1. LIVING IN THE SHADOW OF A TERRIBLE THING

With heavy tread and treacle feet
I drag my baggage behind me
Everything’s absurd, everything feels strange
I experience time as a terrible ache

Alone and unnoticed on the busy street
I’m living in the shadow of the terrible thing
Windows shatter and alarm bells ring
I’m living in the shadow of the terrible thing

Halfway down the road I’ve lost all purpose
No Virgil at my side to guide and interpret
Darkness visible, failing light
I hurt in every inch of my lived life

Alone and unnoticed on the busy street
I’m living in the shadow of the terrible thing
Windows shatter and alarm bells ring
I’m living in the shadow of the terrible thing

Sinking slowly in this miasma
Too much hurt for my head to handle
Hanging on to hope and a handful of chances
Cause if you take away the future then the present collapses

Alone and unnoticed on the busy street
I’m living in the shadow of the terrible thing
Windows shatter and alarm bells ring
I’m living in the shadow of the terrible thing
[x2]


2. STARK RAVING SANE

Stark raving sane
Stark raving sane

It's not my job to see the funny side
But with a gun in your mouth
It's difficult to sing in tune
It's not my job to see the funny side, is it?

Stark raving sane
Stark raving sane
Stark raving sane

It's not my job to amuse you
Entertain yourself motherf*cker
It's not my job to amuse you
Play with yourself

Stark raving sane
Stark raving sane
Stark raving sane
Stark raving sane
Stark raving sane

Hold and bite my tongue...

Stark raving sane
Stark raving sane
Stark raving sane
Stark raving sane
Stark raving sane


3. WHY TURBULENCE?

I thought there'd be a point to all this
Someday it would all make sense
Still waiting there's nothing yet

I have everything I need
Food, shelter, family
People that love me

Routine, habits, our daily rituals
Deaden perception
Work, leisure, blank eyed ambition
(Where's this going?)

Big black hooded perambulator
Birth was the death of me
Big black hooded perambulator
Running red lights to the cemetery

Gradually I started to feel
All the absurdity
Put me in a minor key
Breath snags in my chest
Words get left unsaid
Leaving me feel, well... helpless

Routine, habits, our daily rituals
Deaden perception
Work, leisure, blank eyed ambition
(Where's this going?)

Big black hooded perambulator
Birth was the death of me
Big black hooded perambulator
Running red lights to the cemetery

Today is the first day of the rest of your lite
Tell that to your liver, tell that to your ex-wife

Routine, habits, our daily rituals
Deaden perception
Work, leisure, blank eyed ambition
(Where's this going?)

Big black hooded perambulator
Birth was the death of me
Big black hooded perambulator
Running red lights to the cemetery

Big black hooded perambulator
Birth was the death of me
Big black hooded perambulator


4. GHOST TRIO

The quest is becoming a question
Answers are far out of reach
Caught in the rolling momentum
Watching the falling regime
Looking for calm but bewildered
Blueprints are ripped out and burned
Starting anew from the ashes
Hoping that lessons are learned

And chains
Chains will be broken

The photographs tell me it happened
But I don't remember a thing
Conditions that brought revolution
The clatter of metal on streets
You don't live here you survive this
It all comes apart at the seams
Mounting dis-articulation
Conditions increasingly weak

And chains
Chains will be broken

Setting the earthquakes in motion
There's no turning back alter this
Whatever has happened stays happened
It's the future I want to rephrase
I'm grateful tor time I've been given
Aware of the choices to make
The footprints I've left will be covered
By footsteps that I've yet to take

And chains
Chains will be broken


5. GET YOUR DEAD HAND OFF MY SHOULDER

The toxic glow of this botched city
Hums in time with my nightmares
Murmuring sinister resonance
The shocking and the shaping of air
Trapped in a shivering carcass
Part of a throbbing crowd
Every space is constantly trembling
Stay awake, lights go out

Time speeds up, I get older
Get your dead hand of my shoulder

You are a present absence
Spectral traces everywhere
You set the darkness echoing
Chair creaks, you're not there
Vibration through my body
It hits my chest and throat
At the point of suffocation I let go

Time speeds up, I get older
Get your dead hand of my shoulder

Deafening whispered threats
Like an unknowable breath
Rising in a hollow swell
Shrill bloody red
All streets are screaming empty
Frequencies sing your ghost
We've had our time together
Now I've got to let you go

Time speeds up, I get older
Get your dead hand of my shoulder
Get your dead hand of my shoulder...


6. THE BUZZING

Can't turn it off
Can't make it stop
Can't staunch the flow

The buzzing
The buzzing

Open to everything
Over-exposure
Land of confusion

The buzzing
The buzzing

Nothing to express
Nothing to express it with
Still this inexplicable need to express

The buzzing

This phantom chatterbox
Does it ever stop?
Does everything start
With destruction?

When will you learn that the medicine doesn't work
Don't want to be lost in the system
Forgotten, forgotten, forgotten...

Stare at the ceiling
Terrorized by consciousness

The buzzing
The buzzing

The happiness industry
With its bland panaceas
Has done nothing for me

The buzzing
The buzzing


7. BEFORE YOU, WITH YOU, AFTER YOU

Existence
It's just a question of time
Failure
Half deaf, half blind
Onward
Over ruined terrain
Forward
On twisted legs

Before you
With you
After you
This is how it is

Feed me
Medicine
Feed me
Simplifications
I need
Illusions
So bleak
It's funny

Before you
With you
After you
This is how it is

I can't stop it
I can't sit still
I can't end what I couldn't begin

Novels unfinished
Records unplayed
Words just paper
Music just noise

Before you
With you
After you
This is how it is
[x2]

This is how it is...


8. MARLOW

(Instrumental)


9. PLAGUE BELL

I think that this record is stuck
The dust in these grooves leave it blocked
It used to be sound as a bell
Now it sounds like it's dying

To its siren-like call you are drawn
Oblivious to warnings of harm

Are you happy now?
Now you've got what you wanted

You want to see the magic return
But you will only see it cursed and spurned
When will you ever learn that I hate every second

The life that we lived has moved on
The people we were then are gone
But the fire that we carry flames on
It still burns but in a different way

So to hell with old heartaches and deaths
Misfortunes, mistakes and regrets
There's fresh problems and I want fresh solutions

You want to see the magic return
But you will only see it cursed and spurned
When will you ever learn that I hate every second

You want to see the magic return
But you will only see it cursed and spurned
When will you ever learn that I hate every second

Shall we dance? Like we used to
Shall we dance? Just like the old days
Just like the old days
Just like the old days


10. ECCLESIASTES

Everything under the sun [x3]
Is absurd

Vain days spent as a shadow
Trying to color the void

Without you to lose myself in
I'd have given up

Everything under the sun [x3]
Is absurd

Mere breath could be useless
I'll strive to overcome

Without you to lose myself in
I'd have given up

Everything under the sun [x3]
Is absurd

Everything under the sun [x3]
Is absurd

Everything under the sun is absurd [x3]