1. |
The Clearing
03:36
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We're getting closer now,
I swear the road is up ahead.
Well that's behind us now,
That city holds nothing but the living dead.
I can tell you're scared by the way you squint your eyes
There ain't no monsters here, just fields of green for miles around
And I know your smile when you see how the towers light the sky
Where we're going you'll see how the city lies.
You said let's get away, run from the endless refrains
Well we're alone out here, no polluting pulses for days and days
With this distance we can listen to the rhythm of our lonely souls
Ain't nothing in our way
I've seen a clearing in the trees where I'm alive again
We've been captives, but we've been kept away
This ground is sacred, and the maps of been erased
With this distance we can listen to the rhythm of our lonely souls
Ain't nothing in our way
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2. |
Who Knew
02:45
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Who knew?
The mysteries used to ride on the breeze 'til
Like the leaves they fall, fall, fall to the earth
What we do in the woods couldn't be understood
Not by a longshot, baby, I wish that you could
Don't blow away, away, away
Catch the breeze and it all collapses down the same
But who knew?
With this moon we're entombed some are waiting,
Some are convinced of the truth
Strip this bird of both her wings
On a platter for the adder hear it sing,
Or do you only hear a hiss and then a sting?
Don't blow away, away, away
Catch the breeze and it all collapses down the same
The branches bear the weight of what we're doing here.
But who knew where the wind fell,
Which songs are screaming through the wildwood?
And who knew in the clearing,
Which rhythms are banging through the rocks and the roots?
Where do the mysteries go in the light?
Why do you shiver when we kiss in the night?
Who knew?
Who knew what it meant to be a mystery?
The branches bear the weight of what we're doing here.
Who knew?
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3. |
Amanda
02:37
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A long time ago, could breathe in the frosted air
A long time ago, could lose your head upon this field,
Lose your faith in how it feels
When a good man, a strong man met his cold end
Tainted with the power of rust
Keep me Amanda, Amanda I'm coming home
We don't write, we don't speak, we just lay here
Buried under rock and bone
Even the dust knows we'll stay here, buried under skin and stone
Hold this clearing 'til the grass is spattered red
We're gonna lay here let the glory find us instead
Please don't cry when I die and I'm dying
Amanda I'm coming home
Who will find the meaning?
When I die will I die?
Who will let the grass grow?
When we lie single file?
I can feel you in the clearing oh, Amanda I'm coming home
I'll be waiting in the dust under rock and bone.
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4. |
Summer in the States
03:34
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Underneath, he believes that when the angels cry it rains
Outside of her, it's a miracle if he's seen better days
Clean hands pretend how it feels to be a man on summer days
This whole land leaves her feeling like God damned the strung out and afraid
Kicked around, he still worships at the altar every day
What the altar is determines how the blessing stays in place
You know, our Lord can't show her face
Whose hand's been stolen, been stolen out from underneath His gaze?
Her touch it creases it all the page. Then crucify and make it all okay
Turn out that city feel their hate
It must be summer in the states
Let it boil up and make it rain
Whose hand's been stolen, been stolen out from underneath His gaze?
Her touch it creases it all the page. Then crucify and make it all okay
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5. |
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We've been holding on to days last light
I'm beginning to plead across the ghostly night
'Cause it won't wait for you
'Cause it won't wait for you.
We should have headed back!
We should have run when the light demanded lingering
When we weren't afraid
When we could have raced the rays and found the way but hold back!
Hold back the mysteries that were screeching through the trees
The rattled leaves like a devil in green
Still holding on...
It don't matter, those long legs
Won't carry you fast enough
Did you close your eyes?
Don't close your eyes.
Wait! Meet me in the clearing
Wait! Meet me in the clearing
Hold us up to the starlight, what do you believe in?
There's no saying if this twilight holds the key
When all the nights grow cold, will we die or will we thrive?
Does it matter here?
Wait! Meet me in the clearing
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6. |
Fuga
04:03
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Did that pop put a crink in your neck?
You whipped your head around quick,
Did you catch a little glimpse of it?
Is it better to go back? Go back,
Go back home?
We're involved in something else,
Something old and proud and dark and lonely
And all the paths lead us to fear,
Lead us to fear, to fear that we should
Go back. Go back.
There's no such thing as a night in the woods
I think you're seeing that now,
Think you're seeing like I do.
Peer in this pool, the visions go for seasons stretching back
All that you've been, just a branch, just a blade of grass
And all the problems that you wrestle with will blow away
And all the feelings that were so compelling will be ground to dust
And any sympathy you bear will turn to gravel in your throat
And any sentimental voices croak and catch among the oaks.
Peer in this pool, the visions go for seasons stretching back
Fear drove the hope away
Relax, this night, it can see since the stars were born
All that you've been, just a beast, just a thing, scratching on the trees
And all your problems they will blow away
And all your fears are here to stay
Come witness decay
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7. |
Full of Smoke
03:04
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I can tell you're weary the clearing is just ahead
Gotta stop that leakin' your weepin', your freaking out
We walk the trails like ghosts among the oaks
We're full of holes and made of smoke
I've seen the future it's wasted, we're buried there
There's no more bluster, or trust, there's no fancy talk
Keep on thinking that you'll go home
It ain't the wind that makes the woods groan
It ain't the cold that makes you shiver in the dark
Sends the blood to your heart
It's a long unbroken, long unbroken night
We walk the trails like ghosts among the oaks
We're full of holes and made of smoke
They promised us heaven and we were spurned
We killed our hopes here among the ferns
And while we wait the clearing burns
It don't bother with a reason
These woods are thick with the lost and loathed
You stick with the process and you ground it and you will know
We walk the trails like ghosts among the oaks
We're full of holes and made of smoke
They promised us heaven and we were spurned
We killed our hopes here among the ferns
And while we wait the clearing burns
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8. |
Ricercata
03:44
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Pray this darkness isn't all there is
Cold men don't own no homes
Deep down in the darkness in the pond of old souls
Crow 'bout old wicker hands
Light 'em up in the starlight, spangled red
It's what lies in the heart of the old world,
What bubbles up in the troubles we buried deep in the dark
Don't speak this, it's not your time
These woods don't tell no lies
If we build it who will kill inside these crystal halls?
Does it offer to blossom or do we fill it alone?
Don't speak this, it's not your time
These woods don't tell no lies
It's what we can't bring in
In the deepest part, in the thick of the rustling din
It's the silent meadow, it's the hush that hangs like a warning cry
Don't speak this, it's not your time
These woods don't tell no lies
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9. |
The Fall
03:08
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We gon' break those pearly gates if we see them after all
First comes pride before the ruin before the fall
And he knows I'm the only one
Keep the questions from my lips they've sealed the gates
We'll never break the chains
Dreams of green grass
Dreams that drowned in the rain
Breathless, dead air
The last gasp burns the hope away
Mark the place where I am sprawled
Feel the dirt where glory choked and smashed upon the wall
We were wrong, we got the screams
The screams without the song
Darling, I'll write you when I can
You know it calls to me, the ecstasy
The perjury of heavenly embrace
'Cause what we've done out here
God don't make no caveats for this
It won't take, won't take Him long to judge
It ain't like, we ain't already cast to hell
You know it calls to me, the ecstasy
The perjury of heavenly embrace
'Cause what we've done out here
God don't make no caveats for this
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10. |
Joshua
02:53
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Do you believe in the treasure that's buried in the souls of men?
Do you think your heart burns strong enough to drive the breath from every living thing?
Your mind is open now I see
So blow your horn and sing
For these vibrations, they gon' clatter
Walls gon' tumble, town gon' scatter
Joshua...
Do you believe in the promise, in the vastness of his love?
Will you put the horn to your lips and the sword to the throat?
Will you put down everything that breathes, everybody every beast?
They gon' scatter, like seeds upon the wind.
Oh Canaanites, oh Canaanites come meet your righteous end.
Joshua...
Such music in a lyric never sung
Such a sound can make the dirt rise up and the firmament come down
Such strange strains that we'll create
To cleanse the land and wash our hands in a purifying hate
Do you hear the chains?
Like softly falling rain.
To drench the disobedient and destroy the branch of Cain.
We gon' bury the idols that they serve.
Oh Canaanites, oh Canaanites, come get what you deserve.
Joshua...
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11. |
Daisy Chains
04:35
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She been preachin', we call it caterwaul
He lays cement, up 'round near Ithaca
We done left alone, we gon' buy, pocketful of marigold
We gon' hear about the time Slick got stoned way down in Mexico
Remember the masquerade?
This was the time that Billy's state of grace fell willingly we prayed
In the vale we came alive, becoming diamonds in its eyes
The dirt gon' sip until we're dry, but I ain't dry.
She believes in the story of the devil in the woods
The shrill silence the promises of quiet violence
"Now honey," she laughed, "I see there's fear beneath those eyelid.
Keep sayin' and prayin' that you don't know just what I'm making."
Transcend my friend going way back when
This was just another wood, like all of the rest
It don't sleep, it don't weep for the dead
Souls pass over unfound
We can live forever in the ground.
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12. |
Brighter Than Night
03:36
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We've been creeping 'cross the living room floor
So long, so slow
Since the spark that we wasted was lost in the gloam
We're no brighter than night
We've been slinking up on to the shore
So cruel and so blind
Across the field we've been tainted convinced we're the light
We're no brighter than night
Oh, you'd think we'd been gods
Since the dawn we awakened, we've crept toward the night
And we're cold, we're dumb, and we're dying
And we're breathless, we're breathless
We rode to the brink of the night
It was covered in rust
We're cold and we're wasted, we're wasted
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13. |
Promised Land
03:46
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When the wind picks up it'll kick off the dust
And scour the face of the whole human race, go blow.
Go blow...
We can ride 'cross the sands of this barren land
Wiped clean of the trees and the paradise we call home
Go home...
Y'see the bombs did fell like a prophet from hell
Then the sirens lit up, they wailed, wailed away
Those screamers in the night don't carry no fight.
Don't carry no fight, don't scare me none, we don't pray
Go home...
We've been made this way
We were put here to betray
And it was planned:
We were given the promised land.
We got no one left to blame
We struck the match and braced our bodies for the flame.
We've been made this way
We were put here to betray
And it was planned:
We were given the promised land.
And I don't recall it anymore
How the breeze made you more lovely than before
And I'm not sure that everything
Was swallowed up when the coals began to rain
And I don't remember anymore
If you're buried underneath the forest floor
And it don't matter on the plains
What was taken we ain't getting back again.
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14. |
New World
07:29
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Hello? Where have they gone?
It's emptied out, quiet now without the breeze.
The silence leaves a symphony.
Be not bereaved.
The slip can grow thick
Through trinkets and toys
Those crystal palisades
Nothing more than stones, rubble for the grove
They sputtered out so slow
These ancient pines, they natter and they blow.
Embrace this, embrace this new world
They made their homes on a kickstand
Those rhythms tore it all to the ground around them
Turned it all to dust
They built their nest in the quicksand
Those tracks won't lead you anywhere
We've been captives, and we've been kept away
This ground ain't sacred and the paths have been erased
Even mysteries buried deep grow old
Even mysteries born of fire grow cold
Embrace this new world
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Dead Kings of Norway St Paul, Minnesota
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