1. |
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V.1 How exactly do we see ourselves
Without a looking glass
Is it the same old person
Or a face from the past
How exactly can we know ourselves
When we lose our minds
It’s a delicate two-way mirror
That truth can never quite find
Br.1 Impossible sense
Found in consciousness
It’s heaven sent
It’s reality-ness
V.2 A weird image received
And revealed in a dream
Abstract events where
Nothing’s as it seems
Br.2 It’s just phantom sense
Meta- consciousness
REM’s pretence
It’s reality-less
Ch. Where exactly did we learn
To know ourselves ?
And wherever we go
The ego goes
Instrumental verse link and solo
Repeat chorus
V.3 A walk in the woods
Senses overload
It’s a feeling so good (I’d say)
Let’s keep going past the end of the road
Br.3 Impossible sense
Found in consciousness
It’s heaven sent
It’s reality-ness
Repeat chorus
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2. |
Svengali
05:11
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V.1 Conditioned reflex
He’ll get you craving
Unconditional sex
But keeps you waiting
He’ll use a sleight of hand
And maybe underhand
He’ll use psychology
Like sexual gravity
Br. All’s unfair in love and war
Is such a thing worth waiting for?
Ch. Svengali plays ion memories
Thrills by association
He triggers all your senses
For pure infatuation
V.2 The sound of beats and bells
Are so alluring
Cool cats and magic spells
So reassuring
A rush of endorphins
Shoot to your mind
But more affection
Than you’ll ever find
Repeat Br & Ch
Instrumental break
V.3 Is it cheating to inveigle you?
(If he is)
Is it destiny you’re going through?
(Instrumental line)
But in the meantime
He’ll keep on keeping on you see
He’ll use psychology
Politics and chemistry
Repeat Br & Ch
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3. |
Who's The Maniac ?
03:14
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V.1 What is mad?
That’s what you say
Or am I bad?
In any way
Br.1 The trolls await
To decide your fate
Ch. Does anybody know?
Or dare to let their feelings show
So what’s the truth
Who’s the maniac and what’s the proof?
V.2 Hearts of Gold
Love will tear you apart
Eccentric souls
Handicapped from the start
Br.2 The crowds declare
“It’s just not fair”
Ch. Does anybody know?
Or dare to let their feelings show
So what’s the truth
Who’s the maniac and what’s the proof?
V.3 Abnormal emotions
No feelings to share
Or just the usual notions
Just couldn’t care
Br.3 The press hacks wait
To publish your fate
Ch. Does anybody know?
Or dare to let their feelings show
So what’s the truth
Who’s the maniac and what’s the proof?
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4. |
The Evergreen
04:14
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Verse 1
The scent of pine
Hangs still on the air
Above the treeline
Still fills senses
Foreboding darkness
Eminence from the forest
Rime frost like icing sugar
With echoes of brilliant light
(Bass link)
Verse 2
Winter’s creeping in
Goodbye precious daylight
We’ll lock down the cabin
And say hello to a silent night
The pathway leads
Leads downhill through the fir trees
To a civilisation
Past (through) a million light centuries
(Bass link 2)
In the evergreen
Verse 3
Old-fashioned memories
Fill the air with a fog
No crock of gold quite as it seems
Nothing as dark as a black dog
Here the moon is shining
Cruel and cold like a Jack Frost
While our half-light’s declining
And our feelings are lost in a reverie
(Bass link 3)
In the evergreen
Tranquil and serene
(Coda)
The buzz of a light plane
Jolts minds back to modernity
And we’re saved from a missionary’s grave
Thoughts to and fro eternally
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5. |
Power or Placebo
03:38
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V.1 Is it false discovery we’re going through
Or my mind telling me it’s hit the truth
Twenty years inveigled by a wonder drug
Or lives saved by a chemical so where’s your proof
Ch.1 Power or placebo, the sugar pill ?
Potency or persuasion or deluded thrills ?
V.2 We once believed in the magic beans
We believed and so it set us free (or so it seemed)
But sometimes fantasy would turn to disconnect
Here’s the sugar pill - suck it and see
Repeat Chorus
Instrumental break
V.3 All the while, we trusted the evidence
No false hopes, we used our intelligence
And the endgame was never predicted
Blind faith didn’t make a blind difference
Repeat chorus & fade
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6. |
Kingdom Of Ends
04:31
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V.1 Looking on through an opaque lens
We’re looking on to the Kingdom of Ends
Where destiny is in the mind’s eye
Metaphysics and a kingdom of lies
V.2 Here we dance to the beat of a drum
Where life is maths and the answer’s just a sum
Are we all who they once supposed
Or are we dressed in the Emperor’s new clothes
Instrumental break
Ch.1 How can you stand here?
So cynical and so surreal
There’s madness around here
The way it is you can’t reveal
A cheap simulacrum
An abstract kingdom of ends
But life’s in the real world
This blueprint, it makes no sense
V.3 Looking forward through a foggy lens
Looking up to the Kingdom of Ends
The lotus eaters in cafes and bars and
Purple prose and reflections of the past
v.4 Welcome citizens to our new world
Model workers, the future’s been unfurled
In reality I’m not so sure
We’re model soldiers in a make-believe world war
Instrumental break
Ch.1 How can you stand here?
So cynical and so surreal
There’s madness around here
The way it is you can’t reveal
A cheap simulation
An abstract kingdom of ends
But life’s in the real world
This blueprint, it makes no sense
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7. |
Science In Song
03:47
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V.1 Genetic chemistry
Raw electricity
A spark of life that makes
The bonds that bind us
A human chromosome
A lifelong genome
A fragile building block
In our existence
Those genes that make us bad
Those genes that make us mad
And those that make us sad
Or glad all over
I’m feeling fine now
I’m feeling anyhow
Creative energy
That moves us onward
Ch.1 We’re talking rhymes
Science in song
Heady times
What took us so long?
V.2 A Window to the world
A rare and precious pearl
A path that leads on to
A graceful future
These gifts that make you special
Reveal a true potential
So how come thoughts become
So maladjusted
These junctions in the road
A neuron overload
A clash of purposes that
Lead to nowhere
Can science help us out here?
Genetic engineers
Can good intentions overcome
The hard wires
Ch.2 We’re talking rhymes
Science in song
Scary times
What can go wrong
So strike up the band
And let it play
Let’s toast to the future
In any way
Instrumental break
V.3 And when things come to pass
A baby step too far
A toxic mix
In our imagination
A vile destructive meme
A psychopathic gene
What turns around
Will come around it seems like
Ch.3 We’re talking rhymes
Science in song
Heady times
What took us so long?
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8. |
State Of Grace
04:26
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V.1 Outside a factory yard
Once locked gates and empty buildings
A long recession had hit us so hard
A welfare state was our only saving grace
Br.1 No coups, no revolutions
No martial laws, no pogroms
Ch. We’re in a state of grace
In our castles and homes
It’s a pride of place
This domain is our own
V.2 We’re standing beside
School gates and a crowded playground
Trying to teach a compassionate world
And learning hope, where some hope can be found
Br.2 No commissars, no KGB
No dictators, no bully beefs
Repeat Ch.
Middle 8th & solo
V.3 From cradle to grave
Vouchsafed to the end of our days
A legacy to be saved
A celebration, a coming of age
Br.3 (Let’s have) No frauds or snake-oil salesmen
No tub-thumping, no phoney statesmen
Repeat Ch.
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9. |
Beats In The Basement
03:28
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V.1 Beats are pounding
From the downstairs club
Bass is pumping
To the hubbub
V.2 White hot grooves
From the inside
Meets the cool of the evening
On the outside
V.3 Hard-toned bodies
With limbs entwined
Slithering sinews
Dance in time
V.4 Check your pulse
Yes you’re feeling alright
Slick your hair back
It’s poseur’s night
(Key change)
V.5 Half-price cocktails
Vodkas and gins
Keeping a watch-out
For the Mickey Finns
V.6 It’s happy hour here
8 to 10
So better get drinking
Long before then
V.7 Faded tattoos
Testosterone
Even the doormen
Checking their phones
V.8 Then some geezer’s
Starting a fight
Flailing punches
What a sight
(Horns solo)
V.9 Chatting up rituals
Fancy a ride?
Slippery nipple
Then romance died…
V.10 In the rest room
The ladies chat
Powder their noses
And chewing the fact
V.11 Upstairs they’re dancing
The laser lights drill
Piercing the darkness
Can’t beat the thrill
V.12 Love the deejays
Princes of cool
Men of letters
Where vinyl rules
(Organ solo)
V.13 Keep on drinking
I suppose
Time to go home?
I don’t know
V.14 Keep on partying
Through the night
The Dolce Vita
Till morning light
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10. |
River Kemi
05:01
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V.1 From an Arctic wilderness
To the Gulf of the Baltic Sea
From vast horizons
To forests of evergreens
V.2 This river flows through pines and hills
Rapids flow to a stately calm and chill
The undertow meets the shore
And the ocean’s still
Instrumental break
V.3 Wood cabins
Line the banks and fields
Through Finland’s hinterland
It’s frontiers revealed
Br.1 Where the midnight sun keeps guard
And the midday night bites cold and hard
It never ends
Ch.1 River Kemi
The sight and sound
This beautiful highway, this hallowed ground
V.4 Canada Geese passing this way
Honking and hooting - coming here to stay
Flapping like a scarecrow
In the evening’s sway
Br.2 Where the midnight sun keeps guard
And the winter’s nights bite cold and hard
Ch.2 River Kemi
The sight and sound
This watery highway, this hallowed ground
Time stands still, we’re just hanging around
In this wilderness, there’s not a soul here to be found
Instrumental break
V.3 A white glaze here in Lapland’s snow
Life hunkers down in twenty below
This land’s in deep-freeze
The world goes slow
V.5 Then the thaw and the rapids rage
The roar of dams as they hold back the strain
And record temperatures
Start to hit the gauge
Br.3 Where the midnight sun keeps guard
And the midday night bites cold and hard
It never ends
Ch.3 River Kemi
The sight and sound
This beautiful highway, this hallowed ground
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11. |
Synergy
03:14
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V.1 I see her playing her keyboard
It’s an early 80’s synth I think
Lots of buttons and switches and things
Like a console on a spaceship
v.2 Lots of buzzes and bleeps and rings
I was soon fascinated
Creating music and inventing sounds
Like a musical toolkit
Br.1 Humming to a bass line
To a kick drum in 4/4 time
Ch.1 Synergy of senses
Spiralling strings and melodies
And the spinning of technology
In a constant ‘whoosh’ of energy
V.3 Her screen then blinked and disappeared
And the speakers growled
Time to reboot and start again
Time for crying out loud
Br.2 Re-record the bass line
Get back to the 4/4 time
Ch.2 Synergy of senses
Shimmering strings and melodies
The grinding of technology
And the buzzing and hissing of energy
Instrumental break
V.4 She’s got a disk that’s full of brand new sounds
Like flutes and xylophones
Or scary shrieks that sound like Halloween
Or munchkins on the telephone
Br.3 It’s all woven in this tapestry
A beautiful cacophony
Ch.3 Synergy of senses
Soaring strings and melodies
The pulsing of technology
In a constant buzz of energy
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12. |
In Liminal Space
04:58
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V.1 From nowhere in particular
Heading on to somewhere else
A corridor without any doors
Except in to itself
A staircase that climbs
Down to a cellar below
An empty precinct
With nothing and nowhere on show
Instrumental section
V.2 A school on vacation
Empty in literal and metaphor
A derelict inner-city location
Nothing worth really fighting for
Instrumental and spoken section
V.3 A park in the winter
Where we’re walking in the dark
The back rooms in imagination
The sensations feeling so stark
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13. |
Wake Me Up
03:06
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V.1
Drinking cocktails in a hotel bar
The noise of the West End of London down below
I’m surrounded by opulence and wealth
Lit by crystal chandeliers glow
Ch.1
A piece of luxury
A hedonistic extravagancy
Wake me up when it’s time to get real
Wake me up cos nothing’s here for free
V.2
Velvet flock wallpaper lines the room
With frames of past Prime Ministers and such
The waiter’s tray from ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’
Like a lord, I’m enjoying it so much
Ch.2
A piece of luxury
A hedonistic irresponsibility
Wake me up when it’s time to come down
Wake me up cos nothing’s here for free
Solo and Middle 8th:
White Russian
Or Manhattan
Whiskey sour
Or an old-fashioned
A Cosmopolitan
Irish Coffee
It all sounds like a hangover to me
Ch.3
A piece of luxury
A hedonistic extravagancy
Wake me up when it’s time to get real
Wake me up cos nothing’s here for free
V.3 Time to head for the lavish carvery
We’ll eat the venison cooked with rosemary
A fine coffee and a night-cap at the last
Sweet dreams, it’s surely been a blast
Riff to fade
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14. |
Last Orders
03:27
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V.1 Drinks in the shade
Of a north London bar
It’s back in the day and feeling good
Our heads in the stars
Br.1 Down the Holloway Road - (where the)
Smoke hangs heavy in the frog and toad
Ch.1 Gentlemen please
It’s time to call time you see
V.2 The jukebox sings to itself
‘Lola’ by The Kinks
And let’s all drink
To Lilly the Pink
Br.2 Wallpaper flock and chandelier
Barmaid cute and barman cavalier
Ch.2 Gentlemen please
It’s last orders from me
The end of a lifestyle
It’s time to call time you see
Instrumental break
V.3 Ghost of the landlord
Please have one for yourself
We’ll celebrate time’s passing
And have a toast to the nation’s health
Br.3 Seventies smoke and the fug of a pub
Hurry up Harry to the rub-a-dub-a-dub
Ch.3 Gentlemen please
It’s last orders from me
The end of a lifestyle
It’s time to call time you see
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The Meteor Shower London, UK
This is the latest album from The Meteor Shower now featuring the vocal talents of Steve Hunt. The music itself continues to adapt to new ideas and new equipment and sounds - but the new professional vocals add a very welcome new element to the music. The songs / lyrics were written, programmed and produced by Matt Hall during and since the pandemic lockdown ... more
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