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1. |
Addicted To The Flute
02:58
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Lately I've been listening to your voice from a distance
Compare my mediocrity with the smart things that you say
To formulate a sentence
As a task it's never easy
Who'd have known,
I won't stay very long
Spending all your time.
Lately I've been listening to your voice it's going nowhere
but something tells me that your singing right into my ears
The stories that you talk about are painted from my life
I don't know how,
I've put up with this so long
Wasting all my ...
Time in a labyrinth
Keeps me in a cage
Flavour of the month
Never took to my advantage
Time in a labyrinth
Blocked me at the gate
Call for intervention
Never act your own age
And if we stayed like this,
would everyday exist to admit defeat?
And if we stayed like this,
What if we stayed like this?
And if we stayed like this,
What if we stayed?
Spending all my time
Addicted to the flute
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2. |
Detect The Signs
03:24
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I'm positive a moment ago, we'd agreed to stay like this
It's tricky to stay on top of things, y'know It's hard to stay on top.
I passed my friend the other day, as I was walking by
I hardly even recognised him, these 23 years gone by
I asked him tell me how he's been, but all he did was look at me
he'd tuned out before I asked him why
Well I'm hardly finding time to say these things I'm used to saying
And I'm hardly getting time to notice things I used to see in you
And you hardly gave me time to detect the signs.
I'm feeling better with perspective and a place to call my home
I'm in the worst position yet but there's no stepping back at all
Can't get much better in the moment you're not clouding up my mind
I'm feeling better... woooh!
I'm positive a moment ago, we'd agreed to stay like this
It's tricky to stay on top of things - y'know It's hard to stay on top.
My good friend went and passed away, we didn't even say goodbye
They'd hardly even diagnosed him, I had to bury him in my mind
Well I'm hardly finding time to say these things I'm used to saying
And I'm hardly getting time to notice things I used to see in you
And you hardly gave me time to detect the signs.
Detect the signs.
I'm in a dream seeking better employment
but my chances aren't good, I heard you wrong,
That's what i thought you said.
I'm in a dream seeking better direction,
but my chances aren't good, I heard it wrong.
Detect the signs.
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3. |
Pawn In Command
03:25
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When I connect with you
and then you push me away
When I'm alone in a room
you send me packing again.
I've had my thumb on the pulse
but you never answered the phone
If I could hear you again
you make me ever hopeful.
You know you severed the line
I tried so hard to repair
What kind of games do you play
that leave me circling my tail.
You're like a pawn in command
in exile wearing a crown
Every decision I've made
Is a division for you.
Cos in my mind
It's indecision that only you see
And in your mind
I make divisions that only you read.
There's no excuses anymore
There's no excuses left for you to explore
When I'm not talking to you
There's nothing you can say that i won't ignore.
Like a pawn in command of all of these decisions
In the palm of your hand there's all of these conditions
Like a pawn in command with all of these divisions
Like a pawn in your hand with all of these decisions
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4. |
Maelstrom
04:14
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I'm almost independent of doubt
Unregimented, self-contained
I've been silent in this room for hours but
I'm just not in the mood
to listen to this
I'm sufficiently over the hill
So just loosen your grip on the reigns
I'd stare at the wall for hours but
I'm just not in the mood
it's the worst that I've been.
If you're the wind, then
knock me over
If you're a maelstrom, then
pull me in.
I'm just a ship, here
on the water
why can't you see
that I'm adrift on the tide.
A swirling vortex,
sucks me under
If you're a maelstrom, then
pull me in.
I'm just a ship, here
on the water
why can't you see
that I'm still on your side.
Someday we might consider repairs
and build some kind of new terrain
I'd stare into space for hours but
I'm just not in the mood
to mend it right now
No need to ever call me back
or send a message to explain
I've been on my own for days but
I'm just not in the mood
and how I've learned to move on.
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5. |
When I'm By Your Side
04:08
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When I'm by your side
I feel crowded and alive
hammered by these feelings
for you
When I'm by your side
I get choked up and animated
Smashed on blissful feelings
for you
When I'm by your side
I feel like I'm a fish
Hooked, you reel me in
the water's so good
And everywhere I travel
in this world is by your side
and everyday I'm blown away
cos I get to be beside you one more time
When I'm by your side
When. I'm. by. your ...
When I walk beside you
I feel packed into a can
how I escape mortality
is just dumb luck
When I walk beside you
y'know it's hard to find the words
that offer me some life support
I'm blue
When I'm glued to you
I feel inadequate and small
Inebriated miles beyond the clouds
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6. |
Concrete Walls
03:39
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I must be living in an abstract thought
And nothing gives me more pleasure
Than getting used to seeing concrete walls
That's where your eyes used to be
My friends have heard about your routine visits
Can't think of a better distraction
I'm getting used to dreams of concrete walls
That's where your pictures used to be.
We're not casualties of war before we've
Started something new.
There's no trauma yet,
Your broken-hearted days are in pursuit.
I've got to paint the concrete twice
I've got to know that you're really committed to me.
I've got to right those broken nights
I've wanna know that you're really committed to me
I've got to paint the concrete twice
I've seen heaven,
I see it in you,
And these concrete walls.
In these concrete walls.
I must be driven to erase the distinctions
And nothing gives me more pleasure
I'm not so different from these concrete walls
You're greyed perception of me.
It must be hard to monitor my calls
Indulge in the crafty diversions.
When all my dreams are filled with concrete walls
These flags are shades of defeat.
We're all victims facing hostile forces
Faced with these inner fights
I'll include you in lines that I wrote
cos i thought that my wreckage had soured the bite.
I've got to paint the concrete twice
I've got to know that you're really committed to me.
I've got to write those broken nights
I've wanna know that you're really committed to me
I've got to paint the concrete twice
I've seen heaven,
I see it in you,
And these concrete walls.
In these concrete walls.
Corporate warhorse.
Concrete walls.
Concrete Warhols.
Concrete walls.
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7. |
Hey, Woman
03:11
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Hey Woman,
I've been taking you for granted
I'm fooling no-one with my attitude
when you go out for celebrations
Y'know I'm not that far behind
Hey Woman
I thought I was passed all this
Hey Woman
You said I was stuck in the ancient past
Fossilised long ago
You can't get off your phone (I'm just a dinosaur bone)
hey woman, don't you
hey woman, give me
hey woman, what you know
Hey Woman
I thought that you'd come straight back
Hey Woman
It's got nothing to do with me
Hey Woman,
I've been proven self-indulgent
I'm behaving like an imbecile
when you go out at night with friends
Why do I include my ego
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8. |
Go! Taikonauts, Go!
03:33
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Go! Taikonauts Go! 太空人
Taikonauts
Float into space,
With heavenly cranes, to hoist you up
Don't hold your breath,
For gravity
suspends your doubts,
Where the air is so thin
So don't look down
Taikonauts,
Like Yang Liwei
Your very mouth,
the Wan Hu craves
your maiden flight,
Into the dark
Suspends your doubts,
So apocryphal
Like the bait on a hook
Go! Taikonauts Go!
Go! Taikonauts Go!
The emptiness
Pacific blue, an aetheist
You're living life until the dark.
Suspend your doubts.
The apocryphal worm on a hook!
(So don't look down)
Go! Taikonauts Go!
Go, Taikonauts!
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9. |
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There's a trail of pictures where you once painted her
There's a trail resembling thoughts that once came coursing out of your head
I look into their eyes, blackening
I see it in your face, whitening
I look into their eyes, blackening
I see it in your face.
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10. |
Racecar Driver
02:40
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You ought to be a racecar driver
And go real fast around the corner
It's such a thrill to rush right by you in this lightning bolt
It's such a buzz to break the speed of sound
I set it in motion
I wanna get to you fast.
Shifting the clutch
Leave them in the dust.
I'm steering with skill
while the challengers rust.
We shift with such method
Leave them in the dust.
Racecar Driver,
Accelerate
You ought to feel these wheels a-moving
The high-speed rush before your eyes
It's such a kick to feel the wind around that chequered flag
It's such a buzz to see your face in a blur
You've got to be a race car driver
Accelerate around the bend
It's such a thrill to feel like you've made the thunder clap
It's such a buzz to make the perfect lap
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John Carroll Hangzhou, China
John Carroll is a songwriter and artist from Limerick, Ireland. Carroll's songs can be introspective acoustic narratives, or tongue-in-cheek tunes about acrophobic atheist taikounauts, all topped off with lashings of lyrics and phrases influenced by his adopted home in Hangzhou, China. ... more
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