From "A Fear of Falling" (2022).

Vinyl, CDr and digital albums available at: https://reanimationtheband.bandcamp.com

Composer: Michael Shanahan (music + lyrics)

Michael Shanahan: vocals, guitars + treatments, bass, drums, organ, synths, kalimba, and triangle

Mastered by James Scott/Populist Recording, Wheaton, IL USA

© 2021 Reanimation. All rights reserved.

A WORLD AWAY

V1
Turn all my darkness into light
I won’t go quickly, not tonight
I can’t shake my own shadow
It’s not time to let you go

There you are, a world away (x2)

V2
My hand’s unsteady, just one last drop
A whisper triggers me to stop
And lets the demons take the lead
Learn to run from what I feel

There you are, a world away (x2)

Don’t let me fall (x2)

V3
Each day just means a little more
I close my eyes, sink to the floor
My words have nothing left to say
There you are, a world away

There you are, a world away (x3)

A World Away [from "A Fear of Falling," 2021]

From the upcoming newly remastered vinyl reissue of the 2014 CD, "Under the Last Tree on Earth," due February 2023!

See video at: https://youtu.be/W90jTLede2I 

Pre-order for vinyl and digital albums available at: https://reanimationtheband.bandcamp.com. Original 2014 CDr also available.

Title: Dead Heart Souvenir
Artist: Reanimation
Composer: shanahan (music + lyrics)

Mastered by James Scott/Populist Recording, Wheaton, IL USA

michael shanahan: vocals, drums, guitars, e-bow, bass, synths, zither, tin whistle and sandpaper 

copyright 2013/2022

Dead Heart Souvenir
----------------------------
Soft stroke, caress the soul; feel the pulse moving faster
Dark heart, souvenir; heal the wounds driven deeper
They don’t share the pain; no no no it’s just for show
Slipshod, ease the mind; feel the surge from below

The light will come again, let it shine down on this day
The song that sleeps from within your mind drifts away

Everyone we know is like a mirror with a soul, and as we move beyond the narrow, walk the storm clouds from below
The other way of knowing, nothing but the primal glory, what’s the truer price of freedom, not the motion or the form

Turn it up and spit it out, another punctured fairy tale, the hearts will ease and sorrows end, where day and night will meet as one
Crawl inside and letting go, it’s not about the words you just borrowed

She pushed away and she’s so much alone

[The light comes from way down low]

Dead heart, souvenir; heal the wounds driven deeper
Low hum melody; turn it up in a frenzy

Everyone we know is like a mirror with a soul, and as we move beyond the narrow, walk the storm clouds from below
Memorize and improvise and slip away and hear it grow louder

Turn it up and spit it out, another punctured fairy tale, the hearts will ease and sorrows end, where day and night will meet as one
Crawl inside and letting go, it’s not about the words you just borrowed
She pushed away and she’s so much alone

[The light comes from way down low]

Dead Heart Souvenir [from "Under the Last Tree on Earth"; 2022 Remastered]

michael shanahan: vocals, drums, guitars, bass, synths, harmonica 

copyright 2022

Memory Never Shared
 
V1
Lean your cheek upon my hand
Feel the weight of a restless man
And all the secrets you must know
This part of me no longer whole
There’s just no cure for this disease
Left behind and on my knees
 
I am… I am... I am… I am the one that won’t let go now
 
CHORUS
It all comes undone
You’re wasting time
you’re wasting mine
The falling tear
This memory never shared
 
Breaks one by one
And where I go
One place I know
A dream we dared
This memory never shared
 
V2
Every sun went dark that day
The very moment you walked away
Scene by scene, it’s all too fast
From the wrong side of the glass
 
I am… I am… I am… I am the one that won’t let go now
 
CHORUS
 
SOLO/BRIDGE
Shadows show
Shadows show
And from the shadows show this heart
 
CHORUS

Memory Never Shared [2022; early master]

Composer: Michael Shanahan (music + lyrics)
Michael Shanahan: vocals, guitar + synth guitar, bass, drums, tanpura app, synths

Watch the video for "The Tempest" at: 
https://youtu.be/pBHZe9ndGDg?si=Qumh2dtwqimDdsTS

© 2024 Reanimation. All rights reserved.

Video created by Michael Shanahan using the usual combination of iPhone self-footage, stock footage and effects.

Reanimation vinyl, CD and digital albums available at: https://reanimationtheband.bandcamp.com

LOCAL shoppers can purchase Reanimation vinyl at MILE LONG RECORDS, Wheaton, IL USA (630-474-4954) or AUDIOPHIL'S RECORDS, Joliet, IL USA (815-319-2143)

THE TEMPEST

V1
Press your hands between my own
Is this the only way to feel?
Hold the memories, hold the love
It’s your heart they cannot steal

CH
So what is wrong?
This tempest strong
The distance, the dissolution
They’re talking but I just can’t hear
[So what is wrong?]
[This tempest strong]
Walk blindly in the daytime
How I wish that you were here

V2
Secrets spitting at your back
Exhausted in the morning light
See the prize, your one desire
Sing your melody tonight

CH

V3
Young love takes its last farewell
Just a constant shadow that lingers
You just tremble as you kneel
Slipping through my helpless fingers….
Young love takes its last farewell (x2)

CH

The Tempest [2024]

Title: Without You (Close Your Eyes)
Artist: Reanimation
Composer: Shanahan (music + lyrics)

Michael Shanahan: vocals, acoustic and electronic drums, guitars, bass, synths, chromatic bells and treatments

copyright 2017

WITHOUT YOU (CLOSE YOUR EYES)

V1
Night after night, she says
Wondering why I’m here
There’s a hole in the world that lulls me to sleep

Making the same mistakes
Through laughter and the tears
And it won’t mean a thing… without you

V2
I’m crawling inside, she says
Not knowing where to run
Maybe I’d be there now and not here

I’m not alone for once
And I never really was
But it won’t mean a thing… without you

CHORUS
Close your eyes
When the world goes quiet
You reach deep inside
Don’t say goodbye
I won’t wave the white flag
But I’m not superman
I can chase away the shadows
Before you hear the sounds again
Living with this heartbreak
Do you think of me?
Close your eyes (repeat)

V3
Night after night, she says
Wondering why I’m here
There’s a hole in the world that lulls me to sleep
And it won’t mean a thing…without you

Without You (Close Your Eyes)  [from "The Ghost of the Muse" 2017]

Title: Everything Is Not A Happy Ending
Artist: Reanimation
Composer: Shanahan (music + lyrics)

Michael Shanahan: vocals, guitars, drums, bass, synths, and treatments

copyright 2017

 EVERYTHING IS NOT A HAPPY ENDING

V1
The longest day, light shines upon no longer
Bite my tongue, this only makes me stronger
One by one the nights close in
The air between feels dense
A stranger loneliness that’s
Masked by this pretense
She pulls away, remember me tomorrow

Everything is not a happy ending

V2
A single word, shatters the illusion
The pale moon, arrives with some confusion
Like the lotus flower
Nothing truly dies
Swept in this embrace
I can’t apologize
It’s killing me, Is this some fatal poison?

Everything is not a happy ending

V3
A symphony, stops the tears from falling
Like poetry, until suddenly she’s calling
The haunt of memories
And all that they reveal
Run at half the speed
The heart no longer feels
This silent room, will look different in the morning

Everything is not a happy ending

Everything Is Not A Happy Ending  [from "The Ghost of the Muse" 2017]

Title: Ambulance Chasing
Artist: Reanimation
Composer: Shanahan (music + lyrics)

Michael Shanahan: vocals, Magnus electric chord organ, guitars, guitar treatments, bass, drums, percussion & sounds

copyright 2021

AMBULANCE CHASING

V1
What I feel when I first wake
Been too long since I missed your face
The last words, unsaid and never explained
I’d always live with my mistakes 
As you just turned away

CH
I can’t find the way
Nothing said would make you stay
No goodbyes for me to say
She’s just gone away
I’m falling backward, ambulance chasing every day

V2
If that’s all you have for me
I can’t erase completely
Your picture, as long as my eyes can see
But when it hurts too much to breathe
I drop down to my knees

CH (x3)

(I can’t find where you’re going)

Ambulance Chasing [from "A Fear of Falling," 2021]

Title: This Cruel Desire
Artist: Reanimation
Composer: Shanahan (music + lyrics)

Michael Shanahan: vocals, drums, guitars, bass, synths, recorder

copyright 2021

DESIRE

V1
The price of getting what you want
Something inside me now just gone forever
Things are sweeter when they’re lost
I know now that I should have known better
But it’s too late
But it’s too late
It’s much too late

CHORUS
This cruel desire
No smile, no sweet caress
Without desire
Don’t waste a single breath

V2
I’m just talking to myself
Kiss me again, I get so drunk and foolish
The gleaming of an empty heart
The damage done and talk just seems so useless
But it’s too late
But it’s too late
It’s much too late

CHORUS
This cruel desire
No smile, no sweet caress
Without desire
Don’t waste a single breath

BRIDGE
If only I could feel
None of this is real
So why can’t I let go?

You drive a saint to madness
Tell me that you hate me
Tell me again so that I’ll know

The thought of you tomorrow
Something lost forever
I have the marks for you to show

They won’t let go (x3)

PARTIAL CHORUS
This cruel desire
Desire

Cruel Desire [from "A Fear of Falling," 2021]

REANIMATION is the vision of Michael Shanahan. This solo project took root in 2006, but seeds were planted much earlier, during Shanahan’s downtime between other music-world commitments. Since 1985, the music of REANIMATION and its forebears has resisted easy categorization by combining elements of psychedelia with progressive, experimental, alternative and pop rock.

Shanahan made a small ripple in the indie world in 2011 with the REANIMATION debut GIANTS HIDE AMONG US. The self-produced album owed much to its experimental ancestors, with sometimes-eerie progressions and cyclical percussion themes, garnering favorable reviews and modest airplay.

In 2014, Shanahan released the ambitious UNDER THE LAST TREE ON EARTH. Heavy and hypnotic, with expertly assembled textural grooves, the album was more focused, remaining true to the trademark REANIMATION use of thickly layered sounds and circular song structures.

THE GHOST OF THE MUSE was released in 2017 to positive reviews. The album was a more refined, progressive and atmospheric offering that pulled in elements of psychedelic rock, indie, shoegaze, trance, and even ambient touches.

Michael Shanahan returns in 2021 with the first REANIMATION release in nearly four years. A FEAR OF FALLING is the most powerful and purposeful result yet. Themes delve deep into loss, inner struggles, memories and regret, attempting to exorcise those demons. Shanahan delivers reflective, introspective lyrics with power and emotion, while heavy, dark, hypnotic, cyclical arrangements dance and build beneath the surface.

In past lives, Shanahan has collaborated on recordings with Washington, DC’s Blue Sausage Infant (Flight of the Solstice Queens, 2010; Negative Space, 2011) along with California-based Todd Parker and the Witches (Futuretripper, 2018).

Before REANIMATION, Shanahan co-founded the Chicago-based alt-rock trio Every Part of the Animal (EPOTA) in 1988, with bassist/vocalist Brad Allen and guitarist/vocalist Bob Bartodziej. EPOTA eventually became a duo (Shanahan/ Allen) and released two CDs, Life Imitates Art (1993) and Civilization [Spirit] (1999). Before EPOTA, Shanahan also co-founded Quixotic, with Mark Watson, in 1985. That partnership produced several cassette releases and one CD release, Leap of Faith (1996). With REANIMATION, Shanahan melds these influences into a unique experience based on groove, space, atmosphere and tension.

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