1. |
It's Good To Be Wrong
03:58
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All roads I’ve passed through my life
You helped me legitimise why
I’m best when I realise that
It’s good to be wrong and it’s good to be wrong
All here to analyse how
Pure nature, monopoliser
You’re best when you realise that
It’s good to be wrong and it’s good to be wrong
Lean back for another spin round
The world tips when you set it down
We’re best when we realise that
It’s good to be wrong and it’s good to be wrong
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2. |
My Best Friend
02:18
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Don’t take this personally
But we’re on the ropes and it’s sink or float
Excuse the malaprops as the wheels go round again
Half our lives were spent
Swapping inside jokes and comparing notes
Coz it’s us, not them but the wheels go round again
The more I push together
The more it tears apart
A story as old as time and it’s drawing to an end
Full of certainty
Full of vim and life but I can’t ask twice
Call emergency as the wheels go round again
My anxiety couldn’t catch a cold
Couldn’t hail a bus
Sleep before it’s 10 as the wheels come off again
The more I push together
The more it tears apart
A story as old as time and it’s drawing to an end
Saw it coming
Saw it creeping up and I’m out of luck
Mutter silently but the world spins again
But before I go, let the records show
That I’m proud to know you
Twenty years or so and I wouldn’t change a thing
The more I push together
The more it tears apart
A story as old as time and it’s drawing to an end
It’s drawing to an end
It’s drawing to an end
I miss you, my best friend
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3. |
My Right Boot
04:00
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No time for promises
No time to get misty eyed
No time for politics
When my right boot’s only good to remind me
There’s no time for hypocrites
No time to get caught without
No time for my next trick
When my right boot’s only good to remind me
Two years sure took its toll
And you learned that you can cope for now
I can’t claim I’m on a roll
When my right boot’s only good to remind me
(You’re a matinee idol)
Too long, too long
Make plans I’ll try to keep
With a stowaway summer star
Two hundred miles apart
Could almost work but it’s good to remind me
Look back, for what it’s worth
Look out for what’s coming up
Two years was bad enough
When my right boot’s only good to remind me
(You’re a matinee idol)
Too long, too long
Hold tight and I’ll be back before you wake
But you always said tomorrow comes to us all
Until it ends
So let it rain, yeah, let it fall
No doubt about the mystery of the name
And I made my mind to laze around with you
Every day, tonight, today
Tomorrow comes around again
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4. |
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All I want to do is do nothing with you
Feels such a waste when we’re stronger as two
All of the shapes on this perishable ride
They’re on our side
All I want to do is do nothing with you
Hits like a train before you’ve counted to two
Your imagination is a force to recognise
I don’t ask why
I didn’t mean it
I barely want it
I couldn’t testify
Oh, my friend, you’re paralysed
All I want to do is do nothing with you
Fold into place like we’re stuck there with glue
Freewheeling, mind-bending aphrodisiac
It won’t come back
I didn’t mean it
I barely want it
I couldn’t testify
Oh, my friend, you’re paralysed
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5. |
La Rochelle
04:29
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Farewell, farewell, the water’s deep
The shallow part is twice as steep
Come out, come out and you will see
The waves of La Rochelle
I dipped my toes in ‘93
I plucked the memory from my sleep
Come out, come out, for you it’s free
And I’d love to see you tell
Tomorrow’s symphony put pay to where I’m meant to be
When all is calm and well, we sail again
A meritocracy was laid to waste in front of me
You give with one, I take with two
And spend it on myself
Tonight, tonight, we made our plan
We threw together quite a band
Come out, come out for one last stand
At the waves of La Rochelle
A sombre night was soaked with blue
There were three of him but six of you
Come out, come out, the feeling’s true
And I love you, Ariel.
Tomorrow’s symphony put pay to where I’m meant to be
When all is calm and well, we sail again
A meritocracy was laid to waste in front of me
You give with one, I take with two
And spend it on myself
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6. |
Day Late Dollar Short
03:45
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I spent the first five years getting carried away
It was harder day to day
It took me 18 months in a curtain of rain
And I’m not ashamed to say
I found my impulse was my worst indulgence
How easily it sways
You take a long, hard look and you know what you see?
It’s an opportunity
But you’re wrong
Day late, dollar short
I feel disgusted, wrecked and I’m sick to the gut
It was holidays today
It took a quickfire note just to stir it up
And I quit since yesterday
I found my first impulse was my only indulgence
How easily it sways
I stick it down as a blip and you know what I see?
It’s a liar, usually
But you’re wrong
Day late, dollar short
Please don’t be surprised anymore
My artifice left prone on the kitchen floor
So, please don’t be surprised anymore
Lose a winning start
No matter who, it falls apart
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7. |
Endless Summer
02:42
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Gold, filled with gold
Left my operational memory halfway gone
So I’m told
Sold to the man
Who can rent and testify himself, oh Lord
Leaves me cold
I wasted an endless summer
I wasted a year
I wasted an endless summer
Waiting for love to appear
Sleep cheek to cheek
To corroborate the story that unfolds
And revolves
That my half-redacted fantasy got told
And it bombed
I wasted an endless summer
I wasted a year
I wasted an endless summer
Waiting for love to appear
So glad we found the chance
I’ll remember it all my life
Now I’m left telling myself lies
“I don’t care”
Coz I do, yeah I really do
And I fell in love with you
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8. |
Dronify
03:49
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Reduce, resist, relate, repair
It’s a rhapsody on ice
With a warning to myself to tread real light
Communicate and reassess
The truth will set you free
For an arbiter of consciousness like me
The more I taste, the more I want
Part of any healthy appetite
And the greatest song that I could sing
Is not made for those who are listening
Just you
Poor at spontaneity, a fantasy we share
And the rolling shock of thunder in the air
Half of every day I spend
Avoiding the runaround
With self-inflicted journeys across town
The more I taste, the more I want
Part of any healthy appetite
And the greatest song that I could sing
Is not made for those who are listening
Just you
Close your eyes
Till daylight pries
I’m holding on for dear life
Meet you there
Near Albion Square
Free
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9. |
Guilty As Charged
03:18
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He wasn’t much to look at once he was all scrubbed up
‘A real crack of dawner’, his mum used to say
There were moments when he brushed his hair forward
He’d resemble a half-stuffed old sofa
As if he’d been upholstered into his suit
And all the insides were starting to show
But, besides all that, it was what’s beneath that counts
A shame, then, that below the surface wasn’t much cop either
But, nevertheless, we do what we can
And on that day, in that half-light
He made a presentable case for the defence
“He couldn’t have been in the local area at the time of the incident,” he said,
Forgetting to add ‘Your Honour’
He was always forgetting to add ‘Your Honour’
But, anyway, he continued, “He couldn’t have been there because he was with me”
There was a short inhale of breath around the room
There were a bunch of them actually
As the words fell like dominos
“What was he doing with you?”
It was a reasonable question
But he was well prepared for this one, don’t you worry about that
“He was with me because we’ve become quite close these last few years,” he answered
“I’m not suggesting there’s been a huge mistake,” he said,
While suggesting there had, in fact, been a huge mistake
“But the man you see before you”
He was warming to his theme now
“Is a model citizen.
As you sit there gazing at this man…”
He was really overegging the pudding at this point
“...He finds himself the victim of a gross miscarriage of justice…
And I say this to you here today from a position of certainty…
By the power vested in me by the court…
I pronounce him an innocent man”
The florid language had lost one or two people
There was a certain amount of shuffling on seats
But as he rose for the final nail to be banged home in his argument
He felt a jolt in his stomach
One of the buttons on his green linen suit jacket started to dig into his flesh
It looked like a vacuum cleaner was whirring into life
From inside his chest
One by one, the four buttons sunk inwards and dragged the jacket in with them
It was quite the sight
No one moved a muscle as the vacuum kept on inhaling
He spluttered a few words but even the stenographer had stopped bothering
Her hands frozen
The black hole kept raging, faster now
Twenty eight seconds later, there was barely a thing to be seen
The only sign he had ever existed was the fact
That everyone’s eyes were trained upon the space where he’d once stood
But there was no time to waste
A quick slam of the gavel
Guilty as charged
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10. |
Back To The Start
03:40
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Am I being absurd?
A call for attention that nobody heard
It’s a modern phenomenon
In the dithering light
Sparks barely fly when you’re flat on your back
It’s a lesson for all of us
Today you got stuck where you are
Tomorrow you’ll move, you’ll try
For a remedy straight to the heart
In the morning I’m back to the start
Less a slippery slope
More like a forest that nobody hopes
To escape from without a scar
It’s a limited scope
Two-horse town and I only feel good
When there’s nobody bearing down
Today you got stuck where you are
Tomorrow you’ll move, you’ll try
For a remedy straight to the heart
In the morning I’m back to the start
In my own time I’ll see what to do
And by that point I hope you will too
In the meantime I’ll do what I can
Promise me that you love me too
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James Sullivan London, UK
New record VITAL SIGNS is released on 19 April 2024 on Stardumb Records.
Frontman/guitarist of garage-pop trio MORE KICKS (Dirtnap Records/Stardumb Records) and apocalypse-pop 'supergroup' SUSPECT PARTS. I also make records on my own.
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