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1. |
Burn
03:45
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Gouged your name right into the ground
Left a permanent scar to prove you were around
Later they’ll say it was a suicidal game
But you played it anyway, while you burned our houses down
Yeah you burned our houses down
So cover your eyes so you can’t see the light
Let the fools on the hill fill their faces tonight
Look the other way, to the left and to the right
They’re playing away, while they set your house on fire
Yeah they’ve set your house on fire
Take a singular blind obsession
And a particular kind of vision
Build a pile from all your blessings
And burn it down
The future’s a billboard, tonight you are the star
Live for the second cause the hour’s too far
Set the temperature gauge, so you’re withering away
Dancing in the flames, while you burn our houses down
Yeah you burn our houses down
It’s easier in than it is in getting out
Standing on the edge and we’re staring at the ground
It’s harder not play with the way they rig the game
The leaders, the liars, and your whole damn house on fire
Your whole damn house on fire
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2. |
The New Plastic
03:27
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(There is even now something of ill omen amongst us
The growing disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions
In lieu of the sober judgment)
Somethings coming over me, a feeling of epiphany
A little bit of apathy mixed in with some of industry
Let me spell it for you, let’s begin
This is the new directive
So strap your face to the plastic
There’s nothing new in reality
So take a new identity
(There is even now something of ill omen amongst us
The worse than savage mobs)
We’re gnawing on these empty things and filling up our empty skins
Shouting underneath the din, to be seen, well
See what you reap now when you sow the wind
We're nothing but static
The signals lost, ours receivers are all erratic
Just random shapes and some
Messed up stereophonics
We gotta find some comfort in silence
Inside before we’re lost in the noise and the static
Somethings coming over me, a feeling of epiphany
A little bit of apathy mixed in with some of industry
Let me spell it for you now
This is the new directive
So strap your face to the plastic
There’s nothing new in reality
So take a new identity
We gotta find some comfort in silence
Inside before we’re lost in the noise and the static
(Cassius was right, the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves)
We're static
We’re clinging hard to this burning feeling of panic
Screaming out to be heard in the mess of the sonics
We gotta find some comfort in silence
Inside before we’re lost in the noise and the static
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3. |
Eye of the Storm
04:22
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We ride, oh how we ride
Along the night
We fly, oh how we fly
Through the summer sky
We pray, oh how we pray
Just one more day
Welcome to the eye of the storm
Time to shake the demons off
Now you’re in the eye of the storm
Time to catch a hold of your fragile self
We’re alive for this moment
With our wild hearts high
Can you feel it in the air tonight
It’s breaking nigh
We’ve been flailing and fading for so long now
We’ve been flailing and failing for so long now
We’ve been wading in waste deep for so long now
For so long now, for so long now
We ride, oh how we ride
To the dawning light
We fly, oh how we fly
With our wild hearts high
We pray, oh how we pray
Cause it’s breaking nigh
Time to catch a hold of your fragile self
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4. |
A Benediction
04:00
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Hoping for a benediction
I’d settle for the taste of whiskey
And a better change of circumstance
Staring at a pale reflection
Wondering what they’ll put me in for
We’re lonely but we’ll only take one chance
Consume my pride and eat my envy
I’ll bear the blame and wear the wounding
We’re stumbling blind, I hear your art but nothing’s left
Christ it’s like the resurrection
We could rise but Babel’s burning
Better not to try than face the consequence
Why the fear to need you to breathe and perceive you, these confessions again
Oh the pain it stays - and the doubt, whatever the name - remains
I haven’t got what it takes to make this a big success
But give me twenty odd years and I’ll find a way out of this mess
Finally all of the fakes will be feeling the new intent
But give them twenty odd years, they’ll be feeding the foolish again
No I ain’t got what it takes to make this a big success
But give me twenty odd years, I’ll believe in something I guess
Finally all of the fakes will be feeling the new intent
But give them twenty odd years, they’ll be feeding the foolish again
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5. |
Rising Sun
04:18
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A single spire hoards the horizon
A single moment stolen from reason
In the wake of the instant I am there
And you’re home in your bedroom
Pale and drawn and feeling the house move
Oh the miles, the distance, in your head
If you want me stay, I can stay, I can stay away
What you want me to be, I can be, I can be just a memory
Every day it’s late so early
Every evening it’s waiting to burn me
Makes me wonder from where the darkness springs
Hey my dear of course there’s a logic
If there weren’t we could never withstand it
It exists and our fear can be denied
If you want me stay, I can stay, I can stay away
What you want me to be, I can be, I can be just a memory
And we’ll all rise up (in the wake of the setting sun)
And we’ll all rise up (in the wake of the setting sun)
If you want me stay, I can stay (in the wake of the setting sun)
What you want me to be, I can be (in the wake of the setting sun)
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6. |
The Living Stream
02:25
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Run softly, she says to me
We can’t seem to find a way outta here
We’re bleeding, she says to me
We can’t seem to find a way outta here
We won’t be, no we won’t be
We won’t believe in anything
We can’t see, no we can’t see
We can’t seem to find the living stream
I was dreaming, she says to me
I held all the answers in front of me
Reality, bearing down on me
We’re just two more victims of gravity
Run softly, she says to me
We can’t seem to find the living stream
We’re bleeding, she says to me
We can’t seem to find the living stream
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7. |
Crash
03:54
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It came…
…crashing like a cannonball
Hey Mary did it move you at all
Did it break you down to the bone
Like you cut me down to the core
This is…
…not the sound of the end of the world
You start out like there’s never a before
You wake up it’s strangers at arms
In the end we’re just another war
Brace yourself (Better go ahead and brace yourself)
Go ahead and brace yourself (Better go ahead and brace yourself)
This is the worst day
Of the rest of your life
You saved yourself (Just had to go and save yourself)
You went ahead and saved yourself (Just had to go and save yourself)
This is the first day
And the best of your life
It’s the...
…same old story with just another name
Walking out of the windows again
Another break, another foothold regained
Mix it up and but it all tastes the same
This is...
…not the sound of the end of the world
You start out with the best of it all
You wake up it’s pistols at dawn
In the end it’s just another war
Two lives of too stray vectors
Predestined for intersection
You’re just the first / You are the last
Brace for the crash
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8. |
Ghosts of California
03:03
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Standing here for so long, I know something’s going on
But I don’t know what
There’s reasons we’re falling, tomorrow’s ghost is calling
But we won’t give it up
Last night we dreamt of, summers in Hollywood
With a tendency for rain
It won’t be long, ‘fore these demons that follow us
We won’t see them again
I lied when I told you my feelings were over
That picture of her from the fall
Come closer, come lately, come hell or high water
We’re bracing ourselves for the war.
Only just yesterday, you said send them all away
I think that our cover here is blown
On Venice and Sunset we’ll find what we lost again
And make our own Babylon
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9. |
Dig
03:09
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Slip the needle in and put the contents under pressure
Its underneath the skin but the damage has a way of leaking out
The fire's in the east and the cross is in my eye
Dealt you one of these so what’s it worth to eat the lie
And you squeeze and you squeeze till the wounds so deep that you can’t heal it any more
And you dig in deeper to feed the fever of all the seething animals
Slip the needle in and put the contents under pressure
You gotta push it down, down if you wanna shake us out
And you squeeze and you squeeze till the wounds so deep that you can’t heal it any more
And you dig in deeper to feed the fever of all the seething animals
Dig deep then kneel, face left, don’t feel, you gotta push it down down
Dig deep then kneel, face left, don’t feel, you gotta push it down down
Slip the needle in and put the contents under pressure,
(Dig deep then kneel, face left, don’t feel)
Put the contents under pressure
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10. |
Run
03:03
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We took the night, took it alone
We took the sky above, to be our own
They came at night, they came alone
Came for the two of us, to bear us home
Run, run, run for deliverance
Soaked to the bone and a-shivering
Run, run, run for deliverance
The world was young, and so were we
An ocean could not stand, between our need
We broke the waves, they washed us clean
All we have is everything, we’re wild and free
The road on the river, the bridge on the border
The call of the river, the call of the water
The fall of the innocent, rise to the calling
Run to the river, run to the water
Run to the river tonight
Run, run, run, run, run, run, run
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11. |
Skylines
03:42
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Wake me up before the sunrise
Take me out beyond the borderlines
With no doubt or sense or reason at all
And we’ll wait there until the skylines fall
When you can’t sleep at night and the weeks are a daze
When you’re losing the fight with the shadows and fades
On the ground with no sense or meaning at all
Share the weight here until these skylines fall
Skylines, guidelines, living on the white lines
Shaping up and making all these little white lies
Skylines, guidelines, living on the white lines
There’s a trail to the distance to bury our minds
So just brace in the night and count up the days
For the vicious flight from the shadows and fades
Off the ground with a sense of the meaning of it all
Wear the weight now and witness the skylines fall
Skylines, guidelines, living on the white lines
Shaping up and making all these little white lies
Skylines, guidelines, living on the white lines
There’s a trail to the distance to bury our minds
Skylines, fault lines, bleeding on the red line
Shaping up and making all the little white lies
Skylines, hands tied, living on the white lines
Trace a trail of the distance and weight of our lives
Wake me up before the sunrise
Take me out beyond the borderlines
With no doubt or sense or reason at all
And we’ll wait there until the skylines fall
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Civil Hands Dubbo, Australia
Civil Hands is the secret love-child of REM, Pearl Jam and the Cranberries, hand-crafting indie-rock musical tales with a dash of joyful pop.
(Photos: Patrick McGuire Photography)
Civil Hands recommends:
The Second EP
by One Proud Monkey
This EP from our hometown brothers-in-arms shows off their annoying flair for combining deep and thoughtful lyrics with great melodies and catchy riffs. Check out their latest single releases as well.
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9000 Things To See
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Cat Came Back’s low-lit pop summons the noir-y feeling of late-night cities. (And consider the challenge in their album notes completed!)
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Don't be deceived by the grim album art; the Sydney artist's latest is a polished pop album filled with pop-punk hooks and dreamy textures.
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Sydney-based R&B singer Liyah Knight releases two versions of her latest single in advance of her forthcoming album.
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