1. |
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That bird starring in his Brecon Beacons Broadway debut
Glass bird’s report on Monday mornings is nearly due
Sad bird drains acid rain from the plastic moon
Blackbird’s at the bottom of the staircase too
But this bird’s a castaway
This bird’s a throwaway
This bird’s another day
In the back of someone’s mind
Two birds blindfolded on a Japanese TV show
Who bird’s a double-decker dodecahedron do
You bird’s 30,000 pound watercolour’s gotta go
Bluebird is another one I whistle though
Oh oh, never on the podium
Oh oh, flying round the planetarium
never anywhere to go
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2. |
Cowboy On A Bicycle
02:44
|
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This heat is unbearable in Albuquerque
I’m a-lost in the desert cowboy on a bicycle
My trusty steed ran away
There’s fried eggs sizzling On the lava-hot ground
and I just had a fight with a disagreeable volcano
who’d seen my horse outta town
The yellow pages
Got nothin’ for middle of nowhere bicycle repair
If only my bronco came round, boy, woah boy…
Cycle past an RV Along the horseshoe pass
My fried shoelaces all tangled up in the spokes again
My mule could‘a got me home fast
Hopes fade like the dust path You didn’t wanna go down
I got what I deserve, I’m cowboy on a bicycle
And you’ve cantered away through the clouds
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3. |
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He’s a somewhere person rewinding
He lives upstairs away from the fresh air
In the set of a sitcom
Michael Afternoon at half past 3
Nervous breakdown then daytime TV
During his youth he made the local news
When half his family perished in a
sarcastic disaster out at sea
Half a bag of sugar’s what he needs
And then he’s overwhelmed
with all these thoughts that he’s got a disease
Spends most the time just powered by his sleep
Michael walks through rainclouds happily
Accepts their inevitability
Needs your spare change, thought he’d already paid
Now his pocket’s full of jam, needs to buy a ticket
to jump off the ferry
Half a bag of sugar’s what he needs
He’s hanging upside down over a viaduct of memories
He’s on the precipice
of a stormy life he thought he’d never see
He kind of knows it now
that nothing will turn out just like he needs
And he can’t understand
and turned his back on all reality
He feels it right deep down That
this wasn’t his life was meant to be
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4. |
Ladybird
02:38
|
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Up a rock lands a little
Ladybird on the page of my book
I draw a circle around it
Now they are everywhere that I look
They’ve multiplied
choreograph pattern pilots in flight
Glide in the dark past the moon as it hums
Land on a cactus in lunar regions
Hide under the sun
Here comes the coral and jet drifting past overhead
Where you goin’, ladybird?
Wishing you luck as they wing over everything
Fly away home, ladybird
Dozing inside a sunflower
Like lazy cherries with nowhere to be
But when the weather turns sour
They set their propellers for somewhere sunny
Together they rise
swooping acrobatics all through the night
Safe in their raincoats, they don’t weigh ‘em down
Synchronized swimming but they never drown
They’re buggin’ around
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5. |
Jangleheart
02:50
|
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Jangleheart, Beating and shimmering star
And just like glass she’ll be
Chiming emphatically
When I’m at my most jangly
And I don’t know quite how
She stays brand new now
Jangleheart, Emeralds echoing far
She’s resonating
Definitive glistening
Eternal oscillating
Jangleheart, rippin’ the sky right in half
Waterfall of sound
Vibration cascades down
But only when she’s around
I don’t know quite how
She stays brand new now
I can’t make a start
Without jangleheart
|
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6. |
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As the face of the ocean
Bends the light of the crescent moon
Come the curtains of deep maroon
Blackcurrant sky, mulberry swirling
Acrylic night, heavily dripping
So let me out, I’m slipping in
I’m in a whirlpool sinking
I really wish that I could swim
Clouds of wine endlessly circling
Paintings up high, hang on the ceiling
Oh Apollo, cross the syrup sea
ship in a bottle voyaging
As it struggles like a submarine
against the oozing current of purple honey
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7. |
Citrus Wood
02:27
|
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All outta place, somewhere hanging off the map-side
Yellow-y taste pouring out the amber skyline
Drooping over heads of green
An audience of lanky trees
In a meadow, sway the rows of origami
a flamingo points out an orange tunnel to me
Sinking in the marmalade
Sailing down the golden rain
I’ll never do real life
Not a case of passing by
Citrus Wood tonight
Over a path, Russian dolls on motor scooters
Rumbling past, tumble in the lemon water
I don’t know what’s in the water
No one knows what’s in the water
|
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8. |
Listen
02:37
|
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Sat in my room
I spent the whole day building
You understood, made sure you always listened
always listened, always listened out
always listened, always listen now
Hearing for two
you knew that they’d have tuned in
I get it now and though the world won’t listen
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9. |
Blank Wine
02:58
|
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It’s a Sunday night and there’s tepid conversation
Clouds hang inside the room as it starts fading
Passing of time, losing my shine
Feeling benign, drinkin’ blank wine
As a child I felt that it was so depressing
To play “I spy” like there was any point in guessing
Spending the night silently high
Feeling benign, drinkin’ blank wine
Passion burned but now I’m understanding
I’m a little man on a bad planet shouting
and it’s lonely, yes it’s lonely…
When will I rev up my mind?
Feeling benign, drinkin’ blank wine
|
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10. |
I'll Sleep In April
02:32
|
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I’ll sleep in April under the maypole
Through the inferno I hid in a dream
Couldn’t admit it, I’m too superstitious
And now I’m buried in an avalanche
of empty chances
Yeah I’ll sleep in April
Disguised as a black hole cos
This life is unstable
Let’s hide when the showers rain on down
Seasonal coma, life’s getting smaller
Spring paranoia, evacuate me
Perpetual Sunday for always and always
Stuck in a broken down time machine (looping the same day)
So I’ll sleep in April, away from the people
Just wake me up when the quiet (flowers are available)
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11. |
Turtle Rock
02:45
|
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St John’s Wood to Gorsebank Road
The paperweight in the soggy clothes
They’re in with a shot, no one’s more slow
The Guinness book of Guinness told me so
Do the TV-channel chop
Until you crawl the turtle rock
Ready set go…
No fancy wheels, we ban cheaters
Flags the iguana monitors
In the greatest race the Chucklebrothers
Were carrying the whole of America
Congratulations, you’ve all taken ages but
you’ve made a start and you’ve taken part
Just direct traffic from Jesmond Dene cafe
and you’ll go far like a real star
|
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12. |
Yes
02:53
|
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How are you coping with this century?
Do you ever feel like you’ve woke up asleep?
Well why not turn the TV on to
channel 557 for some medication
It might improve your mood cos it’s what we do
And yes, yes we’re at the future
and it might not suit ya
But do you need these hits? The constant blitz?
And yes, yes our breaking story
could blow out your worries
And you might wanna try
the world outside again
Imagine if memory number one
was a guaranteed incentive to go on
‘Cos we cancelled your nightmares
out from our screens
And you can buy a new camera
to film your dreams
‘Cos now you’re in the sky
but as the clouds divide
revealing a field where you’ll fall
full of cinema stalls
Those squatted seats are old, it’s true
but their pleading arms are ready to catch you
It’s what they do every time
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Novelty Island
Novelty Island is the surreal-pop project of Liverpool-based songwriter and producer, Tom McConnell. His albums 'How Are You Coping With This Century?' and 'Wallsend Weekend Television' have been supported by BBC Radio 6, BBC Introducing, Absolute Radio, Shindig! and Mojo. Novelty Island have performed at Glastonbury and supported Sea Power, The Dream Machine and The Pale White around the UK. ... more
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