1. |
Elephant Eye
05:00
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on the roadside
stands a bird
lowly in its
lonely world
for the warm night
rose again
foaming at
the red horizon
in the office chair
bleeding cash
daydreams of
the mountain ash
in the tram car
crushed beneath
the screaming sound
and gnashing teeth
my Delphic disguise
my elephant eyes
remember you
between shadowed streets
remember how much i loved you
there’s jewellery
beyond the case
the taller glass
holds like a vase
cut and placed
paid by the hour
daydreams of
the field of flowers
time tallied and trialled
my elephant eyes
remember you
neath the bristling leaf
remember how much i loved you
time to lift and glide
back to where the sky’s
wide and petrified
time to wake and
rub elephant eyes
it’s cool enough
to see the breath
the morning clouds
turn pink and red
the bird begins
to fly again
remembering how much he loved to
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2. |
When You Go
02:50
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grew up on the riverbed
asleep to the sea
when you bore of that same river
i fought disbelief
for what’s six hour’s drive is
eleven on the train
less than one minute’s needed
to proselytise the brain
when you go i’m not sure of myself
i entertain the blues
when you go i’m unsure of myself
but i’m sure as hell more sure of you
grew up on the softer side
of sediment and drought
you came through like a clearing rain
and bailed my motor out
now i spend my days afloat
that river of our youth
and each current i kick against
draws me straight back to you
when you go i’m not sure of myself
i entertain the blues
when you go i’m unsure of myself
but i’m sure as hell more sure of you
when you go…
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3. |
The Trick
04:06
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housemates all mutter
hear through the walls
fucking and flutter
and smoke in the halls
sometimes their laughter’s
abrasive as salt
thirsting for what it is
i haven’t got
cause when you tell me to be happy
i’ll ask ‘for how long’?
cause sometimes it’s gone by
the end of the song
and the trick is to know
not to follow it on
cause even the best of friends
need time alone
her mates are cooking
and it smells alright
i’m thinking I might haul
myself into sight
it just takes one look
and i’m back there again
confidence shown and then
hubris condemned
and you tell me to smile
but babe isn’t that a lie?
like whitewashing textbooks
or painting the sky
and the trick is to wait
till i’ve turned out the light
and cast this unstable expression
into the night
now we are out drinking
and sometimes it’s fine
i’m thinking i’ll turn all this
warning to wine
when i cross a phrase
that’s half whispered, half cried
they’re selling me stories and
i keep on buying
and you tell me i’m dreaming
and i know that you’re right
but I’m wrapped up with ropes
that they tie in the night
and the trick still eludes me
all i’ve got’s a light
but I burn my own skin
every time i unwind
every time i unwind
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4. |
Mortgages
06:11
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she and he:
-were living in each other’s lives
-trying to forget each other’s eyes
-following in footsteps
now she’s just smoking in a nightdress
and i’m alone
wondering what to take
from all this
she’s on the phone
and i’m hearing words
i never heard
out of his mouth before
and i’m wishing that it was
the way it’s told
she and he:
-married without purpose
-proved to us it’s worthless
-living an apartheid
now she’s
calling me up just to cry
and i’m alone
rolling up the ends of
my rope
call it selfish
if you want
but i am far past the point
where i’m of any
possible help
why’s it never the way it’s
told?
now he’s
living in another house
and she’s
just trying to keep from
clawing her guts out
those who know
know not so expect so much
and those who don’t
hang around in open mouths
and i’m alone
in my expectations of love
shut down the show
if this is the best of it then
what’s left for the rest of us?
what’s the point in
telling it any way at all?
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5. |
Circuit Breaker
03:36
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dinner party
3am
all our friends are gone
it’s just you and me again
i’m on the carpet
you’re on top of me
and i can’t tell
anybody how your body feels
so I’ll sing:
i want you
the moment that i wake up
you break me
every time we break up
you’re shaking
every time we shake up
it’s making
excuses hard to make up
it’s not as though
i’m dumb or mute
but at a certain point
i just don’t know what else to do
circuit breaker
search for me
i’ll be the one
with the water lapping at my feet
till i’m sick
i want you
the moment that i wake up
you break me
every time we break up
you’re shaking
every time we shake up
it’s making
excuses hard to make up
and i’m aching
when i reach for a cup
and it’s taking up
more time than it should take up
is faking
the same as habit breaking?
can forcing
ever be the same as forsaking?
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6. |
What We Talk About After
04:40
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she like a warm afternoon
drifting slowly to
pallid cool evening
distant and magical
upright, intangible
easy to talk into
strict blurry microphone
covered by blankets
i treated her normally
courted her indices
wrote on her pages in
soft calm calligraphy
all on the inside and
almost invisible
could she be native to
feelings of careful control?
early one morning i was
drunk like a teenager
stuck like a wedding cake
upturned on the counter
i couldn’t conscript the dull
drift of a mad conversation
unshaken,
what was I hearing?
transfusion of signals
of words to a meaning as
she lay there bleeding
found by sad strangers that
side of the world held a
dark twisted weather
she’ll stay in that moment
forever and ever
blended sentiments of
candid acceptance
paves to the amazing
eroding arrangement of
anger so startling it
scares you to mention it
wish i could bury it
deep with her memory and
did she remember me or
anyone dear?
when building the courage that
would later disappear
can’t help but question the
fight like a referee
blind to the whole other
bias incendiary
logic placating just
waiting and waiting
for life to improve like
and old laptop loading screen
if it was all in the
instant then why were there
no bright reminders or
tears on the pillowcase?
we all want to wonder!
we all want to grieve!
we all want to sink into the earth to our knees!
should we spit on the ground?
is it our way of being?
perhaps like a bushfire it changes with the season?
she wanted a reason!
she couldn’t describe!
just a thick wall of concrete to dam the disguises!
we’re simply left asking was she in the right?
taking solace in solitude, restless respite…
they say love is all you need to
realise your worth
but i’ve never been hurt so much
by anyone i didn’t love
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7. |
Gentle Hearts
03:57
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i hope to god
that ain’t all you’ve got
i wish and pray the time away
i hold you close
(you comatose)
failure fear can scare a man to shame
but gentle hearts
are few and far between
and careful words
can bring you to your knees
the time we share
seems barely there
it stutters like a roo in lights
the hour may come
you turn to run
or draw the strength to stand and show your face
gentle hearts
are few and far between
i only harbour hope
that i believe in
and careful words
are all that you may need
when gentle hearts
can bring you to your knees
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8. |
Beyond The Bluffs
03:57
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if we go beyond the bluffs
will the word become enough?
where the eddies boil
and the seafoam coils
from a mist
into a lump
inside my throat
there is a secret
so tidal i’m sure
i never could keep it
though we know what’s next
you slip from net to net
and i’m swimming
out
of breath
if we go beyond the bluffs
might i shed my sore skin of this
sickening slough?
or is the rip so dense
as to obscure all sense
will i be left wondering
what it was that you meant?
what was meant by everyone it was that i
ever met
when i went?
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9. |
So
06:58
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so we met somewhere delicate and strained
so i knew your body almost before your name
so i learned the way you craved your skin be traced
so i couldn’t know i wouldn’t be the same
so i’d felt before the folly and the fall
so childish, the dolly and the drawl
so tangled up like fairies in the drawer
so sickly sweet i’d wait for you to call
so deeper down the rabbit’s den i rolled
so we spent sometimes dancing, sometimes sure
so sunstroked my body forced a yawn
so your eyes were blinding as the dawn
so mostly i just kept my curtains drawn
so it seemed as though you’d never known the taste
so bitter like a lemon i became
so from within your love came the rattling of a cage
so silently the bars began to break
so patient in your patching, so contained
so i guess i never really learned to change
so now when in the foreign, falling rain
so distant to the calling or the claim
so i lost you to non-existent pain
so you might not be blameless, but who is?
so i know, too, i’ve caused a mess of tears
so dripped down our faces like the years
so swiftly spent, some haunted, most sincere
so secretly i plan around the game
so sometimes i want better for you baby
so know i hope to never see your face
so i won’t know you cried and turned away
so softly
so wrong
so long
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10. |
Turn The Light Out
03:20
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second mandarin peeling
still drunk on the juice of the first
brittle and dry and as
hard as a diamond
it tastes like a lesson unlearned
coffee is never so bitter
as laying awake and alert
incapable of
escaping the day without
feeling like breaking the dirt
but turn the light out anyway
i've got nothing left to say
something about that old story
makes me drip from my lips like a hound
almost ran late
for our first sticky date
couldn't wait to get you out of town
i hear the pasta sauce singing
drowning in old cooking wine
i once had a friend who
enjoyed a dry red but i
just didn't get there in time
but turn the light out anyway
i've got nothing left to say
and if you leave the light on for me
i'll just use it as an excuse
to eat
Will's showing off his new baby
with a freshly baked banana bread
while George's doting
i've picked up the loaf and
poured it down the hole in my head
in my dreams i'm still a child
and i'm not much older when i wake
so if you see me stirring the soup, honey
you can be certain i've made a mistake
turn the light out anyway
i've got nothing left to say
and if you leave the light on for me
i'll just use it as an excuse
to eat
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Well Into Winter Melbourne, Australia
AltFolkRock from Naarm via Albury/Yackandandah.
Debut LP out now.
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