1. |
BLIND CONTOUR
01:54
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Navigating solitude and privatized compassion
It just don't add up, no it don't add up
Kenosha's screaming out for justice in the captions
But it don't add up, no it don't add up
All while stuck here dreaming of "an outside"
Pacing indents in the floor
Scraping every memory for latent serotonin
But it don't show up, no it don't show up
I dropped the shutter down and set the lens to focus
But it don't show up, no it don't show up
Now we're tracing narratives of motion
Calm, perpetual and strong
It ain't all that hard to find
Between a fractured country's finest lines
It ain't all that hard to find
To find
Meet the morning with your eyes wide
I've been waiting for you all night
Trying to light it up
Until it's bright enough
To dig our heels in for the onslaught
Of every battle yet to be fought
And all the inertia of things left to be
So make me a blind contour drawing of the future
Capturing the form in all its grace, flaws, ritual and promise
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2. |
I USED TO DRAW
02:44
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I used to draw everything
I lived in all-day-long daydreams
I drew my mother's markers dry
An early way of getting high
I drew the dogs' hardwood sprawl
Warm obstructions in the hall
I only captured what I could
But I think I was getting pretty good
I was getting pretty good
And when I set my pencil down
Decades later in a different town
I left a trail of tired lines
That no straight edge could ever guide
I spoke to the city and it spoke back
It ain't latitude you lack
What lies here is no less true
It ain't all just built for you
Ohhhh...
I wanna live like that
Ohhhh...
I want a love that looks back
So add a single asterisk*
To every exit sign I missed
Little stars to remind
Loose ends that I left untied
So when you're ground down and grey
In those gradient weekdays
Just remember the gift
Is that you get to keep doing it
Settle down
This shouldn't take too long
Draw it out
Til the highway days are gone
Mirrored towns
Connections holding strong
Hold on
I used to draw everything
I lived in all-day-long daydreams
Ohhhh...
I wanna live like that
Ohhhh...
I want a love that looks back
Yeah, I want a love that looks back
I want a love that looks back
Yeah, I want a love that looks back
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3. |
GUEST ROOM
03:20
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I stumbled out of your guest room in a still-drunk haze
A decade spent in transit routed me back to the same place
Always spread too thin across a country I abhor
And coming to terms with it all
From your back porch I watched the factories spitting steam
It felt like trying to take a picture of a dream
Either blown out on the highlights
Or way too dark to see
A fader sliding back and forth eternally, forever
Planting flowers in the backyard
Harmonizing with the car alarms
I've been held up for way too long
By people that I didn't even know I was leaning on
They're clamping down
While I'm grinding my teeth
On the underside of 52nd St.
When the lights came on
The connection was switched
And the place I love was inverted
Planting flowers in the backyard
Harmonizing with the car alarms
I've been held up for way too long
By people that I didn't even know I was leaning on
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4. |
SURE OF IT
01:16
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Saved a parking spot across the street
Got some semblance of sleep
Orchestrated efforts towards a dream
Between my palindrome weeks
Packed the sketchbooks and the photos up
It felt significant until I
Took down a message from the 26th:
“There’s been an incident”
I was so sure of it
I was so sure of it
(I was so sure, I was so sure of it)
I was so sure of it
(I was so sure, I was so sure of it)
I was so sure of it
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5. |
ALL GOOD THINGS
04:44
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I found you stranded in a subplot and tangentially aware
Of a hundred wild centuries waiting
And it echoed
Through my brain as the days got shorter
And I still felt the sting
Of powerlessness
Dancing back and forth on contested airwaves
To decipher all the shit that you're feeding to me
Why'd you try to reason with those who couldn't dream
Of loving anything enough to give it away?
All good things
Will come in time, they're coming
All good things
Will come in time
So engrossed in every headline
While they're burying the lede
Scrolling for a sliver of real-life joy
To permeate the violence in my feed
Because I've never seen a people be so proud of their anger
Searching out the sources to explain it away
Confirmation bias as a way of living
All this mental math just to get through the day
All good things
Will come in time, they're coming
All good things
Will come in time
You say it
You said it
You meant it
You gave it away
All good things
Will come in time, they're coming
All good things
Will come in time, they're coming
Why'd you try to reason with those who couldn't dream it?
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6. |
GOLD IN THE GREY
03:12
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Cast as an occupant
Gated days in a grid
Pacing dents in the floor that could span the Brooklyn Bridge
This year’s a total wash
Just a stretch to endure
Cold but connected to something strange and pure
Deep breath
Reframe
Love as a perpetual motion
Not a mark
It’s a path
To follow back
But it’s your first day off in forever
You’re doing dishes and dancing around
With your phone in a glass to amplify the sound
We walk and drink in the street
Stake our own little ground
So come on, let’s close up before they close us down
Deep breath
Review
Love as a lens you can look through
Not a mark
It’s a hue
And I know that it can seem far away
But sometimes there’s a gold in the grey
To battle the brightness of crystal displays
Sometimes there’s a gold in the grey
Sometimes there’s a gold in the grey
Deep breath
Reframe
Love as a perpetual motion
Not a mark
It’s a path
One more deep breath
Review
Love as a lens you can look through
Not a mark
It’s a hue
And I know that it can seem far away
But sometimes there’s a gold in the grey
To battle the brightness of crystal displays
Sometimes there’s a gold in the grey
Sometimes there’s a gold in the grey
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7. |
TOMMY TOOK A PICTURE
02:46
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Tommy took a picture where I'm noticeably younger
Skin a little softer
Slightly thinner frame
And contained between the corners I knew nothing of my failures
Shortcomings were foreign
We danced through all our days
Saw the joy in just a moment
Joy is in the making
Joy is in the movement
Ever forward, ever to
So orient the portrait as a landscape composition, yeah
Turn it on its side
And see if it makes sense to you
Folded, framed and slightly faded
He said "I'll send another soon
For now just take this one and share it
I didn't take it just for you."
There's a spirit in the stairwell and a ghost in the casino
Putting numbers up on Monday nights to make their losses back
And I tried my fate with fortune
It was sold as such a sure thing
Until the bottom fell right out
But I can learn to live with that
It was perfectly positioned but we had to make adjustments
Had to sacrifice a flawless thing to see the human side
If the chances that you're given don't quite add up to what you've envisioned, well...
The worst thing that I ever did was to let a good shot die
Ana said that "time is finite"
Like a kitchen hourglass tattoo
And there's so much more than just catching the light right
So I stayed for more than just the view
I stayed for more than just the view
I stayed for more than just the view
I stayed for more than just the view
I stayed for more than just the view
Close-captured moments
Golden-hour greyscale bliss
One million ways to balance buildings on my fingertips
I spent a lifetime
Leaning into what I've missed
One million ways to balance buildings on my fingertips
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8. |
LOVE AND COMMERCE
02:55
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You’ve really got a lot of space out here
I can see why you left
Got tired of looking for a parking space
Got sick of holding your breath
Been mostly overnights since March last year
Don’t have much new to report, they
Gave us a banner that reads “Heroes Work Here”
Sorry to cut this short
I was so sure of it
I was so sure of it
“Love and commerce gonna keep me going
Don’t have a choice” he says
Utilitarian post-war homes
Corporate campuses
“And if the music thing doesn’t work out
There’s still the USPS
I’ll keep the van and see if anything hits
Alleviate the stress”
I was so sure of it
I was so sure of it
I was so sure of it
I was so sure of it
And anyone can write
A song for Saturday night
But what about Sunday morning?
I was so sure of it
I was so sure of it
I was so sure of it
I was so sure of it
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9. |
SETTLED IN MY SKIN
03:32
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Predicated on these small conjectures
And somehow it still grows close
Our flailing fundamental architecture
Linked inextricably and edified in pixels, ink and code
I’ll tell you when I see you all again
No longer spinning
Safe and settled in my skin
Yeah, when I see you again
Eyes meet my own to exchange small condolence
Folded hands, phone face down on the bar
Just let me be here to imbibe the moment
Before it’s tail lights in a fog of “best wishes” and “warm regards”
I’ll tell you when I see you all again
No longer spinning
Safe and settled in my skin
Yeah, when I see you again
Made a game of guessing time’s intention
But it’s larger than the living
I wait here
In gratitude for every intersection
All awkward angles, adding up to something chemically complete
I’ll tell you when I see you all again
No longer spinning
Safe and settled in my skin
I’ll tell you when I see you all again
No longer spinning
Safe and settled in my skin
Yeah, when I see you again
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10. |
IT LEFT A DENT
04:35
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I should be seeing my reflection
But the storefront’s boarded up
I keep thinking one day I’ll accept it
if I say it out loud enough
Cause every day I am reminded
Of a sound I once sustained, but
There ain’t no silver lining shining
Only strength we had to gain
And so I say:
Portray me in shadow and shine
Remake me for new eyes
The product of pressure and concentrated time
It left a dent on me
It left a dent on me
It left a dent on me
Can’t see the instance when you’re in it
The sunlight through the sliding doors
That house was magic in the moment
But we don’t live there anymore.
The skittish dogs, ceramic dishes
I guess I should have written it all down
Bare feet on tile in the kitchen
Aglow with all good things we found
And they’re still around
Left dormant, developing here
Stitched into the worst year
Chain-, cross- or blanket, needlework what sun was there
It has to still be there
So if there is a light, turn towards it
I wanna get a better look at you
I’ve been digging through a dead year’s worth of darkness just to find it
Finding all the good inside it
If there is a light, turn towards it
If there is a light, turn towards it
If there is a light, turn towards it
If there is a light, turn towards it
If there is a light, turn towards it
If there is a light, turn towards it
If there is a light, turn towards it
If there is a light, turn towards it
If there is a light
It left a dent on me
It left a dent on me
It left a dent on me
It left a dent on me.
It left a dent on me
It left a dent on me
It left a dent on me.
Portray me in shadow and shine
Remake me for new eyes
The product of pressure and concentrated time
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Signals Midwest Cleveland, Ohio
we are a punk/indie band from Cleveland, now spread throughout OH and PA. we've been doing this together since 2008. we have been lucky enough to see the world together but will still play in your kitchen or anywhere really.
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