1. |
Unburnt Viola
02:22
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2. |
Wishing Well
02:24
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Cliff top, penny drop, never get older, Moving to the north where the winters are colder
There I’ll get a graft for the chip on my shoulder. Or drink ’til I’m gone, let reality smoulder
I think about you all the time. The salt, the stair, the taste of wine. Thinking straight now, rarely, seldom. But when I’m gone, will you please tell them
I drowned in a wishing well
Now I’m wishing that I could roll my car in the sea. And throw the television off the end of the quay. And delete all the data they collected on me. My birth, and my death, and my family tree
I think about you all the time. The salt, the stair, the taste of wine. Thinking straight now, rarely, seldom. But when I’m gone, will you please tell them
I drowned in a wishing well
Did I fall away?
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3. |
Ninewells
03:40
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My sanity was melting
On the pavement in the rain
I was breathing swimming faders
As the ventilator strained
I focus on our footsteps
As I slowly decompress
The pine above was freezing
Broke your glasses, tore your dress
Beautiful ephemera
Just do what you do
I’ll start learning how to meliorate
And mend your clothes for you
Thoughts about the future
Are getting hard to trust
Could have stayed forever
But it would never be enough
The herring gulls were blamed for
The falling of the bridge
Raise the level of keys
Bolt the ladder to the ridge
A broken wing, a fall to earth
To land amongst the trees
Frame your qualifying letter
Where you check the ivory
A vision of the future
Then the cage door slammed shut
Could have stayed forever
But it would never be enough
———
Came along from nothing
He was here and he was loved
Could have stayed forever
But it would never be enough
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4. |
Hairband
04:27
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As the wave breaks on your arm
Or you wake to the alarm
You are outstripped
By a guilt that has convinced you that
Everyone you’ve every loved you’ve harmed
Curtains twitching morning light
Snow collected overnight
You almost leap
From a sleep that had you paralysed
While someone stole our children in the night
With your hairband
Wrapped around my wrist
I try to focus on this
In the tin behind the tree
Where you plant their baby teeth
It seems so strange
That these acts should mean much more to you
Than anything you’re ever seen to do
And the ghosts you choose to hide
Fly around our room at night
You close your eyes
And they pull on every part of you
Until the wave breaks in a wash
Of grey-blue light
With your hairband
Wrapped around my wrist
I try to focus on this
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5. |
Run Aground
03:38
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Where’s your breath in the heat?
You only ever see it when it snows
And you only show our youth to me
Like there’s still something wrong with getting old
The grass is the sea beneath
This pine-pallet boat we’re on
When I’m overboard reach for me
Ten seconds off means you’re gone
You’re at a loss with a lack of ideas
Too many places in too few years
You left the flare where it burnt your hand, and
Left a mark saying “this is where we’ll lie down”
In case we run aground
Your eyes peel back the years
Like a spade deep-digging in the dirt of my mind
But I remain a stranger here
With a black-winged bird as my only tie
Still I used to build a world with you
Your step-sister stole my nights
There was very little else to do
So leap from the ship, and swim for your life
You’re at a loss with a lack of ideas
Too many places in too few years
You left the flare where it burnt your hand, and
Left a mark saying “this is where we’ll lie down”
In case we run aground
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6. |
Feathers
03:34
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7. |
Cleaned
03:17
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A satellite spinning in January sand
Burying the hatchet and hiding your hands
In the dancing detritus you argue with ghosts
And phone-film a coffee cup float down the coast
Never forlorn, you’re holding your own
Wash your face in the tide and thumb a lift home
It’s cleaned by the ocean
Cleaned by the ocean
It’s cleaned by the ocean sometimes
A collection of notebooks you’ve been stealing for years
A thieving of language sketched out on the pier
In buried handwriting, illegible print
You ran into the library, threw up down the sink
And I didn’t think to ask you, it didn’t seem right
Rolled up in linen, thrown over the side
And it’s cleaned by the ocean
Cleaned by the ocean
It’s cleaned by the ocean in time
In 2007, running into the waves
We were freezing our balls off and singing in caves
Your father had died and work was a joke
So we ran to the coast before something else broke
Fuck ‘em all, Donnie, they don’t know you that way
Wash your face in the tide, fall asleep in the bay.
And it’s cleaned by the ocean
Cleaned by the ocean
It’ll be cleaned by the ocean someday
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8. |
The Lightning Tree
04:09
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Annie, meet me by the lightning tree
I miss my old house and the sound of the sea
Not falling in love, but neither are you
There’s a beautiful chaos in all that we do
When I buried his bones I sat here alone
When I made love and I cut and run
And I’m down on my knees ‘neath the lightning tree
Begging you please to come home
I need you now to atone
So, Annie, meet me by the lightning tree
We’ll throw wedding rings and our phones in the sea
Escape to the south where there’s no-one we know
I’ll read you to sleep with Medallion and Crow
When I buried his bones I sat here alone
When I made love and I cut and run
And I’m down on my knees ‘neath the lightning tree
Begging you please to come home
I need you now to atone
So, Annie, meet me. I don’t know what I need
But I’m losing my mind and my time to this tree
I was barely sixteen down the stairs in that room
There’s a beautiful chaos in all that we do
When I buried his bones I sat here alone
When I made love and I cut and run
And I’m down on my knees ‘neath the lightning tree
Begging you please to come home
I need you now to atone
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9. |
The Wind-Up Crow
03:24
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You’ll be an old soul watching
As the world implodes
Unless you overreach
And the less you try to count it all
The easier to sleep
Shattered days
Will keep the dreams away
But they surely take a toll
It used to seem so minuscule
Now a fucking great black hole
We’ve lost control of the wind-up crow
Used to play small roles or the cameos
Now he’s nesting in the room
We’ve lost control of the wind-up crow
Used to play small roles or the cameos
Black feathers seem to bloom
Wind-up crow and you
Head down in the gutter
Collecting memory
So you crush crow
To soften the blow
And sit up all night with me
He used to keep his distance
A feather left at most
It’s hard to tune him out sometimes
So raise a glass in toast, to our
Lost control of the wind-up crow
Used to play small roles or the cameos
Now he’s nesting in the room
We’ve lost control of the wind-up crow
Used to play small roles or the cameos
Black feathers seem to bloom
Wind-up crow and
You should have left him well alone.
The whole thing’s aa in a snarl o’ shite
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10. |
The Worm
03:39
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The worm burrows in through my ear
He always seems to find me here
He knows every worry and every fear
The worm burrows in through my ear
Crow’s sitting on the wire above
He sees only weakness and loss in love
He’ll outlive that olive-branch-bothering dove
Crow’s sitting on the wire above
There’s bats chasing fireflies round our home
The dark eats the light when the light is alone
The days are too full now to fully atone
There’s bats chasing fireflies round our home
These creatures of habit put on their show
After thousands of years they know just where to go
They feed on each other, they breed and they sew
These creatures of habit put on their show
The worm burrows in through my ear
He always knows to find me here
He unearths the worry, he unearths the fear
The worm burrows in through my ear
———
Goodnight, lad.
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Seán R. McLaughlin & The Wind-Up Crows Scotland, UK
Ninewells out now!
“…a tremendous rootsy collision of Americana and folk influences that bodes
incredibly well for their forthcoming album.” - FOLK RADIO UK
Praise for The Crows & Seán R McLaughlin's writing:
“...emotional and songwriting maturity”
-THE NATIONAL
“...phenomenal energy and great songwriting.”
-TOM ROBINSON, BBC 6 MUSIC
... more
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