Trains is the third album of Helsinki-based singer-songwriter Johannes Laitila.

Written, played and sung by Johannes Laitila. Recorded by Johannes Laitila at home in Helsinki, Finland in January-April 2013. Some additional parts were recorded at the home of Jani Tuovinen in Tampere, Finland in May 2013. Mixed by Jani Tuovinen.  Mastered by Jarno Alho. Cover by Tuomas Kärkkäinen.

Trains

LYRICS:

It's been six weeks since the election day. Since then I haven't heard of you again. I've been trying to make you escape my head. I've tried to dry my eyes before they get wet.

It's been six weeks since the election day, when the man in your TV said that now comes a time that feels all new. That's how it feels when I'm without you.

It's been six weeks since the election day. All of the snow has melted away. For some reason I thought winter would stay but instead, everything changed.

It's been six weeks since the election day. I'm thinking about you again: how you might feel, where you might be, if you still make noise when you sleep.

It's been six weeks since the election day, when I stumbled down your staircase, down to the street for people to see. I think I'd already decided there's no you and me.

It's been six weeks since the election day. What the fuck was I thinking when I went away? The way I think of you now is not quite the same: of all the people out there you're the one I hate.

It's been six weeks since the election day, well it could be seven, I really don't care. And I've come so far from where you are: fifteen minutes by foot, a lifetime by heart.

Six Weeks Since the Election Day

LYRICS:

I'm on a freeway when I think of you, and I think that you should know it too. But why's it me who always moves? I'm kind of tired and you don't have a clue that if you leave, then there's nothing left to see. So please just stay. Please just stay awake.

Now we have invented another tongue, and it has no words at all. So you still wonder why we don't talk? We let go of the words, and now I'm alone even when you are in the same space. But I don't care. I wouldn't have had anything to share.

Your eyes are red. When was the last time you slept? Have you slept at all? Did you forget what's it all for? Where'd you go? Why do you feel so low? Have I caused you harm? I didn't mean to cause you anything at all.

And then I see you 'round the first of May, three months later looking drunk with nothing to say, and we talk for 30 seconds or less, and I think you have become somebody else.

You barely say hi. I don't think we ever said goodbye. I just walked away. I didn't want the feeling to stay.

Your eyes are red. When was the last time you slept? Have you slept at all? Did you forget what's it all for? Where'd you go? Why do you feel so low? Have I caused you harm? I didn't mean to cause you anything at all.

And what I just said don't mean a thing, because all that's happened will happen again with someone else somewhere, and I'll make the same mistakes. But at least you're not there, you're not there and I'm glad you never will.

Drunken Escapist

LYRICS:

My head's an envelope. It's filled with blank papers, and the address they wrote on it is completely unknown. It's a place that does not exist yet. It's a place that's all made up in somebody's head.

My head's an envelope, and the mailman seems all confused again. He does not quite know why he's feeling directionless, with nowhere to go. It's like everything constantly flows.

Then he starts to sleep and wakes up unable to read, and then he forgets about the letters that were there.

My head's an envelope, abandoned somewhere, I don't even care. Guess the address is washed away by the sleet and the hail and the snow and the rain, and all that's left is an inky stain.

My head's an envelope. You can send it wherever you want, as if I ever was the one to decide where to go and when to hide, and now I just don't know what's happening nor why.

So open the envelope, and then let go, come up with letters and words and then just rearrange my thoughts.

Open the envelope, and then let go. I don't care what happens or what won't.

My Head Is an Envelope

LYRICS:

Don't quite know who you are but I feel you're not far. I just dropped you a line and wait for a reply. The last time we talked was an hour ago by the doors of a yellow-lit convenience store.

I walk past your door every day, and my thoughts always run far away, and I wonder what you'd say if I just climbed the stairs up to the place where you live. You have to be a bit like me; you're living on the same street.

But in my head I'm anything but patient. I forgot to eat. I was too busy thinking. So say it's alright, we are on the same side. Convince me it's alright. Are we on the same side?

I still wait for your call, but it seems your phone's gone, or how else could mine stay silent all night? "Breathe in. Move on." Easier said than done, because tonight my knees shake and I can't walk away.

You're Living On The Same Street

LYRICS:

I'm on a train thinking of everything that you said every time that we've met, every time that I tried to keep calm and carry on only to keep it all alive. I always knew it was not true that there was nothing on the line.

On a train, a man with a beer can in his hand started talking with words I could hardly understand. He had his glasses fixed with duct tape. His speech was slurred: "You got it bad boy, take a different approach to the world."

And I know that I could be leaving town. I don't know what to do when you're around. When you live 15 minutes from here it's hard to not make a sound.

I'm on a train trying my best to switch the way I feel, as if moving from station to station would make you leave my head for anywhere, now that I struggle to make it through. And each thing that I see reminds me of you.

It's too late to let go of you and me, but I've tried so hard that you wouldn't believe. I keep walking 'round the room but I can't see how to leave.

Take a train, take a plane, take anything. Where's the door? What's the place that I'm locked in? If all goes like it has, I don't think we can win.

In Between Stations

LYRICS:

In Helsinki 53, an afterparty, again. I was not quite there. Then I heard that you leave. Like a wake-up call, I wanted to come along so bad that I eventually did.

In Helsinki 53, I walked out the door and gave you a call. In the corner of the street there was no-one else I could see. The streets were empty except for me and you, or that's how it feels.

Walking up the stairs to the place where you live made me feel I fly. Walking down the stairs the next day made me feel I'm not alive.

In Helsinki 53, where it's simple at night and complicated in the daylight. Running back home in defeat between the parked cars on the street, and over the bridge, down to the place where I live.

And I long back to where I left you, where you told me not to worry. I'm still in tears of what I did last night. I'm sure I caused you harm, and I am sorry.

In Helsinki 53, I hope you're alright and that you don't mind, 'cause this is not what I'm like. It's just the way I feel: the only place I want to be is Helsinki 53.

Helsinki 53

LYRICS:

You could not hear these words coming out of my mouth now. I still think that you'd return to the place from where you just walked out.

I'm still there. I mean, I'm still here. I've been standing still at the very same spot where you saw me when you said you'd leave and then left, looking happy, and I don't feel the same. I need this night to continue until the day.

So now I'm walking home after the moment I'm left alone. It has to happen each and every night: when you're leaving I start to slide.

Now I think you're lost within the head of yours like I'm lost within mine. So what if we'd unite, and it would be alright, and I could see your eyes, and I could trade them for mine.

I think it's strange that this is what I still imagine every day, as if you really felt the same. Well I know you don't but the thought has stayed, and it's not all that painful for you. I'd say you've got love and you've got what it takes to make it through each of these days and nights, whereas all I can do is cry. Instead of tears you have a glimpse in your eye, and when I'm finally home in this apartment of mine, you'd be already looking at a world painted white, and I'd like to see it too through your eyes. I'd like to see it too as a reflection in your eyes.

World Painted White

LYRICS:

I think this was the third time I changed my bed sheets but no one arrived. Had cleaned every corner of the room, had waited for the night through the afternoon.

Now the disaster's on its way. I sit down and start to play a chord progression that's filled with hope and filled with life and freed from ghosts.

I'm scared of crawling into my bed. The sheets are clean but I still stare rather blankly at the wall, and you've never been in that bed at all.

And now the disaster's on its way, but I do my best to keep it at bay. Keep my diary deep in the bag to not deal with all the black that has been there since before: the ghosts of a girl who didn't talk, who never had an idea of you and me. Well I guess you do, but where are we?

But there will be another night, and there will be something in sight, and there's a party to be thrown, and there will be a tomorrow, and they're going to hang a disco ball, and they're going to paint all the walls, and all your people will be there and you can end up being anywhere.

The disaster is on its way, but now the disaster is delayed.