An album for the party at the end of the world

An Eternal Reprieve From The Cold

A song about not believing everything you read

LYRICS:

New moonlight
Blue calcite
You count all your lives on one hand
and write all your lies with the other
The tears on the page tell a story that'll make you shudder

Night is over
Roll in clover
Form another brigade

Shudder

A southern gothic / blues rock song about making a swift exit

LYRICS:

The hand was dealt and the aces were turned
Spread out on felt when the houses were burned
The anvil was black and the dresses were red
You counted up all of your blessings and fled

The hounds love were released out of spite
They found you alone and afraid in the night
The trial was a loaded and sordid affair
Beguiled by betrayal and formed in despair

Ooh, you're hanging for your crimes
and it's only a matter of time before they find you out
Oh, you'd better keep walking
It's only a matter of time

You try to run but your legs fall off
You pull a gun but it's not enough
The sun is setting on another day
Your will to live is slowly ebbing away

Oh, you'd better keep walking
It's only a matter of time

Ooh, you're hanging for your crimes
and it's only a matter of time before they find you out
Oh, you'd better keep walking
It's only a matter of time

Only a Matter of Time

An acoustic version of this song from our first ever release 'Completely Unannounced'

LYRICS:

You’re far away and I can’t seem to find the time to come and play
But I don’t mind just calling from the edge

You turned away from everything you paid for at cost
And all the castaways you spend your time with now are just as lost

You’re far away and I can’t seem to find you

And now you’re searching for your missing memory through the mirrored glass
And all you find in just your mind in shattered pieces in the grass

You’re far away and I can’t seem to find you

Did you ever think you were a splash of paint dropped from the brush of a creator while he’s stood making something else?
And you splashed into existence
Completely unannounced

You’re far away and I can’t seem to find you

Far Away - acoustic version

A song about the forces of attraction and repulsion

LYRICS:

It's time we turned the corners of the lines we draw in sand
We'll find another boundary for the mines we dug by hand

Too far apart, the gravity's too weak to hold us down
Two proximal polarities repel us back to ground

Polar opposites attract
it's a paradox in a magnetic unknown
Are you coming home?

You're in orbit around each other
A binary star colliding with another
and you're hiding under the covers from your brothers
You're attracted to another
It's an unknown force you're trying to discover
but you're lying to your lover
and you love her

Polar opposites attract
it's a paradox in a magnetic unknown
Are you coming home?

You're in orbit around each other
A binary star colliding with another
and you're hiding under the covers from your brothers
You're attracted to another
It's an unknown force you're trying to discover
but you're lying to your lover
and you love her

Polarities

Our 12-bar blues song..

LYRICS:

Got a suitcase full of broken bottles
I've got my feet wrapped in chicken wire
The only memory I need to keep
is the one of your face as I lit the fire
I got one thing to do before I'm graveward bound
Sing through the shipwreck and inhale this sound

I got a chainsaw without a throttle
A getaway car I forgot to hire
I'm dying on a hill, it's pretty steep
but the Lord made it clear that He loves a trier
I got one thing to do before I'm graveward bound
Sing through this shipwreck and enjoy this sound
Alright

I got two left feet but I love to walk
I got some four-legged friends made of beef and pork
I got a new direction on the microphone
but my banjo's only crafted out of skin and bone
I got one thing to do before I'm graveward bound
I'm gonna sing through this shipwreck and inhale this sound
Well alright

I got a suitcase full of broken bottles
I've got my feet wrapped in chicken wire
The only memory I need to keep
is the one of your face as I lit the fire
I got one thing to do before I'm graveward bound
Sing through the shipwreck and inhale this sound

Graveward Bound

A 2-part song about dreams and nightmares 

LYRICS:

[Part I - "Lights On"]

For too long
we've been telling the same old stories
to our better selves
in an attempt to hold back the night
but it comes every time

Another bad dream
It's never easy
to write it down in words
The lights on and the memory fades away
You gotta trust us
The lights on and the memory fades
The memory fades into dust

Bring the darkness tonight
So bring the darkness tonight

[Part II - "Lights Out"]

We fell into love on the final attempt
And we came into focus at the edge of the frame
You might say
we've been working on getting to grips
with the same old situation
and living with it

We're caught in the sights
of the all-seeing eye
So steer to the right side
and say your goodbyes

We're caught in the sights
of the all-seeing eye
So turn out the lights
Bring the darkness tonight

We fell into silence while all the others sang
Mistaken for kindness
we held on tight to their hands
as they pulled us down
to the depths of the sea
We damn near drowned
but we broke free

We're caught in the sights
of the all-seeing eye
So steer to the right side
and say your goodbyes

We're caught in the sights
of the all-seeing eye
So turn out the lights
Bring the darkness tonight

Darkness Tonight - Parts I & II

A slightly country-rock-esque song about arguments and compromise

LYRICS:

Again we're starting over in another town
The friends we made, they drift away
like clouds on the wind
I'm tired of waiting
My body's aching and broken
The separating
This meditation is over
and now I'm open to suggestions

November brings a chill into our open minds
It's when we'll take our pills so we can try to find
some relief from it all
You're always hating
but it remains unspoken
And you can stare at the painting
but this conversation's over
unless you're open to suggestions

We can't ignore it
We're gonna have to explore it
And I'm gonna call it:
This one's a forfeit

We can't ignore it
We're gonna have to explore it
And I'm gonna call it:
This one's a forfeit

Nothing else for it..

Forfeit

A song about being overlooked and misinterpreted
(NB: the term 'side creature' was coined by John's daughter, in reference to an alien observer viewing the earth for the first time and mistaking cars for the dominant species and people as an extension of them)

LYRICS:

Forget my name
Make me a side creature
Just out of frame
Never the main feature
I'm always mostly out of view
Mistaken for a separate part of you

An old tattoo, unreadable
But it meant what it always meant to those who knew

A side creature
A see-through wall
A muted string
In an empty hall

An old tattoo, unreadable
But it meant what it always meant to those who knew

A side creature
A see-through wall
A muted string
In an empty hall

I'm a side creature
Behind a see-through wall
A muted string
In an empty hall
An empty hall

Side Creature

New mix by Kris Bolin of The Bawl Slant @bawl-slant
check out his work here: https://on.soundcloud.com/B4n1U


LYRICS:

The skin you're wound in
won't keep the sound in
so stop pretending

You hiss and you are steaming
Your eyes are streaming
and I can't say here, no

Slip-on shoes and dripping blues
You're waiting for the shipping news
Birds dive beneath the waves
They're showing you an early grave
The sea is where we go to die
The moon is hidden by the night

Waterfalls run backwards
and continents will drift apart
The universe must shrink again
so you can have your heart restart

I can't stay here
No

Slip-on shoes and dripping blues
You're waiting for the shipping news
Birds dive beneath the waves
They're showing you an early grave
The sea is where we go to die
The moon is hidden by the night

Waterfalls run backwards
and continents will drift apart
The universe must shrink again
so you can have your heart restart

The universe must shrink again
so you can have your heart restart

Dripping Blues [The Bawl Slant mix]

A cover of this festive jazz song from A Charlie Brown Christmas

Christmas Time is Here [Vince Guaraldi cover]

Sink Or Swim [The Bawl Slant mix]

A collaboration with Reedy - quite a different style from the norm - for us and him! Had a blast working on this one. Check out Reedy's other work here: https://soundcloud.com/user-716607695

LYRICS:

Running on fumes from the empty promises
You leave a trail of wounded from your bullshit policies
We're all subject to a strip-search warrant, identity probe
we got our blood type, colour, indemnity sold
into a government profile in a public upload to the cloud
We're gonna take it down
We're gonna take it down

Super sized French fries
Two-for-one mind control,
You're on a leash
Fear drenched gummy bears
offer up conspiracy and disbelief

Call in the team for a good-old dressing down
Blowing off steam with the peasants in the town
We're all meeting for a witch hunt shaming
and a throwing of stones
Behind the lynch mob clamour you'll be rolling the bones
You picked a hitchhike lover who can pay off your loans with her blood
We're gonna take it down
No, ain't gonna take it now

Take It Down - feat. Reedy

A song for the weekend at the end of the world

LYRICS:

You got the last space
on the red-eye to the rat race
but they went and lost your suitcase now
Give me some headspace
and I'll keep it in my bad place
So you can wipe that look on your face out

The weekend's here
and they're calling time at the bar now
We're gonna salsa dance in the fallout
And there's another bomb on the way
Okay

You got a new name
so you can take the last one in vain
You know profanity's a new way out

The dog is too tame
to protect you from your own shame
They're gonna beat you at your own game now

The weekend's here
and they're calling time at the bar now
We're gonna salsa dance in the fallout
And there's another bomb on the way
Okay
Asleep all year in a Dali-painted aurora
Between the neon flora and fauna
You'll feel your sanity fading away
Saturday
The weekend's here
and they're calling time at the bar now
We're gonna salsa dance in the fallout
And there's another bomb on the way
Okay
Asleep all year in a Dali-painted aurora
Watching the city lights getting smaller
On a midnight plane from the bay
Saturday

Saturday

A re-worked version of this song by Kirk Reedy
Many thanks, Kirk for your awesome work on this.
Check out Reedy's other work here: https://soundcloud.com/user-716607695

7 (Appalling) - [Reedy Remix]

A song about always returning to the same person you love..

LYRICS:

Raindrop, full stop
but we go forward
Finish last, failure
It comes towards us
Total flop, camera stop
so I can be gorgeous

I'll do it all for you
if I can get the reward first

Water, fire, hurricane
Whatever turns the wheels or strains the sail
moves me on again but I come back and
know that every route I think is new
Every win that I accrue
Every prayer I ever send
You will always be my end
You will always be my end

Brain blocked, heart locked
no one gets cured
How much more can we endure?
Finish first, final verse
Memory obscured
Where can we sell what we procure?
Til we drop, make it stop
so I can be rescued
Save me from this new hell and
I'll do it all for you
I'll do it all for you
So you can get the reward first

Water, fire, hurricane
Whatever turns the wheels or strains the sail
moves me on again but I come back and
know that every route I think is new
Every win that I accrue
Every prayer I ever send
You will always be my end
You will always be my end

You will always be my end
I'll do it all for you
You will always be my end
I'll do it all for you

Turn the Wheels

A song about the people who define us

LYRICS:

I got punk and you got funk
We're gonna drag it over the coals again
You got drunk and I got stung
The ship sunk, we're raising it up again

I got lumped with all your junk
Gotta drag it out to the dump again
Who'da thunk with all your luck
You'd take the hump, abandon all hope again

I got punk and you got funk
We're gonna drag it over the coals again
You got drunk and I got stung
The ship sunk, we're raising it up again

I got lumped with all your junk
Gotta drag it out to the dump again
Who'da thunk with all your luck
You'd take the hump, abandon all hope again

If I find you, I find me too
If I find you, I find me too
If I find you, I find me too
Chace alignment we can't undo
Raise the ship to float on into
sunset drunk, stung, stoned and out of view

Drag

A song about weathering the storm

LYRICS:

A cold wind is calling you
out to the fallen pine
You're lost
And it's three in the morning
No rest for the weary
A line is crossed

Don't be afraid
Don't be ashamed
Keep riding on the flame
Today

There's a whisper in your mind
that won't go silent
A mark upon your face
suggesting violence
A shapeless fear your words won't form
A mental picture: bees in swarm
Excess of doubt
Clouding out the boy who runs in smiling

Don't be afraid
Don't be ashamed
Keep riding on the flame
Today

Riding on the Flame

A song about being too set in your ways

LYRICS:

We came up the long way
Despite all the foreplay
It took us a whole day and night to perform
You did it your own way
Well, that's what the books say
The script of your old play lays tattered and torn

You live a life of analogue
In digital form
An order from a catalogue
unwrapped and unworn

Dustproof, hermetically sealed
With magnetic appeal
Apoplectic, we feel all your rage
Locked up in storage
Bad mannered and boorish
Your habit's too moreish to start acting your age

You live a life of analogue
In digital form
An order from a catalogue
unwrapped and unworn

You live a life of analogue
In digital form
An order from a catalogue
unwrapped and unworn

Analogue

A song about persistence with the ones you love

LYRICS:

Try to lose
your California blues
But your walking shoes
are tied too loose
Find the loose end and pull it through
You don't need to be cool
Just need to be true

You don't need to be cool
Just need to be true

Three words are spoken too soon
Two hearts are broken by the moon
To fill the void in
We're drinking poison
Untended flowers never bloom

Duty is a poor motivator
Duty is a poor motivator
I'm gonna try

So gimme that lift-in-the-chest-
eyes-up-to-the-sky
version of 'ok,
I'm gonna try'

Gimme that lift-in-the-chest-
eyes-up-to-the-sky
version of 'ok,
I'm gonna try'

I'm gonna try

Duty

A song about always ending up where you started, despite how hard you try to escape

LYRICS:

Could have been a hurricane
A low flying jet plane
But it blew us all away
No, I don't know if I wanna go home
Don't know if I wanna go home
I know I don't wanna stay
here
with you
today
Here
with you
in pain

We were pulling on our loose threads
Making up our death beds
when the wind began to howl
Oh, we can't hide from the gathering storm
But can we gather in the towns we were born
and await our impending fates?
I'm here
with you
again
Again
I'm here
with you
No pain

I'm here
with you
again
I'm here
with you
No pain

No pain

No Pain

A power ballad..

LYRICS:

The step is not hard to take
But over and over again
we bend and we break
The same simple mistake
at the start with my terrible heart in your hand
and you tighten the grip
on the part with the delicate need for command
It's all built in the sand

We stay awake for days
while kneeling and feeling our way
through vacuums of space
It's a desolate place
Fuel the fire with the furious ire of your soul
Feed the flames in the night
Build the pyre, an eternal reprieve from the cold
And so we'll never grow old

You've been ignoring the ballad of fire on the radio
but if you listen it's calling
You've been ignoring the ballad of fire on the radio
but if you listen it's calling to you

You see yourself as a hero for hire but we all know
there's no commissioner calling
Your alter ego's just you in a bar with no windows
and you're rapidly falling
If you cared you could still give yourself a crescendo
but you'd have to go all in
You've been ignoring the ballad of fire on the radio
but if you listen it's calling to you

You've been ignoring the ballad of fire on the radio
but if you listen it's calling
You've been ignoring the ballad of fire on the radio
but if you listen it's calling to you

Ballad of Fire

Back to the pop-punk here, with a sprinkling of ska..

LYRICS:

Fifty shades of denial
We'll never get to the final countdown
Sounds better on vinyl
Come on over to mine
I'll show you how..
How we do it here

We're gonna batten down for the hail
A hammer, plank and a nail'll fix it
We're boarding up our betrayal
You wanna hear a tall tale
I'll tell you how..
How we do it here

Ooh
How did you get here?
Ooh
It's how we do it here

We've had a lot of time to talk about the past
If I write another line it may well be my last
Oh, you led me through the forest
on a promise and a prayer
You told me close my eyes
and then you left me standing there

Ooh
How did you get here?
Ooh
It's how we do it here

Do It Here

A song about idle minds

LYRICS:

Begin the scrolling
When you're on your own
You got nothing to do
Gotta fill the hole in
You're getting old
You got nothing to lose

Ooh, have I got a song for you

You're the one controlling
You're on a roll
Flying up in the blue
Not running, just strolling
Achieved your goals
You got nothing to prove

Ooh, have I got a song for you

Nothing to Prove

A song about getting left behind

LYRICS:

Could be filling up a goldmine
Could be surfing on a landslide, oh
We could be filling up a goldmine
We could be surfing on a landslide, oh

You should be playing on your own time
You should be working in the sunshine, oh
Because you're holding up a long line
with your worry and your old mind all
full of thoughts

What's to become of us?
We only faltered once
So make a meal of us
Regurgitate the bones

We'll never get another chance to show them
how we've grown
But now they know
Now they know
We'll never get another chance to show them
how we've grown
But now they know
Now they know

What's to become of us?
We only faltered once
So make a meal of us
Regurgitate the bones
What's to become of us?
We only faltered once
So make a meal of us
Regurgitate the bones

Could be filling up a goldmine
Could be surfing on a landslide, oh
Could be filling up a goldmine
Could be surfing on a landslide, oh

Now They Know

Remaster of this song from our vocoder EP

LYRICS:

Sunset glowing on the mountain
Hour is late but no one's counting
Eat our tea out of a round tin
Look out baby, we've gone campin'

Wake up waiting for the sunrise
Tartan blanket on our cold thighs
Canvas creaking on some loose guys
Campfire smoke will sting in both eyes

Darling, where's the lighter?
I can't find the matches
Cooking on a gas stove
Washing in the river

We're home here in the wild
We lay our heads on stone
And share our sunburn smiles

Gone Campin' [2023 Remaster]

A remastered version of this song from our fourth album

LYRICS:

The colors fade into grey at the close of the day
You’re calling, for what you can’t say
You’re falling away

You stumble through the town
The voices are loud
You’re humbled by the sound that echoes around

This old refrain
Dirty words sung again
It stains my days with the shame of the time we lost playing games

The colours fade in from grey at the turn of the day
We throw ourselves in the fray to keep the boredom at bay

This old refrain

The words you shout carve grooves throughout your brain
And anger twists itself inside your grain
It's why we’re here time and time again
Singing this tired old refrain

This Old Refrain [2023 Remaster]

An acoustic version of the opening song on our most recent album

LYRICS:

The step is not hard to take
But over and over again
we bend and we break
The same simple mistake
at the start with my terrible heart in your hand
and you tighten the grip
on the part with the delicate need for command
It's all built in the sand

We stay awake for days
while kneeling and feeling our way
through vacuums of space
It's a desolate place
Fuel the fire with the furious ire of your soul
Feed the flames in the night
Build the pyre, an eternal reprieve from the cold
And so we'll never grow old

You've been ignoring the ballad of fire on the radio
but if you listen it's calling
You've been ignoring the ballad of fire on the radio
but if you listen it's calling to you

You see yourself as a hero for hire but we all know
there's no commissioner calling
Your alter ego's just you in a bar with no windows
and you're rapidly falling
If you cared you could still give yourself a crescendo
but you'd have to go all in
You've been ignoring the ballad of fire on the radio
but if you listen it's calling to you

You've been ignoring the ballad of fire on the radio
but if you listen it's calling
You've been ignoring the ballad of fire on the radio
but if you listen it's calling to you

Ballad of Fire - acoustic version

LYRICS:

The long forgotten voices
always sing the loudest song
From ages past
The pitches cast
We learn our right from wrong
The water's always sweetest
when it's taken from the source
You caught your love, now eat it
before justice takes its course

Should I eject?
Take a leap?
Life is short
Words are cheap
It's not a plan I designed
This job, this band
This daily grind

These screen-stained eyes
These blackened lips
The washing up
The fucking kids

The complicated ways we talk
reflect the time we served
The order of the sounds we make
deserves to be preserved
You caught a lot of heat
for all the times you fell asleep
behind the wheel
Automobiles upended in the creek

Should I eject?
Take a leap?
Life is short
Words are cheap
It's not a plan I designed
This job, this band
This daily grind

These screen-stained eyes
These blackened lips
The washing up
The fucking kids

The Loudest Song

Our Xmas cover for 2023
Merry Christmas everyone!

Do They Know It's Christmas? [Band Aid cover]

Terrible Love [The National cover]

A song for all of us

LYRICS:

You were never alone
As much as you tried to believe that you were
You were a pillar of stone
In the light and the shadows of her

You were never alone
No matter how far you would run from the pain
She was a golden apparition in the cold of the rain
No, you were never alone

We were never alone
And all the time that we spent underground
We were surrounded by love and heavenly sound

We were never alone in all our thoughts that come at night
We were all alone together in the light

And on the inside
You feel a hundred miles wide
But the ones you want to notice you existed
just dismiss you from their life
And on the outside
You look like you want to die
But you don't want them to see it
You'll get the sweetest hit
When you really swing for it
So swing for it

And on the inside
You feel a hundred miles wide
But the ones you want to notice you existed
just dismiss you from their life
And on the outside
You look like you want to die
But you don't want them to see it
You'll get the sweetest hit
When you really swing for it
So swing for it

And at your high tide
The sand will start to slide
And as you're sinking underwater it occurs
This is a stunning place to hid
You are not alone
Your heart can't turn to stone
The waves they couldn't claim you
So it's time I had my try
You'll get the sweetest hit
When you really swing for it
So swing for it
You were never alone

Never Alone

LYRICS:

Not long ago
The ice and snow
lay in sheets on the ground
But it's too late now
The seeds of doubt
have taken root all around

The air's a little bit colder today
The day's a little bit longer they say
We'll grow a little bit older this way

I'll never run from the fading sun
So move your tired lungs
in inflated tones
and sing for me
When all we've done
is the sum of exactly 1
I'd never number the days
in the month of February

You gotta know how know how to hold it
Know how to hold it in

I'll never run from the fading sun
So move your tired lungs
in inflated tones
and sing for me
When all we've done
is the sum of exactly 1
I'd never number the days
in the month of February

The Sum of Exactly 1

A song about our insignificance in the universe

LYRICS:

Much older now
Repeating history
It holds us down
With uncertain victory
We claim to speak
For our friend and families
We bury deep
In our hearts and our memories

Behold the night!
In the light of a burning moon
A long goodbye
To seasons returning soon
A lover's sigh
On the breath of the morning air
A songbird's cry
In the silence that lingers there

We're just humans
Made of stardust
We're just humans
Made of stardust

Under evening skies
You were making demands
In the shadows where bad guys make their plans
And there was a thought
I was hoping to share
About the meaning of life
But that's not why we were there
You meant for the moon
To maintain your disguise
But the light was a gift
And it opened my eyes
Then I saw what we were
Tiny and small
An illusion of power
Because we're nothing at all
We're nothing at all

Behold the night
It ends too soon
The stars are fading
Into the dawn
The tired moon recedes

We're just humans
Made of stardust
We're just humans
Made of stardust

Humans

The Welton Shipwreck is a UK-based rock duo made up of Stu Head and John Culkin. Formed at the start of the 2020 pandemic lockdown period, their songs are written and recorded by means of long-distance collaboration from their homes in Scotland and Yorkshire. The music they make combines elements of shoegaze, post rock, folk and psychedelic.

Stu and John are old friends of over 20 years. Both originally from the Greater Manchester area, they met at university in Leeds in 2000. The band name refers to a street they lived on as students.

Both Stu and John sing, play guitar, bass, keyboards and drums across their various tracks (along with a few less conventional instruments.) They mix and produce all of their own music.

New tracks always in the works and posted right here!

Thanks for visiting.

The Welton Shipwreck

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