Pony Proof Records 2008

The Guide to the Short Wave Radio

I could talk to you for hours
At any time of day
Yet the talking never makes
This cruel ache go away

It’s the years that hold us back
And the miles I have to go
Didn’t look so far
On the guide to the short wave radio

So kiss me in the night
Dismantle my whole life
Trade private kisses in a public place
With a secret smile upon our face

Come kiss me in the night
Take tender liberties
I love you for the flaws
And the inconsistencies

And someone else will come
To make you cry and laugh
The world will stumble on
With me and my wounded heart

I miss you when I sleep
I miss you when I sing
A fool it was who said
That true love conquers everything

So kiss me in the night
One kiss for my whole life
Unfurl your fingers from the sheets
I’ll stroke your hair to help you sleep

And a lost and broken voice
Will crackle through the night
Bring comfort on the waves
To the pirates and the stowaways

The years that hold us back
The miles we’ll never know
They didn’t look so far
On the guide to the short wave radio

It didn’t look so far
It didn’t look so far
It didn’t look so far my love
On the guide to the short wave radio love

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Songs for Kylie

I lie awake
Half-blind, half-drunk, in a half-religious daze
And think about
The life I had, the life I had before I made

Songs for Kylie

A love affair
You loved me then, I was almost sure
And now I write it down
Put it on a TDK in a jiffy bag
And seal it up
And send it off
Mark on it in thick pen

Songs for Kylie

Before the desert there’s a moment
You can change your mind.

In a landfill site
Picked over by birds and bugs and parasites
Lies my magnetic tape
With the cracked plastic case
My magnetic tape
About the love we had and the promises we made
Back in the day
Before I made

Songs for Kylie

Before the desert comes
You can change your mind

And I’m living in my own wee world
And it’s hard to see what you must think of me my love

I’m living in my own wee world.

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Cicily

Sunday Morning in the heart of the city
It’s the nights that wear you out
Said Cicily as

She colluded at the bus stop
With the Captain and the rest of the men
She colluded at the bus stop
Said it didn’t feel that dangerous then

Monday morning in a strange bed in this town
Wake up slowly take a long look around
Get dressed quickly trying hard not to wake him
Leave in silence ‘cause it’s better that way

And and hey it’s not as though you wanted to
But hey, we all do what we need to get through
And hey, it’s not as though you wanted to
But you did it just for something to do

Cicily walks the streets of post-war Berlin
She likes the fashions and the breeze from the Spree
She knows it’s all or nothing, no turning back now
But hey she didn’t like her old life anyway

And, and no, it’s not as though she meant it
But she likes it now it’s all come to pass
And no, it’s not as though she meant it
But she knows that you can’t change the past

And so you spend the day with this old diary
That charts the hopes and dream and fears
Of Cicily as she
Colluded at the bus stop
Started something that she couldn’t contain
She colluded at the bus stop
Didn’t know her life would never be the same.
And hey, you said you wouldn’t read it
And you’re not sure she’d have wanted you to
But hey, it’s too late to unread it
And maybe she just put it all – down – for – you

And hey it’s not as though you meant to
But we all do what we need to get through
And hey, it’s not as though you wanted to
But maybe this is what she wanted for you.

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Godzilla Vs the Island of Manhattan (with you and I somewhere in-between)

5am and he wakes up slow
Lifts himself up out of the Hudson
Stretching out he feels his hunger grow
Fixes his eyes on the city laid before him

You and I walk down a crowded street
Laughing at all the strange looking people
You and I on a daytrip just for fun
You and I – we never saw it coming

There are cars flying through the air
Sirens, explosions, dustclouds in the air

And there’s a wave approaching with a silent roar
A wave approaching with a violent roar
To you, to me, today

Now we’re hiding out in doorways
Avoiding all the debris
Broken cars and broken homes
Nothing’s where it used to be
Our whole life it just changed
It just changed in heartbeat.

And nobody knows which way is North anymore.

There are cars flying through the air
Sirens, explosions, dustclouds in the air

And there are people leaping from the higher floors
People leaping from the higher floors
To you, to me, today

Now we’re hiding out in doorways
We can hear the creature breathing
And then a miracle occurs
We hear its footsteps receding
And on this broken up island
There are only our hearts beating.

And nobody knows which way is up anymore
Which way to go
Which way is home.

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Disney's Ice Parade

You left your notes on lesbian sex
On the fishtank in the hall
It took me all afternoon
To read them all

I learned more in that day
Than I’ve ever learned before
I don’t think you and I
Should go clubbing anymore

Last night your mother called to say
Your father’s run away
With the man who plays the polar bear
In Disney’s Ice Parade

She says don’t worry she’s okay
She hated ice-dance anyway
And now she’ll have more time alone
To drink her days away
Drink her days away

Doesn’t need anyone to help her
She’s okay

Now I’ve come home again
To find you in a sticky mess
We won’t get our deposit back
If you carry on like this
So put away your whips and chains
They couldn’t hold me anyway
It’s the space between your shoulder blades
That makes me want to stay

And I’m okay
I don’t need anyone to help me

And now we retreat to the kitchen I’ll make you some tea
You tell me when you were young you thought there would be
Something more glorious for you to be
And I say glorious?
What could be more glorious than you and me

And so your father’s run away
Your mother’s in a drunken haze
Doesn’t mean that you and I can’t make it anyway

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A Relatively Famous Victory

We have nothing to fear
Even fear itself
Has been defeated now
They say

But the sorrow
Is that you’ll never know
My love

It doesn’t stop
It never ends
And now the night
Is closing in
When we have victory
A famous victory in our sights

So we drink ourselves stupid
In the undergrowth
We drink ourselves stupid
On the tennis court
That’s overgrown
In the private grounds of the crumbling house
Your parents own

When we have victory
A famous victory in our sights

Stolen wine in the afternoon and
A thin white dress that the sun shines through
And maybe – maybe this is what skin is for

A secret look in a month of Sundays
Private schools’ ceremonies
Never let you know – never let it show

That I breathe the air when you walk by
It’s wider than my heart is wide
It’s a secret thing – just your breath and the cold dark air

Spend the whole night on the lawn beside you
Call this love if you want me to
And we have victory – a Famous Victory – I know

We could live in Paris or London
Build a cottage on a Scottish Island
And lie there – and feel the waves attack the shore

Feel the world press on our walls, but
We’re not really there anymore
And this, and this – this is what our lips are for

And we have victory, a Famous Victory, in our sights.

I breathe the air when you walk by
It’s wider than my heart is wide
And this, and this – this is what our skin is for

Spend the whole night on the lawn beside you
Call this love if you want me to
And we have victory, a Famous Victory,
I know

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Empty Throat

An empty throat
Under the streetlights I don’t know
A broken home
And bones don’t fit right anymore

We could be living here
We could be living here
We could be living here
Only when we sleep
Only when we sleep--------

Two broken homes
Took broken homes to broken lows
A lonely soul
Unload it out all over town

We are at peace
We are at peace
We are at peace
Only when we scream
Only when we scream

We never have to go away
Never have to go away
Never have to go away
Never have to go away.

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We can leap buildings and rivers, but really we just want to fly

Tried to tell you
3 times, but you wouldn’t believe me
And now we’re, stuck here in this mess again

Tried to tell you
It wouldn’t work, but you just weren’t listening
And now we have no escape route again

But kiss me tonight I will love you forever
I don’t want to think, I just want to give in
To your eyes and your mouth and your teeth and your skin
And your half-naked frame and the heartbeat within

We’ll leave the private schools behind
We’ll leave the uniforms behind
We’ll leave the underworld to those who know much more than we do
To those who know much more than we do.

Tried to tell you
It wouldn’t work, but you just weren’t listening
And now we have no escape route again

Tried to tell you
3 times, but you wouldn’t believe me
And now we’re, locked in a basement again

But kiss me tonight I will love you forever
I might never get a chance like this again
It’s a pale summer’s night and your lips should be on mine
Your heart should be beating the same beat as mine

Kiss me tonight I will love you forever
I don’t want to think, I just want to give in
To your eyes and your mouth and your teeth and your skin
And your half-naked frame and the heartbeat within

We’ll leave the private schools behind
We’ll leave the uniforms behind
We’ll leave the underworld to those who know much more than we do
To those who know much more than we do.

(We can leap buildings and rivers, but really we just wanna fly)

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Above the clouds the sun is always shining

You’re walking home
And you’re on your own
And your mobile phone
Has
No
News
At
All

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Picture Show

I went to a picture show
I sat alone in the darkened rows
And there were made up dreams on the silver screen
But I – wouldn’t leave until the show was over
I couldn’t leave until the show was over

I walked in on you and him
You were upside down in handcuffs and chains
And there were pictures of it on the internet
And I can’t leave the house in case the neighbours saw it
I can’t show my face in case the neighbours saw it again

Well we were unseen
Never thought that this was meant for you and me
Unreciprocated dreams
Unarticulated ways to be and see

I went to a picture show
I sat alone in the velvet rows
And I bit my thumb amidst the chewing gum
And the debris of the lives that had passed before me
The debris of the times that had passed before me

Well I was unseen
Never thought that this was meant for me anyway
And the time might come for dreams
And the time might come for you and me

And I might go to sleep
It’s all I want to do anyway
And I might go to sleep
Holding you instead of me

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Absent Friends

Don’t bend down in front of me
It’s more than I can take
Don’t brush the hair out of your face
It’s more than I can take

Here’s to absent friends
Who might never meet again
Here’s to you and I and everything

Try your best not to smile at me
It’s more than I can take
Or stand in close proximity
It’s more than I can take

I had my life straight
Before you came

And now I fail to sleep through the night
I fail to sleep through the night
I can’t learn anything from everything that’s happening

So don’t give me things you once held
Expect me still to breathe
Don’t go and get your hair cut nice
And show it off to me

Here’s to absent friends
Who will never meet again
Here’s to you and I and everything

They’ll hold a wake in the blasted night
For the names of you and I
Wide awake in the middle of the night
For you and I

And now I fail to sleep through the night
I fail to sleep through the night
I can’t learn anything from everything that’s happening

It’s more than I can take.

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