Get all 8 a Singer of Songs releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Portraits, Fading, From Hello to Goodbye, There Is A Home For You, The corner I seek is a place where no one meets (outtakes, rarities, & shy recordings), Little Notes, Old Happiness, and I dig for gold.
1. |
Alida
05:17
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I fear the unknown
I grieve when people go
Will the hydrangeas blossom in the April snow?
When I lay down my head
I think of things I could have said
The TV flickers but we close our eyes instead
You ache, I bleed
You mow the lawn, I trim the trees
You keep the bread I make ‘cause there’s always birds to feed
When I’m in a strong mood
I’m unafraid of the simplest truths
We still drive our nails through the darkest wood
No, we’re not the winning kind
We need privacy to speak our minds
Time’s no longer a foaming sea, it’s a luring lake
My skin has changed but I am still the same
I promise I will always look up when you call me by your name
When we ride on our bikes
By the river, side by side
Then we sit down and wait for the ducks to swim by
We get home before the rain
You lie down and I press play
Paul Anka sings and we are one, we are the same
I yearn to go to sleep
‘Cause my mother speaks to me in my dreams
Time’s no longer a foaming sea, it’s a luring lake
My skin has changed but I am still the same
I promise I will always look up when you call me by your name
Now whichever way I head
I end up face to face with death
But I’ll fight until there’s no more blood to shed
When we said no more goodbyes
We’d always be by each other’s side
It was probably a lie but we still try
We still try
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2. |
Paul
03:57
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My eyelids are heavier
Than they’ve ever been
I pull the darkness
Up to my chin
This life in sawdust
I bent my back building roofs
Turning holes into windows
Then I came back home to you
The silence you hear
Is the violence I feel
In this emptiness you see
I am down on my broken knees
Please stay close to me
Bombs started falling
When I spoke my first words
My lungs started crumbling
When I was ready to be heard
I signed a truce with fear
When you picked me from the crowd
You led our first dance
Into this tender hideout
The silence you hear
Is the violence I feel
In this emptiness you see
I am down on my broken knees
Oh please stay close to me
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3. |
Alain
02:55
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The mixtape that you made
You picked a rainy summer day
You said “You’re small,
But these songs will make you feel great”
Every day after school
I ran up to my little room
To hear Paul Simon croon
XTC and Talking Heads too, fafafafa
You kept adding names to the list
Otis Redding, REM and Prince
Now I know you must have grinned
When I erased George Michael and Sting
Instead I taped The Kinks
Then someday I don’t know when
You stopped being my hero and became my friend
I gave you Pavement, we sang Creep
Sparklehorse made us weep, lalalala
And then I moved away
And I put the tapes
In an old suitcase
And the ink started to fade
Now we don’t even listen to CD’s
It’s all streaming and mp3’s
There’s no cracks, it’s all so clear
But it’s pretty flaws you want to hear
I picked a rainy autumn day
To take the mixtape that you made
Out of the dusty old suitcase
I sat down and I pressed play
Buddy it still made me feel great
Buddy you still make me feel great
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4. |
The Man At The Table
03:19
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I am the man at the table
I wear an old suit without labels
My old guitar bothers the waiter
My coins in neat piles on the table
My eyes on the yellow page
The same words I’ve read for ages
About the mellow man
Who sat down when everyone ran
Many have called me unstable
They say I am lost in a fable
Ambition makes such blurry pictures
It gnaws away at your convictions
Now the only things I really need
Are the sun, a place to sit, a tree
The only thing I really want
Is silence before the hunt
I’m many tiny bits
That don’t always seem to fit
Tied together by a thread
A small breeze can tear me to shreds
I’m nowhere, I’m home
I’m nowhere home
I’m nowhere, I’m home
I walk out and still have no label
My coins in the hand of the waiter
You didn’t even notice I faded
‘Cause I was just a man at a table
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5. |
Rosa
04:13
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I cry when I read good books
I sing out of tune when I feel good
I’d re-draw the world if I could
My throat shuts in the face of stress
Laying my head on your chest
Is my favorite way to rest
I love my brightly colored dress
I say more when I mean less
I love the city, I miss the farm
I’ve been loved and I ‘ve been harmed
I’ve fallen into broken arms
I’ve lived life day by day
And when hardship came my way
I fought hard and I prevailed
Now the tumor’s gone away
I’ve found my place and I want to stay
Everywhere I look, all I see are roses
I feel your skin like wind on leaves
Our hands are tight like soil and seed
Keep your feet close so mine don’t freeze
Every end is a brand-new start
I wake up early and I work hard
But I’m not naive about the reward
Death has such a tender face
I miss Laura every day
Everywhere I look, all I see are roses
When the broken kid calls me mom
I hope I’ll be strong and I’ll be calm
We’ll hold him in our broken arms
Take my hand, don’t mind the thorns,
Let’s wander through the storm
Then come home and keep it warm
Let’s grow old unafraid
No need for light in this perfect shade
Everywhere I look, all I see are roses
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6. |
Laura
04:51
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It was a cold winter night
When you shoved your body aside
There was a silence in the trees
And the wind spoke through the leaves
It was about them, you and me
It was about nightmares and dreams
It was about beauty to be
About being lifted by a flock of bees
I remember on the beach that day
You said you’d shine in the shade
You said you’d grow to be great
And when you sang you’d be Beyoncé
We all laughed at those words
You said I can no longer be hurt
You put your sunglasses on
You said I might look weak but I feel so strong
And then when you shaved your head
You meant to cry but you laughed instead
You said now I’m ready for true love
And you looked down but he came from above
You put your hiking boots on
You crossed horizons you thought were long gone
And when your bones started to ache
He held you so hard you thought you’d break
You showed him all bees can carry
You said it’s a shame to be buried
There you stood, mountain high
Whispering I want to fly…
You were a smile in the sun
You were the breeze before it’s gone
You were so easily pleased
And yet so hard to defeat
And then that day in the sun
We said goodbye and we were one
It was a cold winter day
It took millions of bees to carry you away
Because you had grown to be great…
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7. |
Mabel
04:31
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Mexican horns
Weep on the old car radio
My father sings along
He looks back, grins
And gets our names wrong
I still smell the horse on him
Our little town in the sun
It shivers like dry skin
My sisters hum then sigh
In the song the doomed lover
Bravely dies
We park and I run inside
Past my mum, frantic and tired
She says there’s kids in the street
But it’s darkness that I seek
With my imaginary friends
Little notebooks to protect
Pale words like fragile seeds
If we want to grow we can never be
In the sunlight
Mexican horns
Blast on the hi-fi stereo
Our home high above the street
Still city life washes over me
It’s a little life I live
Proudly small is all I aim to be
Frantic and tired
Slanted and enchanted
By the saddest melodies
When the darkness pulls at me
Old horses set me free
It took a thousand wounds to heal
True lovers don’t die, they bleed
I move not to sit still
I keep adding notebooks to fill
But I keep the last page blank for you
Each word will grow into truth
In the sunlight
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8. |
Agus
04:40
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You were so skinny
I could barely see you
You were sitting on a window sill
Smoking a spliff
It was a 7 floor building
A cold night to be chilling
You were so far above the buzz
The buzz I was in
So I lingered and dallied
I was patient & ready
But it was the night sky you fancied
I was too small to be seen
So I pulled myself up to you
With strength I didn’t have
I yelled the dust off my voice
And when I rose above the noise
You looked down, and I was seen (x2)
You took my hand in your hand
To chase our favorite bands
PJ Harvey & Nacho Vegas
We sang their words like they’d made us
We were beautiful freaks
With only knowledge to seek
A whole world yet to change
We held our dreams at close range
We let maps rule our lives
We lived along their dotted lines
That never went back to start
But then they took us apart
And all our favorite songs
Turned out plain sad when sung alone
We were one by a thin line
And when we pushed from both sides
It bended, but it did not break (x2)
Now our sill ain’t that high
Home is where we both are
We don’t need the sky
To imagine the stars
We’ll whisper new songs
And we’ll know what they mean
I’ll turn down the volume
When you fall asleep
We’ll turn our maps around
We’ll make ‘up’ what was ‘down’
We’ll find comfort in our names
When our bodies start to ache
We won’t change the world
But the world won’t change us
We’ll have our silence be heard
Our truths read in the dust
When the buzz becomes too loud
We’ll turn our backs to the crowd
I’ll put my arm through your arm
And we’ll walk away
We’ll walk away…
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9. |
Yehia
09:28
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Old red car, blanket of stars
Driving through town with both windows down
We didn’t follow the signs, your hand on mine
I pulled over, you smiled, we leaned in to kiss and hide
The engine roared, you pulled your shirt straight
I dropped you off a block from home
You leaned in the window and said you wanted more of the same
The first bombs fell digitally
On YouTube, not on TV, so far away from you and me
Suddenly we were enemies
You father in his shiny uniform, he said I would hang from your family tree
Then the walls started to shake, the sky started to break
Planes whistled and then buried us in clouds of hate
I will go home someday
And I’ll be happier than I’ve ever been
Weeping amongst the ruins
Old red car, blanket of stars
Medicines, blankets and beans on the seat where you used to be
Broken signs point to the ground
The few who remained on their feet wouldn’t run
They said “we don’t need the blankets, we need machine guns”
When the clouds closed in on me, you wept and said “let’s just flee”
But it’s treason to run off with the archenemy
Old red car, parked in the wrong place
Its shattered headlights like sad eyes saying it’s time for you to go away
I will go home someday
And I’ll be happier than I’ve ever been
Weeping amongst the ruins
Old red car, blanket of stars
2000 miles from home, but you sound even farther away on the phone
You say “please, I’m ready to go, to hang from my family tree”
But I lie and I say I don’t love you anymore
Silence, click and then a dial tone
The old red car’s engine roars and leaves me standing here all alone
I will go home someday
And I’ll be happier than I’ve ever been
Weeping amongst the ruins
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a Singer of Songs Barcelona
I sing songs in the bathroom. In packed and empty venues. In gardens, sheds and churches. Once in a weird Finnish gym and
also in the oldest house in Switzerland. On a boat and in a bus and in a horse farm. In noisy Italian bars and spookily silent Belgian rooms. On my own and with people.
I sing songs and if you want, you can listen.
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