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1. |
Bring the Pain
03:10
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From across the room, you caught my eye
On a battlefield for peace of mind
And it hurts like hell every time you walk by
So bring the pain just one more time
I wonder if you’re even worth the ink that pours from the pen I stole from the bank
You could be another night to forget or lead to a lifetime of regret
Or, maybe, somewhere between the two
I thought it over, I just never thought it through
A proclivity for procrastination and fruitless thoughts from the frustration
A hurricane that bursts through port, amongst the sharks and miles from shore
And I wish you could drown here too
I thought it over, I just never thought it through
If I grew a pair, I could’ve gotten your name
And you’d be there when my phone rang
But at some point, this all has to stop
So I’ll sit back and wait for my balls to drop
Hey, stop now, how did it come to this, such a silver lining for a pessimist?
If I retook the chance that I missed, I could’ve been a number at the bottom of your list
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2. |
No Noise
04:19
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Your bedroom eyes hides the forcedest smile
Before the laughingest tears start to fall
Well, I know where you’ve been
That glow on your skin
If it weren’t for your lies, you’d make no noise at all
Your make believe world up your sleeve
With a statue of you standing tall
Out in the square
Hymns to you feel the air
If it weren’t for your lies, you’d make no noise at all
You take away all the sunny days to chase the gloom and grey instead
Like a bloom that all too soon balls and falls back to the bed
The untruest eyes, regurgitated banal
If it weren’t for your lies, you’d make no noise at all
Your loveless breath when your mind’s someplace else
As I’m splayed, tangled, enthralled
You leave in the night
With a note by the light
If it weren’t for your lies, you’d make no noise at all
Well, I’m lonesome tonight and I know it ain’t right
But I can’t help but fall
Harder for you
And all your non-truths
If it weren’t for your lies, you’d make no noise at all
The untruest eyes say you can’t recall
If it weren’t for your lies, you’d make no noise at all
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3. |
Seashells and Rice
03:35
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Little Ann touches down unsure of what’s around
She spend days upon that plane that she boarded by mistake
She passes by the baggage claim
Leaves it for another shameless thief to take aim
Lock on and steal and invade her dreams
She finds that happy ever after might not last forever after all
Precious Ann settles down, settling for what’s around
She’s spent so long living alone, no life’s light in left unshown
She says, “Excuse the mess that’s left, perhaps it’s best to dim the lights
And expect this all to disappear or somehow never exist”
She thinks that maybe she’s not ready, maybe there’s no afterwards after all
And Ann follows the steeple and finds a line of people
Holding rice and speaking nice with smiles that they don’t mean
She’s gliding down the aisle, toward an alter or funeral pyre
She finds it strange how irony does not escape
She finds no epilogue, there might not be an afterword after all
And she rose up from the table
Like the unstable first steps from the cradle
And the froze as the stepped on a seashell tearing off her toenail
Stumbled as she fell
Leaving herself all exposed
She’s waiting for another verse, something different from the first
But it’s worse to repeat an ending than to just go on pretending
That the breeze may not be sweeter or the grass any greener after all
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4. |
Oscar Bravo
03:16
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Wherever you go I hope you’re happy there
It’s been too long since I’ve breathed your air
I hope you can smile right through your doubt
I’m trapped in your heart and I can’t get out
I lived in my heart and I can’t get out
I’ve scratched my fingertips to the bone
Hear your voice in every dial tone
Shrinking place, the ceiling’s falling down
I’m trapped in your heart and I can’t get out
Gave you my heart, now I’m tapped out
You pretend you’re strong, make believe you’re brave
Just like me I know you’re afraid
Seemed so sure you had to get away
I’m trapped in your heart and there’s no escape
Gave you my heart, now my chest is concave
If you want to go back, then just let me know
There’s too much history to let it go
And I’m waiting for you to show praying, Lord, have mercy on my soul
And you say, you say you had to get away but I’m left in the rough
While you still play
And maybe you could think about me and smile
Though this depression’s not my style
Echoes loud, I hope I see you around
I’m trapped in your heart and I can’t get out
I lived in my heart and I can’t get out
I gave you the world, now I’ve run out
Followed my heart and I can’t stop now
Trapped in your heart and I can’t get out
I’d follow you straight out of bounds
I’d follow you straight out of bounds
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5. |
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From this garden countryside, this city’s flames are reaching high
Burning bright this city’s ghastly glow
I just keep your hand in mine and listen to the lullaby
Played from a tower above the fiery growth
We can make it disappear, from the far it’s hard to hear
The raspy gasping from the grotesque torch
The crazy king laughing loud, an empire in a smoky shroud
We just stand and smile as the Earth’s scorched
A useless note in a worthless chord
In a wasted song tossed overboard
Like the things I’ve seen and never want to see again
Like Nero’s violin
That smile brings a grace to your face as a skein of smoke slowly decays
Our lips part to the start of a new day
Sunlight creeps across the ash, but you and I don’t notice that
A dark art, in our hearts, we’re worlds away
We pass by crepe gardenia, ignoring the hysteria
In our minds, the time is standing still
The Domus Aurea of our bond, we walk away still holding on
As the detuned strings sing an awful shrill
We amble through the ambient heat, ignoring the ember laden streets
Discrete sweet nothings pouring out
No, we don’t hear the shadow laughing loud
It’s just us in the God-forsaken town
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6. |
Puddles of Neon
06:04
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She came and met me one dark and stormy night
On some one way dead end street
Lit up by neon rain that was falling
On mascara stained desperate cheeks
Comfort then came walking down old Main
Boarded up shops all for lease
We jumped in puddles, then held each other until the rain stopped
And we released
This could be what we were looking for
This could be what I had in mind
You’re taken my heart right through the door
When you say you’re taken time
What about mine?
I laid in the park, stared up at the stars
Until the cops took me in
I answered questions and manufactured confessions
The gavel dropped on what I had been
I walked to the cell and waited for bail
Tick marked the days on the wall and scrawled your name
On the cold grey morbid keepsake
Hoping you’d call
I went out one night and got in a fist fight with two big guys messing with my sister
I heard the sirens and dropped the tire iron, and ran through the briars…
Damn, how I missed her
When I saw you outside that bar room
Wet and entombed by your own whisper
I could protect you, would not dissect you
I would accept you
From this transistor, your voice requesting a song from the West End
You digressing about playing in the rain
Dear savior, with good behavior, two years will pay for this shit
And I’ll be with you again
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7. |
Swandering
04:16
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On your dresser there’s a mirror lined with pictures
Of past lives long ago
A deep freeze of memories and decrees
Of loves you used to hold
You can’t go back
So scared to move on
You’ve caught so much flack for habits you’ve outgrown
The leprous prom queen sings her siren song
And somewhere a swan hums along
The porcelain of your skin is broken
Where the pressure makes you fold
The diary on your knee tells a story
Of times more precious than gold
The dark street passes beneath nervous feet
So tired and damned near froze
Through your hands falls the quicksand
All the deadpan soliloquies of old
The lights all went black
The clock is blinking eights
They’ve cut you no slack
Your value might deflate
The heaviest weight wings leave you lithe but late
Swimming, the swan waits on the lake
No loyalties to a throne
None, but her own
Destination unknown
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8. |
The Mist Retreats
03:13
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Discarded, unfaithful, and useless, but oh, I’ll climb my way up
Find my way out of this hole I dug for myself but with all of your help
Dark matter I knew I would regret
The fog that blesses keep the hexes out now blackens my lungs
And keeps my eyes in drought
Your soul seeps through the light between the blinds to find the bed I want to slide back in
I’ll capture you but in time you will expire
For now your memories fed
Take your last breath again
Rejected, uncertain, and futile to some
I’ll climb my way up, find my way out of control
The doors open wide, I climb my way insane
These struggles to serve to fan the flame
The mist lies and waits and hovers low
It squashes the soul and spreads the embers glow
Explore the missed directives
“Yes or no” questions are not easy to construct
I should give up
Sure, I have you now but it’s time to say “goodbye” or at least “sleep tight”
Blow out the light and self-destruct
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9. |
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There’s a little light left to be limed
A sharp side of your soul left to shine
Minutest of movements not mimed
Fifteen minutes means so little time
The spinning wheel’s gold loses shine
A nameless crook takes to his shrine
The toll-less bell silently chimes
To christen the night’s bottle of wine
Well there’s a little lamb left in your lion
By the pig that’s still yearning for flying
The princess hoping for bride
A charmless prince clutches his last dime
The air of a woman, sublime
The silver screen tarnishes with time
The wrinkles ravel and wind
On the goddess’s face soaked in brine
The patina grows to a grime
No conviction for the thief of time
The princess now past her prime
And mirrors still to be disguised
Smiling eyes now painted wide
No more mountains left to be climbed
In the slick of the fine satin lining
A chapel still glowing bright
In a promise whispered through the night
The faintest of fruits on the vine
Knots left to unbind
Edicts by which to abide
Doors that swing open wide
To a heart that doesn’t mind
All the pictures of your painted crimes
The virtue squeezed out by your vice
Or Lilly’s tabloidesque slime
Or Hazie’s twisted surprise
A fame mosquito, a social butterfly
With name-drops to help you climb high
The choicest of beaus left behind
There’s still plenty of clothes left on the line
There’s still plenty of clothes to wear when you die
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10. |
Soul's Drain
05:07
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I’ve worked so hard trying to find my place
You fucked it up, threw it right in my face
I took it on, saying it’s just a phase
But it’s a slow bleed
When you think you know what’s best for me
A soul drain
And it’s eating all what’s left of me
July came in and ripped me from my home
Like a hurricane wind, forced to go where I was blown
Saying goodbye old fried is like swimming with a stone while I slow bleed
How rewarding is it to be a small part of something different
And nurture it, growing to a movement?
Then be torn away by the architect’s ambivalence
Behind those rose tinted shades in front of cold, wool eyelids
Along came dawn, I didn’t catch a wink last night
All hope is gone of gaining true insight
I’m just a pawn with a spear in his side for a slow bleed
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11. |
Easy Target
04:52
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Please take me to the place where I’ve seen better days
Or take the bitter pill, let them line up and fire at will
I can be still
We used to wait on the beach
Searching for the rocket’s streaks
And sketch our dreams in the sand
But now the waves have eroded them
The case at hand is seminal, the foundation, near criminal
We watch as the pressure builds as they line up and shoot to kill
I can be still
Try to smile and say it’s fine when we face the firing line
Dreaming from the window sill, they line up with chambers filled
I can be still
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12. |
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Like the rockets over Cape Canaveral, I’m shooting up almost every night
Launching through the stars and black above you chasing after the streaks of light
I’m not thinking about the vibration, hoping nothing terminates this flight
Remembering how it felt to be sixteen forever just once in your life
Let’s make a toast
We’ll drink this damn river dry
Follow the banks to the coast
Chasing a Gulf sunrise
These ain’t tears, just dust from the years gone by in my eyes
Wrong or right
Good lord willing and the creek don’t rise
My shirts wadded on the floor by the rough sketches of your face
Like the highwaymen and kaintucks, lost and wandering the Natchez Trace
I’m still chasing broken dreams, but remembering is such a fight
Seems like you make me feel like I was sixteen forever just once in my life
I’ll keep these glasses tinted your rose shaded hue
I’ll count every star that reminds me of you
Well, I’d lie if I had the guts, but I spilled them in the rain
That night we talked until dawn while hiding behind that train
It’s the knowledge of the needle and the knife
And of being sixteen forever once in your life
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13. |
Death's Domain
03:07
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Everything’s all black and white
Shades of grey in-between
Recollections of foreign sites
Caught inside madman’s dreams
I’d do anything to hear the voice graveling off in capitals
Not veer into the void, his eye sockets are impractical
The hallway always extended, nothing quite seems to scale
Laws of physics here are bending, hear the books write themselves
Mimicking is not creation, it’s a flawed artistic expression
Lungs deflate, know your station, and inside your cloak is sharpened perfection
A horse touches down beside your bed
Keep remembering things that haven’t happened yet
There’s no release even when you’re dead
Until he severs the mortal thread
Entire galaxies float in blue eyes
Where something mysteriously lies
I’d do anything hear the voice graveling off in capitals
Not accept the forces choice of permanent sabbatical
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14. |
Heartfelt Habit
03:21
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Swimming head and dusty heart
It hasn’t ticked a beat in so long
Since it got in this habit of breaking
Now the sheriff’s on my trail
These damned hellhounds on my tail
If I ever meet that dark part inside of me, well, I’ll invite it to shine
Aching head and rusty heart
Lack of maintenance has been its downfall
Since it got in this habit of faking
A million miles I’ve roamed
The courthouse squared I’ve loafed
If you ever meet that dark part inside of me, it’ll be long after I’m gone
I can lay down to rest when I off myself
We can lay side by side right between railroad ties
As the tracks just whisper a sweet lullaby
Severed head and busted heart
Somehow still rolling non-stop
Since it got in this habit of breathing
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15. |
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Jimmy, you’re daddy’s dying
The law’s done took him in
Won’t let him see the doctor
Until you come in for questioning
Lord, we’ve had a good run
Made so much money too fast
Some things just aren’t meant to last
We lived faster than the trains we took
We’re more bitter than our drinks
Smile brighter than the coins we count
And leave in bar room sinks
Wanted in several states
But several is not my goal
Let’s take them all or wind up in hole
Pinkerton’s not far behind
The Williamson County bank
We got tobacco in our pocket
And rangers on our flanks
Lord, we’ve had a good run
Made so much money too fast
Some things just aren’t bound to last
If a man knows anything, he ought to die with it in him
Because this world’s a bubble, wherever you go there’s trouble
I still hear Soapy screaming, “I think you got him!”
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4 Star View Cape Canaveral, Florida
Originally from Northeast Mississippi and living in Cape Canaveral, FL, 4 Star View is a cathartic songwriter who swings among genres to create emotionally laden soundscapes. He is the poet laureate for the city of Cape Canaveral. Every album is unique in sound and themes. Most songs are single take, single track to produce a raw sound. Mistakes are not fixed because flaws are part of the art. ... more
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