The title track from my album "The Girl in the Window".  Featured in the horror film "The Banshee Chapter".

The Girl In The Window

From the rustically grand 'lost' 2007 EP "Every Time It Rains". The EP is finally available for unlimited streaming: https://marklenover.bandcamp.com/album/every-time-it-rains

Lyrics:

Every time it rains 
your skin gets thicker 
And when you shut your eyes 
the old spit turns 
The movement gets you high 
and your blood gets thicker 
Then you focus on the lights 
until the switch gets pulled 
Every time it rains 
your eyes get redder 
While you’re chomping at the bit 
the rocks get cold 

Every time you need 
your head gets lighter 
You lick the counter clean 
then you hit the bricks 
Your eyes are all awash 
in a blood-cloud flicker 
The clots are catching up 
and the coals get hid 
Every time it rains 
your blood runs colder 
You try to find a vein 
where the black fog sits 
They catch you up again 
just to kick you sober 
Every time it rains 
the clouds cave in

Every Time It Rains

From the rustically grand 'lost' 2007 EP "Every Time It Rains". The EP is finally available for unlimited streaming: https://marklenover.bandcamp.com/album/every-time-it-rains

Lyrics:

I fell asleep and dreamed we all died in a fiery crash 
and we found that the afterlife was much like the life we’d left 
far behind in the smoke, 
where the cinders, they spoke 
in strange, lashing, crackling tongues at the greatest length 
all damn day 
All about the dreams they’d have of things they’d never see 
and how they’d be satisfied with a drink and a place to sleep 
They got quite a kick, 
out of taking their licks, 
for a song and a pint to keep their guts appeased 
just as they pleased 

Holiday on a breakaway plank 
Let your lips move to match with mine 
Don’t I know you? 

Then the boys and the voice that led them sang a hundred different songs at once 
They tipped a stack of barrels back and howled at the moon for months 
When a change in the light 
would catch the black in their eyes 
they’d kick back, laugh and ride the river blind 
All damn night 
Now the dream kept folding, spinning and it dropped us off beneath the soil 
where the sweat from our brows would bead and collect in a pool to boil 
Then they’d stir it all up, 
and mix it up in our guts, 
and send it spraying, steaming, streaming up the spout 
How they flushed it out 

Holiday on a breakaway plank 
Let your lips move to match with mine 
Don’t I know you? 

And the steam and the waves shoot up and rain down on the river below 
onto the rafts and tankers, getting at the gas-man’s place to grow 
Until the fire goes to ground, 
‘till the smoke cleans us out, 
until we wake up, grin and beg another round 
Oh, tear down 
I awoke with a start and a feverish twitch about my face 
with all my years of living boiled down to a wicked disgrace 
Then I got to my knees and I begged and I pleaded for the Lord to put me in 
a righteous place 
Then I prayed for the Lord to cleanse the trouble from my mind 
Then I prayed that the Lord would have me walking at His side 
when the trumpeter’s song 
carries it’s children along 
and leaves the fool to ride the river blind

Ride The River Blind

The dark, propulsive opening track for my 12th album, "Wandering Stars". Pre-Order here: https://marklenover.bandcamp.com/album/wandering-stars

Juggernaut

The lead single from "Wandering Stars". "Sold" is about debt and slavery in a capitalistic, materialistic society.

Lyrics:

They'll welcome you over and over again 
They'll teach you to covet and to overspend 
They will have you drowning in debt in a heart-beat 
You will be reborn a servant in the dark. We 
spend all our money whenever we're bored 
on expensive play-things that we can't afford 
Once we've blown our paychecks, then we turn to credit 
We buy what we want but we don't really get it 
The more we consume, the hungrier we get 
and yet... 

We never study and we never learn 
We like to pretend we've got money to burn 
It amounts to subjugation, whatever you call it 
I will show you terror in an empty wallet 
Money is power, and debt is control 
Souls can be bought and freedom can be sold 
Thrift is unforgivable, pride is a virtue 
What you don't know can certainly hurt you 
The more you absorb, the less you comprehend, my friend 
It's taking its toll 

They will show you to the promised land 
You will grow to love your captors. You will 
cede control to those who know the way 
They will hold you inexorably in place

Sold

The terrifying centrepiece from "Wandering Stars". Hear the full album here: https://marklenover.bandcamp.com/album/wandering-stars

This song is meant to replicate the violent and unpredictable mood swings of a possessive, monstrously abusive spouse/partner. Some may find the subject matter upsetting.

Lyrics:

I will confess what there is to confess 
I will tell you the truth, no matter what the expense 
I will forgive what there is to forgive 
and I will love you for just as long as you live 

I'm going to cut you into bits 
I'm going to gut you like a fish 

You're mine, don't you ever forget it 

I will repent of time selfishly spent 
far away from you, I cursed every place where I went 
I will adore you each day more and more 
I will carry you through, I will see you ashore 

I'm going to cut you into bits 
I'm going to gut you like a fish

Monster

The haunting, piano-led closer for my album "Wandering Stars". Hear the full album here: marklenover.bandcamp.com/album/wandering-stars

Lyrics:

We met at the base of a mountain 
of glamour and garbage, vice, treacle and fame 
We'd congregate and we'd be counted 
to keep track of each fallen star 
The stones, they all cried out against us 
The mountain collapsed and fell into the ocean 
We dove in and sank where none could swim 
We died in pursuit of the things we loved most 

Nature herself would deny us 
The wilderness wept and the tides all rolled in 
Nightfall would invariably find us 
soaking in vomit and brine 
Our would-be rescuers mistook us 
for wreckage in bilge-water, passing us over and 
moving on to more welcoming shores 
We were last seen where the sea meets the sky

The Mountain

This darkly groovy song is from my 2009 album "Obliterate" and appears on the soundtrack for the film "The Banshee Chapter". Hear "Obliterate" here: https://marklenover.bandcamp.com/album/obliterate

Lyrics:

Let’s throw a party for the hollow men 
They aren’t themselves lately 
They never listen 
They never answer 
They can’t remember 
I can’t remember… 
Can I get a penny for the old guy? 

Let’s take collection for the hollow men 
Now fill your hats, don’t be stingy 
They’re at the river 
waiting together 
They can’t remember 
I can’t remember… 
Can I get penny for the old guy?

A Penny For The Old Guy

From my 2018 LP "All Dressed In Rags". Listen to the full album here: https://marklenover.bandcamp.com/album/all-dressed-in-rags

Lyrics:
An old man and his dog
linger in the corner of the
tavern as a fog
descends upon the mourners of a
recently departed legend
blinding red-rimmed eyes
Yeah, they’ll call the culprits out
They will take their revenge somehow
But the old man had known their hero for what he was
a feckless, pretending albatross

The old man looks upon
the mourners with a fixed expression
The weather spurns them on
a gloomy, serpentine procession
coiling round the city centre
strangling its prey
Yeah, they dress the old days up
but their costumes are not enough
to make him forget the terrible old regime
or its lackluster champion’s puerile dream

All Dressed In Rags

An Old Man And His Dog

From the 2018 album “All Dressed In Rags”. Stream or download the full album here: hyperurl.co/o5n9k3

Lyrics:
It’s hard to see things as they are 
when life is filtered through an avatar 
And nothing ever counts 
unless it’s captured for the world to see 
in our collective memory 
To see and to be seen, must be 
our first priority 

A cloud of sex and silly jokes 
everything anyone has ever known 
mixed in with every lie 
thoughtless conjecture and profane remarks, 
ugly kitsch disguised as art 
gossip dressed as news to suit 
the predominant view 

I’ll ask the vital question: 
Can we survive in the dark? 
Out where no one can reach us 
deaf, invisible and speechless 

Our new religion’s in the air 
Yes, it can reach us almost anywhere 
Our satellites in space are bouncing 
promotions and potent threats 
throughout the inter-wilderness 
teaching us to hide behind 
our electronic eyes 

To tell the democratic truth 
we haven’t really got much left to lose 
if everyone agrees that up is down 
then there can be no doubt 
There’s nothing left to blog about 
Submit and repent even 
if it doesn’t make sense 

I’ll ask the vital question: 
Can we survive in the dark? 
Out where no one can reach us 
deaf, invisible and speechless

The Vital Question

From the 2018 album “All Dressed In Rags”. Stream or download the full album here: hyperurl.co/o5n9k3

Lyrics:

He stank of sweat and rotten leaves that night 
The lice were coursing through his hair 
He reached out and he touched my sleeve that night 
just to make sure that I was really there 
We didn’t know what he was going through 
and we really didn’t care 

The fireworks produced a heavenly display 
The children clapped and laughed 
The man had vanished, was forgotten anyway 
the second we turned our backs 
A fatal storm approached the fairground 
(You’d’ have run too) 
lightning struck and thunder clapped 

The radio told us to run the children home 
We all forgot him who had nowhere else to go 
We’ll never know what Christ was going through 
(You’d have run too) 
when He was left to die alone

The First

Through a distinctive fusion of folk, rock, theatre and electronica, Mark Lenover critically examines pop culture’s ubiquitous influence, its moral philosophy and the potentially devastating effects of drug abuse and mental illness. His recent work frequently challenges an increasingly pervasive culture of celebrity, self-indulgence, distraction and desire.

Mark Lenover

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