Get all 14 Pale Bird releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The World Outside My Window, Unwavering Sentinels of Dreaming, I Told You How Important You Would Be, Apple Tree, Year of The Bird (Volume 4), Year Of The Bird (Volume 3), Year of The Bird (Volume 2), Year of the Bird (Volume 1), and 6 more.
1. |
Snowmelt
04:55
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Aurora Australis, slicing through the ice
The first bright spot we’ve had in days
Hazard Orange, like a sunrise
Creeping over your frozen gaze
We’re used to the cold here
So when there’s a storm, it’s not as if we don’t care
But our possessions are all lashed down
Our hatches fully battened
Expecting at least as much as we can bear
The sun hits the mountain
And for a moment it looks like the snow is melting
Let’s not get overexcited
I was born with a silver lining
But I’ve worn that down
I still have hope, and her smarter sisters
Fear and stubborn persistence
Locked up underground
The sun hits the mountain
And for a moment it looks like the snow is melting
We sat down on one cold night with pen and paper and together wrote a list
Of all the things we didn’t need
To make us happy
Until we had no ink or paper
We sat down on one cold night with pen and paper and together wrote a list of all the things we didn’t need
To make us happy
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2. |
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Hey friends, I’m blowing into town
The wind’s coming up and it’s going to get busy
Like a 19th Century Doris Day, like a a gusty Thin Lizzy
And hey, I’ve never been a Mennonite
(He doesn’t dress as well as one)
I just read a book by Miriam Toews
(Sounds like his idea of fun)
Hey friends, I’m blowing into town
Hey friends, I’m coming back next week
And we all know how this is going to go
16 hours of every day set aside for sleep
Which leaves us with a good 8 hours of sitting around at home
And hey, I’ve never been an Anchorite
(He lived in a church for ten years, but anyway)
I wasn’t bricked in, and I left the house
Sometimes once each day
Hey friends, I’m blowing into town
Hey friends, I’m blowing into town
Hey friends, I’m blowing into town
Let me know if you want to walk 10 or 20k
Or hang out in a public park and listen to bats just after dark
Or spend the morning eating hollandaise
Until we fall into a daze
And then we spend the afternoon
Watching Naked and Afraid
Hey friends, I’m blowing into town
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3. |
Intermission
00:48
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4. |
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The darkness above the centre of town
This unending halo of rust
I see it within each of us
We’re born from and pass back into this dust
We were only 6 hours sailing from land
When every cloud cleared from the sky
A glowing ravine opened over our heads
The dark at its centre drew every eye
I’m not a sailor
I’m not a sailor
I can’t even swim the Australian crawl
And I think I should warn you, I’m not that kind of doctor
I don’t think you know me at all
So were you there all along
Waiting for us
To turn out the light
It’s hardly a smile cutting open the stars
Covering over the night
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5. |
I Only See The Moon
03:47
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I only see the moon when I look into the sky
Irrestible and cold, and so impossibly bright
People go on and on
About the power of the oceans
Who do you think
Rouses them into action,
Shaking them when they sleep
Far away from shore
In the deepest plains and canyons
I only see the moon on a cloudless night
Bright and fiery as the sun
Swallowing up the sky
The seas only know how to do one thing well
Look after each other
They won’t let one little puddle be pushed around
By some silver motherfucker
That’s how the oceans describe the moon
Those aren’t my words, I love the moon
And when I open my eyes
I only see the moon when I look into the sky
Irrestible and cold, and so impossibly bright
I only see the moon
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6. |
Little Thing
06:30
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Pale Bird picking charcoal bones with a silver bill
These people are turning away
I think they took the wrong red pill
I hear words ringing out
A voice of reason still
We might listen if it wasn’t
From the top of Calvary Hill
When any little thing goes wrong
I see you reach out for the good book
Hey remember when were 14
And the only thing you read
Was the Warhammer 40,000 ruleset
And this winter, when your path wasn’t so clear
You spoke aloud the Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear
A sufficient level of detail to occupy my thoughts
To give them a pleasant space to pace backwards and forwards
Fear, the mind-killer, is buried and is gone
There’s a light blinking which says “Ready Player One”
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7. |
After All This Time
03:09
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They were there to see me
Putting one foot down
The old country’s looking fine
But I was trying to hide
I live in North London now
And I feel like a Quisling in those sunny social climes
Who the hell has the money?
Who the hell has the time?
You don’t know letting go
So what would that feel like?
What if it’s safe to say “no help is on its way”?
Are you so scared of dying, or just being forgotten?
I have to break the news, but both are going to happen to you
If you keep raging at the things
No one will say
But you won’t say
What do you mean, are you afraid?
Frightened what will happen
If you ask “how do we know
Is this the best we’ll ever do
Or will we fall so short we’ve been
Throwing pebbles at the moon”.
It’s a low, constant whine
So childish to ask
And to ask again
After all this time
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8. |
Dental Health
03:14
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Every morning you welcome
Time back into your room
You drank a cloudy liquid
Promise me it was apple juice
I tried chewing a clove
Don’t think that I’m avoiding
Believe me when I say I know
It is drawing out the poison
Your regime is wonderful
Teeth, where they’d been pulled
Grew stout, pearly and strong
Back where they belong
I should take a bright demeanour
Don’t imagine that I can’t change
Think of a colourful, abundant meadow
That sounds like an appropriate place
This became a revelation
Helped me to heal everything else
One tiny piece in my missing jigsaw, I’m a
Person with a great love for myself
My goodness, what a transformation
Mind you don’t say miraculous, I
Came upon the pieces and I put them
Back where they belonged
Every time you tell me
I do not believe
Your teeth grew back
I don’t think that
This helped one person
My mind came back
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9. |
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Not everything has a pattern running through
We’re so good at finding meaning in the tea
Leaves us with a sense of power
Our future could be something that we could can steer towards
Shapes on the horizon like rainclouds
That turn into the faces of the people that we love
(Love is not a word a man my age should use - we’ve expunged, got rid)
I won’t stop just because you don’t like it - I’d be lying if I said that I was fine with it
Not everything’s a painful hurdle to be overcome
A gauntlet I don’t won’t to run
Door is locked up, I don’t need to break it down
It might lead to some dead end
If everything’s a puzzle box my mind just has to open
Life gets so dull
A bad crossword
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10. |
In Visible Cities
03:51
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You reach right down, lift handfuls of mud in the air
To feed the canopies, hungry
Hungry and loud
From their buzzing silver zeppelin crowd
And some kind of flying sedan chairs
You bet I was speaking ill of the dead when I said
These streets here are all paved with lead
But these flagstones remain immune to the tremors
They’ll hold this city together
Now I am just saying what you already know
You can feel how deep the city’s roots go
They crumble the topsoil and the hard rock below
They’ll sever the city from the land in which it grows
So when this land is unmoored and floats out to sea
The city has better ideas, just you see
And when it gets tired of this ridiculous dance
It’ll be its own island off the north coast of France
The rock face exposed reveals dozens of doors
Beneath the fast feet of the city at day
Each one is old but shows no sign of decay
Their absent owners paint it away
Somewhere in there, behind the door, up the stairs
Above a thin piece of word sawn into a square
Behind the boxes of clothes on a cluttered wood floor
You’ll find an oil painting
Photographic in style
Of a rotten old door
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