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1. |
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2. |
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Pop that bottle open, let the past run down the side, there’s no use provokin’
The clock can’t be coaxed to spin the other way, so raise your glass and greet the day
Paradigm shift is just inevitable, but don’t let that discourage your appetite, eat till you’re
Full of wisdom and soon you will see
Enlightenment cannot be plucked from a tree
Oh the times, times, times are a’changin’
But the signs, signs, signs don’t point to salvation
Don’t let the myths of our parent’s generation
Be the building blocks of our rejuvenation
Cops at the door cut the party short
Hide away in a closet, this night will not end in a court
30 minutes gone, I can sigh with relief
So crack open another one, our time on this earth is too brief
Talk is cheap
But money speaks
And no language can’t be bypassed by drawing some sword from its sheath
So just admit morality is a losing race
Or rather it never existed in the first place
Times, times, times are a’changin’
But the signs, signs, signs don’t point to salvation
Don’t let the myths of our parent’s generation
Be the building blocks of our rejuvenation
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3. |
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We smashed Endangered Nose
On the stone Getty behind the Aqua Lounge
In Asbury Park
A nigh-fitting capstone to our summer
Placed together in the dark
We met some awesome folks
Down in Toms River
Rockin’ out at Floyds’ on most Monday nights
And Grover’s Mill on Tuesdays
Just another song about how summer has to end
And I don’t know why, I must memorialize this moment
But it feels right, so I’ll do it anyway
We need to break away
From all of the shit that gets caked on
When you stay in one place
For way too long
Abandon the routine
That we’ve comfortably assumed
Cut the cables and keep pushing forward
The crisis of youth has
Turned its’ back on me
My reflection in the review lookin’ back to see
The same smilin’ face, just a little less spritely
Probably too many long walks listening to “Light Leaves” (yea, that’ll do it)
But no matter how hard I try
I’ll never know why, never know why, never know why
Your face burns holes in my mind
But I’ll try, Oh I’ll try, I’ll try to figure it out some other time
I need the freedom of
An ocean full of love
To demarcate the person I have been from the person I will soon become
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4. |
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Holding on to
Another chore you
Needn’t go through anymore
Hit the floor runnin’
Flurry of doubts numberin’
In the hundreds
Stay awake while
Your body shakes wildly
Your head’s awake but your heart is sleeping cold
Fingers whisperin’ to
The lover next to you
Forget the rain, just stay inside another day
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5. |
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Edicts issued/ for the recall/ of affections/ written all over the wall
Won’t be delivered on time if at all, if at all (that’s some Marbury vs. Madison shit!)
Business casual/ on a Wednesday/ earns you kudos/ from the guys whose opulence pays
For your dry cleaning/ that’s all the equilibrium you’re gonna get in this crazy fuckin’ world
Forget the optometrist/when the sun is out you can’t resist
Staring straight at that ball of fire/ you think it’s alright but you’re a liar
Drinking courage, by the six pack/ Found your confidence/ smashed along the subway tracks
You'd better get that shit back
Feign ambition/ Sleep through breakfast/ On a mission to convince your friends that your life is not a mess/ Well you may have fooled the rest, but I'm not on board just yet
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6. |
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A split second flash as the lightning it crashes down on the house
But there’s two hours left ‘till all the clocks are reset and the fuses all rest side by side like grey soldiers awaiting new orders, no will of their own, just ornately dressed vessels where once there were souls
Oh how am I any different?
Oh there was a time
Once one winter when I
Made an igloo outside
That I was really proud of
Now books pass like sicknesses
Beneath eyes so listless
Convinced they’re still sifting for
A prize that they do not deserve
Why oh why oh why oh why
Do I
Insist on maintaining the things that brush ambitions aside?
56 in a 35, 200 dollars plucked fresh from the vine
Consider this my contribution to another place and another time
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7. |
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I peer through my digital window into your world
A flurry of dust swirls so slowly, still coating the speakers
What logically takes hours it comes to pass with every keystroke
Each involuntary blink of these child’s eyes in an ever-older body, peels away
The parts not worth keeping
The parts that you hate
You try not to hate
I guess I think that everyone can manage except for me
But in truth too many branches fail to produce leaves at the end of the season
Surprisingly clean subway floor makes this morning a little less routine
Still these mantras they can’t keep all these assumptions of contentment from tearing at the seams
And all of my time
Is locked away in a satellite clock in some box in New Jersey
I peer through my digital window into your world
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8. |
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I can’t smell the ocean any more those
Salt breezes pourin’ in my window
Tearin’ down 33 on a weekday afternoon
Creamy freeze on the eastbound side
It’s gonna be tight boys! Yea Connor, your right ‘cause
I never see that shit before it’s too late to turn
When I left town
I turned around
To find the posse wavin’
Bean salad now
Tastes seasonal
Despite those awful craisins
Can’t wait to return to the boardwalk
It’s routine, I pull into my usual spot
Iced over ticket machine, we’ll just walk on by
There’s not a soul on the beach today
There’s snow on the ground where the fire pit laid
There isn’t a sound now…
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9. |
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Theatrics aside I/ was holy in your eyes/ one life, but when the pulpit cast its shadow, we lost time
up above the sky/ turning signals align/ we never laid a dollar down now men in suits have bought the town out
A farmer may daily till, devoid of the free will we love to live and live to love, so on and on we sing the chorus cause
Drink up my darling dear let’s find new ways to live in fear
‘Cause the postman giveth, the postman taketh away
The letters were not mine, they just fell from the weakest vine
‘Cause the postman giveth, the postman taketh away
Theatrics aside I/ sat in darkness my hands tied/ for some time…waiting for my freedom to arrive
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10. |
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Afternoons this week
Drew from night the sleep
That my body needs
To act regularly
But the sun it heeds
Father winter’s teeth
Tells the ocean breeze
Make this city freeze
In the darkness reach
Out for a song to keep
On the shelf beneath
All your sympathies
Whisper her name, believe
You’re ready to play for keeps
But too soon you see
It will never be
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11. |
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“Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark”
It’s so god damn boring in here
Life so e-ven tempered is empty oh
How could I have let this happen?
The fire is melting, adulthood has sent it away
To the days where I laid in bed crying
Not for a real reason, like a relative dying
Just a girl I barely know who didn’t like me the way that I loved her so
Open your heart up and feel for a moment
That passion that drowned you the days you could hold it back
They were dull, and coarse to the touch
And those kinds of times are what life is so full of these days
Please go away x4
Before it’s too late
Rain clouds are gathering over the
CITGO sign so we should be going
Symbolic of nothing, machinery spinning its gears
Like the years, just the cold march of entropy
Bring back the days when I flew to Chicago
So certain my heart could handle the ebb and flow
With great strides like a giant, trumpeting all of the way
Seize the day, seize the day seize the day!
It’s so god damn boring in here
Life so e-ven tempered is empty oh
How could I have let this happen?
The fire is melted, adulthood has sent it a-
Threshold before us is not a surprise
For 10 months we have shouted and real people heard our cries
About nothing of consequence
Well this band has been fun but let’s let the next chapter begin
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12. |
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I left my window open while it rained, but it's okay
the sill was never a good place for that alarm clock anyway
Can't justify my feeling angry when the world is spinning
So many days ahead I can't help feeling like life is just beginning.
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Recorded between September and December of 2011, this album is largely about transitions. It is that thoughtful moment on a brisk autumn day when you realize that your favorite windbreaker just isn't warm enough anymore or that you'll need to wait 8 months before you can swim in the ocean again. It is an introspective that looks back but also forward; to the summer and to the winter, to ends and to beginnings. But above all it is about the need for hope when you are gripped by the insurmountable force of change, be it seasonal or something more. Time marches thoughtlessly on; to resist it or embrace it is our choice.
released December 10, 2011
All songs written and composed by J. Ikeda
Recorded and Mixed in a small Allston apartment
Album Art by Matt Albanese
Gang vox in "New Year!" by J. Ikeda, Chris Comer, Kim Curhan, Ian Macleod, and some girl named Frankie.
Special thanks to my roommate Ian Macleod and all of my neighbors for putting up with all of my late night recording sessions.