1. |
I Want to Hear a Song
04:05
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Sing me a song
Worth singing along
I wanna hear to the very end
Strum me tune
that’s Both old and new
I can share it with all my friends
Tell me a tale
Of love unrequited
Unforgivable crimes
On families divided
I want, to hear, a song
Play me a ditty
That makes me feel pretty
Or daring brave and strong
Pick out a reel
That gets me to feel
What I’ve been hiding from
Tell me a tale
Of sorrow and fury
Of Coming back home
Or fancy new jewelry
I want, to hear, a song
Spin me a record
That gets me to dancing
Or crying or being alone
Make it real simple
Make it complex
Just as long as it's genuine
Tell me a tale
Of political intrigue
Drinking at dive bars
Of old worn out memories
I want, to hear, a song
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2. |
Building 5
06:10
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Hell isn’t as dark as you think is
This lit up by thousands of glittering lights
They go on as far as the eye can see
From the apex of the temple and in the dizzying heights of Building 5
On the assembly line
Well no one makes us stand in our little spots
For 8 long hours 5 days at a time
But we all know there’s something keeping us here
something that's all in our minds
What’s a mill without grist or a fire without sticks
You must of messed up to get out here on the floor
But we are short people could you recommend someone
We're having trouble getting the Zoomers on board
I think they know
Well there’s no prison like capitalism x2
So shut up and take your paycheck
nobody said that you got to enjoy it
This isn’t a country is a business
It's not my fault if the workload destroys ya
You don’t have to come in you can starve to death
There’s a free spot out there on the corner
We gave you a choice we aren’t Stalinists
We offer freedom and life
If you can afford it
There's no prison like capitalism x3
And my sleep I dream of those screaming machines
The grease and the steam
The sweat the endless demand
And the towering products are looming above
Casting shadows of bars
Across all the land
Well there's no prison like capitalism x2
It's a worldwide Prison it's capitalism
Well there's no prison like capitalism
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3. |
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In case you were wondering
I later fell apart and it wasn’t for the better
In case you were wondering
It took me two months to open that box of stuff
All of our memories
Floating in the crystal blue of Tahoe
Not a question swimming in your mind
And I'm punishing myself in a crumbling apartment
The introspection's eating me alive
In case you were wondering
My penchant for self-pity in time will intensify
In case you were wondering
I'll go on to lesser things never quite recovering
In love
in love
in love
North Coast camping laughing in the firelight
Not a burning thought to what you left behind
And I’m Wasting myself away in the cloudiest city
The introspection's eating me alive
The cloudest city
In the Cloudest City that you'll ever find x2
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4. |
But That's My Brother
05:35
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I can’t listen to John Darnell and The Mountain Goats
Anymore
I used to sing out to the hits like everyone else I know
In the neighborhood
But now, now it feels weird
And you don’t even know what you did
"The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton" is an epic jam
I gotta say
"Game Shows Touch Our Lives" and "No Children" are a few of my
Personal fav’s
But now, now it feels weird
And you don’t even know what you did
Well it's my brother John
You wrote a response to a letter
I'm sure you get thousands
He found the tone a bit cruel
I know I'm biased can but can you blame me
I’m Blinded by a brother's love I can’t ever give up
Who’s wrong or right makes very little difference When I hear your songs At the house parties
A very lizard kind a region of my brain hears a man who hurt
My oldest friend
That why, why it feels weird
And you won’t ever hear what you did
But that's my brother John
And I'm protective of his heart
That's why I wrote the song
Well it's irrational and wholly unfair
But that's my brother
I love my brother
I love my brother
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5. |
Dreaming American
06:40
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Dont worry now
It will work out in the end
Didn’t you know You're the hero and you'll always win
That's what I learned in history class when I was a kid
I'm dreaming
I'm dreaming
Dreaming American
There’s only two sides a good and bad guy
No nuance to be found
No one here ties
You win or you die
Just ask anyone around
Look at me now ignorant and proud of it
You can’t tell me shit
We need a simple kind of man
That can only love what he understands
Im dreaming
Im dreaming
Dreaming American x2
Endless striving an insatiable need
There’s nothing else like it that craving
That American greed
We’re all bright a shiny
Classless a sweet
if you let down your guard
we'll get you by the throat in our perfect shiny teeth
I'm dreaming
I'm dreaming
Dreaming American x2
Were number one
I know I'm sure
Cause we got all the guns x2
The money and the guns x4
Please help me I'm dreaming
Please help me I'm dreaming American
Please help me I'm dreaming
I'm dreaming American
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6. |
Drinking+Sadness=Novel
05:45
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I used to save all of the bottles
Clear, brown, blue, and green
Keep them on my table
For everyone to see
Sexton, Wilde, and Hemingway
Charles Bukowski
Drinking's easier than writing prose
So pour another one for me
If I get sad and drunk enough
Like all my favorite authors
I'll write all the new best novels
That no one wants to read
Before their time
They’ll tell of life
And all human condition
And did I forget to mention
That they'll be a breeze to read
I want to be pensive brooding Deep and sad
In a cloudy gray city
5 days predicting overcast
And that’s plenty fine for me
Joy is for the ignorant
Wrapped in armor of ennui
I don't dare to let in the smiles
Unless I'm sneering at what I see
If I get sad and drunk enough
Like all my favorite authors
I'll write all the new best novels
That no one wants to read
And ill use all the biggest words I know
So they know that I am smart
And the critics and the common folk
Will both hold it in their hearts
And I’m so tired,
I gotta let a little light in
I gotta let a little light in
I keep drinking all night
And the world is hard
But gotta let a little light in
I gotta let a little light in
I gotta let in a little love
And this cynicism is gettin' me down
I gotta let a little hope in
I gotta let a little hope in
It's so dark so bleak
And if I'm honest with myself
I don't want to write the new best novels
I just want to drain the bottles
On my table
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7. |
Youth
06:30
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Each passing day
The night gets a little bit darker
The air is a bit thinner
I remember, I remember youth
I checked it out and it turns out I’m never gonna die
Well I’m immortal and feel fine
I live my life with a Reckless abandon
And I
Don't think about the future I have no need for time (no need for time)
I’m never gonna die (never gonna die)
I looked into it and it turns out the possibilities are they are endless
And I feel fine
The road ahead it is all bright and shiny
I only
think about the future I ever look behind
(ever look behind), you're never gonna die (never gonna die)
The wind feels colder
The shadows seem to grow longer
I look back and I remember, I remember youth
I called around and found that I’m kind of a once-in-a-lifetime
And I feel fine
My love of life it is full up to bursting
I got a
sneaking suspicion that I’m a special guy
(A very special guy) and I’m never gonna die (never gonna die)
Sometimes I hate to remember youth
I checked the facts and it turns out there’s only black and white
No shades of gray at all And that's just fine
All that talk of nuance and subtlety
Is made up
by equivocating cowards there’s only wrong or right
(Only wrong or right) there’s only black and white (you’re never gonna die)
I am young I’ll always be
Getting old looks like a total drag to me
Well I don’t have time I'm too busy
Cause getting old just seems so tiresome to me
Well I am young and I am free
Why… why… doesn't everybody else see
It's so easy
so easy for me
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8. |
Leave That Boy Alone
06:15
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Leave that boy alone
For the record
I never got involved
I should have stepped in
I should of ran up a protect him
The kids are so cruel
He dressed a little different
Bobby pins that stitched the denim
Who cares about his image
Or who he wants to be with
I’ll was feeling scared I admit
Won’t you Leave that boy alone
I should have stepped in
I'd pass him in the hallway
He was walking so small
His head down and his shoulders slumped
It was him against the world
I should have given him a shoulder to cry on
It was the least a could have done
I stood by and watched the violence
I never said a word
I hung him out to dry I admit it
Won’t you leave that boy alone
I should have helped him
And If I could go back now
And hold him in my arms
Show him just the smallest amount
of compassion
In this hard, hard world
Leave that boy alone
That’s the message
I always should of said but I left him
To those homophobic goons
That oppressed him
Leave that boy alone should have stepped in
I was scared that if I spoke up
I cruel ones would turn on me
Just thinkin’ ‘bout gets me choked up
Looking back man its so easy to see
I played the clown to always hide out
Debased myself for peer approval
Hoping that they never find out
I was more like him than them
It's so cruel won’t you leave that boy alone
I should have helped him
And if I could go back now
I'd lead him my ear
If he needed anyone to talk to
To talk to
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9. |
Rumination
05:00
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Three thousand times a day
I play
The same old story
Lavishing loving affection
On my reflection
That painful moment
No line goes unpunished
No action unscrutinized
This is my new
This is my new
Favorite
Rumination
Every quiet moment
Is stolen
By my story
Painstakingly analyzed
I keep the pain alive
Neurotically circling
No line goes unpunished
No action unscrutinized
This is my new
This is my new
Favorite
Rumination
I can’t escape
Obsessively worrying away
The same well-worn path I always take
Something loves the punishment
I can’t keep it at bay
All my Rumination
Stop rewind and play again
Until the tape runs thin
Again and again
Good god that's awkward and uncharismatic
Im so self-conscious and self-obsessed with
Myself and all of my numerous failings
A bumbling half-wit a stumbling dullard
Why must I always be in my own head on these things
It's exhausting and in the end pointless
There must be a dark corner of my mind that loves this
Im so self-important, pompous, pretentious,
I'm ridged and brittle so easily broken
I will obsess over every small slight I perceive
I'm guarded and lonely and desperate for contact
I mess up again
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10. |
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When my brain is finally free from electronical Distraction
Dread
Comes crawling in
From the darkest corners of my room
And it's a heavy thing
Sightless
Oppressive
Relentless
Every night when I can’t sleep my brain decides to turn against me
My failures
Come sneaking in
Excruciatingly their cataloged
And they get carted out
Dusted off
Paraded around
Relived in vividest detail
I Lay in bed with eyes wide open suddenly I feel I’m falling
And Despair
Comes crashing in
Nothing really matters in the end
All this toiling
And suffering
And heartache
And sickness
For nothing
For nothing
Now I see the void
My god it's endless
It's aching
It's hopelessness
It's absence
It's absence
Now I see the void
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Benjamin Dawson Louisville, Kentucky
Benjamin Dawson Is a singer-songwriter from Louisville, KY.
Benjamin Dawson recommends:
Unique, inventive, thoughtfully written, beautiful, and sad there is so much to love about this album. It is endless re-listenable.
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Ants From Up There
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The vocal lines are so catchy they get stuck in my head for days, in a good way. The whole band is amazing but I love the horn work.
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Making an album with only a guitar and a voice is no easy task. But "songs" from start to finish is engaging, easy to listen to, and original. with incredible guitar work.
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The Edge of the Land
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