1. |
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The year is 1993
Beyond every boulevard is opportunity
You snap on your chromatic shirt
And ignore the demon spells
That do your dirty work
Applying pressure to the coal
Your bangs swaying like the hand
Of the clock counting down to goal
Could this one be another hit?
The diamond that forms too perfect
Try not to covet it
Everybody loves you
Everybody loves you when you’re winning
And you’re winning
Another night with your guitar
The silence is deafening no matter where you are
But as you float you’ll learn to swim
The curtain flies up, up, up
You run out and bow to them
And if you dare to close your eyes
The treasure trove might disappear
Critiques of love turn to despise
In only one short year
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2. |
Check Your Answers
02:56
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You’ve passed each and every test
Your peers freeze in awe, so obsessed
With every declaration you shout
The radio signals returns
The accolades that you might earn
As soon as one last mole is dragged out
You’re fraught with the proposals you claim
And throw them one by one in the hole
But sure enough, suspicion remains
And pulls you opposite of the goal
You fly off the handle again
Your fingers take aim at your friends
Your allies quickly start to run thin
A secret that’s kept far too well
Is like your own personal hell
While standing off and aching to win
You’ve done it to yourself this time
And everybody else elects you
To shoulder the guilt for every crime
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3. |
When The World Ends
03:56
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We can’t go back now, we’re on the rail
Stuck in transit, we’re set to fail
Alone together beneath the stairs
But you’re not crying, darling, and I’m not scared
If they find us here alone
And we tell them what they want to know
Do you think they’d let us go?
Or would it be another act in the same old shit show?
Shake me down when I’m on the ground
There’s no other souls left in this town
But if you’re willing to help or to look after yourself
When the world ends, you can’t ask for much else
Beyond perdition, we seek the truth
Inside the horror of our little booth
The doors will snap down, the trees will fly
But you hold tighter, darling, and so do I
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4. |
Plague Of Volts
03:16
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Sometimes the words I hear
Are not the ones that come out of your mouth, my dear
Sometimes the words you say
Dodge my receptors and just float away
So give me a hint, just give me a hint
Are you sharpening your pitchfork
So prepared to hunt me down?
Just give me a hint, just give me a hint
Am I risking everything I own to follow you around?
Climbing up the tower
All while scared to brave the elements
Of course the broken power surges
Only your benevolence
In keeping with tradition
My mind fires a skyward flare of panicked jolts
But all that comes back down is a plague of volts
I’m not supposed to be up there
But I can’t pick up the frequencies
That you once repaired
It’s not a total loss
I’ll chalk it up to the wires that crossed
So give me a hint, just give me a hint
Are you sharpening your steely knives
And nipping at my heels?
Just give me a hint, just give me a hint
Am I caught between implanted thoughts
In search of something real?
I don’t need you to show me how
But I need you to show me how
To learn how on my own
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5. |
Mine
03:42
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Things don’t go exactly as we planned
Things don’t go exactly as we planned now
The dream is melding with the hope in your hand
But things don’t go exactly as we planned
I can see them baring shiny teeth
Waiting on lingering family now
They’ve all gone silent, now it’s just you and me
The orchids wilt, cicadas flood the trees
I am mine, I am mine
You are mine, you are mine
I hope someday that you’ll understand
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6. |
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7. |
King Shit
03:19
|
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What a good, what a good man
What a good, strong man you are
You could fly if you tried to
Spread your wings and hit the stars
Hear the people scream and beg
When you knock them down a peg
As they chant your honored name
They won’t know that you’re to blame
You’re the man behind the curtain
You’re the man living in the house of glass
When they finally pick their stones up
Everybody gonna knock you on your ass
What a pal, what a leader
What a marvelous monument
Who would know, looking at you
That you’re only arrogant?
Share a pittance with the poor
Throw the rest back in your hoard
Keep them coddled, draped in fear
With no option but to cheer
When it’s dark and you’re alone
Pulling off your crown of bones
Drift to sleep so effortless
Then tomorrow, more success
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8. |
Nissan Cube
02:54
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This goes to hip foes who spit flows
Preach each speech to pique freaks who sip those
Reach lads from street fads to deadbeat dads
Egad, elite pads of sweet plaids
Cummerbunds undone for fun
With the sun flung low on the chosen one
When the men fend denizens begun
Only ten sentences, then they’re done
Come riding high, come drowning low
No matter where we want to go
Until we die, we’ll see it through
Bat out of hell in a Nissan Cube
I lack the sly tracks of wisecracks
Try blackjack or pry at the backpack
Dry-eyed, I gasp at the clasp that
Flaps at straps and wraps ‘till the last gasp
All annoyed, all unemployed
Call the mall, android falls tall, destroyed
And the ball that Freud had once deployed
Had the gall to brawl with the awful void
Third verse, it gets worse but yet works
Let’s bet jerks to vet internet perks
Get set to lecture the cold, wet earth
Sold mirth to upset the net worth
Lecherous, techs fetch the bus
To stretch punks much less adventurous
But the fuss of lust becomes unjust
Plus the sex was a hex on mother-effing us
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9. |
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Have you ever felt stupid
Like the whole world’s letting you down?
Hard enough to pull through it
Antagonism floating all around
It’s somehow no one’s and everyone’s fault
And the grindstone slows to a grinding halt
If the battles you battle batter you
Lost in the prattle, you matter
Rattle your laugh to the rafters
I’ll be there after
I wanna love like it’s out of style
Do you ever get desperate
For an ally to hear your call?
In defense of your being
Hurling insults at a human wall
Only feel normal when you’re uninspired
And you’re feigning escape
But you’re mostly just tired
You could come hard with a counterpoint
That maybe love’s already clinging
Onto its dying breath
But if we intervene along with each other
We won’t destroy one another
We won’t destroy one another yet
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10. |
Fire Engine Red
03:12
|
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I found a way to take the cardinal
Away from the crown
Caches of data to extrapolate while hanging around
He might strike through it like a minus sign
And it hurts just enough
To reinforce the behavior in me
That crossed the original line
If you could have seen my irises
You wouldn’t be surprised at this
They flashed with a violent glint
Of fire engine red
There’s nothing better than a megaphone
Wrapped up in your hands
Send out a signal across the neighborhood
To meet your demands
Don’t pay no mind to the nightmares
No one knows your body better than you
And I’ll get combative with the onslaught
Of the poachers you scared
I know that I don’t have to believe in you
But I already do
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11. |
Parade Into The Future
03:48
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Call me unfortunate
That you would want to rest assured
That all I could do is wait here forever
Just bending time but I can’t delay
Besides, now I’m hungry
I could’ve tried to make things right
Could’ve tried to turn the tide
But time just was not on our side
There’s nothing I can do
To rid myself of pestilence that drains an open mind
Just like it swallows back at home
The weight of interference
Though the bells are barely ringing
Call me unlucky, it’s really not too far off the mark
As I lay me down to sleep
Your benevolence fights its way inside
Stuck between the heart and the headache
Seems like months since you’ve appeared
An angel in a shining skirt with jarring mental anguish
And left standing in a hole
I breathe a sigh of wealth as I parade into the future
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12. |
Chorus Lines
03:41
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The city falls below freezing at night
The neon hums and the clubs and the catfights
You bundle up but your ears still burn
With the lessons you will never learn
Then through the door as you shake the cold off
Back of your mind, hope the world gets told off
But then your eyes settle on the view
Of your family waiting there for you
So understated, all this hatred
When you turn to the one in your time
Who feeds you out all the chorus lines
You can masquerade that you’re feeling untied, oh
And if you burn for the love of your life
Your dopamine floods you by design
So don’t you spend your days
Searching for the downside, oh
Amidst the chaos of floating headlines
And every moment stability unwinds
It’s like a mantra that fills your head
With a yearning to be left for dead
Malevolence, easier to take on
When all your allies endorse you, stay strong
You might not tear through the discontent
At the very least you’ll make a dent
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