This track is a collaboration between The Sighs of Monsters and poet David Chislett. The poem "More Than Blue" appears in his new collection of poetry "With All Of You" and we were tasked with setting it to music, along with other artists who chose other works. The poem references the cultural impact of New Order's "Blue Monday" as it pounded out of the loudspeakers of the clubs in the 1980s, as the author "found his tribe". We've made some cheeky references to it in our musical treatment.

Lyrics:

I dance and twitch in a moment
Eyes fixed on a point
'Blue Monday' in my ears
Nineteen eighty-five
Heart is exploding
Not because of some girl
Something bigger than myself
Something I recognise

Found my tribe in that moment
A place I would call home
Nineteen eighty-five 
would last a long time
But my colours are no longer 
nailed to that mast
They are now my own
Now they are my own

From "With All Of You" by David Chislett
https://books2read.com/u/me9JrY

More Than Blue [Single]

More Than Blue

Though it was hard to digest, the threat of nuclear war loomed over the world again this month as another despot with grand delusions sent in his army to fulfil some twisted national destiny. Once again the citizens of peaceful cities took cover in underground shelters as sirens wailed above ground. This song is not a direct political commentary on current events however, but rather a rumination on what drives the tyrannical personality, and on the fragility of peace.

Bird Shot

If you imagine the world
Without you in it
You can start a war
And you could win it
There’s an arc of triumph
In every fable
While folk memory is
Unsteady, unstable
An indelible mark
On history still
Requires no more
Than an act of will

It fell to Earth like a bird shot through the heart
And in a flash the world was blown apart
Do not forget every man, woman, and child
Not history made, history defiled

If you imagine a past
On the road ahead
You can end a war
With no fear of the dead
With the mark of Cain
And the sense of Abel
And a dozen men
To sit at your table
An offer of bread
A promise of wine
But you love silver
You’ve not come to dine

Suffer our fates to come unto us
Not broke on a wheel, the eyes of the argus
Where we stand we will stand, let the gods kill us all
The line in the sand is scratched on the wall.

Imagine your death
The world will still turn
At your last gasp
Too late to discern
In this cold life
You the brute
Us twisting the knife
So falls Caesar, Fuhrer, you
Was it worth
The blood and the pain
Your mad king on the ground
Writhing insane

Check out the music video too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoexkzHGHNc

Bird Shot

From "Present" - The Sighs of Monster's fourth album, released 3 June 2024.

Hallsands, from the album 'Present'
Performed by The Sighs of Monsters
Lyrics by Dean Sobers

------------------------

Hallsands

Everyone that everyone knows is here
under bland, ungiving depths of cloud.
A remembered beach of a sunken town.

The rush to the shingle and the sand.
The seine boat creeps away from land.
The spotter semaphores with his hat.
The crew follow and pay out the net.

Everyone everyone knows is out.
Ella bouncing us all to work.
Bloody minded about our future,
with her sister, like their father.

You pull with everyone on the ropes.
You gurn at the kids who laugh and kick
up sand as the writhing nets are drawn - 
in staggered surges - to the shore.

Everyone everyone knows is out.
Elizabeth, last in the ruins.
An atom adrift in vastness. 
A wire humming emptily in the wind.

Black and white photos of Hallsands.

Present

Hallsands

Buy on Bandcamp

From the album 'Ground' by The Sighs of Monsters. 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ground-Sighs-Monsters/dp/B00ORSK0VU/

https://thesighsofmonsters.bandcamp.com/

Buy Now!

Jack

From album 'Ground' by The Sighs of Monsters. 

Available via Bandcamp:
https://thesighsofmonsters.bandcamp.com

Also available on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and Spotify.

Do Not Oscillate

From the album 'Ground' by The Sighs of Monsters.

Vietnam War Wound

From the album 'Ground' by The Sighs of Monsters. 

Another Day

From our album "Lie".
https://thesighsofmonsters.bandcamp.com/album/lie

LYRICS
------------------------
What, Love? I'm not some charlatan.
And I'd be one if I said 'Yeah. Of course –
you suggest so I guarantee
all and eternity.' No -

I cannot give you space and time.

Only the worst beguiler
would make to flaunt such power.
Exactly how would I give you space and time?!

As could this notional liar –
I can deliver mere parts:
The finite span of my life;
the environs of my heart.

That kind of question begs this kind of answer.
The suggestion merits the retort:

I cannot give you space and time.

Space And Time

Words & Music by Brett Lock & Leon Lazarus

They’re not police, I heard him say
They’re men of guitar, they’re okay, (he said.)
Is it the skin? Is it the car?
If they want to kill us, we’ll have to drive far, (get away)

Every time I’m in this town
I see the hate, it brings me down
But I hear drums!
I hear drums!

The future’s bleak, and the past is dead
Sirens and screaming fill my head
Her son’s been stabbed, she’s seventy-five
The shebeen turned on him, and she’s still alive, (so sad)

But no one cries, it was the third that night
the ambulance took him, just another fight (too bad).

Every time I’m in this town
I see the hate, it brings me down
But I hear drums!
I hear drums!

Just a bed and a stove, no windows here
The air is stale, the cupboard's bare, no food
You can try to be human, and lose it bit by bit
to flies on a donkey carcass, and the smell of shit

Hope on his knees, Hope struggles and stands,
and life goes on, while there’s strength in his hands, still strength

Every time I’m in this town
I see the hate, it brings me down
But I hear drums!
But I hear drums!
I hear drums!

[Single]

I Hear Drums

I Hear Drums [Single]

Lyrics:

You come up for air, the club now seems so stale
The sun touches your skin for the first time you feel so pale
Saturday morning has turned into Sunday
A new day is dawning and you're on your way
 
A touch on your hand, a jump-start, a shock
there's a place to eat nearby, it's on the next block
You gaze into eyes which stare back at you
You say someplace else has got a great view
 
	It's Sunday morning the sun is still red
	the music from last night still pumps in your head
	and your heart is still dancing from the sweet things that were said
	you show no restraint as you fall into bed
 
Scattered clothes on the floor lie on alien shoes
and the hand in your hair says you're no beggar, you can choose
Sunday evening has has turned on a sun ray
A new day is dawning, and you're on your way.

Saturday Morning 5am

Ecstasy 

I ran so fast I barely stayed in my shoes
With nothing so urgent and no pressing news
The dogs yapped, the wind tugged at my hair
Against the odds I’ll get this kite in the air

An upward draft and I’m in ecstasy
The fact of flight and I’m in ecstasy.

Our souls alone met and then were two
My heart was the very least I could give to you
A shaft, a gear, a purring synchromesh
I smell your sweat, you clutch at my flesh

Another thrust and I’m in ecstasy
I come inside and I’m in ecstasy

And now they’re pumping in the medicine
It slows me down, I don’t think I can win
The bustle outside goes on and on and on
See my dust, suckers, I’m long gone

	I’m flying now and I’m in ecstasy
	I fade from view and I’m in ecstasy

		My love for you is my ecstasy
		My love remains, it is my ecstasy
		My love for you is my ecstasy
		My love remains, it is my ecstasy.

Ecstasy

A track from our as-yet-untitled third album.

Grahamstown Fever
----------------------------

I’ve got to get back to this crazy town
To see a good friend of mine
To talk of old times, and start some new
And take it to the end of the line.

Oh Grahamstown fever
Comes creeping up on you
You want to start something new but
you can’t leave here.

I found you sitting in that same sleazy bar
You smiled and looked up at me
We picked it all up where we left off last
And for the rest of the weekend, we had a blast

Oh Grahamstown fever
Comes creeping up on you
You want to start something new but
you can’t leave here.

Oh Grahamstown fever
Comes creeping up on you
You want to start something new but
you can’t leave here.

Grahamstown Fever

Lost and Lonely
Was there ever a cut so deep, so cruel, or unkind
I’m beyond consolation; I’m quite out of my mind
Wounded now, I’m winded, I’m blown beyond reason
It’s been a long, cold and rough, inhospitable season
And I’m drunk with regret, rum-loathing and despair

When you said you’d left me
crows circled in the sky
they could tell without you I was lost
and certainly would die

Please don’t leave me, baby
Please don’t leave me, baby
Please stay with me, baby
Or I will die.

I’m lost and I’m lonely and I don’t even know why
Suspended mid-motion not looking a thing in the eye
My shoes are like shining uranium, I can see my face in them
Reflecting this middle-class hunger, raging inside me again.
I’m scared, I am scared, I’m terrified you’re not there

When you said you’d left me
scavengers circled round
to peck at my body before it was
buried in the ground.

Your promises all were hollow
and my hopes in funeral black
when a love is lost for sure
you’ll never get it back

Lost And Lonely

Featuring Libbey Swindon (guest vocals) and Davis Lewin (lead guitar)

-------------------------------

The Disease

I woke up early this morning
with a noose around my head.
I was dead-weight on my pillow,
I could not get out of bed.
Outside the wind tore into the trees;
this must be some disease.

I’ve worked hard all my life,
and I’m not going anywhere.
But I don’t complain, oh no.
Do I say it’s not fair?
Have I ever asked for a life of ease?
This must be some disease.

She said “well, now baby
what is wrong with you?
You can make me so mad,
I don’t know what to do.
Oh baby listen to me please!
This must be some disease!”

The only thing certain is death and taxes,
And that this world goes round on its axis,
Indifferent to you, devoid of any meaning.
It was an easy birth, why are you still screaming?

I woke up early this morning;
I thought I might be dead.
The dark clouds through the window,
my limbs are made of lead.
The Devil’s whisper rasps through the trees.
This must be some disease.

Dust

The DIsease

The Disease

From our forthcoming album 'Dust'.

Boom & Bust
There was a time I was young and thin
I had more hair and a cocky grin
Me and my mates would drive around the town
Something was up if there was nothing going down

Our glory days, the cut, the thrust
I’d dust my broom through boom and bust
Jim drives an Uber, a software CEO
Me? Who knows? I’m always on the go

Some people spend their lives tethered to the ground
And others tumble down from the hills they’ve climbed
Me, I don’t know, as long as I’m bound
someplace else, well, I don’t mind

Someone passes, and whispers in your ear
It’s a ship of fools, there’ll be one less next year
the sirens wail, a sailor cries
on an ocean becalmed everyone dies

Live your life like you sail into the sun
Live it hard like there’s more work to be done
Who cares how, what will be will be
If it slips away, hold on to me.

Boom & Bust

Boom & Bust [Single]

'The Lonely Sky' is the epic closing track of our third album, 'Dust'. It is an expression of the Humanist impulse to find meaning where no meaning ultimately exists, unless we create it.

THE LONELY SKY

As in the myth of Moriah, a father takes his son
Along a winding cliff where once walked another one
Stoic in his sacrifice, the boy cries out “why, why, why?”
The wind takes the ashes, but there is no reply

I wrestled with my conscience on a bench on Peniel Hill
It could not get the best of me, it could not break my will
Instead it broke my silence, instead it touched a nerve
I cried like a broken man, I wailed without reserve.

There is nothing out there I believe
It is our lonely sky, our lonely sky
Alone in our ecstasy and grief
Below a lonely sky, our lonely sky

When I came to know myself, there was a famine in this land
But plentiful above were stars, peppered like grains of sand
Near Bethel we scattered you like the dust of the earth
I stood there like the stone that marked the place of my birth

There is nothing out there I believe
It is our lonely sky, our lonely sky
Alone in our ecstasy and grief
Below a lonely sky, our lonely sky

If there were a point to this there’d be a god above
We’d shine below like angels basking in his love
But as it is, all we have is each moment until death
We count these off like shekels, more precious with every breath.

There is nothing out there I believe
It is our lonely sky, our lonely sky
Alone in our ecstasy and grief
Below a lonely sky, our lonely sky

The stars glance their light off the black sea
It’s quiet on the windward and the lee
The silence offers answers we reach for with trusting hands
The world we know grows smaller as the universe expands.

There is nothing out there I believe
It is our lonely sky, our lonely sky
Alone in our ecstasy and grief
Below a lonely sky, our lonely sky

Words & Music by Brett Lock

The Lonely Sky

The Sighs of Monsters is a band from the UK. 

The easy answer to "What sort of music do they play?" is ‘art rock’, but in truth they do what they think the song needs. 

"Three quarters of a century into rock ‘n’ roll, the musical vocabulary is so huge that restricting oneself to a particular style seems pointless and needless," says vocalist/guitarist Dean Sobers.

"The ‘The Sighs of Monsters’ sound comes from the way we play and the personality of Dean’s voice, but we don’t mind pulling in elements of folk, jazz, punk, ska, avant garde, or straight-down-the line rock. There comes a point in the life of a song where it is almost able to tell you what it needs, " adds percussionist Chris Houston.

The band started recording 'GROUND' with no fixed agenda, "but we knew from the start that we wanted to create an album that felt like one of those classic albums we grew up with," says bassist Brett Lock. "The ‘album’ as an artistic statement has lost a lot of ground over the last decade because iTunes culture has emphasised random individual tracks compiled into personal playlists. We wanted to create something for the type of music fan that enjoys sitting back and listening to an album as a cohesive work: someone with patience and who remembers why they loved music."

The Sighs of Monsters

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