1. |
Keepers
04:08
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There are smells that can fill my head till it spills
Memories out like wet cement
I can place where they’re from and what I had done
With or without my intent
But words now spill out of me without my consent
When all I want is to tell the one I once held
Before they level and set
O! take me back to a time
That brings me back from this endlessness
That I feel all around and in me
Even when I close my eyes
There’s an air that drifts in where nothing else has been
And I cannot turn my back to
Then two figures come to sit in this room dimly lit
And I don’t know what I can do
When I feel their beckoning without touch or sound
Until I lay on my own without a will or milestone
Keeping me from passing through
O! take me back to a time
That brings me back from this endlessness
That I feel all around and in me
Even when I close my eyes
All the guardians of time, all the keepers of souls
Stand with arms linked in a row
Without a wherewithal; there’s no reason at all
That keeps them from letting me go
Still they keep me from letting go
They keep me from letting go
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2. |
Doors Left Open
03:30
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The doors that you left open
Swing to a forsaken tune
I hear it from every room I walk in
I listen out for you
The paintings along the hallway
Look on but are never drawn into
The emptiness that’s calling
From the doorways of each room
A house is just a house
We try to make a home
No matter where that house may stand
We cannot stand to be alone
There are ways we’ve tried to better
The things we could improve
Like a house that needs some mending
In each and every room
But a house is just a house
We try to make a home
No matter where that house may stand
We cannot stand to be alone
No spring cleaning could ever beat this dust
The walls are leaning towards our next address or bust
The doors that you left open
Swing to their forsaken tune
I hear it from every room that we have
Given up on too soon
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3. |
Words
03:22
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Some words are easy to say
Some words are so hard to hear
The words we wish we could take back
Are the ones that don’t disappear
They ring like warning bells in my brain
A rumble right down to my bones
Those words we wish we could take back
They become our keystones
You can keep all you want from me
But there are words that I can hear when you don’t speak
And when the writing’s on the wall
Imprinted when I close my eyes
They echo for evermore
A line that I epitomise
You can keep all you want from me
But there are words that I can hear when you don’t speak
You can keep all you want from me
But there are words that I can hear when you don’t speak
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4. |
There is a Darkness
03:09
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When I get on my way from where I’ve been
There’ll be nothing left behind worth keeping
That they have not already taken
What chances I had I have squandered
If it takes all night
If it takes a lifetime to ignore
There is a darkness at times that creeps in
When all is quiet, and the dust has settled in
And it takes its toll on everything
And it falls in line with everything they’re telling me
If it takes all night
If it takes a lifetime to ignore
If it takes all night
If it takes a lifetime to ignore
I won’t hear it anymore
I won’t feel it anymore
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5. |
One Day at a Time
03:24
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You got to go when your heart’s not in it
You got to know when you’ve reached a limit
But I don’t think that we’re anywhere near that
But you take an inch if it’s there to take
And you stop the bend just before it breaks
And we always return to where we were at
Yes, I know that we’re always only one day at a time
I don’t know if my heart’s gonna break before it blows my mind
I need to see that there’s nothing much to it
I need to know that I already knew it
And I won’t be surprised to find I’m on my own
I’ve got the loose ends but I’m not tying them
I have to feel that I’m worth what I am
All the chances before I know I have blown
Yes, I know that we’re always only one day at a time
I don’t know if my heart’s gonna break before it blows my mind
Before you go and look into the taxi car rear view
The road in front is straight and long, old comfort’s nothing new
So, let’s just see if that blood runs hot
We may be cooling but let’s give it a shot
Before this whole thing rolls us out the door
I don’t need to know where you have been
When you come home and your stumbling in
Just so long as you reach the bed before you hit the floor
Yes, I know that we’re always only one day at a time
I don’t know if my heart’s gonna break before it blows my mind
’Cause I didn’t wait up
No, I didn’t wait up
I didn’t wait up just to watch you fall asleep
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6. |
Wrong Part of Town
04:39
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Most people keep their head down
In that way, I guess we’re of a feather
It takes so much to come ‘round
When you get yourself caught up in your own tether
Sometimes I lose my place
Or lost in someone else’s measure
I feel I’m in the wrong part of town
Or living in the wrong town altogether
But I’m not looking for a friend
I don’t need a companion
Who’ll only let me down in the end
For now, I’m just seeking out some understanding
‘Cause most friends just let you down
Or show up as fair weathered
You feel you’re in the wrong part of town
Or living in the wrong town altogether
And if there’s only one road in
There’s got to be a thousand ways out
Everything ahead is now vanishing
Inside those dust clouds of doubt
Most people keep their head down
In that way, I guess we’re of a feather
Still I feel I’m in the wrong part of town
Or living in the wrong town altogether
But I’m not looking for a friend
I don’t need a companion
Maybe this will make sense in the end
For now, I’m just seeking out some understanding
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7. |
The Way That it Started
03:36
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Did you wander a time on your lonesome?
To unshackle all the woes they tied to you?
Did you hope that the ones who disappointed?
Down the track somehow would come through?
For you I know the way that it started
Doesn’t have to be the way that it ends
When the kind of love no one asks for
Was the only kind of love that you ever knew
Did you let go of the things you never needed
To free your hands and take hold of something new?
Did you let go of the things you’d held on to
In the hope of finding something true?
For you I know the way that it started
Doesn’t have to be the way that it ends
When the kind of love no one asks for
Was the only kind of love that you ever knew
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8. |
Ghosts
03:47
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You know the way you think of people lost in your past
That makes their timeline stand still from when you saw them last
And nothing in between has even happened until you see them again
Neil was a friend to me at a time when I wasn’t sure
If I was coming or going through any certain door
But we could find comfort in the things that meant the same to us both
And I’d watch the way he walked along to his own beat
The way he moved his feet
Gave me assurance when I needed it the most
Now I’m some place else and those days feel like ghosts
Some people can mean the most even if they never knew
In some kind of way they touch on anything you do
But when they come back to mind sometimes it’s too late
I don’t really know why we drifted so far
It wasn’t distance or a door not held ajar
My life just took me this way on the road I followed
When I watched the way he walked along to his own beat
The way he moved his feet
Gave me assurance when I needed it the most
Now I’m some place else and those days feel like ghosts
And now that he’s gone, like a moment in time
Held in the air that lingered between a cigarette and his lips
I watched the way he walked along to his own beat
The way he moved his feet
Gave me assurance when I needed it the most
Now I’m some place else and those days feel like ghosts
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9. |
Your Closed Heart
03:57
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Been riding out another storm
I’d been pushing away since the day I was born
It’s an endless road just to rattle your door
But I couldn’t stay in that town
Where they’re withholding your name now that your not around
I couldn’t bare it anymore
And I’ll never say I’ll ever let the truth get in the way
But until that day
It seems that I’ll always be chasing your closed heart
Until I fall apart all over again
So I got myself a room
Where the neighbouring building was my only view
And a split in the skyline gave a glimpse of the moon
But all my leads brought me nowhere
Closer to you and all your doctrinaires
Hiding behind ideals that I cannot share
And I’ll never say I’ll ever let the truth get in the way
But until that day
It seems that I’ll always be chasing your closed heart
Until I fall apart all over again
And no, it wouldn’t be true
If I told you I was coping
With all these cracks in this city
There’s none that I can pry open
To reveal the pearl I’m searching for within
They’ll only draw me into the darkness
And hold me within
All that’s left is to head back west
Feel the dirt in my boots and the dust in my chest
In the hope someday you will feel dispossessed
‘Cause I’ll never say I’ll ever let the truth get in the way
And until that day
It seems that I’ll always be chasing your closed heart
Until I fall apart all over again
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10. |
Almost
03:25
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Everybody knows that the days are numbered
But not everyone is letting on
I carry this load and I feel so encumbered
I cross out the days, I know it won’t be long
I peer through the shades, and I wait for the moment
So many have so much, I have nothing left to lose
When times were uncertain, when signs were misread
You always had the right words to say
And times I would give you reasons for them to be said
I don’t take any pride in having had you carry me this way
But that’s all behind us and I wait here alone
I hope you find comfort when the final day is done
I think back on days when I almost felt ease
We almost had something but that’s nothing now, it’s true
I almost had something but it’s nothing now without you
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11. |
Rhymes
03:34
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Those stilted rhymes and recurrent lines
Are keeping out of site and out of mind
With melodies that lull to sleep
Our wariness towards our verities
That we’ve already lived them
And if it shows, we don’t let the curtain raise to see
The ways we hold from days of old
Reverberate as if we don’t even know
And we won’t think twice as we turn out lights
As close our eyes and kiss our love goodnight
Is everything alright?
And if it shows, we don’t let the curtain raise to see
And the longer we lapse the more that time goes by
And the less that we change the more that we won’t try
And we’ll just ease on by
But there’s no ease on by…
It’s been so long repeating songs
Retracing steps that carry us along
Do we fear we will miss them?
And if it shows, we don’t let the curtain raise to see
No, if it shows, we don't let the curtain raise to see
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12. |
Bottleneck to Heaven
05:04
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In the pale morning light
Maybe just before seven
Half my luck, baby, I got stuck
In a bottleneck to heaven
You can try just as
Hard as you may
The hands of time will rob you blind
Before the close of day
But we’ll all have time
On the day that we die
And all join the line
In a bottleneck to heaven
Some men will rise
And some men will stumble
But either way the devil’s sway
Is gonna tug at you till you crumble
You can try just as
Hard as you may
The hands of time will rob you blind
Before the close of day
But we’ll all have time
On the day that we die
And all join the line
In that bottleneck to heaven
When all is said and done
Hope and fear won’t get you there
But they might get you near
In that pale morning light
Maybe just before seven
Half my luck, baby, I got stuck
In a bottleneck to heaven
Some men will rise, you know
And some men will stumble
But either way the devil’s sway
Is gonna tug at you till you crumble
But we’ll all have time
On the day that we die
And all join the line
In that bottleneck to heaven
Yeah, we’ll all have time
On the day that we die
And all join the line
In that bottleneck to heaven
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13. |
Relics
01:12
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14. |
Anthropology
03:12
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All those trinkets on the shelves
Say so little about ourselves
But for the dust they collect
And the pictures on the wall
Capture moments to recall
For the ones they affect
The days will pass
And the nights will last
Only so long as we’re asleep
And the memories shared are only ours to keep
If flames engulfed everything
See it rise and disappearing
With the ash and smoke in the air
Would we be meaningless
With nothing tangible to express
That we were ever there?
The days will pass
And the nights will last
Only so long as we’re asleep
And the memories shared are only ours to keep
Is it chemical or bone,
Flesh or wood or stone?
And would it change a thing?
Would it change anything...
In five hundred years time
All the pieces left behind
Anthropologists will define
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Matthew James Lyons Sydney, Australia
MATTHEW JAMES LYONS is a Sydney based singer-songwriter. His tender vocal tones and intricate guitar stylings are a perfect framework for his engaging songs.
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