1. |
Irreplaceable
04:38
|
|||
|
I want us to be just like the real world
Irreplaceable, totally irreplaceable
I don’t want to know your ugly algorithms
I just want you to wing it, want you to make it up
Friend you’ve always got the best mutations
But trust me, you don’t need any new heads
You have enough already
Consider new limbs, instead
Sorry my wounds drank up your precious time;
I really mean it when I say precious.
Remember when we used to be antiques?
All the lights we played with, before we sold out to
Prestige TV, became experts
in Escapology. Why’s it so easy
to find your way out, so hard
to find our way in?
Oh to be fully employed
Oh to be fully enjoyed
The attenuator turned off
The gate left unlatched
With windows wide open
Our outfits all matching
But not in a creepy way
Just as normal as a dream
We’ll pass blank-paged scripts around
And from the pages sing
This song: you know---
Oh to be fully employed
Oh to be fully enjoyed
|
||||
2. |
||||
|
I sign on the line and agree to never seek you out
I waive every natural right to touch your face
And I am free to imagine you falling far from this hollow tree
Free to imagine a steady series of utter successes
For you
For you
When I give just this little, sometimes it feels like all of me
And I wonder how your mother will love, will fill the space
That I am leaving around you, hopefully flooded with hidden light
You, the strongest swimmer, will tackle the river I never could manage
Yes you
Yes you
Brewing in a laboratory
Untethered from a cursed story
Sight unseen, fleshed dream,
perfect work, godly thing
You (me)
Me (you)
|
||||
3. |
Mall Security
04:38
|
|||
|
There is protocol
It's mostly common sense
But these days, these people
You can't take nothing for granted
Sometimes I just wanna scream
You know we all came from somebody's daughter
These boys with their souped up trucks
They don't know the worth of a dollar
Baby clothes, new cell phones
Discount art and board games
As seen on TV possibilities
This place, my favorite cathedral
Recently I was given a gun
A new policy, an answer
To new unsavory elements
This part of town's changed so much
Used to people dressed up so nice
When they went out, they wanted
No, they desired to respect one another
God, this part of town's changed so much
If only they could see
all of the beautiful things I do
To make their love possible,
to keep their dream safe
This place my favorite cathedral
This place
|
||||
4. |
Born Again
04:59
|
|||
|
The old man said “I understand.
Peasants are ruled by fear.
Pacified by
Big stories and beer.”
And so we pledged to be bigger than that
And to get to the bottom of things
Sold ourselves as
servants to Science’s Queen.
O God
When we bit
Our teeth struck gold and broke
Nerve endings still combing the dark
The hot give of the sand to our insteps
The hard take of the rocks from our heels
We hadn’t yet learned to step lightly
Nor how to not feel
We soon left the bottom entirely
The shore a horizon behind us
That freedom made fresh panic in me
I screamed, you said that’s not funny
And for once I wasn’t kidding
I had fumbled the rope from the sky
And the water grew between us
A sour joke with no punchline in sight
And I was born backwards by the waves
Obeying the way they work
Somehow you were born again by them
I was born backwards by the waves
Caving to their curved words
Somehow you were born again by them
I was born backwards
You were born again
|
||||
5. |
Summer Cuts
06:37
|
|||
|
We could always just buy Thundershirts
If we wanna feel held my Mother Gravity
But some seasons come that call us
To let go of the ground
I need some new ritual
For ridding myself of the peripheral
For cleansing my cells of their memory
Of loving being alone
Why in the hell do I still
Own a VCR?
And you, with your desk drawer
Full of old birthday cards?
It’s time we got summer cuts
Sloughing off all these old hairs
Later we can let it grow long
In our graves
Ain’t we had enough of
Its weight and shade?
I have only ever wanted
To be bald and free
Like the raging eagle and her summer cut
With our summer cuts
Who knows with the fields fresh razed
And the worrying rain staying up late for us
Who knows what fair futures
Lie undisturbed?
You just can’t comb over this
Thinking your shining flesh won’t give itself away
This unevenness cannot be
Tunneled under, flown above
Have you seen redbirds make nests
With their own dead feathers?
Is it too late to sign up
For that art class now?
Maybe next time things will go right
Maybe next time, but for now
It’s headlong straight through
And it will strip you
But you can lean into it
With help
|
||||
Marcus Walton Durham, North Carolina
Formerly of the all too short lived bands Jezebel County Hospital and Lyndon Baynes Johnson and the Sea Geese, and after having released his EP Appendices in 2019, his newest and first full length album, Buena Vista, is about middle school, lost friends, the possibility and impossibility of intimacy, little flowers, and you. ... more
If you like Marcus Walton, you may also like:
Enough as it Was
by Amos the Kid
Terrifically edgy guitar rock defines the latest from Amos the Kid, funneling country influence through a gritty indie aesthetic.
go to album
Hold The Door For Strangers
by Labrador
Philadelphia-based Labrador make unfussy and empathetic alt-country meant to sincerely bolster the downcast in times of strife.
go to album
The Boy With Pearls For Eyes
by Ollie Cook
Killer tunes from teen indie rocker Ollie Cook, who has an ear for a smart riff and an eye for sharply imagistic observation.
go to album
Nothing's Real, So Nothing's Wrong
by Kevin Devine
Kevin Devine looks to moments of rupture and anxiety with an unflinching eye on his latest LP of gracious, big-hearted indie rock.
go to album
The Woman You Want
by Eliza Shaddad
Haddad returns with cinematic soundscapes that include introspective folk, post-grunge, and indie-pop influences.
go to album
Punchy pop-rock from Perth that balances gritty guitar work with wry hooks.
go to album
Another Place to Need
by A.O. Gerber
Moody, atmospheric songs where heavy atmosphere gathers around feathery vocals and shoegaze-ballad guitars.
go to album
