1. |
we were never young
02:57
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from every room hearts spoke through walls too thin to hold
the weight of what they heard
so fires crept through spaces long left soft and blurred
notes pushed under the doors
frozen to the floor we believed everything
leaves blown beneath the eaves
whirring like a nest of wound-up starlings
we were young
we didn’t heed those things
if birds were singing we were loved
we were young
like the universe
like our mothers were
like these words
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2. |
hail of arrows
05:03
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sleep and forget until the names we knew are
bodies walled in a doorless room
and we won’t turn back
clouds of sparrows are startled into flight
as a hail of arrows is unleashed at the sky
and we won’t turn back
so here we go
this might curse our luck
these mirror-haunted hallways
we’re echo-testing for a hole we’ll never find
so let’s just close our eyes this time
i will love you always
i wouldn’t lie
i wouldn’t lie
so pour me out on the eastern coast where the water’s cold as a mermaid’s ghost
and the long days hide
and one of these nights we will bloom in the trees
push our old sick hearts from the roots to the leaves
and then open wide
so here we go
this might curse our luck
these mirror-haunted hallways
we’re echo-testing for a hole we’ll never find
so let’s just close our eyes this time
i will love you always
i wouldn’t lie
i wouldn’t lie
locked hearts keep lost time
’cause it’s hard to lay arms down
in the arms of the one who lays you bare
but if we don’t shield ourselves
then we won’t have to fear the arrows
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3. |
secret garden /s.c.
04:57
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my love buried its young with
just one question
it broke the spell
i’ve bitten my tongue but
it’s set in motion
i pulled a rope and rang a bell
when you carved your neural runes into my spine
and then you lowered a light for me to decode them
i dug through miles of tangled earth to say i’d try
in your arms i’m silver air and sleeping pills
but you draw your tripwires with poison quills
the garden awakes
you’re drawing away
i’m drawing my first breath
but roots hold tight like traplines
they carry a lot of weight
don’t save your strength for the end of the dream
all you’ll have left is please don’t leave
please don’t leave
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4. |
easier
02:50
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we were never meant to be apart
every step we take is getting harder
for all your promises pinned like ribbons to your bed
tell me
why’s the ice so thin around you
you say it gets easier to fall right through
suddenly we felt the night go numb
stalling as the lightning cut the horizon
and all the miles went dark between the city and the stars
tell me would you leave our love behind
you say it gets easier to throw the fight
my heart is taking off
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5. |
night fighter
02:49
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look down upon the coastline
the airstrip strange and bare
just let the instruments slide
the radio dead air
back when you were young you knew the words
now they’re just a distant hum
the sun was bright behind her
the memory’s here somewhere
and you and i will fall too
from the beauty of it all
you’re coming in so low now
close your eyes
relinquish the controls
and you and i will fall too
from the beauty that we once knew
you’re coming in solo now
close your eyes
relinquish the control
loop and climb
lake of fire
dive deep
dive deep
trees and sky
her eyes
sleep
sleep
sleep
sleep
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6. |
by an ion
03:21
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when you crawl to my side
you’re like a wounded bird
with your wings weighed down
you’re somehow smaller than you were
but all of it was real to me
’til you showed me
we were make-believe
why are we not accelerating
pedals down
our pulses racing
particles kaleidoscopic
fireworks dreamed by an ion
now the charges are laid
the poles have swung away
and right at the split
you might just feel some pain
or maybe you will realize that
i’m small enough to slip your mind
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7. |
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when strangers meet
they seem more real to me
wide open spaces and consciences clean
and to what end must i protect
the boy i used to be
who thought a home where only silence falls
no clock inside its walls
could dodge a wrecking ball
locks blocking strangers both ways
what kind of safety’s that anyway
i could have risked you love
how do we stand our ground
how do we say we’re brave now
i am waiting on your command
a blindfold between my sight and your sleight of hand
how do these hands hold
how do these hearts unfold now
never knowing the ways they can
a blindfold between the night and Neverland
you will come back to me
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8. |
the waiting's over
05:01
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no more oceans left
reserves have all been tapped and spent
so raise the floodlights
shipwrecks on the snow
they seem so small against the glow
we struck the night blind
now opened wide and robbed for pearls
there were signs
but we stormed the doors
where once slept a sinking continent now
there is nothing more
i would wait for you
but something tells me that won’t do
the waiting’s over
start it again
start it again
drown out all light
the love this day
would desecrate
lost in time
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9. |
old fires
03:35
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no shadow beneath my feet
no trace left on the ground
i used to think that our hearts could beat
the speed of sound
we’d soar past the crowd like angels
hardly visible
and back to the times we’d time to kill
darling
it’s criminal
only if i’d only kept if only to myself
starlight hide your warmth
although the wolves cry at our door
and days get older
the night is young
vanish like the moon without the sun
we stretched like a sunbeam across the sky
no end in sight
who would have thought a heart could break
the speed of light
entwined in the night like animals
hardly divisible
my shadow has not rejoined me still
darling
it’s criminal
morning without warning
cut the moorings
push me out
starlight hide your warmth
although the wolves cry at our door
and days gets older
the night is young
vanish like the moon without the sun
old fires burn young again tonight
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10. |
the past is the prey
06:03
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love
you promised me
then you led us deeper into the trees
and looped the trail where it traced the thin air
when you track the old days
remember the game
the past’s not always the prey
and we numbed the earth’s skin
when we tried to strike a spark
never known where to begin
staring backwards from the start
and the needle skips and spins
stumbling from blind to blind
let them hunt us down again
i will keep us safe tonight
on and on
you told me i was wrong then
please tell me i’ll be wrong again
a heart behind glass
in a tower of stone
i smuggled the spark
that led the forest fire home
and we numbed the earth’s skin
when we tried to strike a spark
never known where to begin
in the landscape of a heart
and the needle skips and spins
stumbling from blind to blind
let the tables turn again
i will keep us safe tonight
safe
we’re safe tonight
above the earth
an arc of escaped light
the first time we’ve been lost
to second sight
the sky’s the blind
for a pair of newborn kites
you told me i was wrong
please tell me i’ll be wrong again
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11. |
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eft behind when summer’s over
in quiet lineups by the lake
cheating hearts descend like clouds of falling leaves
to lie and rot and wait for rain
summer heat will you drain your blood from me
into lawns and limpid pools where your kiss was young and cruel
cut by cut and play by play it will always be this way
summer love
if i could only hold your heart
and never beat again
someone’s breath against your shoulder
someone’s voice to say your name
just as long as someone’s there to break your fall
longer shadows shorter days
if i could only hold your heart
i’d never beat again
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12. |
there's hope yet
03:27
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the mornings you stole away
i kept my eyes low
let you break my heart
you break my heart
her ceilings and sandbars
locations unknown
we’ve gone way too far
tiny creature
brave the vents below
hey
there’s hope yet
there is hope again
it sails through vicious storms my love
hey there’s hope yet
and if you believe that
then sail those wrecks to shore my love
hey
i’d almost forgotten this
we’re anchored alone
in a lake of stars
a lake of stars
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13. |
north of light's end
03:03
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from this moment
there is nothing left of us
maybe there never was
much point in hanging our hopes
high like daggers
aimed to pierce the earth’s core
who were we falling for
before we broke we glittered in the sun
one day
you’ll slip past the sleeping guards
through the gardens of drowned alarms
swallow me in your swan dive
fly from this house of cards
north of light’s end
where the curtain falls
we’re nowhere at all
one day
you’ll slip past the sleeping guards
through the gardens of drowned alarms
signal me through the cell walls
sing to me from afar
a siren in an ice storm
at the end of the world
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Raised By Swans
Raised by Swans is Canadian solo artist Eric Howden.
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