1. |
Harness Kiss
03:17
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It's like my legs were built in anger
by a tired engineer in the middle of the night
Yes they carry me towards you
but collapse against each other when you catch me in the chasm of your eyesight
til I don't remember standing upright
Take my harness kiss and let me be your tower crane
Though my wheels turn, I'll never let you fall
Use this harness kiss like a battery when your power drains
Stand on my shoulders when you need to feel tall
It's like my lips were dipped in tarmac
so my words are black and sicker than a cyst
Yes I'm trying to take control back
but I'm finding all the places on your face I haven't covered with a kiss
Oh the spots I've stained are hard to miss
Still, take my harness kiss and let me be your tower crane
Though my wheels turn, I'll never let you fall
Use this harness kiss like a battery when your power drains
Stand on my shoulders when you need to feel tall
Well I'm angry that you used me
but I guess I should be grateful you would choose me at all
Though I'm an incomplete toolset
I could surely find a screw you'd let me bury in your wall
and from it, hang the man I wish you'd call
Oh so take my harness kiss and let me be your tower crane
Though my wheels turn, I'll never let you fall
Use this harness kiss like a battery when your power drains
Stand on my shoulders when you need to feel tall
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2. |
Sleeping Soundly
04:26
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Staying up past four
As I sat in the shirt you wore,
we talked and never got bored
Reach to touch your hand
Teach myself to walk on land,
on sand, after journeys unplanned
It's the same as my fantasy
Framing each bite mark you plant on me
Handwritten elegies
Have faded away like unwarranted apologies
to memories
You found me
Unbound me
Stood tall and crowned me
Each nightmare
Falls lighter
I'm sleeping soundly
Something was amiss;
Hungry kisses and reminiscences
laced with analysis
Dreaming forward now
to a future without a doubt
devout to something I care about
I had a hole in my retinue
The bags under my eyes should have room for you
I want to carry your residue,
Use it like Hansel and Gretel do: I'll follow you
to brighter moons
You found me
Unbound me
Stood tall and crowned me
Each nightmare
Falls lighter
I'm sleeping soundly
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3. |
Maybe Somewhere
03:10
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Maybe somewhere on this planet
There's a forest floor as fragrant as your hair
Maybe somewhere on this planet
There's a fountain just as reckless
as when you're drinking and my jokes catch you unaware
Maybe somewhere on this planet
There's a beauty I could almost understand
Maybe somewhere on this planet
There's a stone awaiting holding
that would fit just like your fingers in my hand
Maybe somewhere
Maybe someday I'll compare
But for now I think I'm already there
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4. |
I'm Leaving You
04:05
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He stood on top of his history cold
And thought about fantasies he couldn't hold
All he could picture was when he'd been told,
"I'm leaving you"
When he was a child he hid under the stairs
And saw through the door him pulling her hair
Until one day at breakfast he heard her declare,
"I'm leaving you"
I'm leaving you
I'm leaving you
They were walking together and holding hands
Which soon were embellished by wedding bands
But he barely even heard her when she said in the sands,
"I'm leaving you"
I'm leaving you
I'm leaving you
He was fine for a while, but he couldn't hide
From leftover hatred and loneliness wide
So he wasn't surprised when his happiness cried,
"I'm leaving you"
I'm leaving you
I'm leaving you
So he kicked his feet and knocked over the chair
And as he swallowed his mouthful of air
His mind turned to him and said with a prayer,
"I'm leaving you"
I'm leaving you
I'm leaving you
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5. |
Find Them All
02:50
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Remember flitting from my bedroom to the garden,
Sitting in the shadow of the trees?
Kissing every freckle from your forehead
to the ones above your knees?
I'm just excited for the places left my lips still need an introduction to
There's just a few
I'll find them all
I found a diamond in a dark and dour coal mine
Scratching at the ceiling and the floor
Never looking up to see the treasure
Shining silver, showing me the door
When you smile it's hard to swallow and I choke on words describing how I feel
They're still concealed
but I'll find them all
Every promise of every kind
I'll find them all
I was waiting to be told that I was useful
Ready as an empty plot of land
Until your laughter filled my footsteps
As if following a figure in the sand
You met me rain-sodden and soiled and you sowed the seeds of roses in my mind
After time
I'll find them all
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6. |
We'll Be Okay
04:18
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Lying there, vacant stare, rolling around
I'm glaring at spots on the wall
Unsleeping and steeping in problems I found
It does me no good to remember them all
You've been strong all along and today's no exception
But you've hurried and worried enough
And if you're picking up pain you should change your reception
Tune out the songs that don't lift you up
and carry you away
It's okay
Let it brush off your shoulders and soldier along
You'll be okay
We've been opened too wide and can't hide any longer
From these troubles like tides rolling in
But my darling, like starlings, allied we are stronger
And take off in flight with the night on our wings
reflecting off the waves
It's okay
Let it brush off our shoulders and soldier along
We'll be okay
It's okay
Let it brush off our shoulders and soldier along
We'll be okay
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7. |
No More
04:10
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Sometimes sunshine gets me down
Worst of all, it never rains while you're around
I see your face in every sky
Shouting up, I sit and wait for your reply
Well I've been following your shadow on the wall
I've been mistaking when I jump for when I fall
No more
When this began, I ran to you
I told my life I had important things to do
I got in shape escaping me
But my feet got tired so you got fired and I got free
Yes I've been sending you my skin to keep you warm
Peeling off my pelt until I'm raw
No more
No more
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8. |
The Man In My Mind
03:24
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Comfort me again
Hold me til you end
The voice inside my head
Bringing up the dead
The men I could've been instead
I'm going down
Way down
I'm bound
to the man in my mind
intertwined on the ground
Pace around my room
Watch the rising moon
I never feel alone
With pockets full of stones,
I sink to where his thoughts are grown
I'm going down
Way down
I'm bound
to the man in my mind
intertwined on the ground
I'm going down
Way down
I'm bound
to the man in my mind,
undefined,
to be found
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9. |
Seeing You
04:03
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Seeing you is like getting home
just as the cold starts to seep in
and throwing my boots into my room
Seeing you is like reaching for the bowl on the top shelf
and finding chocolate I forgot was there
I often wish I could shake off my memories
like shaking dust off the bedsheets
But every time I try, I pull the blankets back down
and find you lying there
I went for a long walk
Trying to wear myself down
But you were in the wind
The breeze had learned how to pronounce your name
You were in the trees,
swaying
I brushed past a rose bush
with branches like your fingers grasping
leaving red marks in the shape of your smile
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10. |
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You're a park bench
Suffer the winter and wait for the end
To the tired and weary you offer a friend
Though rained on and sat on and spat on again, still you stand
My friend, after years abusive and long
No matter how stable and sturdy and strong
Your brothers and neighbors will crackle and split
like a smile
You're not the person you used to be
If you won't listen then you won't see
While now you are stronger, a few years ago you were free
You were free
One day when the snow fills your memory's bite
Hop out of the doorway and into the white
And play in the steps your father left behind
You're not the person you used to be
If you won't listen then you won't see
While now you are stronger, a few years ago you were free
You're not the person you used to be
If you won't listen then you won't see
While now you are stronger, a few years ago you were free
You were free
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11. |
Again
04:15
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Sometimes when I'm feeling small
In the kind of day you have to crawl through
When I can't see beyond the wall
You're the ones I always call to
For every time I've had to fall
Left to choose, I'd do it all again
On the bus home from New York
In a coffeeshop to talk
Going for an evening walk
Struggling to pull out the cork
I'm not lonely anymore
All you people helped me soar again
Gathered there around the wine
I felt a shiver in my spine
Since somehow planets aligned
And gave me friends that made me shine
If my life is redesigned
In the next one I will find you again
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12. |
Carry Me Along
06:52
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I was breathing in the midnight air,
the moonlight shining down on my hair
In the silver parceled patterns, you were there
Pressed against the window
where we listened to the sound of the wind whispering prayers
With the bitter bracken morning seeping in
Aging slowly
Roads below me
Carry me along
Moving faster
Each disaster
Scarcely makes me stall
'cause when I call
You always come
Oftentimes with weary eyes struggling
I can't see where I'm supposed to be
Standing in stagnant water, tepid to the touch
I try to swim but the current won't cooperate with me
Aging slowly
Roads below me
Carry me along
Moving faster
Each disaster
Scarcely makes me stall
'cause when I call
Running from the future, I've forgotten how to figure out the past
Yes I'm living in the moment but unable to make memories that last
You and I were satisfied with fantasies and fallacies of age
But the years washed over us and swept away our innocence with rage
We beat the river til its waves were churning
We staved off shivering with teenage yearning
Expecting things we hadn't earned
We didn't wait our turn
Walking to the ocean, throwing pebbles at the sign posts on the pier
We skinny dipped and treasured sips of freshly stolen pizza parlour beer
You took me by the hand and helped me stand against the bullies in our school
Then grew into a man who I can call upon when life makes me a fool
We beat the river til its waves were churning
We staved off shivering with teenage yearning
Jumping over every bridge we burned,
We never learned
Aging slowly
Roads below me
Carry me along
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Joe Holt New York, New York
Joe is a folk singer/songwriter originally from England, whose music was praised by Obscure Sound as "stirring, eloquent songwriting," and by Ear to the Ground as "the real deal when it comes to folk songwriting." His music has been featured twice on NPR. He lives in New York City. ... more
Joe Holt recommends:
You Can Call Me Legs (Demos)
by Legs Akimbo
the writing, the voice, the production - I literally cannot get enough
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such bad things happen
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Turbulent indie rock from Levi Fuller & the Library that has the snarl of hardcore and the knotty meter of math rock.
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