1. |
The Sea Holds the Memory
04:19
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The sky’s a big blue blanket round the sun
Holding satellites and space junk by the ton
And I heard they built a hotel on the moon
So the tourists get a longer afternoon
Was a time
Was a place
We’d go swimming at the Forty Foot
And life was good
I just wanted to say I’m sorry
I’ve tried to forget the many ways
I’ve let you down
But the sea holds the memory
And tonight, oh tonight,
I can feel it rolling over me
The story’s heading south
The wild birds fly
But I’m this boy, that boy
Forty storeys high
Come and take us to the water
We’ll go swimming at the Forty Foot
Where life is good
I just wanted to say I’m sorry
I’ve tried to forget the many ways
I’ve let you down
But the sea holds the memory
And tonight, oh tonight,
I can feel it rolling over me
I tried to throw my arms
Around the world
All at once into the future
I was hurled
And now we sprinkle stars like sawdust
On an empty bar room floor
It’s hard to find the door
I just wanted to say I’m sorry
I’ve tried to forget the many ways
I’ve let you down
But the sea holds the memory
Where the little fishy sleeps
Dreaming of how we lived it up
All on the cheap
The sea holds the memory
Tonight, oh tonight,
I can feel it rolling over me
The sea holds the memory
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2. |
My Regeneration
04:13
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Started off a figure
In a painted land
Arrived at some kind of understanding
Where the seasons go slow
And there’s no time at
For white lies and surface reactions
There’s a light in the distance
At the edge of the night
Scared to open your eyes
Hesitation
There’s only so much affliction
You can choose to ignore
Been waiting for your
Regeneration
I was living on the back roads
She said, “How far d’you wanna drive?”
I said, “I’m having trouble deciding”
I was daydreaming
Till she said my name
Then we talked for the next 100 miles
I gazed at her reflection
In the dashboard lights
Ah this could be my regeneration
When she wound down the window
I could see the crescent moon
It’ll be here soon
My regeneration
I love old hotels
They got thick thick walls
And heavy curtains over the window
I’m waiting for a sign
To appear in my mind
And drag me out of this limbo
There’s a light on the landing
And it stays on all night
Ah this could be my regeneration
The way you tell your story
Is how you survive
How we understand
Our place in this life
Ended up sleeping
On the floor beside her bed
In a dream decided to wake up
Grabbed all my things
Headed for the door
That’s where the picture
Started to break up
I’m ready now I’m leaving
Gonna pour it out like Pericles
In a golden age
Like spring rain on dry ground
Caterpillar crawling round
No way over and
No way back
I couldn’t find what I wanted
When it didn’t feel right
Scared to open my eyes
Hesitation
As the light’s breaking through
And she tells me goodnight
Oh this could be my
Regeneration
We rely on each other
In the end it feels right
Then this must be our
Regeneration
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3. |
Bundle of Their Dreams
05:46
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They did everything together
Through the thunder and the rain
The Northern Irish weather
Then they’d do it again
They did everything together
Through the famine of the war
Kept it warm inside
Kept it outside the door
They did everything together
Since the day they wed
Down the road to buy the paper
Past the flower shop on the corner
To buy that special loaf of bread
They did everything together
I know how much that means
When you put it all together
I’m just a bundle of their dreams
She was Irish Catholic
He was Church of England
But when they hit the dance floor
They felt their skin tingling
So they decided to get married
But the parish priest said
You can’t get married in the church
So they did it in the sacristy instead
They did everything together
They had breakfast in bed
Sometimes we’d join in
A nice cup of tea
And plain butter on the bread
They did everything together
You know how much that means
When you put it all together
I’m just a bundle of their dreams
I could meet you in the Temple Bar
But I’m done with travelling
It’s eleven thousand miles too far
Here in the muddle of my themes
The Irish mongrel’s humble final scene
Floating naked in a tiny stream
Can’t fight the sundial of your genes
Together like sardines
In the bundle of each other’s dreams
I’m doing what I can
Wandering across the world
And I love my parents
And I love the girls
I’m not a bad person
Though I’ve been told I am
All I’m saying is one thing
I know what it means
I’m just a bundle of their dreams
A bundle of their dreams
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4. |
Everything Twice
04:49
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This song should be sung
In memoriam
For absent friends and places
Through all the winter fun
You made it feel like sun
An inner-city oasis
Home is where you go
When you crave some afterglow
The past can set you free
That was the first time
Could it be the last
Do spiders webs and wedding cake
Tie us to the past
When you let love in
You’re gonna roll the dice
That’s why you
Have to
Go through everything twice
I was tired
Lost my weltanschauung
Then the choir
From the Gates of Salvation
Took me higher
You took me up above the moon
To get us some exposure
“Liar”
OK, we went to Liverpool
And that is full disclosure
Rainy day in Melbourne
Sometimes it’s home
Afternoons in Auckland
I just wanna be left alone
And as for Dublin
Even paradise got a price
But why d’you
Have to
Go through everything twice?
Here I go again
Nothing’s really changed
You’d think I learned my lesson
But the old songs must be sung
And the new ones just begun
This time we’re not messin’
I’m lying in my room
With the ghost of Molly Bloom
Her best friend’s a dancer
People that you know
Some go too fast
Some go too slow
Some are kings
Some are queens
Some are chancers
And that’s why you
Have to
Go through
Go through everything twice
This song should be sung
In memoriam
Of all our favourite places
And we’ve only just begun
To have a little fun
After so long in stasis
That’s why you
Have to
Go through
Go through everything twice
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5. |
Save me a Weekend
04:25
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Save me a weekend
Let’s spend some of your time
Blame it on the weather
Blame it on the wine
You messaged in the morning
And your mother’s on my mind
Save me a weekend
You’ve got all of my time
Saw the ‘paper on the weekend
Now it’s playing on my mind
Your grandfather’s graveyard
Swastika signs
Everything sacred
Has been vandalised
Save me a weekend
There’s only so much time
We all lay awake
Every night
Watching shadows on the wall
Working out ways
We don’t have to see each other at all
Save me a weekend
Let’s spend some of your time
Blame it on the weather
Blame it on lost time
When the news is all bad
And to die is a crime
Only friendship and true love
Slow the passing of time
Before the grapes are withered
On the vine
Let’s save a weekend
You’ve got all of my time
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6. |
Three Sheep Grazing
03:47
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Three sheep grazing
Had no need to be four
Just enough grass
To keep the wolf from the door
Because it felt wrong
No one tried to graze
Another animal
Not like nowadays
Creatures hiding
On the ocean floor
From the dragnets
Where’s the unwritten law
That every fisherman
Should contain his catch
Bottom dwellers
Need their own patch
Isolation
It’s there behind your screen
Isolation
Wake up it’s only a dream
Creatures hiding
It’s at your peril
That you choose to ignore
It’s at your peril
Isolation
It’s there behind your screen
Isolation
Wake up it’s only a dream
You’ve got another thing coming
If you ignore
What’s happening on the common
Hear ye
You’re gonna feel no shame
There’ll be no grass left
And no one left to blame
Three sheep grazing
Contented herbivores
On the commons
Like it was before
Isolation
Isolation
Our global village
Lost the unspoken rules
That kept us all involved
It was personal
Isolation
Isolation
Three sheep grazing
Contented herbivores
On the commons
Like it was before
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7. |
Warrior of Love
03:13
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You build a sandcastle
Then you watch it drown
Feet in the clouds
Eyes scanning solid ground
Time is a tortoise
Then it moves too fast
There’s a blur on the horizon
Then it’s the past
So you inked your arm
With signs and curses
Handwritten melody
Love songs and verses
Warrior of love
Designs for life
Zodiac creatures
Quotations from Shakespeare
Incantations from preachers
Wise men
Banshees
Cassandra and Garbo
Scenes from Michelangelo
Stills from Key Largo
Warrior of love
Move closer
Warrior of love
Move slowly
Warrior of love
Come closer
Folk art
Pop art
Naive dramatic heaven-sent
Visions from Blake
Of innocence, experience
And a logo above them all
Of my favourite band
PEACE on my knuckles
LOVE on the other hand
Love on the other hand
Gonna sink my feet
To the bottom of this hole
Stand up straight
The universal totem pole
A warrior of love
Peace on my knuckles
Love on the other hand
Warrior of love
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8. |
Best Fun Time for Ages
05:49
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I
I was invited to dinner
At the writer’s house last night
Best fun time for ages
With some mutual friends
And a daughter who was shy
Best fun time for ages
Through a heated discussion
She played Chopin and cello
Best fun time for ages
On gender identity
A heated discussion
Best fun time for ages
It was the best fun time
The best fun time
The best fun time for ages
They spoke about FOMO
And dopamine triggers
It was the best fun time for ages
A BBC programme
Full of facts and figures
The best fun time for ages
The best fun time
The best fun time
The best fun time for ages
And the melancholy women
Said their goodbyes
With their remarkable children
Tears in their eyes
One was off to London
To build a career
The other’s building a house
For a brand-new atmosphere
She says the solar-powered heat will buy
The best fun time for ages
I skimmed a few poems
Before I went to bed
Best fun time for ages
An unanswerable question
Running round in my head
It was the best fun time for ages
It was the best fun time
The best fun time
The best fun time for ages
II
Why aren’t we doing it more often
Why aren’t you doing it more often
Why isn’t she doing it more often
Why isn’t he doing it more often
Why aren’t they doing it more often
If you gotta go
Don’t forget it
If you gotta go
Don’t regret it
You had the best fun time
The best fun time for ages
It was the very last thing
The very last thing you expected
You can write your own history
Of feeling rejected
Remember the best fun time
The best fun time for ages
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9. |
It's Family
04:04
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It’s family keeping us together
Bearing witness to each other
Navigating centuries
The beauty, terror, and the splendour
The smile from someone
Whom I long to see again
And when I do
I’ll tell her that I love her
The sweet sad and slow surrender
The sweet sad and slow surrender
Family forever
Family forever
The time is ours to have and hold
To treasure and remember
Treasure and remember
From fooling round with cricket bats
To messages in cyberspace
Motor cars and rocket ships
The years have led a merry chase
The years have led a merry chase
The future winds into the past
An interactive pantomime
The ending’s inconvenient
Always comes at the worst time
Family forever
Family forever
But it’s family keeping us together
Bearing witness to each other
Drawing circles round the earth
Mother, father, sister, brother
Family
Family keeping us together
Family
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10. |
The Happiness Index
04:08
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We all want to be happy
We want to be free
Said the King of Bhutan
“Forget the GDP”
We need a new measure
For where things are at
I’m taking back control of the stats
The Happiness Index
Coming through loud and clear
An internal assessment
Not a means to compare
But the Happiness Index
Was posing a threat
So they made it a contest
Bad luck for Chad
Our political leaders
Don’t like self-regard
In case we end up looking too hard
The Happiness Index
Rises and falls
Like the moon and the tide
Inside of us all
The Happiness Index
By royal decree
Take a look at ourselves
How hard can that be
How happy are we
In Dublin and New Plymouth
They’re gathering privately
In London, Tehran, New York, saying
“War will set us free”
While we’re hunting in the bushes
And we’re swinging in the trees
They tell you grass is greener
When you’re living on the opposite hill
And if you don’t get in line
You’ll miss out when others will
It’s a sad sick situation
When strongmen rule the circus
The clowns would do a better job
Of looking after the workers
The Happiness Index
Coming through loud and clear
An internal assessment
Not a means to compare
The Happiness Index
By royal decree
Doesn’t have to be complex
How happy are we
How happy are we
Finland’s on top
Then come the Swedes
Chad is the saddest
The saddest is Chad
CHAD
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11. |
Rock'n'Roll Star
04:59
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I
Rock’n’roll star
So pale and haughty
You didn’t get far
Never cracked the Top 40
You think your guitar
Can win her over
Stay where you are
You rock’n’roll star
I’m onto you
I can see right through
Who’s got your back
Now you’re fifty-two?
Rock’n’roll star
Reckless and gleeful
I think it’s bizarre
That you of all people
Should talk to a mirror
About someone’s mother
She knows who you are
You’re a rock’n’roll star
I wanna hold her tight
Make her feel alright
Everything will look better
Away from these lights
Rock’n’roll star
Still pale and haughty
Your Italian car
Won’t do over 40
But you’re ready to spar
With someone’s mother
In her boudoir
Like a real
Rock’n’roll star
II
Rock’n’roll star
We know where you are
Rock’n’roll star
We know where you are
III
It didn’t go like this you know
It didn’t go like that you know
I was only trying to be myself
And get out of the habit
Where I try too hard
And nothing works
And everyone else thinks I’m a jerk
Not a rock’n’roll star
I was being friendly
When I asked if I could stay the night
I know I stayed up far too late
And standing in the bathroom light
I asked myself the question
That I really want to know
Is it enough to be a rock’n’roll star?
I seen thrilling nights and city lights
And asteroids and satellites
And hotel rooms and crescent moons
And one-night stands and see you soons
I never found the time to settle down
Well do you wanna do it
With a rock’n’roll star
A rock’n’roll star
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ALT / AT Melbourne, Australia
ALT are Andy White, Liam Ó Maonlaí and Tim Finn
A & T have a new album on release March 31
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