1. |
shape
03:31
|
|||
I saw a shape just ahead. It’s black and red
And made of cloud. Made of rock
Made of water. I heard my daughter.
The only sound
Showed me a cave up the hillside.
It takes a long time to dig the hole.
I can’t remember what I missed.
It’s on my wrist. It’s paid in full
|
||||
2. |
empty tigers
02:19
|
|||
There are many miles to cover.
I come home alone. A long time passed.
I remember the side of the road.
I used to have the face of a clock.
Heart of a storm. Devour everything.
But things fall apart when they want to.
Finally they stop and you go on
And afterwards back in the parking lot
Empty tigers crossing the road
The cat in the grass. It’s a mystery.
Now the hunt is a thing of the past.
If you can bring nothing to this place
But your dead shell, keep out.
A long time passes in a minute.
|
||||
3. |
lightning scar
04:00
|
|||
Tell me about the waterfall. Listen to it roar
Kick a new hole in the wall. Build yourself a door.
When you showed me the lightning scar, I couldn’t look away
It’s going to take much more than this. I might sit here all day.
Thought you heard a sound but nothing could be found.
There’s got to be a portal somewhere to the west.
[fell asleep feeling real mad
Woke up in a strange land
A frozen lake. Colored sand
You do what you can]
Mary looked around the room. Barely saw a thing
Finally on the windowsill: a cold, discarded wing
A song was playing in her head: you fool, you cannot know
Because the dusk is gathering, you fool, you cannot go
I drink to my annihilation, but the cup is filling up
I hear you breathing in the room. The love will punch you in the gut
|
||||
4. |
machines
04:12
|
|||
He lived somehow with lowered eyes
With the machines inside the machines
I went outside to try to find a rock to climb
Like I used to all the time
The days are numbered
What’s the point of picking up spiders from the snow?
What’s your secret? Knowing what’s impossible to know?
The honeybee stung you on your tongue
The moon just hung there like a lung
Cut the signal
Short circuit
This place is dangerous
Machetes out
Pretending to survive
The fall might catch you
I see the yellow ribbon on the water in the night
Still and sad. A terrible shape that drifted by
|
||||
5. |
animal
03:29
|
|||
At the end of the day, driving away,
Couldn’t find the words for all the things that I’d say
If I ever grew up, if I’d step off the bus
But I can barely see through all the trees and the fog. It’s weird
Noise down the hall. Walk through the wall.
Go out in the dark. Do you feel brave at all?
But you keep your eyes down and you can’t make a sound.
These are different kinds of clouds. It’s nothing at all.
It’s almost too bright. Does it shine like this at night?
I guess we’ll have to stay and see. She’s probably right.
Look where I began and how my mind ran.
A herd ahead of wolves running in the pale blue moonlight
I saw you lying on the trampoline
The leaves look like toys when you’re in a dream
I saw the entrails from the drive through line
Shining through bullet holes in the stop sign.
I was spacing out, looking at the dark.
A pair of eyes hooked up to a heart
Way up in the trees on the bloody horizon
Her heartbeat lullaby, an animal crying
|
||||
6. |
deep lake
03:32
|
|||
You’ll find yourself bleeding in the waves
Collapsed at the edge of the lake
Crashed out. You’ve still got a long way
Ride with the rattles in the weeds.
Gutted by the first dry freeze.
Be mutation of the seed
Stand your ground. Put up a fight
Cower in the shadows out of the light
Talking in code to the night
|
||||
7. |
||||
Why are you standing there with such a look of dismay?
Your eyes are filled with the dream and primordial clay.
The battlefield’s burning. Ain’t that just the way.
It’s a real drag.
There’s gaps in the walls and there’s blood on the floor
And somebody is screaming from behind the door
Undiscovered worlds are washing up on the shore
Dead language and a dead flag
I can tell when I stand in my front yard at night
That I am terribly weak from the dizzying light
I want to walk down to the bar and start up a good fight
Hold my head with a bloody rag
They saw the future
I think that’s a lie
I watched her shout and
Come down the big slide
Trust me. I’ve been there
I know every road
I know every inch of
That dark twisted road’
Would you like another drink? I could be your baby
I am sleeping at your feet. Don’t you need to save me?
Try to go that way alone. Who will carry your lantern?
I couldn’t hear you on the phone, so I told an
Ugly secret to the empty line. I felt no sorrow.
|
||||
8. |
vagary
02:15
|
|||
Red dripping from the side of his head
Laughing like he’s already dead. Befalls you.
We had it coming to us for these
Are just the dying throes of a sea. It calls you.
Heat heavy on the side of the street.
Curious to see if it bleeds, and will it.
Walk. Everything is made out of rock.
Skeleton key for the lock. Go get it
Feel. Swimming with the wheel
It’s a wasteland without she
Show me how to see
Even when she falls asleep
In the backseat
Sweating in the heat
Are you dreaming vividly?
Learning how to read
From the distant vagary
|
||||
9. |
lucy
04:09
|
|||
After the show on the long drive home I’m awake now
Where did you go? Out back in the smoke? I cannot find you
As I age I mostly stay the same
Walk a few blocks deliberately out of the way
Never I’m sure, though it’s always worth the fantasy
You’re an ordinary god. I’d rather be lost in the orchard
I feel afraid, though you said, no way. It’s coming down
Watching you play in the middle of the day. I cannot find you
Draw lines to keep track of the time I’m disillusioned
You are holding your guitar like a temple, a siren song
My dream is somewhere in between. I’m at the ragged edge of it.
Cities brought down to their knees. I’m with you at the precipice.
|
||||
10. |
dumb, slow
03:36
|
|||
The wasp has stung. The damage is done.
And I know that I’ll miss you. And I’m sorry if I dissed you.
It was warm in the house. Now I’m standing in a downpour
Terrified for tomorrow like a fugitive.
Dumb, slow then buried in snow. Hypnotist on the radio.
Dumb, slow then buried in snow. Where did everybody go?
How am I supposed to keep it real? Where will you ride
Your bike? I can’t explain it. It just feels different.
Where are you now? Are you crazy?
Baby, it’s a train dodge.
I can see you hopping over fences and running through the cornfields
Flashing your teeth.
This is a world for them. It’s not a world for us.
|
||||
11. |
old ravine train robbery
04:02
|
|||
Walk across the bridge alone.
Trace the wall, the telephone.
Underneath a single stone. I put it there.
What is it I need to know
Whose bones are those below
Underneath a single stone. I put it there.
Couldn’t wish the world away.
Maybe I’d better not.
Maybe it’s a robbery. We looked inside the train.
Went and got my cover blown
Trusting in a catacomb.
Underneath a single stone. I put it there.
|
||||
12. |
flood
04:46
|
|||
Folded at the base of the hill
Taking all of my will to be out by first light
The night time at the back of the mind
With the shadows and pines is a place that I like
Lay down in reverie
Tracing the veins in my only hands and drive alone
Worried for the flood that comes next
Laid it out in a bet. Laid it down in a bed
Day breaks and the oncoming train
In the trembling rain
Has the moon in its jaws
[They know what they are
They never stray far
The whole mess, the crime scene, the movie star
She’s riding through the empty lot. She is a jar.
The flood came and drowned her inside of the car
I sat at the drums while she played the guitar]
|
||||
13. |
(dream song)
02:52
|
|||
I must have crossed a threshold when I fell asleep
Some kind of tundra. Giant boulders
Weakening gravity
As I took a look around, the strangest thing happened
I couldn’t hear it, but I knew it was singing for me
Calling me on
Then from out of nowhere, a familiar place
But a different cross street. It was totally wrong
But I felt alright.
She shot straight up at midnight. It was just a nightmare
I’ll hold you tight by the lurid firelight
Whistling your dream song
Red of tooth and claw in the wasteland. Sun just stares like a jackal
And shakes and shakes
Pick through the ruins down by a deafening sky
Haven’t felt it since I don’t know when
Red of tooth and claw in the wasteland. Sun just stares like a jackal
I search and search
Pick through the ruins down by a deafening sky
Haven’t felt it since I don’t know when
|
Streaming and Download help
If you like dark river, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp