1. |
Toxic Mountains
03:45
|
|||
|
Toxic Mountains
Her grandmother grew to be 100 years old
The house on the hill had to be packed up and sold
She told herself she'd never go back
She told herself she's never go back,
Never go back, never go back.
That was the place of imploding dreams
Of whisky for breakfast and her father's silent screams
She told herself....
She drank the cool aid, believed in the lies
Ever since then she's been trying to get it out
Been puking up bile
She told herself...
To those toxic mountains...
Cut the ties, but the ties
Keep tying themselves back together.
Together, together, together, together.
|
||||
2. |
Scorched Earth
04:30
|
|||
|
Scorched Earth
Laying bush fires, burning everything down
Ancient rituals, handed down
Bare feet on black soil
Searching for treasures, what's left of our toil?
Withered hands digging deep
Pulling out something to eat.
Scorched earth, new birth
Was it worth, was it worthwhile?
You in a hospital room
Dirty windows, dirty view
No love left for me, not even a smile
Was it worthwhile?
Old woman tell your story take back your territory
Woman tell my story, take back my territory
Woman!
Woman, woman tell our stories, take back our territories.
Take them back, take them back, take them back.
|
||||
3. |
Shipwreck
04:36
|
|||
|
Shipwreck
She was a ship, cast upon the waves
Her decks well-scrubbed, wide open her sails.
No anchor on board, to steady her inside
At the mercy of the wind, the currents, the tide.
And the waves like mountain sides
Grew higher and higher
And the sirens wailed out their song
But her voice proud and strong
All night long.
The sea and the sky, two sides of a coin
The horizon, a vanishing point.
And the pirates came as they will
Boarded her vessel
Plundered with such great skill
Left her …
Sailing away, out of her depth
A shipwreck waiting to happen
At the mercy of the waves.
|
||||
4. |
We Bear Witness
04:13
|
|||
|
We Bear Witness
They're on their own trajectory
These children of ours.
Following an arch through space
We are merely their surroundings.
Their water, their air, their place.
Their place.
At least that's what I think sometimes
But at other times I am crushed by the weight
Of carrying and keeping,
Guiding and seeking,
Showing and teaching
Releasing or reaching
Being or doing
Leaving or pursuing
Stopping or starting
Arriving or departing
We're their water, their air, their place.
Their place.
The elephant mother knows where the water is
She leads her little one through the blinding sand storm
Across the bewildering desert, she knows the way.
She knows the way.
She knows the way.
Mostly we bear witness to their becoming.
|
||||
5. |
Shine
04:59
|
|||
|
Shine
He says we're only just beginning
But I'm the one dying.
Been around the block too many times
He's still waiting, he's still waiting for magic.
He says you can't force the process
But I'm the one sighing
Stuck in a bar full of hopeful young men
I'm still waiting, I'm still waiting for my turn.
If chance had been on our side years ago
And we'd collided like planets while we were on the go
Bumped into each other at a party or a gig
Out in the endless freedom of space and time
How we would shine, how we would shine.
He says nobody knows the future
But I'm the one crying
I am the sand in the hour-glass he keeps turning over
He keeps turning it over, he keeps turning it over
He keeps turning it over and over and over and over
In the endless freedom of space and time
How we would shine, how we would shine.
|
||||
6. |
Preventative Medicine
05:20
|
|||
|
Preventative Medicine
Give me one rolled up and a steaming cup
And something to look at that bounces me back to myself
Give me paper and pen in the morning at ten
And the good sense to leave the washing in piles around me
Give me a glass of red wine and something on my mind,
With some idea of how to express it
Give me, Kind of Blue without anyone talking all the way through
Just following Coltrane through all his joy and pain
Miles and Herbie lulling me like a baby in a Swiss Cottage bed,
That's my preventative medicine
Preventative medicine
To keep the doomsday Daiquiri at bay
Give me sauna's heat, standing in the snow with bare feet
Feeling my pulse rushing through me
Oh, give me a long distance train ride without anyone at my side
Just hours and hours of landscape rushing by
That's my ….
Preventative medicine, preventative medicine
To keep the doomsday Daiquiri at bay.
So give me one rolled up and a steaming cup
|
||||
7. |
Changing Shells
02:46
|
|||
|
Changing Shells
I have mixed up my shells,
I am still striving, where I should be letting go
I am still questioning, where I should have settled on an answer long ago.
I am still restless where I should be sleeping soundly
I am still listening to voices, I should have silenced long ago.
So call me the Grand Dame if you want to
Oh I like the way that sounds.
But I am more like a hermit crab
Changing shells in the shifting sand.
I am still searching, where I should see I made my bed to lie in
I am still digging where I should have reached rock bottom long ago.
|
||||
8. |
Insect Song
02:07
|
|||
|
Insect Song
Insects don't grow, don't change their size
They metamorphosise.
Each time they enter and new phase
It's an entirely new stage.
And I wonder, does it feel like dying?
And I wonder, do they look back pining
For what they were, before they were
What they were to become.
Some shed their skin
Renewing themselves from within.
Others grow wings, don't eat anything
And they die within a week.
|
||||
9. |
Memory of Water
05:30
|
|||
|
Memory of Water
We met in the womb
It was dark it was wet
We felt each other's faces
That's how we met.
With the sounds and the colours
Bleeding in from outside
Full of our purpose
Deep on the inside.
Then we were born
Baptised in light
Blinking and gasping
Revulsion, delight.
On shivering legs
Moving apart
The memory of water
Locked in our hearts.
At home in our bodies
That tell us the time
Who is master and who is slave?
What's his, what's mine?
When we meet once again
Our faces with fingers we touch
Reenacting the darkness
Our eyes tight shut.
|
||||
10. |
Moments
02:56
|
|||
|
Moments
We sat in a pub years later
I listened to you, watched your movements.
And my love for you had not diminished.
I suggested you think of time
Not in terms of time, but of moments.
And the moments we now share
Are more than a life of time.
|
||||
11. |
Stay Human
03:58
|
|||
|
Stay Human
The robots they are a-coming
Soon they'll be baking our bread
Soon they'll be giving us haircuts
Sweeping the streets instead of us.
The chips they are a-coming
Soon they'll be making us smarter
Soon they'll be making us stronger
Giving us perfect health to live longer.
But leave me out of the chip shit.
I wanna stay human.
Grapple with weakness
Opt out of all the sleekness
Choose to stay sub-optimal
Less machine, more animal
Insist on your right to make mistakes
Stay awake!
The times they are a-coming
When seeking honest expression
Will be a king of transgression
We'll be subverting the system
To stay human.
|
||||
12. |
Francis Bacon
02:07
|
|||
|
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon said he loves the open mouth
So many colours he said it reminds him of a Turner painting
Of a Turner painting.
Melvin Bragg said, but Francis, your mouths are always black.
Your mouths are always black!
That's right he said, I never really managed it.
I never really managed it.
|
||||
Alex Spencer Berlin, Germany
Set afloat on a soft and shimmering stream, Alex Spencer's music is the kind of boat ride in which simple human rowing begins to resonate with deeper, inner currents. UK born Alex Spencer set down roots in Berlin in the year 2000. Today, she can be seen walking her black Labrador dog through Görlitzer Park, playing the singer-songwriter circuit and, on occasion, also raising her three children. ... more
If you like Alex Spencer, you may also like:
A Handful Of Memories
by Adam Wakeman
The UK pianist, a touring member of Black Sabbath, Travis, and others, returns with his first contemporary-classical album in over 20 years.
go to album
featured on Bandcamp Radio Mar 28, 2017
go to album
This Is Real EP
by Kristy Clark
featured on Bandcamp Radio Jun 17, 2014
go to album
Sorry I'm So Sensitive
by Bea Stewart
The second EP from Northern Irish singer-songwriter Bea Stewart runs from gentle folk to pillowy pop ballads, all perfectly executed.
go to album
Michelle Stodart’s folk music captures hope in melancholy, addressing the transformational aspects of the most challenging times.
go to album
Veneer (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)
by José González
featured on Bandcamp Radio Aug 29, 2023
go to album
Onliness (songs of solitude & singularity)
by Josienne Clarke
Folk artist Josienne Clarke revisits music from her back catalog, infusing these lonesome songs with a new luminosity and drive.
go to album
