Get all 8 Liam the Younger releases available on Bandcamp and save 30%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Up to Something, Music for a While, Austerity Measures, The Cover of Hunter, Revel Hidden Worlds, Clear Skies Over Black River, After the Graveyard, and Death Cult Cave.
1. |
Crossed Water
03:01
|
|
||
When you wake up in the morning and the sunlight burns your eyes,
say, “Fuck the world! I’m going to shut these ugly blinds.”
Now see me smile wide when I realize that it’s over—
that the sun is far away.
And see me by the river on the highway shoulder—
see the night swallow the day.
All our bodies went missing in the night.
Now I’m standing by the water, the house is not too far.
And old man and his daughter—they wave from a rusted car.
Now see me gather wood in search of a fire
and see my friends do the same.
Now see me wipe the mud from an old truck tire
and then hear them call my name.
So, why should I be sad that nothing lasts forever?
I’m just happy that things last at all!
A day spent living by the bitter river—
in its wake we hear it call.
All our bodies went missing in the night.
|
||||
2. |
All Here For
01:38
|
|
||
All here for—taken away
and my white ceiling is turning blue today.
But as my eyes close the night swallows another simple day.
In the absence of some feelings I am really okay.
My shoes are black now.
They used to be black and white.
It’s not that I’m unhappy—I just like to lie awake at night
thinking of Blue Ridges, throwing rocks across the stream,
or the bus over two bridges, and reflected river gleam.
I am silent, I am happy even thought I look pissed off
and when I’m with my friends I act sarcastic and I scoff.
Only to fill the hours with some contrast to routine—
everyone, I like you, really! I am sorry if I’m mean.
|
||||
3. |
Lie
03:31
|
|
||
Why can’t I do what you tell me to?
Flicker on your Flickr account, expand and softly glow
while I hide and refuse to come out before the sun hangs low.
And so you go and post and post on matters which do matter most
and a holy ghost is coming close with pointed hand at empty host.
There’s no escaping this.
This is emptiness
and unhappiness
and wastefulness.
But you can find such peaceful bliss as long as you remember this:
Why can’t I do what you tell me to?
Earth angel, earth angel: I love you!!!
There’s soft light bending the trees, the morning is seeping through.
A swirling blend of the yard and me, a chorus of early hues.
So, no more aches and no more fears
and no more rides through nauseous years.
Just sitting in bed with skies so clear
and flickering light is finally here.
So I’ll light the door. I’ll light the door. Yeah, I’ll light the door.
I'LL LIE!!!
|
||||
4. |
Skull on the Floor
03:22
|
|
||
There’s a skull on the floor
so no one calls anymore.
Oh, such a drag to endure!
What do we bother for?
But there’s no expansion, no growth
when you hold what you love the most.
And all that I have is the moment’s ghost
but I’m happy to hold it close…
And maybe we knew long before,
as the mist covered the glowing shore.
And the hum crept through the screen door.
My lack was fine.
I wanted nothing more.
|
||||
5. |
Turn
02:36
|
|
||
Turn after turn and day after day there's not much to say
if you look at it my way.
But I am only learned in so far as I can burn any effortless concern,
so rare when it returns.
As those particles take shape in their resurrected wake
I can fix and I can break, I'll destroy and I will make.
No matter what it takes I will make myself feel great
even if it's way too late to make sense in easy ways.
And all those drugs that I don't take for my little selfish sake,
that some of you do say, "Hey, this makes me feel okay."
They don't speak to me like truths, like
You Can't Win and You Can't Lose--
you simply have to choose: should I heal or should I bruise?
And my answer rings so clear like scary headlights on a deer--
they illuminate the fears that had no reason being here.
So as my familiar runs away into a night that feels like day
I give thanks and I give praise to that wonderful escape.
So turn. Just turn.
|
||||
6. |
Candle
04:23
|
|
||
I have no chance at holding that which I can’t hold
so I’m constantly repeating do as I am told.
Because our parents aren’t out to get us,
we were not born to be sold.
So in a house with jam-packed seating
I will not piss and moan:
“If I had the perfect body”
“If I had the perfect friends”
“If I had the perfect family”
“If I met the perfect end”
“If I knew the perfect twenty-something
with the perfect earth-toned dress”
“If I had the perfect house with the perfect sheets
on a perfect bed…
I would somehow be fulfilled
and have the right chemicals in my head
and the world would cease spinning
and the dead would be un-dead.
So what should we feel?
Just do what you will.
Perfection myths are set aside and everything’s homemade.
With leaning trashcans open wide we still celebrate.
Now there’s no more need for makeup
to reveal some hidden thrown.
No more magick (with a “ck”) to be faked and to be sold.
There’s just staring at the candles in an old four-cornered room
where we sit alone and close our eyes and let our living loom.
There are wooden chairs and basement lights and slowly fading walls
and certain sorrows reveled bright and current joys stand tall.
And remembering the van at night with friendly faces all.
So, before I dress and go outside and make that first phone call
imagine a window covered by a flag.
A basement room in some weird state that overlooks a road
that someone else is walking down alone today.
Today, we celebrate.
|
||||
7. |
Window
03:47
|
|
||
I am so excited I was not invited
to do things I don’t want to do.
Though I’m provided with things that I like
it’s not why I talk to you.
Beneath a sky,
it’s blue, so am I
but I am my blood through and through.
There’s no need to cry
it’s him, you, and I
and we all accept that it’s true
that none of us know what to do
Through window I see a red room
and now that oft slandered hue
crawls out the door, in to you.
So, close my eyes and try,
oh please, try to make this night not move.
Don’t buy the lies they sell every night
to people who think less than you.
But I’ll sympathize with those muffled cries
of people who need to be soothed.
Sometimes it’s all right to say, “So am I!”
even though you’d rather just prove
there’s no reason for having the blues
when someone cooks dinner for you
and someone says, “I love you too.”
Because some of us don’t make it through.
At least we have something to do.
At least I have something to lose.
At least I try.
|
||||
8. |
Ode
02:42
|
|
||
I don’t know if they love me
if anyone could ever love me like I do.
Because once someone held me
oh, once someone held me
but that’s through.
And my eyes are blue
and skies are too.
There’s no sickness to soothe,
no oversight to prove
that nothing’s worth keeping
with constant sickly creeping,
no arrogant delusion
that can do what death do.
Because when they say,
“No, thanks”
I think they really mean
“No-thanks”
There’s no thankfulness
in living like some do.
I’m not scolding you.
Just do what you will do.
But please try to include
the people who serve your food.
|
||||
9. |
American Flag
03:56
|
|
||
Open side door, too late, too sore.
I’m glad there is cold moon rising.
So long, so fast, dead wrong, dead last.
No one can pass that hole, so vast.
Too wrong, too late, my wall, so gray.
That is okay. “Okay” means “Great.”
Sometimes please wait until next day.
Clear skies, dark ground, soft song, soft sound.
Rubber skeleton draped in
American flag on my sill.
At night, thou wilt
do what thou wilt.
Just try to sit still.
Goodnight for my.
Goodnight to myself.
|
||||
10. |
Bob Dylan
02:15
|
|
||
Oh, where do I go?
Through the raining water,
through hot wind and cold snow.
I sang about a death cult
but what would I know?
How many special messages to go?
Oh, but no one told me.
No one.
Oh, where do I go?
Through the lonesome graveyard
in Sleepy Hollow.
I sang about a specter
but what would I know?
How many special messages to go?
Oh, but no one told me.
No one.
|
||||
11. |
Door
03:07
|
|
||
Close my eyes and I will see
days go by so easily.
So open the door back
to where I should be.
A house is a house
is a home is for me.
Now I am gone, now I am dead,
singing song alone in my bed.
Human skull, human head…
fall asleep, leave it unsaid.
Fall asleep, leave it unsaid.
|
||||
12. |
Hollow
03:58
|
|
||
Am I hollow? Am I full?
Can I borrow what you stole?
There’s no sorrow
when I look at the floor.
There’s just no feeling
when I am alone.
No fears.
No tremors.
Just my home.
And tomorrow will good.
So when you feel low—it’s understood.
It’s not too far though.
So you should ignore.
There’s just no reason to try,
so I don’t.
A light is shining by the window.
Now I’m sleeping and warm and alone,
past Hungry Hollow, towards my home.
|
Streaming and Download help
If you like Liam the Younger, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp