1. |
Message Received
03:36
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I come over to study for French
And we work for a while on irregular tenses
But now we're all done
So let's play a game
Light the candles
Unsteady flame
Lay the board out
Fingers down together
Your hand brushes mine
Light as a feather
Ooh, light as a feather
Oh, you, I... we? yes
O U I, oui, yes
O U I J A (yes, yes)
O U I J A (yes, yes)
The curtains are moving
Though the windows are closed
I swear i feel the chill
Of gathering ghosts
The planchette trembles
Starts to slide
I tremble a little
Feeling you at my side
A spirit speaks
From beyond the grave
A letter at a time
What will it say?
You lean close
I can feel your breath
Anxious to see
What'll come next
L E H D
Y E N P
D O V K
I T C A
We look at each other
So what does this mean?
Is it some kind of riddle?
Is it somebody's name?
Maybe they're drunk?
I mean, what the hell?
Shouldn't the spirits know how to spell?
I think that's witches
You say, and we laugh
And in the jokes about spells
A spell has been cast
Side by side
In the darkened room
Spooky candles
That smell like perfume
We look at the box
It has directions
You have to be focused
Have to ask a real question
We start again
And you sit real still,
Ask, does anyone like me?
I mean, like... a girl?
My cheeks get hot
I can't meet your eye
I mumble, same question...
I mean... but a guy?
We put our hands down
And we feel the planchette
Pulling across the board
And gliding towards YES
I don't need a medium
To figure this out
Your hand's on my back
My heart's in my mouth
I lean into you
You lean into me
And your lips meet mine
Message received
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2. |
Shock Value
03:59
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Two Girls, One Cup
The Rite of Spring
Piss Christ, Flower,
GG Allin
I can't feel a thing
Nothing shocks me anymore
There's just an emptiness
An open door
Un Chien Andalou
There's nothing, nothing, nothing
Nothing worse than losing you
The razor
Cuts the eye, cuts the moon
And I drift
Cut loose
Empty bed
Empty room
You tore my nerves out at the root
Left me cold and pale and hard
An egg, a cell, a tooth
Nothing shocks me anymore
There's just a numbness now
A swinging door
I want to feel something, anything, again
Rage, disgust, joy or lust
The flame, the bullet
Your open hand
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3. |
Pump the Brakes
03:32
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I tried my best to like her, I swear I really tried
But if she can't be smart and she can't be funny, well, at least she could be nice
But she won't stop nagging you about the little things
like a Charlie Brown adult or a pissed-off Sim
and she never listens to a single word you say
unless she hears the sound of her own name
I can't believe that you're still seeing her (slow, slow down)
Boy, you've got to pump the brakes
It's not too late
She doesn't care about anything, just watches QVC
Hang a mirror up inside her cage to keep her company
That's the closest that she'll get to self-reflection
Yeah, I've never heard her ask a single question
I bet the natural reverb in her head is beautiful (beautiful)
such a fine and empty space
I can't believe you're moving in with her (slow, slow down)
Boy, you've got to pump the brakes
It's not too late
Our kiss over that ouija board was years ago
and I know that all we are now is old friends
Still, I can't help but think how much better we were together
From that first kiss until our bitter end
I can't believe you're going to marry her (slow, slow down)
Misty-eyed for Miss #1 Mistake
She's not so much a trophy wife as a consolation prize (slow, slow down)
Boy, you've got to pump the brakes
It's not too late
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4. |
Color Me Lonely
04:10
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My true love, in the first hours of the dawn,
Rolls over to check his telephone
And in bed, in the last minutes before sleep
He's texting as I slip off into my dreams
Old friends are nothing to worry about
But I feel like I'm fading slowly out of sight
His best friend's so witty and even I can see
that he'd be better off with someone cleverer than me
And I ask myself:
(Is this love? Is this love?)
Color me white as the falling snow
Color me dark as the churning sea
Color me lonely as the whippoorwill calling endlessly
What am I but a dream in the shape of a wife?
What he always wanted to keep him warm at night
Sweet comfort to sip at that stays stable on the shelf
His head lies on my breast while his mind lies somewhere else
And I ask myself…
Color me blue as a bowerbird's eye
Color me bright as a firefly
Color me lonely as the whippoorwill with her haunted cry
Color me red as the velvet rose
Color me silver as the moonlit sea
Color me anything that brings your far-off gaze to fall back on me
And Robyn sings into my headphones
Is this love?
Is this love?
Is this love?
Is this love?
All bonny, bonny sang the morning thrush
From where she sat perched in yonder bramble bush
My love, sit by and listen to her sing:
"I never wanted much; all I ever wanted was him"
Color me black as the dead of night
Color me yellow as the candlelight
Color me lonely as the whippoorwill in her yearning flight
Color me gold as the morning sun
Color me green as the willow trees
Color me anything that brings your far-off gaze to fall back on me
And Robyn sings into my headphones
Is this love?
Is this love?
Is this love?
Is this love?
Is this love?
Is this love?
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5. |
No Memory
03:32
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Sun pours in onto my face, casts shadows fine as lace
Through the ferns that line the window
I'm awake, warm and naked under sheets
Still clinging onto dreams, the softness of my pillow
I'm so confused, I'm not sure where I am
I dreamed I held his hand, I dreamed of summer sunlight
I try to think, we were at the bar for drinks
I think I drank too much, something doesn't feel right
No memory, can't process
My head is throbbing and my mouth is dry
A black hole between this morning and the bar last night
I don't even know whose bed I'm in
I feel ashamed of everything that I'm not even sure I did
Tangled hair and sticky skin
I begin to guess whose bed I'm in, I push it back, I hold it in
I get up, the room sways like a boat
Nausea rising in my throat, and the sunlight goes on shining
Pull on my dress, find my panties on the floor
Stumble to the door, with a sick familiar feeling
I know this house, I know this hall, I know these windows and these walls
I knew it all, I knew it all except one room here
I smell coffee, I hear plates, I know it's morning, but it's late
But no voices, it must just be us two here
No memory, can't process
I try to think of what I did and what I said last night
Was this all my fault?
I see her picture on the wall, I picture myself wrecking your home like a cannonball
Have I ruined it all?
You're frying bacon on the stove, wearing boxers full of holes
It feels domestic, it feels strange
A sound of thunder, a butterfly crushed between your hips and mine
And now the world is rearranged
I pretend this house is mine, she never was, this all is fine
Nothing happened, nothing bad
You turn around and bring me eggs, pour me coffee
And we don't say a single word
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6. |
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We don't speak
Steam rises from our coffee cups
You touch my cheek
I feel like I'm falling up
Weightless
Spinning between joy and dread
Trying to make sense
Of the memories flooding my head
Stop the world with a flash
Clutch it in a freeze frame
Wind the black ribbon back
To where the streets have no name
Erase the word that's written on each sign
Unbreak the glass, uncrush the butterfly
Turn back time
There was blood on my hands last night
Blood on the bathroom floor
What did you do to your wife?
She's not breathing anymore
I lifted her head from the tile
She felt as heavy and cold as stone
Oh, God, she's gone now!
Left us alone, this bird has flown...
Looking back, we reached for LOVE
But EVOL looked the same
We walked the streets of our yearning
And called each one by name
Lit the night up with our secret burning
Our old forbidden flame roared up bright, returning
And then the world changed
(mysterious Satanic messages)
How did we get here?
It felt like a palindrome
When you kissed me again in that bar yesterday
It felt like coming back home
You said to me then
We have to be together forever
and I said yes, you're right, I love you
Light as a feather
Stop the world with a flash
Clutch it in a freeze frame
Wind the black ribbon back
To where the streets have no name
Erase the darkness written on each sign
Take back our words and turn them all to lies
Turn back time
Stop the world with a flash
Clutch it in a freeze frame
Wind the bloody ribbon back
To where the streets have no name
I'm lost...
Is this love? Or is it evil?
The words look the same to me now
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7. |
You Too
03:24
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In the shadows behind the door,
I see a body sprawled across the floor
but in the headlights of a passing car
it's just a fallen coat and nothing more
What are you so afraid of?
The dog next door begins to bark
at someone moving through the dark
A ghost that lingers out of view
breathes in my ear to say
"you too"
you too (what are you so afraid of?)
you too (what are you so afraid of?)
I brush my teeth at the bathroom sink
And something moves behind me as I blink
I turn around, there's nothing there
But by the drain, a strand of someone else's hair
what are you so afraid of?
the TV set glows eerie blue,
a moon trapped in the living room
death peers through the sliding door
and promises,
i'll come to you
you too (what are you so afraid of?)
you too (what are you so afraid of?)
Looking in the mirror, I see her face appear
Company for me inside this cage of fear
He calls to say that he'll be home late
He's meeting the boys from work for drinks at eight
In the bedroom, perfume I never wear
Lingers like a specter in the air
What are you so afraid of?
if your love was true you
wouldn't fear that he'd be
coming after you
the ghost of her
hangs in the mirror, whispering
"you too"
you too (what are you so afraid of?)
you too (what are you so afraid of?)
you too (what are you so afraid of?)
you...
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8. |
Survival
04:38
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What do you do when you've somehow painted your life into a corner?
Tied your hands to a man you're afraid to leave?
He swears to me that there's no-one else, but I know better
I was a fool to think what happened to her wouldn't happen to me
So I laughed at all his jokes
Kept his darkest secrets close
Let myself dissolve away like rising smoke
I thought I was made for you
So what do I become
When you've decided that you're through?
I lived my life for love
I lived my life for nothing
But I don't want to die
I want to survive
Please don't let this be the end
I can be more, more than I have been
I want to survive
The Ouija board sits out there, our private joke, on the bottom shelf
I hear a clatter, and the planchette's moving all by itself
It spells a message from beyond
"Turn the radio on"
(T-U-R-N I-T O-N)
And a voice pours out, it's her
Singing like a bird
Like a bird
She says, "We were never friends
But I know that it was him
That brought me to my end
It's not your fault
I died for love
I lived my life for nothing
But you don't have to die
I want you to fly
Please don't end up like me
You can still be more, more than I could be
I want you to survive
So go, go and buy a gun,
Buy a one-way ticket to anywhere
Just run
Call the cops
They'll find out soon enough
The dog next door is in the yard
Digging up my bones from the earth"
I tell her,
"I don't want to go on like this
I want to live a life
That passes the Bechdel test
I want to change the world
Make art, learn to play the bass guitar
Learn the shapes of trees, learn the names of stars
I want to listen to old songs
Echoing beyond the grave
Think of all the lives they saved
When they said, 'You're not alone'
Like a message from a Ouija board
Spelling it out for me
You're worth something without him
It's not too late, you're free"
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Vowl Sounds Matlock, UK
Transatlantic dream-pop from Huan-Hua (Gentle Brontosaurus, Red Tape Diaries, TL;DR, Miscellaneous Owl) from Madison, Wisconsin, USA, and Tom Morton (Lardpony, Vom Vorton, Of Mice and Mental Arithmetic) from Matlock, UK
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