1. |
Mirror, Mirror
03:06
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The older I get, the less interested I am in new things. New movies, new music, new books, new experiences... Of course, I still enjoy music, movies, books, and other things that are new to me, but I find I really only enjoy them if they were created sometime during my youth, or before I was born. With music, 1994 seems to be a general cut-off date for my ability to really enjoy it on a deep, soul level. Ten or twelve years ago I worked at a record store called Fascinating Rhythm and I thought the older customers who only wanted to buy rare copies of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple records were pitifully stuck in 1974. I'm just like that now but with shoegaze and acid house.
_________________________
Up and down, side to side
Back’n’forth, you decide
To the left, to the right
I’ll follow you all through the night
Wherever you go, wherever you lead
If you wanna vomit, if you wanna bleed
If you wanna kiss, if you wanna leave
If you wanna get lost at sea
Mirror mirror, in or out
Twist and crawl or Twist and shout
You wanna go out dancin’ but not to dance
Your poker face leaves nothing to chance
Shoop shoop, whoop-de-doo
Hello Mary-Lou and Peggy Sue
You know Johnny will never be good
You wouldn’t change him if you could
Mirror mirror, tell me the truth
Why do people hang on to their youth
Mirror mirror, tell me the truth
Why do people hang on to their youth
If you wanna play pinball, beat my score
Set a new record and I’ll beat yours
This DIY space has the shittiest beer
But there’s a harsh noise band you gotta hear
Mirror mirror, tell me the truth
Why do people hang on to their youth
Mirror mirror, tell me the truth
Why do people hang on to their youth
I don’t like music made after ‘94
Young bands sound good, but I get bored
Like the old guys I used to make fun of at the record store
Everything feels like I heard it all before
Mirror mirror, tell me the truth
Why do people hang on to their youth
Mirror mirror, tell me the truth
Why do people hang on to their youth
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2. |
Hue and Cry
03:32
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What a time it is to to be alive. Fentanyl, North Korea, Trump, fascists, climate change... it's almost like the biggest worry is what to worry about most.
_______________________
Don’t worry about the guns and the drugs and the night
They won’t do you as much harm as the sunlight
Don’t worry about the poor people don’t worry about the rich
Cause these days mother nature is real angry bitch
Don’t worry about the hue and cry
Don’t worry, we’re all gonna die
Don’t worry about the queers or the bigots fears
There’s gonna be crying, there’s always gonna be tears
Don’t worry about the fascists taking power again
There’s gonna be violence, there’s always gonna be pain
Don’t worry about the hue and cry
Don’t worry, we’re all gonna die
Don’t worry about big pharma, big oil, big data too
They’re gonna own everybody, even you
Don’t worry about the future your children got left
It’s economically unviable and morally bereft
Don’t worry about the hue and cry
Don’t worry, we’re all gonna die
Worrying only causes wrinkles
Worrying only causes pain
Look up at the sky, the stars still twinkle
At least until the smog rolls in again
Don’t worry about the drugs in the drugs killing kids
It’s the ultimate escape from a world on the skids
Don’t worry about the cops finding your browser history
Everybody knows who you like with no clothes it’s no mystery
Don’t worry about the hue and cry
Don’t worry, we’re all gonna die
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3. |
That Night
04:31
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A rare (nearly) completely fictitious song for me. I think I was trying to channel a Tom Petty dad rock vibe. A few months later he died. I like to think the two are unconnected. There's also a bit of a Springsteen thing I tried to do in the chorus. Don't die, Bruce.
_______________
Jokin’
About being broken
Like teacups
And promises spoken
The moon shone
like a brand new subway token
That night we were jokin’
Cryin’
About someone lyin’
Like a body in the street
Like a junkie buyin’
The moon shone
Without even tryin’
That night we were cryin’
You ‘n me babe, we done some thangs
You and me babe, the songs we sang
You and me, and the moon and the night
And the feeling it would always be alright
Talkin’
While we were walkin’
Away from the city
With holes in our stockin’s
The moon shone
With a smile that was mockin’ us
The night we were talkin’
Smokin’
Drinkin’ and tokin’
Hangin’ out the window
Cause the a/c was broken
The moon shone
On the bullfrogs croakin’
The night we were smokin’
You ‘n me babe, we done some thangs
You and me babe, the songs we sang
You and me, and the moon and the night
And the feeling it would always be alright
Creepin’
Away from the peepin’
Slow and dark like molasses
Or tea left steepin’
The moon shone
Cast the shadows we were deep in
The night we were creepin’
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4. |
Little Animals
04:11
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I found this in a folder called "Toronto Songs" but I'm pretty sure I wrote, or started writing it, in Nanaimo about around 2007. It seems to me people are difficult because most don't own up to being animals.
___________________
We’re just little animals
Wearing funny clothes
Rooting in garbage
With our paws and our nose
Some of us have feathers
Some of us have fur
Some of us growl and chirp
And some of us use words
And all of us are looking for
Someone to line our nests
With downy feathers
From their breasts
'Cause we're little animals
Wearing funny clothes
But we're just little animals
We’re little carnivores
Hunting our prey
Shopping for groceries
And going to work each day
Marking our territory
With urine and musk
Fanning our plumage
From dawn until dusk
And all of us are looking for
Someone to clean our fur
To lick our wounds
And pick out the burrs
'Cause we're little animals
Wearing funny clothes
But we're just little animals
We’re just little animals
Wearing funny clothes
Pretending we’re people
But everybody knows
We’re meant to run in packs
Instead we’re living like ants
Some of us can make it
And some of us just can’t
And all of us are looking for
Someone to bring home the kill
While we sit on our eggs
And pay the bills
'Cause we're little animals
Wearing funny clothes
But we're just little animals
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5. |
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This was written about me and the relationship I was in roughly from 1996 to 2003. The green chair that's mentioned was the chair at the listening station at Blackball Records. For me the listening station wasn't a place to check-out new releases but where Jack and Andrew would listen to me moan about my problems. Kind of like Cheers, but a record store. The dialogue “Hey buddy, break up with your girl?” / “No, we got back together” is a paraphrase of a memorable exchange from one of my visits.
_____________________
She listed off all the ways
He let her down since lunch
Men are just rotten grapes
Not a good one in the bunch
All relationships are voluntary nooses
He’s beneath her but has his uses
Why hold on so tight
When you could let go?
He sat down in the chair
Looked as green as the fake leather
“Hey buddy, break up with your girl?”
“No, we got back together”
In his wallet is a list of excuses
Why he puts up with her petty abuses
Why hold on so tight
When you could let go?
Somedays he’d prefer
Death by a thousand cuts
But living without her
Would be a thousand and one
a thousand and two
a thousand and three
a thousand and four
In her pocket is a list of reasons
To put off breaking up til next season
Why hold on so tight
When you could let go?
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6. |
You'll Never Know
02:41
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7. |
The Time It Takes
02:03
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This is a true story. I over heard this exchange on the subway home after a gig one night. I had to feel kind of bad for the guy, and wondered if he had any idea his girlfriend might be having this conversation, loudly, in public. So I wrote the song from his perspective.
_________________
My girl told her friend
On the subway home
Her heart’s an animal
Needs to be free to roam
She can’t be tied
Down cause she dies inside
She won’t be around for long
About the time it takes to bang a gong
She said that when we
inevitably
break up that she
will be so much better off
Cause she can flirt and socialize
And I can’t look people in the eyes
She won’t be alone for long
About the time it takes to bang a gong
She can’t be tied
Down cause she dies inside
She won’t be around for long
About the time it takes to bang a gong
Her friend said to her
Between Dufferin and Lansdowne
One day she’d wish
That she’d settled down
Cause the world ain’t soft
In the long run I’ll be better off
We’re not young for long
About the time it takes to bang a gong
We’re not young for long
About the time it takes to bang a gong
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8. |
We All Break In The End
02:55
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I've had the title and chorus lyric kicking around for a while, but didn't know what pressures would be making the singer of song "break" in the end. The recent dialogue around 24-hour work days, social media peer pressure, and emotional labour gave the song a focus.
______________
Carry the weight
Don’t let it show
Keep it all hid
No one can know
It’s a sign of weakness
To be human (too human)
It’s a sign of weakness
To be human (too human)
Don’t tell your friends
Keep it on the lam
Everyone else is coping
Just look at their instagram
You can twist, you can bend
But we all break in the end
Tell your mother
Job is going all right
Text your manager
You’ll work all through the night (again)
It’s a sign of weakness
To be tired (you’ll get fired)
It’s a sign of weakness
To be tired (you’ll get fired)
Only brittle people break
Only fragile people snap
You can bend like a reed
Tell yourself you won’t crack
You can twist, you can bend
But we all break in the end
Don’t tell your friends
You need their help
We’re all in the same deep water
Drowning in the kelp
Please your partner
Make them feel heard
Solve their problems
Acknowledge their words
Tell them it’s not weakness
To be human (too human)
Tell them it’s not weakness
To be human (too human)
Let them lean on you
So they won’t crack
Let’em walk away clean
When you finally snap
You can twist, you can bend
But we all break in the end
But we all break in the end
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9. |
People Will Surprise You
02:28
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When Billy Joel's "Tell Her About It" came out, I saw an interview where he said he wanted to write an "advice song" like the r'n'b and doo-wop singers from his youth used to sing. Well, he's a singer from my youth and I always wanted to write an advice song like "Tell Her About It". It's less advice and more dire warning though.
_____________________________
It’s hard to know which heart to pick
Who will treat you right, who will make you sick
The littlest things make it hard to choose
Will you sing love songs, will you sing the blues?
There’s no way of knowing until you hear the tune
No matter the key, there one note that’s true
People will surprise you
(Whoever you love, whoever you choose)
People will surprise you
(Whoever you love, whoever you choose)
It’s hard to know whose hand to hold
Whose heart is broken, and whose is gold
Cause people hide their every fault
Their lips are locked, their heart’s a vault
Whoever you choose, they will let you down
And you’ll do the same to them, someday, somehow
People will surprise you
(Whoever you love, whoever you choose)
People will surprise you
(Whoever you love, whoever you choose)
Whoever you love, whoever you choose
Cause people have a way of going astray
And people have a way of doing what they say
People have a way of sticking around
People have a way of letting you down
People will surprise you
(Whoever you love, whoever you choose)
People will surprise you
(Whoever you love, whoever you choose)
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10. |
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This was written in Nanaimo in 2007*, right before I moved to Toronto. At the time, Nanaimo was very much a mill town in its death throes. The downtown core was mostly empty storefronts, stalled or abandoned construction projects, homeless meth addicts roaming the streets in packs, and a great record store. Things seem to have improved significantly in the last decade.
*Certain attitudes I held at the time about street involved people are present in the lyrics that I cringe at now. I guess I was a small town after boy after all.
_____________________________
Zombies are walking down the street
The smell of rotten teeth on their breath
Selling their bodies for ten dollars
Hustling for another hit of meth
The sky is as blue as a crisp five dollar bill
It’s been that way since they shut down the mill
Now the only work is at the mall
It’s a small town after all
Summer’s a hard time to find work
Students are taking back their shifts
Maybe it’s time to go back to school
Live on student loans and shop at thrifts
Working three jobs, each one at part time
Trying to make rent and save a dime
Maybe get more hours in the fall
It’s a small town after all
Everyone in the north end
is buying huge plasma TVs
from box stores that stop the flow of money
and drive them home in silver SUVs
They only come downtown to see the visiting ballet
And wonder why the old stores went away
And gay pride’s got them appalled
It’s a small town after all
the only work is at the mall
It’s a small town after all
But it’s pretty here in the fall
It’s a small town after all
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11. |
Let Go Of The Night
02:53
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The late-80's and early 90's really felt like a time of change; that the perennial mess the world is in was beginning to get truly sorted out. War and prejudice and ecological destruction might actually be on the brink of coming to an end. Then neo-liberalism swung the pendulum hard right for 25 years. I recently listened to Billy Bragg's 'Waiting For The Great Leap Forward' for the first time in over a decade and thought, "What happened to the kid who'd play this at full blast, air guitaring and fist pumping, and singing along with tears of hope in his eyes to lines like 'If you got a blacklist, I wanna be on it' and 'Start your own revolution and cut out the middleman'"? Then I remembered I'd just written this song, coincidentally in a sort of Bragg style, about a much less hopeful time. Or maybe in 1990, cynical 44-year olds saw mine and Billy Bragg's optimism as naive as it seems to me now.*
*3 years later at the time of this remix, the song feels more relevant and less naive.
________________________________
If you’re gonna get up, stand up higher
If you’re gonna lay down, get down lower
If you’re gonna crack up, break down harder
If you’re gonna get out, keep goin’ farther
If you’re gonna put up, comply completely
If you’re gonna rebel, don’t do it sweetly
If you’re gonna lie, obliterate truth
If you’re gonna grow old, abandon youth
If you’re gonna drop out, just disappear
If you’re gonna tune in, listen and hear
If you’re gonna raise hell, carry a match
If you’re gonna fight dogs, learn to scratch
If you’re gonna fight darkness, carry a light
If you’re gonna fight darkness, let go of the night
If you’re gonna get woke, know you’re asleep
If you’re gonna get down, go twice as deep
If you’re gonna go slow, stay in your lane
If you’re gonna love, savour the pain
If you’re gonna be smart, don’t play with fools
If you’re gonna fix things, carry the tools
If you’re gonna right wrongs, should you carry a gun?
If you’re gonna fight darkness, don’t block out the sun
If you’re gonna fight darkness, carry a light
If you’re gonna fight darkness, let go of the night
If you’re gonna fight darkness, let go of the night
let go of the night
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The Urbane Decay Toronto, Ontario
The Urbane Decay was an indie pop recording project mainly active between 2002-2010, mainly by Jakob Rehlinger, mainly maudlin and mopey.
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