
Falling in the shoes they thought that we could fill
But I look inside, see those tossed candy wrappers and rhymes
And the burnt fuse that tore us apart in two
A clearing shows itself as the western front peals on through
Throwing silver moon upon all those dusty old bar stools
The forgotten parlor briefly becomes a disco lit haven
But tall, tangled weeds soon entomb that view
I run that track all the way back from the Pine Hollows
I fly past all the fights, all the games, all the laughs we could have ever made
And I push myself so hard that I fall to my knees
Start coughing up years of reality
Knowing who had lit up that fuse
We’ve risen on but are drifting aground
Falling in the shoes they thought that we could fill
But I look inside, see those tossed candy wrappers and rhymes
And the burnt fuse that tore us apart in two
I sit down on the curb and turn halfway around
See your American reflection dancing on the ground
Scorning and taunting, so bereft of hope
Your shadow's falling over miles of stone
But we had lost each other long ago
While riding the back trails that borne our former suburban home
Never to be seen again
So shall I extinguish your spectral grin?
We’ve risen on but are drifting aground
Falling in the shoes they thought that we could fill
But I look inside, see those tossed candy wrappers and rhymes
And the burnt fuse that tore us apart in two
Lyrics © 2011 Jason Vitelli
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released November 23, 2011
Jason Vitelli: vocal, acoustic and electric guitar, piano
Dave Ramsay: piano, electric guitar
Jiliane Russo: cello
Qun Ma: french horn
Kathrine Becker: celeste
Olivier Prud'homme: bass guitar, electric guitar
Yorgos Maniatis: drums
Cherette Lewis: backing vocal