Inspired by Wilkie Collins's novel.

The Moonstone

In the morning
Of another time
I was stupefied by your rhyme
In the evening
‘Neath the grave moonlight
I was mesmerized by your plight

All is covered by the moonstone
All is covered by the moonstone

How’re you feeling
In the Autumn light?
Do you give yourself to the night?
In the beginning 
You mistook my sighs
For a hint of that paradise

All is covered by the moonstone
All is covered by the moonstone

All is covered by the moonstone
All is covered by the moonstone

The Moonstone

All the Time

I feel it coming
It will sweep you off your feet
Blow away your averages
It’s no use running
It won’t play hide and seek
Takes no mind of slow nor quick

And all the time you built those penitentiary walls
You didn’t know what they were hiding

You had the whole world
Wrested from your palm
You didn’t look it had gone
Now you twitch your whiskers
And kick you feet
But you don’t whistle anymore.

And all the time you built those penitentiary walls
You didn’t know what they were hiding

You had it coming 
The shadows of the deep 
Sweep away the galleries
It‘s no use hiding
It’s headed up your street
Knocking down your barricades

And all the time you built those cemetery walls
You didn’t know what they were hiding

All The Time

Inspired by both Novalis's 'The Blue Flower' and Penelope Fitzgerald's novel of the same name.

The Blue Flower

And in my dream I see the blue flower

To fall in love with one’s reflection
To give up all the world for burnished tears
I let my body fall to dejection
I let the night swell up with hollow fears

And in my dream I see the blue flower
A tiny fragment in a sea of white
Lapis lazuli in a grey tower
Snow-clad mountains in the dead of night

Like Casagamis in his blue shroud
I sleep with a bullet wound in my head
And Pablo tries to raise the dark cloud
By painting eulogies to reach the dead

And in my dream I see the blue flower
A tiny fragment in a sea of white
Lapis lazuli in a grey tower
Snow-clad mountains in the dead of night

Leaping out beyond the ultramarine
I gaze backwards on the gentle earth
I wallow deep within the blue serene
The angel of history foresees its birth

To fall in love with one’s reflection
To give up all the world for tears
I sink my face inside the blue flower
I let my body fall to dejection
I let the night swell up with fears
I lost my heart to the blue flower

The Blue Flower

Ordinary

There he sits, he’s just an ordinary man
He’s just doing what he can
Taking time to watch burglars climb trees
On an ordinary street

And he’s forgotten what he’s waiting for
But he knows it’s coming fast
And all he hopes is that he can grab at it
As its light goes speeding past.

But every night he …
Flies around the universe
Yes he flies around the universe
Yes he flies around, around, around, around

And every day is the model of restraint
Surveys the drying of the paint
And every afternoon he sips his cup of tea
On his suburban settee
And he ponders on the world today
And how things used to be
Just where his life is headed to 
He finds it hard to see

But every night he …
Flies around the universe
Yes he flies around the universe
Yes he flies around the universe
Yes he flies around the universe
Yes he flies around, around, around, around

Flies around the universe
Yes he flies around the universe
Yes he flies around the universe
Yes he flies around the universe
Yes he flies around, around, around, around, around, around, around, around …

Ordinary

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude, schadenfreude
I love the way you go
Schadenfreude, schadenfreude
Reap what you sow

She was the one who would never say die
She is the one who should burn
She was the one who could look in your eye
And give the dagger a turn
They say that I’m bitter and twisted and mad
But I am just glad that you’re dead
And in the end you got what you deserved
After all the things you said

Schadenfreude, schadenfreude
I love the way you go
Schadenfreude, schadenfreude
Reap what you sow

He was the one who could spit in your eye
As he was smiling so fine
He was the one who would swear he was right
As he strung you a line
They say that I’m sick, that I rant and I rave
And that I did you wrong
But now that you’re dead I will dance on your grave
And cheer to the heavens you’re gone

Schadenfreude, schadenfreude
I love the way you go
Schadenfreude, schadenfreude
Reap what you sow

Schadenfreude, schadenfreude
I love the way you go
Schadenfreude, schadenfreude
Reap what you sow

Schadenfreude

This track is influenced by DBC Pierre's 'Vernon God Little'.

The Ballad of Vernon Little

This old world is closing in on me
And I don’t think that I’m ever going to be free
God knows I tried my best to learn the ways of the world
But I don’t think it had a place for me.

I’ve done some bad things
And some mad things
And some rad things
And some sad things
But I ain’t done what they’re saying of me

The unforgiving sum was beating down that day
As I passed my way through the old school gates
As the shots rang out and the blood ran cold
It was never me that was taking hold of fate

Cos I’ve done some bad things
And some mad things
And some rad things
And some sad things
But I ain’t done what they’re saying of me

The pastor smiles and lays a hand on me
But forgiveness of his kind I cannot use
Cos it’s hot as hell where I’m heading 
But it’s cold as steel in this jailhouse

I’ve done some bad things
And some mad things
And some rad things
And some sad things
But I ain’t done what they’re saying of me

The Ballad Of Vernon Little

'The Stowaway' is based on a chapter from Julian Barnes's novel 'A History of the World in 10 and 1/2 Chapters'.

The Stowaway

See them loading up the elephants
All the rhinos and giraffes
Gorillas blubbering like crocodiles
Hyenas trying not to laugh

Ark

Penguins rubbing up ‘gainst polar bears
The lions and tigers call a truce
Barn owls looking out for leverets
The marmosets are running loose

Ark

Now they’re rolling out the antelope
The pigs are shouting out for more
The woodworm quiet as a stowaway
The rats are heading for the shore

Ark, Ark

The Stowaway

Inspired by Robert Zemeckis and Christopher Browne's film 'The Walk' and Don DeLillo's novel 'Falling Man'.

Falling Man

Falling, falling, falling

A New York skyline
We’re out of time
Rubbernecks are gazing high
A line across the sky
Teetering delight
Temperatures are rising high.

Man on a tightrope
He’s wobbling I hope 
He’s not the falling man.

Babel flyby
Icarus Airlines
Towers blinded in the light
Tumbling out the sky
Stumbling out of sight
Thermometers are rising high

Man on a tightrope
He’s wobbling I hope 
He’s not the falling man.

Falling, falling, falling

Man on a tightrope
He’s wobbling I hope 
He’s not the falling man.

Falling Man

The Entertainer

This track was inspired by a geopoetic walk at the site of the old Silverdale Colliery in Newcastle-under-Lyme. The walk was organized by Ceri Morgan and the Dawdlers group based at Keele University.

Cutting The Seam

"The syndrome known as life is too diffuse to admit of palliation. For every symptom that is eased, another is made worse. The horse leech's daughter is a closed system. Her quantum of wantum cannot vary." Samuel Beckett, Murphy.

Quantum of Wantum

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