1. |
The Search Continues
05:45
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Birdy in the coal mine
City on a fault line
Was it less than a thousand years ago?
(Shedding like a snake, bending not to break)
City, remember the way we were back then?
Hatchling and room up for rent
Oh level gaze,
You escape me once again
I’ll turn and wave
To the past, like it’s a friend
What a glorious descent!
Follow all signs
Stamped out in the sky
Be the baby that you were born to be
(Trace the lines below, footprints in the snow)
Honey, remember those polycotton sheets?
Stinking of you and me
Oh level gaze,
You escape me once again
I’ll claw my face
In the search for evidence
That we could ever cheat the end
(Blood type, birthright)
All good cities know where they should stand
(Mother’s furs)
Wherever they’ll take you on dry land
(Bad lungs, curled tongue)
All good birds know where they belong
Safe and sound, underground
Sweetly singing their songs
Sweetly singing their songs
Oh level gaze,
You escape me once again
I’ll turn and wave
To the past, like it’s a friend
Oh level gaze,
You escape me once again
I’ll claw my face
In the search for evidence
That we could ever cheat the end
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2. |
Willing
04:04
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The shine on your tooth
Tight-stretched lips
The crackling of youth ’round
Your silhouette
Drawn all in grey
On glossy stock
Who here can say
What came from what?
10 foot tall
Or five foot one
Scale the wall
Block out the sun
One end in the mouth
The other at the door
Slam shut, yank it out
My body on the floor
Holy, holy sentiment
Oh, sacred feeling
Oh, the good Old Testament, I am
Willing
Syllables pour out
All rearranged
Home and the host pump
Through our veins
Link our hands
And tie our tongues
Promise we
Can move the sun
One end in the mouth
The other at the door
Slam shut, yank it out
My body on the floor
Holy, holy sentiment
Oh, sacred feeling
Oh, the good Old Testament, I am
Willing
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3. |
Collapse
04:29
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I watched as the sea
Slobbered over rock
Spilled itself on me
Shameless, uncaring
Goodbye, sea
Go back to your home, forgot
All bubbling, empty and sour and hot
Collapse everything
Can’t wait for the pleasures my very own new world will bring
Paradise recoils from me
But I don’t need her kiss on my cheek
Who’d you think you are?
Blistering my skin
Don’t you know my name?
I’m a big timer, babe
To higher ground!
Mount Moriah waits for me
Great nothing as far as my blue eyes can see
Collapse everything
Can’t wait for the pleasures my beautiful new world will bring
Paradise recoils from me
But I don’t need her kiss on my cheek
Hold onto my hand
For all that it’s worth
Don’t leave me alone
At the end of the earth
Collapse everything
Can’t wait for the pleasures my beautiful new world will bring
Good riddance to paradise
I don’t need your kiss on my cheek
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4. |
Tiger Balm
02:59
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Smiles frozen on the wall
Children ever-young
I have no mother tongue
My mother gave me none
Jade and camphor, maybe
Her mother, generously
Rubber band
Slapped against the skin
To keep the lessons in
Understand
Neither yang nor yin
Nor the great white otherness
Running out the door
What are you running for?
Tiger balm,
Presses her hand to chest
Helps me catch my breath
In her palm
Lays me down to rest
And I know everything that I
Will ever need to know
Breathe in, deep and slow
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5. |
The Butcher's Wife
04:38
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Speaking breathless, double pace
Take my chance to state my case
I can breach a mattress with no noise,
Be your favourite of the other boys
Six o’clock and time for home
I salt our wounds before you go
When they asked you what you wanted with your life
You said you could see yourself butcher’s wife
How I longed to be a butcher then
To roll my sleeves up and attend
To corpses, bloody, disassemble
Bodies, feed the masses, men
Instead I found myself the beast
bleating, reaching, endlessly
I tried to keep my mouth shut, see
But opened wide to catch a piece of you
The village burns so quietly
This light
Makes a joke of me
My touch is not some
Skeleton key
You’re not as easy as you ought to be
Spit into somebody’s mouth
Long enough, the words are drowned
But you can’t stop the sound from coming out
Joy has a funny way of getting ’round
I’m happy bearing both our weight
I know that you would do the same
You take function, I’ll take shame
And what’s disaster without blame?
All bloated and embarrassing
The ties that bind were only string
A celibate pervert, there are worse things to be
An honest woman hiding for you
The village burns so quietly
This light
Makes a joke of me
Your touch is not some
Skeleton key
I’m not as easy as I ought to be
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6. |
Over/Over
05:28
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Call me lady
I am shining and dull
Eyeballs hanging
Out my skull
Belly bulging
I used you up
Drained and drained and drained your cup
I know I’m too much, do you think I don’t know?
You ask for a stitch
And I sew, and I sew, and I sew
Over and over
Morning baby,
I cleaned the house
Swallowed every
Roach and mouse
My footsteps burn holes
Right through the floor
You say it’s enough
But I am more, I am more, I am more
Over and over
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7. |
Alligator Tail
03:44
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Hatched a plan
With the ice, the night, the glass
The light, my throat and my hand
Made tales
So grand
Bubble out from my mouth
Going from north to south, leaping clear from the land
While all hearing beings from here to the Bering Strait winced
My very own terrible voice caught my ears and I flinched
But darling you just smiled and listened in
While fire ants marched underneath my skin
I wanna be how the people be tonight
Smile so heavy and wide
I wanna be how the people be tonight
Earning your eye
You there
A-glow
So I loped over, soapy and squeaky
Dead sober, though you wouldn’t know
My tongue
Thick with love,
Speech slurred, like a drunk on a curb
Spewing words, syntax, no sight of
There’s a light that burns ever-bright, strong and sweet, behind your eyes
Man-made garbage and meteors light up the very same skies
Pray you never stop and wonder why
You’d lend me a minute of your time
I wanna be how the people be tonight
Smile so heavy and wide
I wanna be how the people be tonight
Earning your eye
Anybody looking could see
I will never earn my fee
But still,
You come and party with me
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8. |
Girl Messiah
06:10
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Farewell to the dog at my back
Gone, gone, just like that
Sunk a blade into that golden fur
So long, so long, to what we were
Thought myself clever then
Girl messiah
Saviour of stunted men
Baby, you were cold out there
Dew drops in your hair
How the moonlight would burn your skin
Held you tight, took you in
Watched your nerves uncoil
With each moment, felt my belly boil
I am, always
(I am, I am)
Spoiling the fruit
(I am, I am)
Rotting it through
(I am, I am)
Soften and softening you
Hush now, there’s no need to fret
I’m here by your basinet
When I’m dry at every teat
Peel me back, use the meat
Oh you look so small
With nobody there to break your fall
I am, always
(I am, I am)
Spoiling the fruit
(I am, I am)
Rotting it through
(I am, I am)
Soften and softening you
I was lost there, for a minute, then
Couldn’t see my way through
From the background of a picture
Of you, of you
I’m not too proud to admit
That to be the hired help
Felt better than a single thing
I could do for myself
So honey, go ahead
Start the search anew
For someone who’ll make your bed
And forage all your food
You really got me out a bind, honey
You were a ready-built excuse
But the years roll by without us
And there’s only so much I can lose
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9. |
Chicken
04:16
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The winter seeps into every shoe I own
And I trudge past the winking lights
Uphill always, back to home
Flightless bird with no interest in flight
The cranes work tireless all day
Crafting towers you could pull down with your hands
And by night they all swing, dutiful, north
Point their heads to naked land
Hate to admit it
But I think she’s ready
The traffic lights flash like a guy
I haven’t learnt anything yet
I’m not done with my city
But I think she’s done with me
Nothing nice to say about the noise
No romance in perpetual drone
Of the clever and the gentrified
Me and mine and all we’ve done
Cigarette butts crowd the drain
Like teenage fans around some beautiful young star
Roller doors shut out the weight of the day
Why go near, when you could go far?
And I think she’s ready
Dodge anyone I might recognise
I haven’t learnt anything yet
I haven’t learnt anything yet
I’m not done with my city
But I think she’s done with me
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Yi-Lynn Melbourne, Australia
New EP Foul Water out now.
Musician working on Wurundjeri land. Writing songs about
family, gore and the apocalypse, mostly.
Debut album out now on digital and vinyl. Message for international shipping rates.
... more
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