1. |
Grindstone
03:45
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the wall's thrown at you
over and over again
there's no breaking through
this always rising heat and aggression
like a wound up hornet trapped in a glass jar
pacing every hour cross-eyed in the white hot dark
the inferno's been pushed inward too long
and all it would take to blow right now is one
delicate spark
the thread's pulled and pulled
drawn towards a nothingness
unraveled in full
fraying bit by bit out into cold blue space
but woven into the wandering air
is a promise that if you look up, you'll hear the sun's heartbeat
and after all this time you find
that the sound is scrambled, swaying, chopped up
like a dark
pool
reflection at midnight
'cause all you ever listen to
are answers Echo gives to you
and I know if I keep sitting in here
with you, I'll be drowned or slaughtered
so now as waves come rushing by
I keep reaching for what's inside
this endless bitter well that I've been
dragging with me constantly
to turn
all of it
into dust at the grindstone
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2. |
Given Back to the Dark
04:50
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I was never supposed to fall so far into the night
I hear the music of Orpheus and it only sounds alright
the morning light could hit like a bomb and I'd stay right where I am
I worked so hard learning how to sit still that I forgot how to stand
I should just let these rain clouds
crash and move, let everything transform
even if I try and fight it
still will it will it will it always will
I don't wanna leave it
I don't wanna believe it
I can almost see it, but it goes
then it's gone
and given back to the dark
in the glow of a sour moon, in its cresting bitter waves
I shoot away from the hungry earth and then crawl back every day
to where my body is opened up with my insides inside out
I'd always guessed it was full of whispers but apparently it shouts
I should just let this alchemy
crash and move, let everything transform
even if I try and fight it
still will it will it will it always will
I don't wanna leave it
I don't wanna believe it
I can almost see it, but it goes
then it's gone
and given back to the dark
I should just let this energy
crash and move, let everything transform
even if I try and fight it
still will it will it will it always will
I don't wanna leave it
I don't wanna believe it
I can almost see it, but it goes
then it's gone
and given back to the dark
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3. |
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eating an orange under a shady tree
I might have dosed off but I never sank
swimming so freely in the dreams of the world
just like a fish inside an endless tank
serene, empty, wide and deep
to where you could stay lost
in glass waters, only you
with all your wandering thoughts
so this must be the ocean
moving only by sound
always ending up back here
with the noises I've found
so in the moment that each moment feels strange
and they come one by one, again and again
electric storm in me that's so alive
I'm feeling every single drop of rain
red-winged blackbird, so demanding
right up next to me
but across a wide ripple pond
it sings a skipping stone melody
so this must be the ocean
moving only by sound
always ending up back here
with the noises I've found
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4. |
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I'm sick with a gut full of candy
I'm sick of the lies I believe
of seeing mirages of power
I run and they fall right through me
I run and they fall right through me
now vapors are all that I see
oh the indifference can be so aggressive
it strangles out any life that won't serve
this joyless machinery that so passive-
ly just goes straight as the rest of us curve
the house may be warm and your clothes may be dry
but that's 'cause it's burning and you'll burn alive
so just put me out with the streetrats
the clouds have me feeling so jagged
the thunder has me feeling soft
I used to light up with the rainstorm
but now it just pisses me off
it just pisses me off
working for slop from a trough
dying for slop from a trough
I never thought, stepping into this weather,
that my life could ever be made so coarse
the light was supposed to reveal something better
but it just seems to make everything worse
the house may be warm and your clothes may be dry
but that's 'cause it's burning and you'll burn alive
and I'd rather be out with the streetrats
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5. |
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you called me on the phone
so excited to tell me
that the eyes all around you had closed
you could now open up to the wind
and even though I was so confused
I stayed there and listened
until I could hear you
'til I opened with you
up to the lit stars on open sky waters
flickering softly and crying
in the milky blue black night
draw me the figures you see in those lights
'cause what I seek is all I ever find
you said these things to me
so ready to burn down
all the secrets that separate you
from the person you are to the world
and if I seemed not all the way there
I probably was afraid
for my secrets
if they were to burn up with yours
along with the lit stars on open sky waters
flickering softly and crying
in the milky blue black night
draw me the figures you see in those lights
'cause what I seek is all I ever find
and in the broad contours of space
I swear I could sail for miles
and not lose anything along the way
but only grow upward, closer
to the lit stars on open sky waters
flickering softly and crying
in the milky blue black night
draw me the figures you see in those lights
'cause what I seek is all I ever find
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6. |
The Desert and the Woods
04:30
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rose petals floating or sinking stones
all the lives you wandered through that you know
you should've left alone
the penny fountain gives you what it has
no matter what you asked for
tongue cutting razorblades or peaches and cream
things you swallowed just to feel in touch
with all your wild dreams
you wonder how much aching is enough
as you keep getting dished more
while the desert sands burn vividly
and the woods
slip by like trickling water
burning sun drenched mornings or half lit moons
the energy you need is around
but it might me going soon
the earth you sleep on's just as alive
as the other one you walk on
colorful bright feathers or tired wings
all the love that's fallen right through your hands
became the songs you sing
the city birds, they wander 'round our homes
and keep looking for their own
as the desert sands burn vividly
and the woods
the desert sands burn vividly
and the woods
oh the desert sands burn vividly
and the woods
slip by like trickling water
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7. |
Lemon Electric Panther
03:51
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just like branches that grow
in the din of a blood-drawn sun
you chase your end so quietly
and slowly, knowing it won't run from you
you don't ask for an answer
from your lemon electric panther
you feel it prowling within you
its sour notes crescendo to a burn
it roams in the light and then fades off
energy that hums so warm and so soft
balanced on a wire it calls home
so gently it thrashes, deeply it breathes
like electric rivers buzzing it speaks
you feel it in the marrow of your bones
like you're always being chased down by a stone
in the way that the wind
sends a charge into glowing embers
you're livened by high voltage dreams
where you run on open fields of crystal grass
and there's nothing to pull
you apart from the butterfly spark
you've kept with you so faithfully
in the rushing lava and also in the cold
you roam in the light and then fade off
energy that hums so warm and so soft
balanced on a wire it calls home
so gently you thrash and deeply you breathe
like electric rivers buzzing you speak
it feels it in the marrow of its bones
like it's always being chased down by a stone
it roams in the light and then fades off
energy that hums so warm and so soft
balanced on a wire it calls home
so gently it thrashes, deeply it breathes
like electric rivers buzzing it speaks
you feel it in the marrow of your bones
like you're always being chased down by a stone
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8. |
Slow Movements
03:15
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has Atlas given up?
I feel the sky crumbling down
lush gardens draining un-
til they'll be dry, crackling brown
nothing on this brittle earth
will keep me from looking
not the river in my eye
nor the bright sands of the sky
that shine and fall
defenses, cherries, bitter limes
dropping one slow movement at a time
is Eris happy that
the fighting still senselessly churns?
sometimes it flairs and sprawls
mostly it just quietly burns
nothing that can rot so fast
is worth the destruction
not our golden apple fortune
or the sweet caressing torture
it inflicts
defenses, cherries, bitter limes
dropping one slow movement at a time
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9. |
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I guess the first step towards the stillness I desire
would be to first desire stillness
but there are so many places that I'd like to visit
and none where I want to live
oh when the snow sits still like sand as it does here
I could just lay down
and dream of the warmth far outside of this dust
that gathers slowly
but the times that I feel most alive
are when I'm swerving to arrive
at a blurry snowstorm
with hard winds pushing me along
to a light that listens to my song
and so I sing that
if I don't ever remember what I planned to do
then with the breeze I'll move
tonight I'm wondering what I must have said or done
to upset the moon
because I'm out on my porch with it so full and bright
and it won't sing back to me
so every secret conversation that we've had
sits in the air like stillness
and every snowflake hits the world without a sound
we both just let them
maybe the sky is filled with clouds
and we're both screaming very loud
wearing our voices
down to a slow belabored crawl
and we don't hear ourselves at all
much less each other
if that means that I've outgrown a light I thought I knew
then with the breeze I'll move
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10. |
Send Back the Rain
03:27
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I take my water with a slice of sour lemon
and my whiskey with a pinch of salt
then wake up after noon on the same trampled bed of flowers
every day, whatever, not my fault
'cause I will go and they'll grow back just like before
a little wilder and a lot more dark
'til I return after a day looking for light but I'll be lucky
if I even find one spark
but then after the blackout's a rebirth
and Persephone rises to the earth
after a winter where I got so old
there's still a quiet tension that could hold
miles of pain
send back the rain
I'm crying so hard that my moans wake up the sky
it starts to thunder and cry back at me
but the strangers on this train car can't be bothered to look over at me
so I'm free to do my thing
until I have to step outside and there the sunlight
burn into all of my open woulds
it's like I'm naked striding up a mountain every heavy step I take
into this great monsoon
but that's when every bright thing comes alive
beyond the jagged rocks, there is a light
returned to big wide hills of Hyacinths
I feel so raw in the open air, it lifts
the blood from my veins
send back the rain
now there's a motor pushing me to run
I follow Hermes clear across the sun
out of the dead and back towards to spring
I see the clouds and tell them everything
is to remain
send back the rain
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Eric Wallgren Chicago, Illinois
noise pop/electronic singer-songwriter \\\\\
For booking: ericwallgren323@gmail.com
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