1. |
Regular Lovers
04:23
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In the slipstream
That shimmered through your best dream
You were glistening
And I followed you down
You were whispering
Secrets from your worst sting
I was listening
There was no other sound
Now we’re regular lovers, we’ll schedule our rendezvous in
I won’t break my bond for you, you’d know I’ve grown fond of you then
I know it’s been hard on you, reseraching new routes towards bliss
But doesn’t a part of you, doesn’t a part of you wish
Let’s share a little crime
For we are partners in exile
Let’s kill a little time
Now we’re regular lovers, we’ll schedule our rendezvous in
I won’t break my bond for you, you’d know I’ve grown fond of you then
I know it’s been hard on you, re-learning to cease and desist
But doesn’t a part of you, doesn’t a part of you wish
But doesn’t a part of you, doesn’t a part of you miss
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2. |
A New Cross
04:39
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Don’t look in the mirror, don’t look in the mirror, wistful émigré
Lest you see the terror, lest you see the terror and woe
Your formidable father falters with a weight that's too late for him
Not-to-be-forgotten brothers wallow in the fallow they know
And your mother, oh your mother, she's weeping like a mother at the barrier
She'd wished away the rains that washed away the life that you'd sewn
And the laurel-scented lover you left, they always thought that you'd carry her
Now you're leaving in another watercolour, you're leaving alone
For now you'll put your pride aside until you pay what you owe
The ether dusk descends along the river
Another debtor’s letter's been delivered
Of the land where you couldn't flow, you learn to let go
Where the brittle princes fell, you see the true cost
On the road that endeth well, you bear your new cross
Of the land where you couldn't flow you learn to let go
For now you'll put your pride aside until you pay what you owe
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3. |
Waltz for Vladimir
04:43
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Away, away, away, away from the heartland
In stow, in stow below, a cargo of hate
He never cried, though the cut of his visage
Spoke of struggle before
And trouble in wait
Cast onto the stage as the curtain ascended
As Leningrad died, his father had bled
Out on the tide, he calls up his image
Like poets of yore
Vladimir’s fled
He’d read the worshipped words of the duellist of valour
He’d heard the righteous hymns of exiles of wisdom and will
Woke in the light sleet, longing for ardour
Looked out on the stark and stately street, felt only its chill
The lilt of laughter left as he glides by the river
Is of compatriot dolls who came here for gold
And occasional calls in tongues of quicksilver
Entreating with him to come in from the cold
As he wakes before dawn to the toll of his duty
Still the bludgeoning bear oppresses and steals
The pitiless morn wields a terrible beauty
He breathes in its dew and knows that it’s real
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4. |
Take on the Town
05:20
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Oh won’t you hearken here, brother in exile
This is your superego bringin’ the news
The barricades are down at the turnstiles
Exit angels left it for you to choose
And I know you’ve had a taste of the sweet life
Soft and supple and tender and true
And it ended without trace of a good fight
It ended up hardening you
Let’s take on the town and find the wild light of Turner in real time
Slip into the summer and sever from our suffering skin
Roses flowing over the Thames, we’re flowing over a goldmine
Silver in the skyline again
All the fallen false fruit in the new Rome
All those fleeing like a Wild Geese Redux
They say they’re craving for the place that they new as their one true home
We both know it wasn’t for you
So don’t you wallow now, brother in exile
Don’t you swallow what you know isn’t true
Don’t lose sight of the flight of a life of a highness of mind
That’s death and destruction to you
Let’s take on the town and weave a wide web of wit by the river
Cathedral on a level as the water washes over the din
Roses flowing over the Thames, we have been delivered
To disappear into the luminous twilight of learning and sin
Let’s take on the town and find the wild light of Turner in real time
Slip into the summer and sever from our suffering skin
Roses flowing over the Thames, we’re flowing over a goldmine
Silver in the skyline again
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5. |
A Way from Shelter
03:08
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Your sentences were self-imposed
Grim and bloody-minded deeds
Ancient vows of noble seed
Now cast anew, oaths recomposed
With brutal youth and hardened heart
You cast off binding winter deep
Awoke from lavish love-lush sleep
To embrace this cold and stony creed
The waves of consequence arose
And how stark was the sting of cost
Freed from ties, now bound to loss
You reached out for the alms of art
New laws on neon battlegrounds
The wildness of a city tamed
And rules reframed in archaic games
Still blissful fools seek wistful clowns
You sought out missals from the old world
Missions manned to scared vaults
But in retrospect only faded faults
And you found you’d had enough of ghosts
The phantoms of those you’d loved the most
Banished then to leave no trace
‘Cept anthems penned, you're left to brace
Yourself again against the cold
Across the water, a way from shelter
A bridge through force of rhyme
And home a state of mind
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6. |
Hiraeth
04:20
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It’s been struggle heretofore
You return again to the well
By which many good men swore
In which many good men fell
In the languid hellish noon
You hear the spectral bell
In the lamplit sheltered gloom
You fear for whom it knells
You sing a hymn for the princedom you miss
Drink again 'til you’re convinced it exists
Hem yourself in with these remnants of bliss
Hell-bent on relentless descent
But the longing will never be satisfied, the lost land will never be found
The Lords of the Lane will have passed and died, you’ll be king of The Little Crown
And your thoughts turn to days of simplicity when you ran rings around on the Rye
You’ll be lost in a haze of complicity, your time will have passed
You'll sing a hymn for the princedom you miss
Drink again 'til you’re convinced it exists
Hem yourself in with these remnants of bliss
Hell-bent on relentless descent
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7. |
Mentioned in Dispatches
06:56
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I.
“Hail another ale” says the Bitter to the Bettor
“Make mine another cider and we’ll swallow to the letter
There’s a long night ahead, and we’ve cause for inquisition”
The All-Ireland is all over and winter’s settling in
The Bettor’s grown no wiser, his twinkle's growing dim
But he’s a fiver on at Fontwell Park, at Fairyhouse he hopes for a position
The Compatriot turns pale, he’s been here many times before
The Bettor a broken drinker, the Bitter a soaken bore
Relentless in pursuit 'til he establishes your position
But the rain has staked its claim and home is no parade
He’ll say he’d been distracted, he’ll say he’d been waylaid
Besides you wouldn’t describe imbibing as an imposition
He rolls up his drinking sleeves, he revs up his shrinking liver
II.
Says the Bitter: "Young Kelly’s home from yonder with a sorry tale in tow
Shur didn’t he always love to wander, though now it’s laid him low,
But where’d he leave it with the father a rambler til he wed his yellow maiden"
“Ah now, hold on” says the Bettor, “that’s merely an accusation
I heard that Thai approached him in murderous contemplation
A switchblade on his person, cursin' the nymph he said betrayed him”
The Bitter leans to the table with a look of satisfaction
“There’s three sides to that story then” and waits for a reaction
Then glances towards the counter which presently with pints of stout is laden
“I only just overheard her, that Charlie Dixon’s daughter
Sayin’ it was murder, though he may only get manslaughter
But whoever drew first and whoever did worse and whether he was cursed there was no doubt he slayed him”
He licks his lips as if relishing this devilish deceit that makes them shiver
III.
Jump forward half an hour and they’re deep inside the tenth act
The Paddys and the Powers have begun to make an impact
When Kelly’s brother makes his entrance through he side door with his loyal band of others
He has the type of demons you’d need to drive a stake through
A wise and wily fox waiting for his hedgehog breakthrough
Consistently distracted by the treachery of lithe young legs uncovered
He feels their eyes upon him and his orders up a skinful
From precocious Polish barmaid, acknowledges it’d be sinful
Meanwhile thinks of what that bitter bastard said about his brother
He returns to his comrades, he’d always been their hero
Steamed through daring deeds they could only simmer near to
He knows they’ll believe whatever he conceives no matter what they’ve heard from others
As he lays down those brimming Bombardiers they always knew that he’d deliver
IV.
Now Samwat is a Sikh and peace and love his main codes
Says to brooding Kelly “Friend, you’re rolling down the wrong road
Won’t you be a saintly soldier, sacrifice revenge for blissful gladness”
“Well aren’t you quite the silky Sage, though what’d you know about it
‘Tis easy speak of rage when your blessed to live without it
It’s a burden in our blood that makes us beasts, we don’t feast on hate or badness”
“Friend that man’s already ruined and living as a shadow
Dealt his father’s mortal wound when he let the land run fallow
Never did return and so his hatred burned, his spiteful life putrescent sadness”
Kelly turns away and thinks of judge and jury
Of his brother’s squalid cage and the wasted years of fury
Sees it all in a moment of gestalt as pure unfettered madness
There and then, he repents for all like them, the elation makes him quiver
V.
And so a calm descends on this refuge in the damp night
Some spirits on the mend as they spill into the lamplight
Others left to drift alone, abandoned bottles floating down the river
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8. |
A Song for Exile
05:17
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In exile within exile in the 13th
Seeking solace from the tourists and the sun
Two old souls descended in a corner
One young enough to be the other’s son
Both agreed it wasn’t sporting quarters
At least not for sport where artistry is king
And both concurred the homeland was decaying
Even as the dew burned off the Spring
“Let’s raise a glass for exile and its glory
And escape again as we’ve done before
Let the longing linger on, for this story’s telling song
Yearns for longing all the more
There was no war, there was no oppression
When I broke from the fragile hold of grace
To live a life of freedom from concession
To track the course of icons that I traced
And now I move discreetly through the seasons
As a swallow free from burden and from toil
Nature like a lover has her reasons
And I was always cast to play the foil
Let’s sing a song for exile and its glory
And escape again as we’ve done before
Let the longing linger on, for this story’s telling song
Yearns for longing all the more
I was taught not to deliver lessons
And I can tell you wish to learn by stealth
I’ll leave you with just this one last confession
That may explain the cold resolve I felt”
Just then the crowds arrived, the spell was broken
They parted ways into the dimming light
As dusk drew down on what had gone unspoken
A train prepared for journey into night
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9. |
Another Ceremony
05:59
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In my finest poet’s pose I rehearsed my plea then
The park was Coole and
My will was strong
In her meekest sheepish clothes, she came to meet me
Divulge discreetly
Maud was already gone
She was already gone
From the West the coastal mist was falling quaintly
And from the East, the floating world was calling clear
And in the wind among the reeds, I heard her pleading faintly
As my pride arose against a tear
They said “she tested the wrong man”
Where every war involves a rose,
I roamed and conquered,
Fell despondent,
Soldiered on
Strewn along the path I chose, the blood of longing
Loss and mourning
Cast in song
Another ceremony hails another autumn
Another emblem borne to mark another year
Nostalgia’s sweet seductive sound drowns reason’s gentle calling
And so I strain again to hear
“You left at the right time”
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10. |
Runner
06:20
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I can see me on the edge of this dream
Floating freely in sync with the stream
In the mountainous air
My thoughts racing with the riveting rhytym
Now I’m moving with the swell of the dawn
On a summer’s morning before my burden was borne
By the banks of the Thames
From the hard-hearted hub of the kingdom
I was only just hitting my stride when I faltered
I was only just beginning to learn but I faltered
Now I’m drifting and the ache has long eased
And I’m sifting through these last memories
And though peace it is nigh
I’m longing for the sting of resistance
If I could only just sense it again
The wind whipping rain on my skin
The end far in the distance
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Doctor Mirabilis Nottingham, UK
After shedding the exoskeleton of troubled troubadour JT Songs, Doctor M emerged fully formed and backed by the superb playing and production of Peyton Pinkerton on his first three albums, A Matter of Mind (2011), Exiles (2014), and The Captain’s Chorus (2017). Aims and Methods (2023) signals a new musical direction and the first release recorded and mixed at Doctor M’s own Sublemotion Studios. ... more
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