1. |
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The raging clock
The velvet shocks
Felt, spring, and gear
Patiently, it gets its man
(have no fear)
Our gears turn
Some lives brightly burn
So far,
Never close
I can't walk away
From what I need the most
We all feel trapped
The same forces bind us
Some in iron and some in gold
If we want it all to end
It can’t be sold
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2. |
The Prisoner
04:30
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Were you misty eyed
For the past?
We can never touch
The distance far too vast
That we never lived
Faraway, so close!
The lines get blurred, the colors run
Nothing is still, everything flows
But before we let it go
Give up that ancient prose
Seductive and so comfortable
Oh! Misled!
Present never felt
Future still un-dealt
Past not dead, not even past
Walk past the building
That I went to school
Do you remember the dread?
Well, I remember some gloom
Do you remember the girl?
Was there a girl?
Did you always feel like a fool?
Living with no expectations
Back before you had something to lose
Every time we touch the air
History is there
Dragging us back
Back down to the ground
Live as you want to be
Try to make new history
But tethered to our ghosts
Can't make it as we please
With the present overcast
Can we ever leave the past
Went to the park
That you had once known
Tire swings dance on rope
Naked branches groan
Looked so much warmer then
In those old polaroids
You were smiling
Holding some girl
You can't remember
A frozen shard of joy
Perhaps you'd like to let it go
But there's nothing else we know
Traces all lead back,
All back to ourselves
Moments that shine
Others lost to time
Can't touch the center now
The centers lies outside
The tattoo from years ago
The one you cover up with clothes
Can't remember what it meant
But you know just what it means
A teenage milquetoast
Making their mark
Before they depart
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3. |
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She said theres just no hope for me
You're being too hard on yourself
None of us are as
They promised we would be
Can't count the ways she said
It was a mistake to study
Sociology...
With nothing to compare
How can you weigh the cost
Of being secure
Or letting yourself get lost
In your opinion, do you believe
Tautology tragic, or more simply, misconceived
Watching hours of TV
To tether yourself to the world
Different sets but the same broad strokes
Character actors telling the same jokes
The kind of books you always liked
Have just gone out of style
And the kind of music that you make
Has caught on… for a while
Tender and mild
Unusually, they told me
Sorry for you and me
But this truth
Can’t be bowed or bent
Our youth, like all currency
Was gladly misspent
With no urgency
You know it’s strong
Stronger than the human heart
Love and Decay
A finish to every start
You know it’s strong
Stronger than the human heart
We live in decay
But try not to fall apart
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4. |
Friends Today
02:48
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Hey
I saw my friends today
Hadn’t seen them in a while
And we talked
About the books we bought
Couldn’t make each other smile
Nervous beats
Sitting upright in our seat
Oh the tangled web we weave
When we first practice to believe
It hurts to talk like this
About those you love the best
How could you ever pass their test
A schema for raw data
An axiom for the plan
How can you stand to listen to me?
When I use words I just don’t understand
It’s a shock
When your eyes can’t even lock
Are we looking at indifference
To the old ways
Never cared much about the days
Oh culture
What can one say
That hasn’t been thought
Won’t be able to repackage
From blog to book
And never bought
Don’t let em push you around
We’ll fight this on the ground
Desperate for clarity,
We have come to celebrate
The banal spoken simply
The hoary abused as simile
Know what I want to mean
Can you meet me in between?
Does that seem cruel?
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5. |
Bye/Gone
05:14
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Whats the point of knowing it's all for show
When you've still got to play your part kid
Oh
All the boys
Are losing their hair
All the girls
Pretend they don't care
Shed all your worries
Take better care
Waiting to forget what they know
I just want to start again
Less composed - a better friend
This production can't last
And it shouldn't
And it didn't
Don't you ever abide
Whoa-oh
The past can provide for you
Don't you ever abide
Whoa-oh
I've seen it before
They’re buried like forceps
Last time I saw you,
You told me about a book you'd read
"Answered Prayers"
Written in the style we dread
Ruthless in it's use of fiction as a blind for the truth
Everyone's a slave to fact
And still we never seem to get it right
Our discourses
Using storied sources
So many feeble
So many people working in the abstract
In due reflection, the patterns were there
People gaze upon cycles
In awe and despair
Bend straight lines
Quotidian thoughts
About the Dark Age, the 60s, the 90s and the aughts
Pondering, intellectually wan
Like all devoted fans
We never notice
…when we're on the jumbotron
Pining for some age bygone
"O thoughts of men accurs'd!
Past and to come seem best; things present, worst"
Ah, these storied sentiments
Dare we ever rest?
When every meager folly
Is clear in all respects?
Something to Someone
With a word we come undone
Truth or Consequence
Some Mothers Son
Evocative, to some
Something to someone
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6. |
Lucky Toasts
03:46
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Short shift and no luck
In this town we claim to like the best
Is that your sister?
God, how she's growing
I hope you've looked out
For all I couldn't
And those I wouldn't
How’s your mother?
Those I wanted
I couldn't bother
Save us last
For all your faults
I still love you best
Wash away some sin
And you clean up well
With a new girlfriend
And some serious debt
A night in your sublet
And I still feel well
The day I left
I would pay to forget
The River blasting
Out the stereo cassette
Short shift and no luck
In this town we claim to like the best
Burning with desire
God how it's frozen
The things that one want
Do they feel chosen?
Could there be someone here
In this room?
A hand on mine
Guiding the mouse
Tracing an electronic bloodline
A ghostly glow
I catch someone in the screen
I didn’t know I wanted them
So now I live in between
Save us last
For all your faults
I still love you best
Wash away some sin
I can hardly tell
All kids can get along
At the beach
But not for long
Let us lay it bare
The places
We have been
It’s not the time
But it’s growing near
The way towards
The weather
The news, the team, and the year
The night is saved by dark
The dark goes to the dawn
Forever breathes the light
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7. |
Roman Clay (27 BC)
03:03
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I took a train today
To help you on your way
To a life of respectability
I have always respected your agility
Our friends have all grown up
No kids,
Some still kids at 27
Told me it hasn’t been the same
I agree completely
You used to live with all your friends
Now you make plans to spend time
With people you don’t want to see
Thats the cost of growing up
He said to you
But I don’t buy it
Have you thought this whole thing through?
You said:
“I want to knit you a letter
I want to write you a love sweater”
Cadence sure but undeserved
Everyone laughed
But you’ve been thinking ever since
About the virtue of the statement you have never been so sure
Your heart’s like an open book
Full of misdirection
And red herrings
A Roman a clef or two
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8. |
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These games we play
Are another way
To redefine the pleasure
Of sign and decay
Has that romantic streak marbled your heart?
Spend all your days picking up pieces
Of a life, that by all rights hasn’t fallen apart
Do you know what I mean?
What power gives my words meaning?
You told me, way back, that your friends were your family
Now that you are angry with them all the time
I guess they really are
Disappointed, or Relieved?
Such easy cruelty
I can’t believe you’d be so naive
Any bond can be poisoned,
If you’re to be believed
Despite what people say
Ours is no heroic act
Love and Decay
Yet we live against the day
Grow up and apart
Grow old and get smart
From the ghosts that share your name
Hone your art
Do you still live like you did?
Takeout five nights in a row
Laundry’s at the wash and fold
And good God, you’re looking old!
Over your shoulder
At a world getting older
What can we bring?
We still haven’t learned a thing!
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Roman a Clef Brooklyn, New York
Roman a Clef is Ryan Newmyer and Jen Goma (of A Sunny Day in Glasgow) along with producer extraordinaire Kurt Feldman (Ice Choir). Fusing densely ambitious pop-craft with lush and inventive production, Roman a Clef is releasing their debut record “Abandonware” on Infinite Best (Mr. Twin Sister, Ava Luna) on June 2nd. ... more
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