The song is a critique of contemporary societal and political issues, touching on themes of racism, the erosion of truth and decency, the influence of money in politics, and the dangers of extremism. It uses vivid imagery and allusions to critique leaders who manipulate and divide, the spread of misinformation, and the societal divisions based on race, religion, and ideology. The repeated references to "gaslighting," "the Klan," and "Wicker Man" suggest a condemnation of creating fear and division for power. It also highlights the impact of these issues on real lives, mentioning gun violence, the media's struggles with truth, and the manipulation of patriotic symbols for nefarious ends.

Live Masters

Mr Strong (Live September 2024)

Standstill Satellite

The song is about personal transformation and challenging societal norms, using the character of Mary Magdalene as a metaphor for breaking away from traditional gender roles and expectations. It celebrates the strength found in vulnerability and the profound connections that can happen even in moments of despair, such as a 4am call to a trusted friend. The lyrics intertwine themes of resilience ("Pride absorbs the pain") and self-realization ("Tungsten blasts of yellow cast the woman within"). The repeated references to vaudeville and theatrical imagery ("Tap your stick hand on the till, You reinvented vaudeville") suggest a reinvention not just of self, but of performance art, highlighting how the persona onstage can reflect deeper personal truths and transformations. The song is both a tribute to enduring friendship and a provocative challenge to rethink identity and performance in life's grand stage.

The Rules In Your Brain (Live October 2024)

I was sitting on the breaker wall listening to tunes in a modern way
With my shoulders back i closed my eyes i smelt the salt and let my body feel the oceans spray
The distant screams of children's laughter melted into gulls that swooped and dived on junk food prey
But every time i thought I'd caught your smile a wave would flip your hip and our footprints would catch the wash and fade away 

And when you're at sea what do you dream about?
When your hair caught the breeze and i saw you laugh out loud 
I wouldn't believe there's a song about it 
would not bring a new dance to town 
cause you rock in Pebble Bay 
when the moon is up and the surf don't bring you down

The waves began to fall in time with every breath and sigh I couldn't hold
Maracas stones and shaker sands
Waded up to my waist my heart began to sink so in I rolled 
Beneath the waves there's clarity 
Where women are half women and the other half have tails 
The sirens scream emotional wrecks
While the mermaids just sit and paint their nails bright red

And when you're at sea what do you dream about?
When your hair caught the breeze and i saw you laugh it out loud 
I wouldn't believe there's a song about it 
Would not bring a new dance to town 
cause you rock in Pebble Bay 
when the moon is up and the surf don't bring you down

And your phosphorescent glow
Would un-cripple Freda Karlo
So paint your pallet blue
Paint your pallet blue

Copyright Colin Hilton 2020

Pebble Bay (Live October 2024)

Colin Hilton's Ophelia is a dark reflection on fame, beauty, and the illusions that captivate us. Drawing on Shakespeare’s tragic muse, the song reimagines her as a modern idol — adored, exploited, and ultimately lost beneath the weight of her own image. It’s a meditation on how desire and innocence collide in a world that mistakes performance for truth.



OPHELIA
You stand like shadows on a bleached black chequered stage
Dance unspoken lines of love
Your voice like a lantern shines darkly through a cage
Conjuring words from a paperless age

Ophelia, ten thousand screaming girls will hide
Ophelia beneath this moral suicide
I've nothing to say to you you've caught their minds with beauty that's untrue 
Ophelia are you gonna break their hearts
And all that is left's a childhood memory

Each lyric burns a secret fire for a secret lust
Each twisted gown dressed to undress 
The world now scorns our fierce desire and turns to a cow girls past
Milking the moment to the last

Ophelia, ten thousand screaming girls will hide
Ophelia beneath this moral suicide
I've nothing to say to you you've caught their minds with beauty that's untrue 
Ophelia are you gonna break their hearts
You're gonna suppress their childhood memories

Ophelia, ten thousand screaming girls will hide
Ophelia beneath this moral suicide
I've nothing to say to you you've caught their minds with beauty that's untrue 
Ophelia are you gonna break their hearts
You're gonna suppress their childhood memories

Copyright
Colin Hilton October 2025

Ophelia

“Without Me” is about coming to terms with the end of a relationship — but in a deeper, more existential way. It’s not just about missing someone; it’s about questioning the meaning of words, art, and even the self after love has gone.
It captures the sense of someone trying to reconstruct themselves in the absence of a partner who once gave their life coherence and inspiration.


WITHOUT ME  

I've written and recorded a song based on moments that took me far too long
To mean anything to you
Now you're without me

Collected some words from the street then
Furnished my shoes with crocodile feet 
That walked a thousand miles across Basque mountains 
And all to be without you

I've frowned at all the hairbands and frocks
Ran Olympian speed from olive oil soaked blocks
To turn and stare at pistol smoke
Through a barrel aimed at me

But my love for you is deeper than these words 
deeper than the meaning of this verse 
Deeper than the signified
Beneath the essence of the sign

I've wrestled all my friends to be proud 
Was always up when they were really quite down
They looked on me for inspiration
Which i always had when you were with me

So I tore up these words like a book
Of meanings misquoted & so misunderstood
I cut them and read them backwards to see 
What it might feel like to be without me

I listened to the whispering leaves
Fallen from rows of towering telegraph trees
The words didn't hide me or bruise me or cheat my honesty
Sweet tastes like poison when you rang to raise a glass to memories

My love for you is deeper than these words 
deeper than the meaning of this verse 
Deeper than the signified
Beneath the essence of the sign

Tomorrow brings another backward thought of Memories that are borrowed from what's slackened then pulled taught 
Of memories distorted by a time 
When all was not consuming like this poetry that's fighting for a rhyme 
 
We built this house with only our hands 
Suffering the time hungry gravity of sand 
Now the winds of complacency spin the weather vane
As you try to live without me

Loving you's like swaying through a train with lost stability
Connecting doors below the metal clashes with insanity 
Sunlight flashing on two steel veins 
though a tunnel brings on a yellow flame 
Like the gentle warning whistle of your name 

My love for you is deeper than these words 
deeper than the meaning of this verse 
Deeper than the signified
Beneath the essence of the sign 

Copyright Colin Hilton October 2025

Without Me

“Painting By Numbers” is a reflection on the modern illusion of freedom — a world where rebellion is rehearsed, art is deconstructed, and truth collapses under its own disguise. Through vivid imagery and layered metaphors, the song explores how passion becomes performance and the painter is slowly absorbed into the picture he once tried to change. It’s both an elegy for lost authenticity and a challenge to rediscover it.


Painting By Numbers 

I walked the street until my shadow grew 
like a stencil of an after life 
Drawn upon the concrete's subtle hue
This canvas bears no rebel's brand 

Now these slogans are on city walls
they gasp and fall upon their knees
A cuss on riches, guns and politics
Silent children grow from hot house seeds

The deconstruction of his art
Put the horse before the cart 
To turn them in their slumbers 
So they can feel the lust like pain
Beneath the curd of love’s distain
Just like painting them by numbers

A pretty girl with blood red curls
Can speak much louder to the world 
Than a house of whispered sermons yellow
As the page from which they burl
Disneyland to Bethlehem the irony's divided

And the corset round the world is pulled so tight It's no shock that truth has fainted
In earthy tongues that please revolution plants its seeds 
Mystery falls upon its knees the painter becomes painted 

The deconstruction of his art
Put the horse before the cart 
To turn them in their slumbers 
So they can feel the lust like pain
Beneath the curd of love’s distain
Just like painting them by numbers

Millions will chase and place a snare for you
A ghost who paints rebellion
With the slight of a puppet's hand
Satire through geometry will smile back at you

Copyright 
Colin Hilton October 2025

Painting By Numbers

“The Alpha Gen’ Mirror” reflects on a generation growing up through screens — where identity, love, and truth are shaped by digital mirrors. It explores the blurring of gender and culture, the loss of instinctive selfhood, and the courage to redefine what’s real in a world built on performance. Beneath the confusion, there’s light — a new kind of humanity breaking through the cracks of old structures.


THE ALPHA GEN' MIRROR 

Her reflection grieves the loss of her closest friend the id
While the children of the Alpha Gen' roles become bended
Crosses her clothes and
Powders her nose
Smarting pictures with a dumb phone 

Her alter ego shares under the light
Where boys and girls select their love punching without a fight 
Truth blurs its borders
Night turns sons into daughters 
To blossom beyond battery life

He hasn't the courage he can't be so bold
This girl is from the classroom but can never be told
This theatre is turning and the wings have been splayed 
So love transfers with duty a new generation is made

Desire confuses as identity grows
The young are raised with stories stepping on their toes
Rigid diversity
With quiet adversity 
Imbalances designed to collide

A stylish tale with a daring theme
This generation questions what is true and what is mean
As genders flow
Culture takes on the blow
So structures crack to let in the light

He hasn't the courage he can't be so bold
This girls from the classroom but can never be told
This theatre is turning and the wings have been splayed 
So love transfers with duty a new generation is made

Copyright Colin Hilton October 2025

The Alpha Gen' Mirror

Written, performed and produced by Colin Hilton
© Copyright February 2019


Vocals         Colin Hilton
Drums          Ricky Lawson
Bass             Freddie Washigton
Guitars         Greg Moore
Guitars         Colin Hilton
Guitars        Brent Mason
Keys            Jeff Young


The song explores themes of artistic struggle, identity, and emotional turmoil through vivid imagery and cultural references. It portrays an artist grappling with modern fame and traditional craft, set against a backdrop of solitude symbolized by minimalist settings like backstage with a cigarette. The song incorporates nods to Alphaville and Donny Hathaway, highlighting timeless musical expression and personal challenges. Through metaphors like “flex like a Moscow mule” and “sorrow’s an unhinged Salome,” it conveys feelings of rigidity, intoxication, and chaotic sorrow. It delves into personal relationships, incompleteness, and intimate yet troubled interactions, culminating in an introspective chorus that reflects on lost identity and fate.



DEALING THE CROUPIER 

I'm waiting in the wings of a viral click
Where my only prop is a cigarette
And the words in my mind
I'm growling out the lines like Alphaville
And wondering if poets still take pills to
Make their words rhyme 
Lets call it a payment in kind
While I work on your mind . . .

I'm not Donny Hathaway 
I've lost my soul to luck
Its not just your face that says you can't dance
You flex like a Moscow mule
Your sorrow's an unhinged Salome
I'm dealing the croupier and boxing the cards

She can smile with Mona Lisa's charms
A lost embrace in Milo's arms
A suffering muse
She's the final call in a glass of gin
A guilty glance and a naughty grin
Smoking for two
As she tries on her mistress' shoes 
I can't have love in your mind . . .

I'm not Donny Hathaway 
I've lost my soul to luck 
Its not just your face that says you can't dance
You flex like a Moscow mule
Your sorrow's an unhinged Salome 
I'm dealing the croupier and boxing the cards

© Copyright Colin Hilton 
February 2019

Dealing The Croupier

Singer, poet, song writer, musician, performer and producer : London United Kingdom

Painting By Numbers

Colin Hilton

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