1. |
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I don’t wanna be a razor blade
I don’t wanna be a mockingbird
I don’t wanna be a chambermaid
I wanna be a memory
I don’t wanna be a hurricane
I don’t wanna be a spirit animal
I don’t wanna be a weather vane
I wanna be a memory
All I wanted was apocalypse
To float above it as the world explodes
Evil lover with your poison lips
Just meet me in the alleyway
Or call me up and rearrange
I don’t wanna be a hopeless case
I don’t wanna be a bird of paradise
I don’t wanna be a nameless face
I wanna be a memory
I don’t wanna be a social animal
But I don’t wanna be alone
I don’t wanna be a soulless cannibal
But I don’t want a home
All I wanted was apocalypse
To float above it as the world explodes
Evil lover with your poison lips
Just meet me in the alleyway
Or call me up and rearrange
I don’t wanna be you and you ain’t me
I don’t wanna be living in this leper colony
I don’t wanna be a falling seraphim
But I don’t wanna be free
I don’t wanna be a worn out simile
That ain’t me
All I wanted was apocalypse
To float above it as the world explodes
Evil lover with your poison lips
Just meet me in the alleyway
Or call me up and rearrange
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2. |
The City
03:50
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Hit you in the head –
“Wake up! Let’s go out!”
It’s so bright, and besides,
the milk here’s sour.
I am thinking of a time.
Water and a coffee,
egg and toast will be fine.
You had your breakfast regret
and I had mine.
I am thinking of a time.
Too late – tomorrow’s here!
Morning’s come, the sky is clear.
Say you won’t be back – well that’s just fine.
I know you’ll never leave the city behind.
Faces by the window
run together fast,
we had our first morning here
now it’s our last.
You were waiting all that time.
Our silence makes the morning
pass so swiftly by.
One day I’ll be able
to look you in the eye,
after waiting all that time.
Too late – tomorrow’s here!
Morning’s come, the sky is clear.
Say you won’t be back – well that’s just fine.
I know you’ll never leave the city behind.
There’s a very certain
sun – it only shines here.
Take some in a jar,
you’ll be using it for years,
shining all this time.
I see you face
in every traffic sign.
I liked you right away
cause you were kind.
You shined so bright all this time.
Take me for granted
it kills me when you’re kind.
I’m seeking out places
I want you to find.
No matter the distance
I’m stuck in your mind –
I know you’ll never leave
the city behind.
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3. |
Georgetown
03:15
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I swam across the ocean
Looking for the night
Left a world behind me
To shine my little light
A violent meditation
With the animals and plants
I can’t go back, I won’t go back
In any circumstance
So if you love me
And if you need me still
You can find me down in Georgetown
By the old cathedral
From the Demerara
To the diamond mines
From the badlands of Brazil
To the Venezuela line
I’ve seen a lot of faces
But you were always on my mind
I can’t go back, I won’t go back
Soul is fossilised in time
So if you need me
And if you love me still
You can find me down in Georgetown
By the old cathedral
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4. |
June
03:42
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June, you arrived in February,
sorry no one warned you about the cold.
Can’t wait to see your season unfold –
we can save that for when you’re older, though,
after the snow has left the rooftops bare.
All the flowers come up for air –
it was quiet as death down there.
June, it’s hard as hell sometimes to be here,
and the skies aren’t always so clear.
Don’t be tempted to disappear –
there’s so much more than what
you hear on the radio.
No matter how good things go
you’ll come up against such doubt
but letting them run you out
is almost as good as giving up.
June, I’d love to meet you, and I will.
Maybe when the days outlast the dark
we can take a stroll around the park.
But I won’t make you promises that aren’t concrete.
It’s likely you’ll have found your own feet
before I get the chance
to see your shaky stance
but a girl’s gotta get up and learn how to dance.
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5. |
Nature Documentary
03:59
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Light a lamp
Watch the darkness hesitate
But it always comes back stronger
Dull like thunder
Wonderful nothingness
Swallowed whole
By a hollow hurricane
I’ll pretend that I can show you
I don’t know you
I don’t owe you
I don’t mind
Being left behind by anyone
I never listen
I don’t want this weight on my shoulders
Stay up late
Nature documentary
Please transport me to a forest
In the valley of the Ganges
Get up late
In a concrete tenement
Here a habitat of hearts
Was guillotined before it started
I don’t mind
Being left behind by anyone
I never listen
I don’t want this weight on my shoulders
Hold my hand into the fire
Drowning in a gallery of spires
I’m not a liar
I just don’t want this weight on my shoulders
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6. |
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I left London in the pouring rain
Diamonds shining down the train line
Spray-painted bridges and the forty-four
I don’t belong to you anymore
I won’t tell you that I miss you, babe
I won’t think about the words I swore
I won’t sing another serenade
’Cause I don’t belong to you anymore
Where the hell are you?
I’m watching the sunset
through the power lines
Put the electric heater on
And open your notebook
of Renaissance rhymes
Living is nothing but a waste of energy
And loving is nothing but a waste of time
Littering your memory with enemies
Drinking cocktails in the afternoon
I haven’t spoken for a lunar month
I’m not the person that I was before
’Cause I don’t belong to you anymore
I don’t think about you anyway, babe
I don’t think about the clothes you wore
I ain’t thinking bout the spells you are speaking
’Cause I don’t belong to you anymore
Where the hell are you?
I’m watching the sunset
through the power lines
Light your Persian candles
And open your notebook
of Renaissance rhymes
Living is nothing but a waste of energy
And loving is nothing but a waste of time
Littering your memory with enemies
Singing is nothing but a waste of poetry
And poetry’s nothing but a waste of rhymes
I only wanna listen to the words of the wordless
I only wanna listen to the words of the wordless
I only wanna listen to the words of the wordless
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7. |
Lou
03:03
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I thought I saw a trembling
in the speckled edges of the mouth you leant me:
it may have been mine, or a trick of the eyes
caused by the wine, or the time of day.
I was shaking myself, as we drank to his health
‘He hadn’t been well,’ I heard someone say.
The man who wrote the songs
that sit so heavy on my chest
has nodded off, like all the rest
like I’ll do some day.
And while I may have strayed too much
it’s better that than be a crutch
we won’t be friends, but I’ll have less guilt on me
if I know that you can think about me fondly.
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8. |
The Monster In Me
03:51
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All of your memories locked in a room
Oh no, prophet of doom
Drink up the bourbon and smell the perfume
Watch the azalea bloom
All that you’ve got
Ain’t all that you need
Whispers the monster in me
I never wanted to break your heart
Anna-lee
You drove your vehicle into the lake
Oh lord, what a mistake
Was it a wedding or was it a wake?
Long lost memories shake.
All that you’ve got
Ain’t all that you need
Whispers the monster in me
I never wanted to break your heart
Anna-lee
I felt the fire
If just for a little while
All that you’ve got
Ain’t all that you need
Whispers the monster in me
I never wanted to break your heart
Anna-lee
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9. |
The Prophet
03:55
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Early on, when first I came
I asked a thing my silly mouth could not contain:
‘How can a city born of water drown so easily
in such a little rain?’
But this was new, and so were you
naïveté can be forgiven
when a love is newly driven by desire;
it can make anyone a liar.
And the lump inside my lip
you touch it with your mouth and I can’t live with it.
Or the never-failing tenderness,
the absolute compassion that you’ve given it
oh darling, I can’t live with it.
You’ll linger on, once I am gone
find your footholds in the creases
of a million whispered teases
and when you turn back I’ll say
‘Please, go on your way.’
And the lump inside my lip
you touch it with your mouth and I can’t live with it.
Or the never-failing tenderness,
the absolute compassion that you’ve given it
oh darling, I can’t live with it.
I’m more than twice a fool, and far from home
inspired by spires, but now impossibly alone
I trace the points of stars in my imagination
and I wish he’d been a prophet in that station.
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10. |
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I’m dreaming of a summer
Ophelia, I trapped you in the autumn
Of my soul
Watch the black flowers blossom
Listen, this is something I’ve missed out on
In the cold climate
You gesture like a widow
When you know you’re dreaming of the everglades
Aurora mystical
Is it good, is it good?
I don’t want to hold you down
Like concrete in the water
Frowning through the misery
Drowning in your bromine hair
I don’t want to take you there
The location of your nightmares
I could write a sonnet
A verse of awful poetry to tell ya
How I feel
But I can’t harness language
These words are like a fiction
In the real world
You gesture like a widow
When you know you’re dreaming of the everglades
Aurora mystical
Is it good, is it good?
I don’t want to hold you down
Like concrete in the water
Frowning through the misery
Drowning in your bromine hair
I don’t want to take you there
The location of your nightmares
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11. |
The Book Of The Dead
04:40
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You said there was no future
And you said I lacked the acumen
I dare you girl, say it again
Now you float above the satellites
And I’m sinking in the bitumen
I dare you girl, say it again
When I stood in the light
Of the candelabra in the gothic night
Well I lied, I said I hated all your life
And I carved through it
Like a blunt bread knife
Oh, but I loved your life
You’ve been travelling the continents
Bewitching all the denizens
I dare you girl, just say it again
Now I’m sitting on the monument
With a field guide and a fountain pen
I wish you would just say it again
When I stood in the light
Of the candelabra in the gothic night
Well I lied and said I hated all your life
And I carved through it
Like a blunt bread knife
Oh, well I loved your life
Waterfalls of champagne
To your name
All the love I display
Is in vain
When I stood in the light
Of the candelabra in the gothic night
Well I lied, I said I hated all your life
And I carved through it
Like a blunt bread knife
Oh, oh, but I loved your life
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Umbrellabirds London, UK
Umbrellabirds is the musical project of Sam Blickhan, Lewis Daly, and Alex Hunt. The band began in 2013, and their self- titled debut album was released in 2016. Their second album - Closing Ceremony - features a bigger sound and a wider collective of musicians. Closing Ceremony was released in March 2020. Umbrellabirds were recently played on BBC 6 Music by DJ Tom Robinson. ... more
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