1. |
Spark
04:19
|
|||
|
There’s a shadow creeping ‘round at the edge of the frame
It’s holding my judgment prisoner but I can’t hesitate
If I’m to keep this vessel afloat
And this city feels like some kind of memory to me
As if I’m watching my life like a movie through these eyes of TV’s
And I ain’t got the remote
I’d burn it all down just to swallow up the dark
But all I need is a spark
As I stare straight into the nihility of it all
And realize I’m just a fading picture on the wall
I get a feeling of release
Because its days like these I’d rather just dissipate
Like I’m a moth to your flame
So take my secret thoughts
I can’t use them
And will you sell my reflections to the ghosts
Of my long departed youth
I’m coming off the back of a week-long bender
I’m never one to surrender but I think it’s time I tried
To find some truth behind this dream
And I’m questioning my way along that company line
Was I born under a bad sign at the wrong time
And put to work like some machine?
I’d burn it all down just to swallow up the dark
But all I need is a spark
It’s the last stop on my line
There’s no turning back
When I am the dark side of the street
Where you hide your troubled peace
|
||||
2. |
In The Dark
04:10
|
|||
|
You can take your evangelist heart
And leave me with the casing
Put your faith in higher power
My own fate I’ll be making
Because it’s always understood
That we’ll awake without the light of the moon
In the dark
So raise a glass to the folks long gone
They belong now to the ether
I saw a million eyes hidden in stars
In a desert down in Utah
As a stranger plays a song by the fire
And the canyon holds the weight of the night
In the dark
Distant trails illuminate
|
||||
3. |
View From My Window
04:27
|
|||
|
Ontario nights
How they pass me by so slow
View from my window
Tells of a ghost town under snow
Down in the valley ablaze by the moon
I follow the bloodline through the past
Am I drifting through this life
Like a ship without a mast?
Perched like a Jay on the wire
Two lovers intertwined
Reckless desires always bleed into mind
In a truck stop diner
Drunk on that raison wine
Five hundred miles away
You lie sleepless in New York
But you and I remain
Bound like the pages of a book
There’s a magic in this old town
A silent guiding force
As I drive the final nail
Into the coffin of my remorse
|
||||
4. |
Oregon Rain
03:38
|
|||
|
With a pencil and paper I lay
The weight of the world
Between the lines of the page
Either way it’ll all end the same
We’re but remnants of stardust
Slowly floating through space
I’ve tried disappearing
But a fragment always remains
I believe I’ve been stranded in time
Like the Cro-Magnon Man
In his casket of ice
But not to change is to feed my true vice
That’s when the cowardice returns
Am I afraid what I might find?
All that could have been
That should have been
It’s a stain that won’t wash away
A recollection through rose-colored change
Even your favorite shirt will someday fade
So don’t try to keep in the Oregon Rain
Imagery of a once mighty kin
A family branching out like a river that flows
Through the veins under my skin
Yet I stand an outsider on the plain
A desolate reminder of so many
Long unspoken names
I’ve tried disappearing
|
||||
5. |
Lowdown Feeling
03:39
|
|||
|
Well I heard they hung the parliament
Strung ‘em by their ties
Left their bodies swinging there
Crows pecking at their eyes
This apocalyptic feeling’s got me
Going out my mind
Its death by propaganda
They’ll bury us with their lies
No-No way
I get that lowdown feeling in the middle of the day
No-No way
That lowdown sinking feeling, it’s leading me astray
I turned the pages backwards
To read in Japanese
But the words they made no sense
Remains a mystery to me
My creations they elude me
See them carried off to sea
By a flock of union seagulls
Advertising mutiny
Well I heard they hung the parliament
Strung ‘em by their ties
Left their bodies swinging there
Crows pecking at their eyes
This apocalyptic feeling’s got me
Going out my mind
What if this world is just a dream
That you awake from when you die?
|
||||
6. |
||||
|
We walk these badlands
Through pouring rain
Wild-eyed we’re yearning
To free our names
But it’s the same old story they tell
Just a child’s parlor game
With dirt our witness
We place our trust
In her father’s pistol
Red, lifeless dusk
It’s the same old story they tell
Another tale for the dust
So don’t treat us rough
We’ll break like light bulbs
Crack like dam walls
You and I are drowning in the flood
So revel in wonder
Where you may roam
Dare not to ponder each
Fork in life’s road
For it’s the same old stories they hear
No matter how it’s told
|
||||
7. |
Thirsty
03:42
|
|||
|
On my lonesome I lie here
It’s in my nature to be restless
Weight of a landslide is all I feel
And lately all I’ve been is helpless
Because I’m caught on the wrong side
Of new morning’s light
Like I’m stranded in your doorway
And I’m finding out the hard way
That the bottle’s all but dry
I do believe I will go thirsty
Cherry blossoms in the park
Evoking summer’s evenings walking
I watch the city sky turn dark
From the roof of our apartment building
I played the mandolin and she sang
In a voice so soft and tender
But now my weary head does hang
Low upon my surrender
|
||||
8. |
Shaky Foundations
04:09
|
|||
|
Well the winds they shake the foundations
As a storm grows behind your eyes
Let it carry me back to the one I love
Far from those heathen fires
Keep faith and science on the highest shelf
Way out of my furthest reach
For I’m lost inside the haze of life
Where neither will bring me relief
When all the meaning slips away
Recurring flashes of sinister beings
Have plagued my waking days
For as long as I can truthfully recall
But what it means I dare not say
And as I lay awake at night I know
It’ll only make things worse
What conclusion will all these festering thoughts
Really bring but a lifetime of hurt?
When all the meaning slips away
I’m just interference
Static in space
Disconnected phone line
From the bills I never paid
When the fates of friends come rattling in
Down that old familiar road
To the town where I was born and raised
I’ll follow the flood lines home
I’m just interference
I’m static in space
|
||||
9. |
||||
|
Four-am on a sleepless night
Thinking there ain’t no cure for a broken heart
Wish I was a hypochondriac
Then I could say I made this feeling up
Welcome to my sweet decline
A place I’ve never been before
But there’s a feeling that still lingers on
And that’s the hardest part
She won’t be reckoned with
She won’t be reckoned with no more
All my life I’ve felt a loneliness
Even when I’m in a crowded room
But now that feeling has been amplified
I wish I could say that it wasn’t because of you
I’m a child’s plaything; a broken toy that’s seen
Far too much attention and love
But I’ve been thrown away now
I’m fighting the urge not to give up
She won’t be reckoned with
She won’t be reckoned with no more
No more
|
||||
10. |
||||
|
A situation gentle dangles
Between a boot and a shin
A metal canteen
To hold the apparition in
Strung out like a bed sheet
You’re the epitome of health
That’s when you’ve got to ask
Is anybody really out to hurt me
Or am I taking care of that myself?
Trapped in an urban tundra
With my January low
That’s when you’ve got to ask
Is anybody really out to hurt me
Or am I taking care of that myself?
East River wind’s a cold, dark mistress
She’ll blow the smile right from your face
You said it’s easy getting off the hard stuff
All in time and space
If you plan on cleaning up your act
You’d better vindicate the mess
Before you find yourself
Holed up in a faded suit
White feather on your breast
Is anybody really out to hurt me
Or am I taking care of that myself?
|
||||
B.R.Mackie Brooklyn, New York
Australian-born, Brooklyn-based songwriter. Plays swirling, lo-fi, psych-folk-rock.
If you like B.R.Mackie, you may also like:
The Convincer (20th Anniversary Edition)
by Nick Lowe
Released in 2001, “The Convincer” is a gentle gem in the Nick Lowe catalog; an anniversary edition provides opportunity for rediscovery.
go to album
The new EP from denitia specializes in big, hooky pop songs that put her smoky voice front and center.
go to album
featured on Bandcamp Radio Aug 2, 2016
go to album
The Ohio songwriter navigates gender, queerness, class, and privilege through a powerful mix of country rock, folk ballads, and bluegrass.
go to album
Notes From The Wonderground
by The Reflection Box
Irish singer-songwriter Sarah E. Cullen bares her heart over pastoral folk arrangements enshrouded in a dream-pop haze.
go to album
Written as she was coping with an auto-immune disease, the new EP from Rachel Angel offers hushed, silvery ’50s-style Americana.
go to album
Thin Lear's sophisticated rock music is tempered with soaring chamber pop accents and an undeniable gift for melody.
go to album
