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An Option Is Not Failure

by Scott Gesser

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1.
Failures 03:11
Finally forgot everything that I thought We are all failures endlessly flying over plate glass ranges We can see miles and the dry scenery never changes Calmed down today, progress delayed But we are all failures standing in line to be obliterated Pushing our tired bones and dying to be carbon-dated We are all failures but the time for freedom is beginning It's only a fractured matter of time before we might be winning
2.
First of all, I'm admitting it Our downfall is we're all idiots standing tall Covering up the cracks in our leisure walls They can't make them better Someone on the neighborhood block Is parading while he's packing a glock And I'm alternating watching him and the sky Each time someone loses an eye, whoops There's just no stopping the cretins from hopping 'Cause I need another minute just to culminate my zone And tonight I'm gonna corrugate my own And I need another minute just to corrugate my zone And tonight I'm gonna culminate my own I'm feeling fine badgering the unemployment line Running late for work but there's still time Brother, can you spare me one more dime? They can't make it better Heads down, buried under your desk An emulsion of the crumbling chest of expulsions Of our valedictorian, I swear I'm getting it done but Well I don't know how long I've been learning wrong I've fallen short of the goal line for way too long All this time I'm walking on broken glass Caught up and bit me in the ass I told you once, we're all idiots, let's not front This bonehead natural selection stunt Filters the air with gags an grunts I can't make it better Someone took a bite of my life and I'm waiting For the stab of their knife in my backside Get it over with now 'cause I'm an overloaded image Of the chorus for the last time
3.
A single word comparing notes with tragedy Could it be those sighs that make me crash in front of me? A scolded verse holding on to the bitter end Like a Molotov cocktail, I know you're not my friend Ha, a cloak and dagger except without the cloak I knew it was you that sharked me before you even spoke You point your finger and the mirror shatters, yeah Accusing me off all your deeds, as if it matters For only so long I can put up with the sword I'll even the odds and cast you off forevermore And sing when you're gone and scratch a notch into the floor And all the world will fall upon you before you even know I know you think that you're indebted to yourself But all the words you've chosen will slowly compromise you A single word comparing notes against the sky So I ponder, there but for the grace of god go I
4.
Dumb Bunny 04:04
Up on your private plane there's a ghost on the wing I asked if he would like to stay And soar the skies the living way He politely declined, told me he didn't mind It doesn't matter which skeletons you drown Eventually the dumb bunny tracks you down In the belfry one night, you were more than a sight A bat had nestled in your hair I don't know how he wound up there But he wanted to roam so now he calls you home It doesn't matter what precautions you take Eventually the dumb bunny makes you ache Come on now, rock it now, rock I look down on my hands, always making demands The left does this, the right does that I'm shocked they haven't felt me flat Sick of my attitude, I'd be more or less screwed It doesn't make any difference what you do Eventually the dumb bunny will find you
5.
Deeper into the rabbit hole Your body quakes for justice But you feel it melting around your soul And you know that you can't trust this Your whole life drags behind you through the shame Of the time spent playing games And nobody's naming names You've dug your grave so go on and lie in it Maybe you'll choose a destiny That'll make everyone prouder But you always got the best of me So my voice will just grow louder Your enemies will knock you to the ground Your shortcomings will abound Throughout this hollow town Are you fucking around? Well that makes one of us How could it be that you're the same thing as me? Spending each moment with the same old adversary Maybe it's just the way you said it But I'm gonna live long enough to regret it What a shame you wouldn't love to shame you What a shame, who wouldn't love to blame you? Deeper into the rabbit hole To control yourself, you give up control How did we fall into a pit so endless? An eternal balancing act of truth and vengeance Falling around the way we still do But I'm not gonna hesitate to kill you
6.
I never did no good for no one I never felt that rush inside to make me feel like I belong Cautious, afraid of sounding alarms Sent into battle, always unarmed When will I wake up to what I know that I know? When they make the movie of my life Will it be aired in black and white? Will the chains fall off and the wingspan rise And what do I have to do to make it start tonight? Oh, when you get it together, will you be strong? Oh, we've struggled forever but not for long For this rush will break the silence in our song Oh what a waste If I could only be productive If I could stand upon the precipice and know that I believe in this Old guarantees that I never knew Plenty of time with nothing to do I'd ask for your hand but it's all but fragmented When they finally reach my weary corpse Will they look upon it with remorse? Will they turn away and pretend they're blind And will there even be anything left for them to find?
7.
Options 04:43
This is everything I have Every choice I want to make, gone Has it always been like this? Has it always been like this? Always racing, whose blindness through their hearts Compels you, won't you be a better man? For the life that you have led only grows All around you in time, in time, in time It's the start of a brand new day and I'm Gazing hazy-eyed into the blinds Think it's clear enough to run This chatter of the city keeps me adrift Biped less thanks and movies I could script And I'm the only one If good intentions are what propels the clock You could have the time of your life Everybody only knows so much So start gathering up options in time There's a hand clinging softly to my skin Distant sirens all call to let them in As they crawl beneath the floor Motivated to wipe away my fears I could live for a hundred million years And only wind up craving more If sober thoughts are the hands upon your watch You could have the time of your life Everybody only knows so much So start gathering up options in time You've got options
8.
1994 03:54
I want to learn you in bed, if nothing else so I Can rest the demons in my head And to rest assured of the light Reflecting off your eyes, kind of breaking through my skin But I'm hoping that this won't get to me when I wake up As I go and crack the blinds lighting up this world we're in And the only sound, that feedback in my ears pleading Hit me, hold me, shoot me in the back now I want to cut through the yard just to see the other side Where I might shed all these scars And the past I've worked to hide In shedding the façade as they open up my chest All the memories that have plagued me will come tumbling out And I'll even wink and nod at the ones I liked the best Like the ones that climbed a ladder to my brain yelling Will you please explain why I should pay attention anymore? Will you bid goodnight and shuffle down my mental corridor? Will you sit back and count out the waves That crash upon the shore? Will you make things right and take me back to 1994? And everybody knows that plains are far and wide But it's easier to dominate them when you've got wheels And the tension only grows so I'll have to just decide To escape that old lackluster whine
9.
You and I are different people But there's not good and there's no evil Now it's time to recognize that fact You can blame me if you want to But your past will only haunt you Unless we decide to make a pact I'd like to think that we can handle this like civilized men And I'd like to swear on all that's holy That I won't come back this way again I've never much been for time travel I know the future will unravel And then I'll catch up with my old mistakes The plans we hatch will be the kind of Ignorance that lets us wind up Landing on a giant letter H We listen to each other and act as if we're brothers Oh, and I find the weight, it lifts from me So please put down your fork and knife I'm taking back my lovely life I think that I can handle it from here I'll forge ahead just like a spaceman Descending on a barren wasteland And breathing hope into the atmosphere
10.
Finally sat down and read the list of chores upon my plate But the only one that looks any good is the one that says to wait I'm feeling like there's a bullet train and I can't seem to get on it This empty desert life I'm in was not what I was promised Someday I'll be filled with worry Enough to make my vision blurry I'm lost in the mundane and I've lost my own campaign To the drought of thoughts that occupy my brain And I'll pray for rain I took a good hard look at me to see if I felt shame But my neighbors and my family are doing just the same They tell me I should overhaul this little life of mine And I would be enamored, but who has that kind of time? Not me, no I'm stuck in dry cement forming from my discontent And there's nothing that can carve it in another fashion If I did it all again it'd be no different 'Cause if nothing else I'm sure that's it not worth it to regret I'll never be wet This is where my journey starts I'm a car alarm made up of broken parts An unprecedented lack of smarts My cluelessness is off the charts I wish that I could hold my own As I venture into the unknown But I don't think I could be alone Or my willpower will be overthrown Someday we'll be filled with worry Enough to make our vision blurry We're lost in the mundane and we've lost my own campaign And there's nothing left to do except complain And we'll pray for rain
11.
I used to be that guy Who sat dejected, waiting on a valentine I used to be that guy The one with loneliness streaming hard across his eyes And then you came around And tapped your foot just hard enough to be found I hadn't figured out someone so stellar Could push me through the crowd And the crowd keeps shaking and everybody's quaking it You've got another song And the crowd keeps shaking and everybody's digging it But you've got another song I used to wrack my brain A not-so-Superman looking for his Lois Lane When only time remains It's hard to rise up, let alone to not feel drained But then you shouted, "Yes" And peeled away all the caffeine and old regrets And if I had to guess it's safe to say I don't need to hedge my bets I want to love you like a hotel lobby worker Confined behind his counter making eyes at everyone he sees I want to love you like the back of a casino Just blinded by the flashlights eroding all my memories I want to love you like a pair of one way tickets That shine with adolescent dreams of Disneyland 'Cause everything gets easier with two lives in the band
12.
Almost There 03:28
I'm putting hours in at the country club up on San Pablo They treat me mostly decent with a chance of brute malaise But I watch in wonder as my hours all tick-tock on by me Thinking maybe that ain't where I should spend the rest of my days I only got a little money saved up I won't tell you where it's stashed So one day I can stop buckling down And just buckle up and put my foot right on the gas I don't know and I don't care I'm moving slow but I'm almost there I know this guy who's got this thing about being unfaithful He just don't want to settle down, he says he got to play that field But I say he's going about it oh so very wrong Playing with those hearts of his until he find himself a better deal Now I can be unethical too and spread my love around like mad But I know that when it comes right down to it A relationship ain't really all that bad I don't know what's going on and I don't care if could be wrong I'm moving slow, just keeping on, but I'm almost there I'm trying to make the worse better and keep the better good And I'm trying to be on top of my game And always act the way I should When the worst comes to worst I can't mumble and curse Because life ain't a play and there's no time to rehearse I gotta be the better man who comes up with a better plan And now I got to understand my destiny Is in the palm of my hand

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released April 13, 2010

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Scott Gesser Phoenix, Arizona

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