Get all 6 David Lawrie releases available on Bandcamp and save 65%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Dorothea [EP], Dorothea's Boat, Storm Petrel [EP], Over, Under EP, Not a Drop to Drink, Every Chance to Sink, and Liars, Charlatans, Jinxmongers (for voice and accompaniment).
1. |
I am Megalodon
03:55
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I see her when I swim,
Usually late at night
.
Her eyes; her teeth.
Her crooked little smile.
Her face:
Fluorescent with light.
Without trying I catch her eye,
But she is hard to get.
It's always about
The woman I haven't even met.
My throat is tight and shining red
With the extravagance of this imagination.
She is the ocean, all around.
I am Megalodon, lost and found.
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2. |
Dorothea
04:30
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In the hazy grey light,
when the lines are good and blurry;
on the affluent peninsula
baboons are robbing purses filled with
baby sharks are hiding in the
tide is pulling back along
the broken stones are breaking less than
the moon is keeping secrets.
Terrified by what they'll find
If the moon might spill the beans
when all the planets have been realigned
and the earth becomes a circus;
make-up artists are making up, all
the animals are waking up, behind the scenes
the lion tamers are being tamed by tigers.
Locks are good, but woe betide,
by pushing through the key inside,
and peeking through the little gap
a secret is dispelled.
You see, the circus folk are working hard,
with make up running down their faces;
busy canning oxygen
for the astronauts and divers.
Something's getting closer,
I can feel it.
Something's coming nearer,
but I can't see it.
Something's getting faster,
I'm running, and running, and running,
and giving all of my nerve away.
Underwater, under all
the silly circus people, next to
little monsters on the beach:
A frothy, curtained bay.
Inside:
The bigger sharks are angry at
the apes are getting braver in
the water is inviting them
to take a quick look under.
Now inside the pantomime,
innamorate dolphins hide
above, below, behind their masks,
enlightened by the moon.
In the coral forest,
the brighella clown fish start to tell
their arlecchino sisters' plans
for taking back the ocean.
Soon the moon is getting tired,
and bored with all
the actresses are acting up
because they know
it's getting past their bedtime
so, the orca with her panda eyes,
and orders from the moon, arrives
to tell them all to get to sleep;
or on the three count, leave.
Doing what we've all been told,
and scattering for fear of all
the consequences we've in store
for swimming off the shore.
And now:
The surface is approaching, near,
and Dorothea's waiting there.
Though, on her boat, she looks away,
she smiles, and sails me far away.
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3. |
Flourine
03:01
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4. |
Hypochondriacal
03:34
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Swap the whale and dolphin cries
For ambulances;
Ambulance with ample time
To get to where we are...
...where all the sick are far away,
And we can't hear them;
We can't hear their hypochondriacal, snarling
Callow callouts in the night:
Crooked ways to get their way,
To waste her time,
And waste my time...
...in total imbecilic fashion,
With no regard for love, nor passion,
Nor anything that's here where we
Care.
But the moon's still there,
So we don't mind at all,
and all the animals have gone
to get their blood tests for a while,
so they'll be in the wild
Soon.
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5. |
Storm Petrel
04:37
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I know, I know,
I know
I appear to be taking
Everything so slow, and
Falling,
Falling,
Falling,
Falling behind.
So you go, you go,
You go
Where it's bigger,
And there's neon:
Brighter than the moon, and...
...the sounds are all speeding up, to catch the light.
And I'll stay here, To keep me near.
But I adore the way
You pull me over there.
And that's before I've even
Stopped to catch a breath of air...
...and all the surreptitious petrel storms
Have plotted with the killer whales
To build a tidal wave As big as it can grow;
And bring it crashing down
To stop the ebb and flow
Of all the automation;
Traffic Lights,
Tremendously,
And turn the day to night.
I know, I know,
I know, I know.
If I go, I go,
I go, I go,
Then you'll take it
In your place
To come
Back
Here.
(come back here)
It won't be in a year,
But give it two or three.
When you'll be ready,
So I'll take you back with me
To where the autumn comes
A little soon,
But that's OK
Because I've got the moon...
...to tell me everything
I'll ever need to hear
About the universe,
And how to keep you near.
The universe,
And how to keep you near.
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6. |
Bromine
02:12
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7. |
Over, Under
04:49
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It's too far;
Too hard;
Too damn hard.
Too late;
Too slow,
Close my eyes.
Over, Under;
All around:
Creatures, teachers - lost and found.
So long,
Farewell to all these
earthly people: my pillars and my peers.
They've served their purpose
but now it's time for me to get the hell away.
Over, under,
any way I can
get to where I've got to go
with gravity, or air, or no,
or somewhere else entirely, and now.
I'm levitating, and elevating,
It's escalating quickly
so I steal some feathers
to fashion wings and fly.
Every time I pass her by
I show her things,
I take the time
to win her over,
and maybe make her mine.
Because she's got the oxygen,
and apparatus, too.
And everything so I won't need to wonder
why I go there;
why I try...
...so hard,
So hard.
So damn hard,
when I'm too late;
Too slow;
Far behind.
Over, under;
All around.
Searching for what's
lost and found.
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8. |
Species
05:11
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Take your eyes, and mine,
And all the colours they've seen between them.
And we could make
A landscape.
We'd use the best of both;
The best of everything we know,
And fill the gaps between
With your complexion: my esteem for us.
Take the time we've got;
The time to come, and throw it in the air. See the night time come to life Nocturnal: You and I.
See the night time come to life,
The satellites will watch in spite
Of everything we do to cover up,
But not to care, because
The astronauts don't know to use
The instruments,
With which, they're meant to spy...
...on us, and all the species
We've chosen to make.
Chosen for the attributes
We can recreate.
Chosen for the intellect
And passions they can show.
Made to be as perfect
As we can fabricate.
Made to be as perfect
As we can fabricate.
Take your eyes, and mine,
And all the colours they've seen between them.
And we could make
A landscape.
A landscape.
For us.
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9. |
Gravity and Oxygen
05:07
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I want to be of the sea and of the air,
and delicately dare.
But I'm irritated by the ways I get in trouble,
and cannot fly
or cannot dive.
In my sleep I fight winning battles;
Aerial and submarine.
I don't run away
(run away).
Walking on water,
Carrying air.
Walking on water.
But as I shove to the ground,
this hopeless love
Below and up above
Are irritatingly the things I'll never be
Never breathe
And never touch.
In my sleep I fight winning battles;
Aerial and submarine.
I don't run away
(run away).
Walking on water,
Carrying air.
Walking on water.
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10. |
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Sometime after all the afterwards
and somewhere else...
...I am taking back a step or three
If you'll come, too.
Bring your camera with for evidence
Because this won't last much longer than the
Time it takes for your eyes
to adjust
to the light;
to the night;
to the frightful things you conjure up
inside your head,
inside your head,
inside your...
Twisting round to take the serpent by the fangs,
and Bring her down
to slither with the
humans on the ground.
When the time is almost bigger than,
bigger than,
bigger than
you can understand,
Use the weapon you are
Holding in your hand.
Feel the nickel in your palm;
Raise thw palm with all your arm;
Pull the trigger nice and tight
Then hope that this is all
inside your head,
inside your head,
inside your...
Peel back your eyelids.
Do it slowly.
Do it with the surest fear that
Everything you did before
Was real enough,
you can't be sure
that every word you thought you said
might not have stayed inside your head.
Everything you did before
Was real enough,
But don't regret
That the words you could have said
Might not have stayed inside your...
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11. |
Chlorine
03:02
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12. |
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Mid-night, mid-flight I stop
And I pull over.
Mid-night, mid flight I stop;
Red-light cripples, Alzheimer's and drivers.
Mid-night I stop;
Not a soul, nor the devil to keep me still.
The sane man - he passes me by
And the red light won't even care, or remember.
Mid-night, mid-flight I stop
And it's getting me down.
Mid-night, mid-flight I stop
And I can't come around.
The in-flight film is atrocious -
It's out of sync, it st-tutters and bugs me.
The outside temperature's falling
And everything looks much better without the frost.
Everything looks much better without the frost,
And everything gets much better when I
Look at the clock, look at the clock, look at the clock,
Look at the clock, look at the date.
Pick up the pace, pick up the pace, pick up the pace,
Pick up the pace, pick up the time.
Mirror behind, mirror behind, mirror behind,
Mirror behind, mirror your face
Mirror the time, mirror the time, mirror the time,
Mirror the time, mirror the place.
Everything looks much better without the frost.
Everything tastes much sweeter without the cost.
Maybe I'm not making much sense at all,
Either way I won't make it stop.
Mid-night, mid-flight I stop
Paying attention to signals and warnings.
In my head I'm unbreakable
If I'm already broken in pieces.
Acceleration and hand break turns
And long term aviation,
And stationary traffic,
I'm passing by
With imaginary turrets and land-mines.
Middle of the night and it's terrible
That no-one's around to witness the things
That I couldn't do in the daylight
When the red light might gun me down.
But the star-light is silent;
The moon keeps smiling down and he flicks me a wink,
And the red light is feeling less angry
Because I made a deal with her brother.
And she shouldn't really care because it's quiet, anyway.
And I never really cared because I know it's best to
Look at the clock, look at the clock, look at the clock,
Look at the clock, look at the date.
Pick up the pace, pick up the pace, pick up the pace,
Pick up the pace, pick up the time.
Mirror behind, mirror behind, mirror behind,
Mirror behind, mirror your face
Mirror the time, mirror the time, mirror the time,
Mirror the time, mirror the place.
Everything looks much better without the frost.
Everything tastes much sweeter without the cost.
Maybe I'm not making much sense at all,
Either way I won't make it stop.
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David Lawrie UK
Composing in Old York and New York....
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