1. |
Useless love
04:14
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If you don’t know what it’s like, you don’t know what you’re missing. Love is blind and sometimes dumb, you have to kill to be kissing. Sweet the pain you wallow in when she becomes essential, but sour the taste that’s following all that mess potential of useless love. Hope is like a butterfly (or maybe I’m thinking of something else?) Hey, you should learn to tell the time and never mind those ringing bells. Just get real, figure it out, get your thinking into line. Or maybe you can’t live without someone taking up your time with useless love? Leaving you weak and tender, leading you to surrender. Useless love … are you finding it hard to swallow? Or maybe you’d like to wallow in useless love?
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2. |
Novelty Act
03:46
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To get right to the point: it’s looking bad. Sorry to disappoint, or seem a little sad. It’s a feeling that’s worth the keeping, so I know I’m awake not sleeping. Put a hand in the fire, try feeling glad. Stand back while I strike a match … as a matter of fact, I act this stupid for fun. Roll up, now it’s time to catch the novelty act I swore I’d never become. Everything I could say is already said; maybe I should give up, just stay in bed? But like a moth to a flame I’m flying, if you’re not in the game you’re dying; there is nothing I’d rather do instead. So here we are again, awkward in the spotlight, waiting for the signal to go. Yes … I’m the human cannonball, I’ll do anything you dare. Let’s have a blast, but keep in mind: the thing you fire will have to land somewhere. Stand back while I strike a match … as a matter of fact, I act this stupid for fun. Roll up, now it’s time to catch the novelty act I swore I’d never become.
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3. |
25 o'clock
04:00
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We’re lying on our bed of nails to watch the time slip by. You say: ‘the situation’s grave’. In and out of sleep like someone drowning, half alive and dead, not sure if I want to be saved. Stop the clock and dim the lights. Reality is half-undressed, she says: ‘Don’t let my timing bring you down; but you should know by now, you see, that I can tell when you’re impressed. So … let’s make 25 o’clock come round’.
I said: ‘maybe this is a moment really out of time, like a bill we’ll never need to pay?’ You learn from experience that you don’t learn much from experience, so we’ll do what we were gonna do anyway. So stop the clock and dim the lights. Reality is half-undressed, she says: ‘Don’t let my timing bring you down; but you should know by now, you see, that I can tell when you’re impressed. So … let’s make 25 o’clock come round’.
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4. |
... and consequently
02:34
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And you’ve been talking in your sleep, all after telling me you’re not the kind to get in deep. Drifting along from A to B, the undertow was the surprise that swept you out to sea. And consequently, you seem so calculated lately; half of the pleasure now for double the pain. And consequently, you fall from grace to nowhere at all, to fix the mess you made … then you make it again. So let me tell you how it seems. The face you name when you capsize out of another dream becomes the ghost around your house, the prize you think you need above the things you’ll do without.
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5. |
Let's not talk about me
04:00
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Let’s get right down to it and hang it up to dry. Whatever’s left of it, start from a different ‘why’. You’re turning on the light, I’m howling at the moon; we’re talking half the night and sleeping in till noon. Every excuse you’ve used before, you’ve got the key now find the door. Tearing each other inside out ... that’s the mistake we make: right words /wrong mouth. So … welcome to the new disease. We’ll work it out, maybe. Let’s talk about the weather or the TV … let’s not talk about me. Easier said than done, it’s harder to believe. Look what love has become: you’re absent without leave. Trying so hard to keep some dignity intact; rewind just to repeat, so long after the fact. So, just in case you haven’t heard … trust me and my big mouth: nice thought /stupid words. So … welcome to the new disease. Some other time, maybe? Let’s talk about the weather or the TV … let’s not talk about me.
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6. |
The Abracadabra Man
03:07
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So here’s another Napoleon, selling some Eskimo snow again. That song has such a familiar ring … some people will believe anything.
He says: ‘leave it all up to me … I’ll work some magic and then you’ll see. But let me lay one condition down: sign on the line or get out of town’. All hail the Abracadabra Man, king of the slogan. Another one-night stand to go blissfully numb when he’s speaking in tongues about any old anything under the sun. So here am I, almost half-undressed; you could say I’m easily impressed. I guess I’ll have something new to do when he comes round with his wrecking crew.
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7. |
Jigsaw
03:58
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Here is a fact about your life: consider every mistake you’ve ever made - you’re going to make them again. Here is the message now, to be delivered from all the pieces you’ve misplaced: you’re losing again. We fit together like a jigsaw, don’t we now? Jumbled-up or re-arranged, we’ll soon make sense, anyway. When we’re lying skin to skin, it all seems right somehow; we’re complete and feeling fine, so why can’t it be like that all the time? You’ll never get to where you’re going (so you say) til you shake off the place you’ve been. You’re going to learn somehow that all the stupid things you’ve said and done stay right with you somewhere in between (that’s here and now). We fit together like a jigsaw don’t we now? So we re-arrange, assemble the pieces … we’ve got trembling hands. Shall we move them all, put them all back together? (that is, if we can)
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8. |
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Staring at the diamond sky, she’s hoping for a shooting star. Maybe it’s another sign? Or maybe that’s a wish too far. If satellites should fall, will love come to call? He’s amazed by what he’s found: the music that is in her name. Staring up from solid ground, he’s going to lose his way again. If satellites should fall, will love come to call?
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9. |
Mr and Mrs Frankenstein
04:40
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One flash of lightning and a thousand million dollars later, you get the face you need: smiling like an alligator. She looks at the camera with a deadly plastic smile … they look so happy! If you’re happy, will you stay a little while? Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein say hello, leaving a little dream under your pillow.
A nightmare face in wax, unholy yellow, when Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein say: ‘hello’. King of the universe, that’s about the way he planned it. Things go from bad to worse; money talks and we understand it. Off to meet the savages with a pocketful of beads: ‘you can be in my video, but just try not to breathe’.
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10. |
If I had to make a list
02:48
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I don’t know much, so I’m the wrong guy to ask if you want to know how that engine goes. The speed of light makes everything freeze and gravity’s law is all Japanese. I don’t know much … at least what I mean to say is, it’s hard to understand these logical demands; my brain gives up on making the link, but when it comes to you my heart does the thinking. I don’t know much, but I’m the right guy to ask if you need a friend on whom you can depend. Maybe the stars are painted above, but I offer unconditional love. If I had to make a list of all the things that make this life worthwhile, let me just give you the gist: your names and any chance to see you smiling.
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11. |
Constantinople
02:37
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Some old map you found, spread upon the table. Imagine there was somewhere we could go. We’re a continent apart, but a trick of navigation keeps us close, that’s all we need to know. Up and down these seven hills … how many more days like these, to put up with the pain until, in Constantinople, we’ll do as we please? So take us to the place, address the situation … the right direction is so hard to find. We’re a continent apart, but a trick of navigation keeps us from ever making up our minds. Up and down these seven hills … how many more days like these, to put up with the pain until, in Constantinople, we’ll do as we please?
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12. |
Plastic Jesus
04:32
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Is it much to ask, to take this stinking world to task? So much suffering and pain … you could wipe it out and start again. Plastic Jesus, can you help them see what you mean? Then maybe I will be someone who might mean something here. Tell me, is that a tear I see, falling down for me? Maybe now I could show people around here some things I know. I’ll make them listen for a change … or maybe wipe things out and re-arrange. Plastic Jesus, can you help them see what you mean? Then maybe I will be someone who might mean something here. Tell me, is that a tear I see, falling down for me?
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The Eisenhowers Glasgow, UK
The music of The Eisenhowers presents an eclectic mix, inspired by the likes of Elvis Costello, David Bowie, The Kinks and Steely Dan. Following 2021's critically-acclaimed 'Judge a man by the company he keeps', the new album. 'Nudge Unit Blues', represents something of a departure, featuring, as it does, a somewhat dystopian take on recent events. It's still about the tunes, though! ... more
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