Get all 6 Paul Melancon releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The Get Gos Action Hour!, Super Rocket X-1 (EP), Hopeful Monsters, Camera Obscura, Slumberland (EP), and Trouble If It's Fair.
1. |
Tell It To the Bees
03:10
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Someone’s draped the hive in black
and no one’s sleeping well tonight
now that bad news has come
There’s a thing that won’t be said
A truth I’ll hold until the clouds
finally withdraw
And maybe the lie won’t help the framework to stand
But sometimes evasion is all that’s at hand
I won’t tell a soul
A brilliant space
in any case
An opportune ‘by the way’ will help to distract
Weak support collapsing from inside
The floors are sagging but
I can keep up the act
I hear the humming from outside
enough to know what it implies
Someone’s draped the hive in black
and no one’s sleeping well tonight
now that bad news has come
And if the lie won’t hold the present back
and I’m the last one between the tale and the fact
I won’t
I won’t
I won’t tell a soul
(©2005 UbikMusik, BMI)
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2. |
What She Kept
04:08
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What she kept was a
fire escape of a love
A safety net you can
only reach from above not from the ground
And what she left wasn’t mine
What she left behind
was something you want but you don’t
but nothing I ever could own
What she kept somehow
silhouettes all the things it belies
Situations of obligations of
separations of miles
What she left wasn’t mine
What she left behind
was more than enough to get by
but just short of coming in time
She bought out all of the slums
just when I wasn’t looking
Ignores my history and sells to the gentry and
I’m displaced and lost
What she kept wasn’t
something built just for show
What she kept I would
long regret that I found and never would know
What she left wasn’t mine
What she left behind
is shocking but somehow well-known
It’s something you want but you don’t
And nothing I ever could own
(©2005 UbikMusik, BMI)
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3. |
Dark Double Bed
03:17
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It's a little surprising
that you would've ever let your sentiment show
Sent off in writing
My predestination that will never get told
I kind of like you
All the same I wish you'd learn to quiet your head
It's all true
but I don't want to wake up to the things I've said
I don't want to wake up to a dark double bed
All the perfect graceless things that you did
aren't enough to settle up with Cupid
Nothing else will be the same again
And again
This is everything I can't control
Battles I'm not fighting
Make believe that I haven't sold
I kind of like you
Even though there's nothing that I couldn't pretend
It's all true
But I don't want to wake up to the places I've been
I don't want to wake up
So I will hold myself before I go in
To hear the note that rings and leaves me knowing
Nothing else will be the same again
I can’t take
these snapshots of
my downfall though someone’s eyes
How long ‘til
a swift blow
might make me realize
All the perfect graceless things that you did
aren't enough to settle up with Cupid
So I will hold myself before I go in
To hear the note that rings and leaves me knowing
but I don’t want to wake up
I don’t want to wake up
(©2005 UbikMusik, BMI)
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4. |
O Columbia
03:02
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She wakes up slowly
Hides the paper
just like yesterday
Her friends are there but cautious
A bit embarrassed
but too afraid to say
She may stumble but the weight she will throw
she'll blame on someone else
Oh, Columbia, I do love you
but less than you feel for yourself
She stands up boldly
Quick to point out
she's been wronged before
Her friends are there but silent
Too afraid to
suggest she ought to know
What did you expect would happen
when you pushed them to the floor?
Oh, Columbia, I do love you
but I’ve seen this scene before
She slaps them down with every act
Yet, she’s surprised when they swing back
A hit no one deserves, but
only she could’ve missed it coming
Oh, Columbia, I’ve been quiet
now for far too long
Oh, Columbia, I do love you
but that doesn’t mean
that I can’t see when you’re wrong
She won’t even hear me
She’ll draw the covers
and snuggle back to sleep
(©2005 UbikMusik, BMI)
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5. |
You Are Her(e)
03:51
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This song is a new one
Sit down, settle in
There’s not much chance
that you’ve heard it before
so let’s just begin
I can’t say that I blame you
when you’re not surprised
to see her unwittingly claim me
and watch me hide her
in this line
The chorus has come
and I’ve yet to begin to explain
and I’m starting to lose my nerve
But a self-stolen chord change
can’t do enough to cover your impatience
Please let me name it first
“You Are Her(e)”
I should be more clear
now the second verse has started
But I’m thinking of her in her room
Now she’s hearing this song
for the first time
It’s so hard to follow I know
This chorus is lost in the sheets
and the curve of her leg
Maybe you’ll strain to hear
My words are obscured
as they trail down the small of her back and disappear
You are here
The message I can’t deliver maybe this song will surrender
“All the lives I could have led begin here”
In the light inside her secret sphere
Maybe your finger hovers
an inch above the power switch
when you find
this self-stolen chord change
can’t do enough to cover and you’re surprised to find
that you are her
You are her
(©2005 UbikMusik, BMI)
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6. |
Gravel Queen
03:56
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I would never have chosen
a fire this sad and golden
but now I'm curled around
a heat I've learned to hate
and I'm choking on the dust I generate
I know now just where your heart has gone
So pick it up from the gravel where it's fallen
Anyone that knows can tell that
I could never have seen through
what could ever have kept you
I'll stamp your face in tin just to buy the hope
that you'll know just what this worthless currency is for
I'm so cold I can't make it to the phone
I'm weighted down by the gaps that I've ignored
Anyone that knows can tell that
I sometimes think my whole life hinges
on just what anyone envisions
Have I sold two years of my life
for keeping up that part?
Sweep it up this time
I've crumbled to the floor
I don't know why you'd wait around for more
This kingly little crown has slipped
a well-known drag that no one gets
You've got a right to know
just where your heart has gone
So pick it up from the gravel where it's fallen
One more chance to keep it hid
in any little hole that fits
(©2005 UbikMusik, BMI)
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7. |
Fluoxetine
03:37
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Here’s my companion
Ageless and old, hovering behind
It’s in the house but
in some other room that I never find
I’m too numb to see through its
simple disguise
Something is moving
Another dark thought that it will surround
It might mean release but
I’m miles away when it comes around
combing through pieces
I don’t recognize
And all that I want
is to leave all the big questions open
So take my unknowns
to buy all that somehow could be owned
with patents on my mixed emotions
What gets to me is
What if it’s all I’ll ever be again?
A dose of defenses
A daily dissolve of anything within
A chemical façade for anything
I might devise
And all that I want
is to leave all the big questions open
So take my unknowns
and patent all my mixed emotions
And all that I want
is to somehow feel something forever
but all I know is that I don’t
I can’t even write what I’m feeling
I can’t even write what I’m feeling
I can’t even write, I’m not feeling
(©2005 UbikMusik, BMI)
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8. |
Fall Down
03:28
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Alright
you said “goodbye”
but I’m so tired
and I’m still tied
Tied to the phone
I hum with the dial tone
that same lost song
I’m sure you can sing along
Last time I call
Last time I hold the line
Last time I fall
Fall like that stupid rhyme
Ashes, ashes, fall down
Somehow
your light’s on even now
Does he know about
the fresh tale of the hour?
Has he been hit
by the smile of your precious gift?
A best friend kiss
for a loss you’ll never miss?
But last time you said
Last time you gave your word
Last time I prayed
but even hope seems to burn
Ashes, ashes, fall down
Last time I call
Last time I even care
Last time I fell
but this time I came prepared
Ashes, ashes, fall down
Ring around the rosie
a pocket full of posies for you
A scent to hide the poison I bring for you
(©2005 UbikMusik, BMI)
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9. |
Boom Echo
03:47
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Maybe between us we’ll find that we’re gold
when what we’ve in common is just that we don’t
It’s so funny that I never knew you well
Since now I feel like the ghost of your mouth is
shaking chains deep inside my redoubt and it’s
not too bad for what I have never felt
I am the man in this song now who knows
that I am the man in this song with no hope
of making sense of the scenery
And you’re waiting to hear that I might stop
or just be circumspect and let it drop
The thing I can’t forget about is that
you would even think about us and
what I want could be just this simple
I want to see you
I just want to see you, I only want to see you
I only want to see you now
(©2005 UbikMusik, BMI)
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10. |
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Did you know
I’m terrified to write this all down
Like somehow I’ll just keep it around
A metaphor to leave myself out of
Did you know
I’ve strung the ropes as tight as they’ll go
Braced the floors just to keep it below
to dance myself through one more dumb show
But every page I have found
leaves one more hasty brick wall on the ground
I lay curled up from the sound
I’m afraid of what’s at the end of the book
Did you know
my weaker faith can’t really compete
with my own skill for self-deceit
The only things that dent are concrete
You wouldn’t know
that every musty corner was mine
that what I fear I simply imply
Every song was true, every word was a lie
They had it right when I was five
And I’ve got no call to be surprised
by everything I despise
But I’m afraid
I’m afraid
I’m afraid that what’s at the end of the book
is just me
(©2005 UbikMusik, BMI)
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