1. |
Don't Go Yet
03:30
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Don’t go yet
Stay a few more at least
Before we both forget
Let’s say our piece
Don’t go yet
I don’t think I’m worthy, and yet I will try
Stay a few more at least
I’m more like the type that’s the least in your eyes
Before we both forget
We’ll both rise together or get pulled apart
Let’s say our piece
I’m saved if you’ll carry a piece of my heart
I do love you
I do love you
Don’t hold back
Trust me to understand
Empathy is a knack,
an ampersand
Don’t hold back
We don’t want to find ourselves back in the past
Trust me to understand
We’ll unmake our mistakes and stand where we crashed
Empathy is a knack,
There is no assurance we’ll enact this plan
an ampersand
But I am, and I will, and I and, and I and, and I and
I do love you
I do love you
Don’t go yet
Words are still left unsaid
Sympathy left unspent
Inside our heads
I do love you
I do love you
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2. |
Impossible
03:04
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Going to sleep won’t fix this
Closing our eyes won’t erase what we said
Took more than eight hours to break it
And if we make it, it won’t be in this bed
I just want to hit reset
Let the screen fade to grey in my mind
Not worth saving progress
If you can’t promise to take it to the finish line
I’ve been finding you impossible lately
I’ve been finding you impossible lately, you can’t make me
Understand, walk in your shoes
lend a hand like I used to do
I’ve been finding you impossible lately
I’ve been trying to solve this
Turn and turn til the colours align
Every good faith measure to make things better
Complicates down the line
I’m not ready to call it
But I can see why you’re ready to bail
Should we check the market and clean the carpets
And put it up for sale?
I’ve been finding you impossible lately
I’ve been finding you impossible lately, you can’t make me
Understand, walk in your shoes
lend a hand like I used to do
I’ve been finding you impossible lately
Can you feel it? With all the drive of a deflating tire?
Can you feel it? The steady ebb of animating fire?
I’ve been finding you impossible lately
I’ve been finding you impossible lately, you can’t make me
Understand, walk in your shoes
lend a hand like I used to do
I’ve been finding you impossible lately
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3. |
The Person U Wait 4
02:57
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The person you wait for may come, but late
It feels like eternity - you have to wait
The world makes no promises so let’s not credit fate
When the person you wait for arrives, but late
The person you wait for x2
The person you wait for is here right now
In signals and gestures that we endow
With aching euphoria and grief and that is how
The person you wait for is here right now
The person you wait for x2
Wait, but fix your eyes on all that you control
You decide the pace; you can set the tempo
Wait, but you decide how far you’re gonna go
You decide the pace; you can set the tempo
The person you wait for might never come
They slip through outstretched hands for some
But you can never know how long you gotta wait
The person you wait for may come, but late
The person you wait for x2
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4. |
LaGuardia
03:42
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Thursday night, Shubert Alley, Broadway’s alight
Can anyone see the ghost light in me? As I clap to be polite
Five days gone, six nights only, twelve dozen hours
The pigeons agree; I’m lonely lonely as I wander through the towers
It’s late and I miss you
It’s late and I miss you
It’s difficult to rhyme
In Eastern Standard Time
LGA, middle winter, flight is delayed
If Terminal C could understand me It would sink in Flushing Bay
Pockmarked walls, crumbling sidewalks, creeping decay
If Fiorello could see his namesake’s frailty he’d rotate in his grave
It’s late and I miss you
It’s late and I miss you
It’s difficult to rhyme
In Eastern Standard Time
L-A-G-U-A-R-D-I-A
The name’s La Guardia
L-A-G-U-A-R-D-I-A
The name’s La Guardia
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5. |
I Will Run
02:46
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The mottled skin of the freezing North Saskatchewan
It beckons us to come and take a swim
Should we jump in and float to where we learned to run
Or should we turn to the western one?
I will run if you will run, we’ll embrace the setting sun
Shake the dust from our feet as we cross into BC
Hinton, Jasper, Robson, set us free
And I will run if you will run, we’ll embrace the setting sun
We close our eyes in a turnout near a ditch
Awake, asleep, I can’t tell which is which
In my dreams I remember how it felt to thrive
Now in my dreams I just survive
I will run if you will run, we’ll embrace the setting sun
Shake the dust from our feet as we cross into BC
Hinton, Jasper, Robson, set us free
And I will run if you will run, we’ll embrace the setting sun
We can’t run fast enough - We can’t run far enough
It’s the system that is broken – it’s not us, it’s not us
But I will run if you will run, we’ll embrace the setting sun
Shake the dust from our feet as we cross into BC
Hinton, Jasper, Robson, set us free
And I will run if you will run, we’ll embrace the setting sun
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6. |
Maidstone
05:33
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On a grain farm near Maidstone, there’s no room for a middle child
Shared a bed with my sisters, arms and legs all in a pile
While my brothers were out in the fields learning to drive
I was stuck in the farmyard pinning laundry to the line
I stretched through driver side window while our dogs made their goodbyes
Dad was stoic as always and searched for rain clouds in the sky
Mama said I’d go get my degree then teach back in town
Didn’t know how to tell them I would never come back round
Leaving Maidstone – didn’t care how
I was homegrown but I needed to plow it under
No wonder no one said that it’s fun
Leaving Maidstone, defying my parents, disappointing everyone
Dad was skilful and steadfast, served as reeve for the RM
In my third year of college, I stopped getting calls from him
Mama said he kept losing his tools and leaving on lights
Then at length he’d forgotten fields he’d farmed his whole life
We gathered in the basement for the reading of his will
I listened as my brothers expectations went unfulfilled
It’s the bitter truth down at the root of many family farms
There’s one patriarch. All others reap the harm.
Leaving Maidstone – didn’t care how
I was homegrown but I needed to plow it under
No wonder no one said that it’s fun
Leaving Maidstone, defying my parents, disappointing everyone
I got married in Maidstone, summer 1989
All the bridesmaids wore turquoise, though that year was pretty dry
When I walked down the aisle on my own and we left arm in arm
Couldn’t know six months later he’d say he would like to farm
Leaving Maidstone – didn’t care how
I was homegrown but I needed to plow it under
No wonder no one said that it’s fun
Leaving Maidstone, defying my parents, disappointing everyone
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7. |
||||
I’m known for sitting the corner
Finding fault and feeling kind of ornery
Pet peeves and sour preoccupations
Rolling eyes and dour demonstrations
And I’ve been wrong and I’ve been petty
Had long enough to think about it already
I’m overdue for making amends
When we’re together again
I’m gonna tell you everything I should have said then
I’m gonna bring you everything that I couldn’t send
When we’re together again
When we’re together again
I’m known for taking it for granted
Moving on and growing disenchanted
I’m all about the destination
Less impressed when I get to the station
And I’ve been wrong and I’ve been petty
Had long enough to think about it already
I know there’s really only one end
When we’re together again
I’m gonna tell you everything I should have said then
I’m gonna bring you everything that I couldn’t send
When we’re together again
When we’re together again
Whoa-oh livin’ in my head
Strung low on imagined thread
We both know I’m due for making amends
When we’re together again
I’m gonna tell you everything I should have said then
I’m gonna rush the borders of Saskatchewan
When we’re together again
When we’re together again
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8. |
Stop
02:51
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When I’m aching with a pain I hesitate to say out loud (R)
When I’m making things worse with every word out of my mouth (C)
When conviction turns to stubbornness and I can’t give any ground (R)
When I can feel uncertainty curdle into doubt (C)
I need to stop for a minute and look at you
I need to stop when I’m spinnin’, ‘cause it does us no good
When the panic feels permanent
Only you can reel me in
I need to stop for a minute
Every failure is pressed between the pages of my mind(C)
Remember that love is not a ledger reconciled (R)
It’s a red thread through a piece of lace; It’s the grace that we allow (Both)
I know it when I see it and I’m seein’ it right now (Both)
Each time I stop for a minute and look at you
I need to stop when I’m spinnin’, ‘cause it does us no good
When the panic feels permanent
Only you can reel me in
I need to stop for a minute
Gotta stop it when I’m feeling so neurotic.
Self-defeating. Gotta listen to my heart and its incessant beating (x2)
Stop. Just stop.
I need to stop for a minute and look at you
I need to stop when I’m spinnin’, ‘cause it does us no good
When the panic feels permanent
Only you can reel me in
I need to stop for a minute
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9. |
Tell Me I'm Fine
03:12
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I need a baseline number
I need a control life
I’ve got an anxious hunger
I feel double-blind tonight
If you run a thousand simulations, in how many will I die?
In how many will I die today?
Tell me I’m fine, and I’ll tell you tomorrow
If you’re online you’re next of kin
Everyone beggared and ready to borrow
Tell me I’m fine and I’ll tell you tomorrow
I hear the sirens blaring
In the pin drop night
I went and wrecked my pharynx
Trying to test if it’s alright
You can leave it up to my perception
But I feel pretty tight and tired
On the best of days
Tell me I’m fine, and I’ll tell you tomorrow
If you’re online you’re next of kin
Everyone beggared and ready to borrow
Tell me I’m fine and I’ll tell you tomorrow
Sleep is a mercy
Let the calamity we’ve found
meet gravity and tumble to the ground
Sleep is a mercy
Diphenhydramine compels me
So you don’t need to tell me, tell me
Tell me I’m fine, and I’ll tell you tomorrow
If you’re online you’re next of kin
Everyone beggared and ready to borrow
Tell me I’m fine and I’ll tell you tomorrow
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10. |
Kennedale Ravine
05:01
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I was born on May Day, delivered by my aunt
Near enough to hear the trains and smell Burns’ packing plant
My father’s Aqua Velva couldn’t hide the tang of blood
Each day he went to slaughter with a steel-toe-booted thud
I would take a different path though only by degree
Deep inside where railway ties were fashioned out of trees
I went in green and dripping sap and came out next to death
Blackened by the creosote; smell it on my breath
Take me down to the Kennedale Ravine
Down where the trees are growing and green
Far from the coal tar creosote steam
‘til it spits me onto 40th street
Take me down where the emerald elms embrace me like when I was eighteen
Take me down, take me down to the Kennedale Ravine
Now Pocklington’s got Gainers and Domtar’s shutting down
Pretty soon there won’t be work for my like in this town
I’ve heard near Fort McMurray there’s a slurry; oil and sand
And mining it’s as easy as reaching with both hands
As I prepare to take my leave on highway 63
My feet arrive at my retreat when dad was feeling mean
I’ve waded deep into the brush to bring these memories
Into the care and keeping of the Kennedale Ravine
Take me down to the Kennedale Ravine
Down where the trees are growing and green
Far from the coal tar creosote steam
‘til it spits me onto 40th street
Take me down where the emerald elms embrace me like when I was eighteen
Take me down, take me down to the Kennedale Ravine
I was born on May day, delivered by my aunt
Near enough to hear the trains and smell Burns’ packing plant
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11. |
801
03:35
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801 possible uses for every injury a day produces
and leaves as a bruise
Build up a callous, take it as ballast
Nurse a grudge just as you choose
Make a list to keep track
Look straight up from flat on your back
Close your eyes and let it fade to black
801 possible reasons to let obligations fall to pieces
and crash to the floor
Always too many to focus on any
Finishing only gets you more
Why not start with a nap?
Let’s go sleep on a plan of attack
Save your strength ‘cause they keep coming back
I know I don’t have the answers
I know nothing at all
I’ve grown awfully fond of throwing shit at the wall
We’re told we should have the answers
When we’ve barely begun
Don’t guess where the wheel will land before it’s been spun
801 possible uses for all the offences and abuses
we need to endure
Chips for your shoulder, Sisyphean boulders
fuel for a bridge that should be burned
Make a list to keep track
Look straight up from flat on your back
Close your eyes and let it fade to black
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