Nuit Américaine

Nuit Américaine, horizon
Letters care of Hopeless 1981
Metaphysician, run, run, run
All your work is over, all your work is done

All your cities hum with inhibition
Grace is overcome, circuits softly printed sing
Oh historian, here's repetition
Here's repetition, here's repetition

All of these crossed wires coincide
Oh per fretum febris, by these straits to die
Let a map decide where am I
East and West are the same to the untrained eye

All your cities hum with inhibition
Grace is overcome, circuits softly printed sing
Oh historian, here's repetition
Here's repetition, here's repetition

I say no money, save the world
You say no money, no world
I say no money, save the world
You say no money, no world

I'm innocenté-oh
I'm innocenté-oh
I'm innocenté-oh
I'm innocenté-oh

© 2006 The Total Drop

Produced and mixed by Sam Soper, mastered by Tom Lowe, 2006

Anna Vincent: vocals & keyboard
James Vincent: bass & vocals
Sam Soper: guitar
Ivan Misquita-Rice: drums

Nuit Américaine

Your Excellency

I don't wanna be out of my head
Don't sew your seed of doubt in my head
I don't wanna be out of my head
Don't sew your seed of doubt in my head

I can believe in your excellency
Tell me I'm not your M.T.M.T.
I don't know, sometimes we agree
You're the son of a former M.P.

Oh I saw desire
Oh I saw the line of fire
Oh I saw desire
I saw the line of fire

Hush-hush your excellency
Microfilm at the A-G-N-C
How brave does a man have to be
To live a lie so dangerously?

Oh I saw desire
Oh I saw the line of fire
Oh I saw desire
I saw the line of fire

I don't wanna be out of my head
Don't sew your seed of doubt in my head
I don't wanna be out of my head
Don't sew your seed of doubt in my head my head

© 2007 The Total Drop

Recorded at Liveroom.tv, June 2007

Anna Vincent: vocals & keyboard
James Vincent: bass & vocals
Sam Soper: guitar
Ivan Misquita-Rice: drums

Your Excellency (Live)

Wires

You can't see the lines of silver
Tie them up tight
Tie them up tight

How the wires vibrate
How the wires vibrate
How the wires vibrate

Dream on her name and the next day
You may see her 
You may see her

How the wires vibrate
How the wires vibrate
How the wires vibrate

This is our secret

I will follow the lines on the palm of my hand
In the highness of this climb if we fail I don't mind

All your actions and intentions
pull the wires
pull the wires

How the wires vibrate
How the wires vibrate
How the wires vibrate

This is our secret

I will follow the lines on the palm of my hand
In the highness of this climb if we fail I don't mind

In the highness of this climb we will fail, I don't mind

© 2007 The Total Drop

Recorded at Liveroom.tv, June 2007

Anna Vincent: vocals & keyboard
James Vincent: bass & vocals
Sam Soper: guitar
Ivan Misquita-Rice: drums

Wires (Live)

Nuit Américaine

Nuit Américaine, horizon
Letters care of Hopeless 1981
Metaphysician, run, run, run
All your work is over, all your work is done

All your cities hum with inhibition
Grace is overcome, circuits softly printed sing
Oh historian, here's repetition
Here's repetition, here's repetition

All of these crossed wires coincide
Oh per fretum febris, by these straits to die
Let a map decide where am I
East and West are the same to the untrained eye

All your cities hum with inhibition
Grace is overcome, circuits softly printed sing
Oh historian, here's repetition
Here's repetition, here's repetition

I say no money, save the world
You say no money, no world
I say no money, save the world
You say no money, no world

I'm innocenté-oh
I'm innocenté-oh
I'm innocenté-oh
I'm innocenté-oh

© 2007 The Total Drop

Recorded at Liveroom.tv, June 2007

Anna Vincent: vocals & keyboard
James Vincent: bass & vocals
Sam Soper: guitar
Ivan Misquita-Rice: drums

Nuit Américaine (Live)

Altitude

A hurricane or
A serenade for the unsung also
You can exchange a
A happy life for a happy ending
And if they ask you
For your opinion oh sir yes sir
And if the mocking bird did sing
You never heard it oh no

You're so - I don't wanna say
You're so
You're so - I don't wanna say
You're so

A hurricane or
A serenade for the unsung also
You can exchange a
A happy life for a happy ending
And if they ask you
For your opinion, oh sir yes sir
And if the mocking bird did sing
You never heard it oh no

You're so - I don't wanna say
You're so
You're so - I don't wanna say
You're so

I've seen the ending 
Instead of romance careful styling
Unhappy landing
Illumination notwithstanding
And if they ask you 
For your permission, oh sir no sir
And if the mocking bird did sing

You never heard it
You never heard it
You never heard it
You never heard it

© 2007 The Total Drop

Recorded at Liveroom.tv, June 2007

Anna Vincent: vocals & keyboard
James Vincent: bass & vocals
Sam Soper: guitar
Ivan Misquita-Rice: drums

Altitude (Live)

The New Excess

Dirty pavements is the new excess
Runaway violence is the new excess
Love on the high-street is the new excess
And the boys in the basement is the new excess

And this rhyme was cool
We used to sing in school
This rhyme was cool

Radio pirates is the new excess
Reading about a knife fight, the new excess
A bomb in a briefcase, the new excess
And talking about High Life, the new excess

And this rhyme was cool
We used to sing in school
This rhyme was cool

(And it went like this)

We won the war
The 1984
Guess what we done
Oh what have we done?

(1, 2, 3, 4... oh)

Being English is the new excess
Welsh, Scottish or Irish, the new excess
And having a good time is the new excess
Or having a bad time, the new excess

And this rhyme was cool
We used to sing in school
This rhyme was cool

(oh)

We won the war
The 1984
Guess what we done
Oh what have we done?

We won the war
And now we wanna know what for
Guess what we done
Oh what have we done?

Boys in the playground 
Wishing they were far away
Boys in the playground
All you do is hear them say

We wanna know more
'Bout how we won the war
What have we learned?
Oh what have we learned?

We won the war
And now we wanna know what for
Guess what we done
Oh what have we done?

© 2005 Anna Vincent

Recorded by Anna Vincent

Anna Vincent: vocals & keyboard
James Vincent: bass & vocals
Sam Soper: guitar
Ivan Misquita-Rice: drums

The New Excess

Ravens

You were a sitting target
In a uniform made out of plastic
Sticks, stones and words you see
All part of a society, I know
Where boys are hard and girls are mean
You look grown up but you're only thirteen
In your head, hear them calling 
The ghosts of London falling

Look at the old boys on the corner
Drink the lethal waters
Forget about their daughters and sons
And skeleton trees with evergreen hearts
Are lonely ghosts of Christmas past

You wonder what they're doing
The ones you went to school with
You're not a child any more
But you are lost just like the ghosts you see
In launderettes and on street corners
Oh no, nothing surer
In your head, hear them calling
The ghosts of London falling

Look at the old boys on the corner
Drink the lethal waters
Forget about their daughters and sons
And skeleton trees with evergreen hearts
Are lonely ghosts of Christmas past

I don't, I don't know, oh I don't know, oh I don't know

To avoid busy stations
Go back where you came from
Little paths so easy to stick
More efficient and less scenic 
This is the last song about the city
Before the ravens come and get me
In my head, hear them calling
The ghosts of London falling

Look at the old boys on the corner
Drink the lethal waters
Forget about their daughters and sons
And skeleton trees with evergreen hearts
Are lonely ghosts of Christmas past

I love winter evenings
When the sun cuts through the cold
And all the tower blocks are painted gold
The big city sleeps 
In a blanket of haze
Buildings aren't the only thing
That scrape the sky these days

(la-la-la-la-la-la-la)

© 2005 Anna Vincent

Recorded and produced by Sam Soper

Anna Vincent: vocals & keyboard
James Vincent: bass & vocals
Sam Soper: guitar
Ivan Misquita-Rice: drums

Ravens

Words Escape Me

Sit down with me
And we'll talk for a while
Something 'bout this place
Reminds me of the old days so well
Every single month 
I'm singing in the rain
Another year gone
With nothing to show, what a shame

In the cities and the houses
Words escape me, oh
In my name and my number
Words escape me, oh
In a south London skyline
Words escape me, oh

Sing a song of sixpence
Along to Peckham Rye
All the little blackbirds
Are laughing but they don't know why
Gas tower sunset
Down by the river
We used to play til dusk
We used to play til we were tired

In the cities and the houses
Words escape me, oh
In my name and my number
Words escape me, oh
In a south London skyline
Words escape me

In the autumn and the winter
And the spring and the summertime

Sometimes I think I'm going around again
The days are getting colder again
The nights are getting longer again
The ice inside of your heart is fear

Deep in the city
The only place to hide
Is in the spires and the alleys of words
The build in your mind
Now it's three for a girl
And it's four for a boy
They've got a secret that nobody can destroy

In the cities and the houses
Words escape me, oh
In my name and my number
Words escape me, oh
In a south London skyline
Words escape me

In the autumn and the winter
And the spring and the summertime

Sometimes I think I'm going around again
I'm feeling optimistic again
I'm feeling pessimistic again
The ice inside of your heart is fear

Sometimes I think I'm going around again
Tonight I wear the same clothes again
And drink a little too much again
The ice inside of your heart
The ice inside of your heart
The ice inside of your heart is fear

© 2005 Anna Vincent

Recorded and produced by Sam Soper

Anna Vincent: vocals & keyboard
James Vincent: bass & vocals
Sam Soper: guitar
Ivan Misquita-Rice: drums

Words Escape Me

Paragraphing

One more car would get you far
Look at yourself, you're not so special
Are you in this club or on your own?
Burn again at rooftop parties
Les garçons et nightclub queens
Kiss yourself in bathroom mirror
Spiders in a TV scene
The bizarre is getting clearer

There you go, always talking love and revolution
Your badge says you are very good in bed

They're all giving up their jobs
In downtown parks and seaside shanties
Watching toaster burn and kitchen hobs
The demise of the appliance
He will start a building fire
Ten floors above the masses
Countryside is not that far
Get away on trains and buses

Measure low, a simple worker won't reform the country
It's just so you don't get ideas of your own

Mama say you must have patience
Let's all get above our stations
Seventeen million paragraphing
That's alright

Oh I've been a wicked house
Sitting room in yellow photo
Having sitcom dreams of going out
Four walls all that I know
Breakfast table days like these
Paper bills and hearts indebted
Dust on lino hands on knees
A draft will blow in if you let it

Work or play, an electron in a social circuit board
Rainy day, all your pennies washed away

Mama say you must have patience
Let's all get above our stations
Seventeen million paragraphing
That's alright

Oh-no-oh-no-no-oh-no-no-ohhh

Mama say you must have patience
Let's all get above our stations
Seventeen million paragraphing
Mama say you must have patience
Let's all get above our stations
Seventeen million paragraphing
That's alright
That's alright
That's alright
That's alright with me

© 2005 Anna Vincent

Recorded and produced by Sam Soper

Anna Vincent: vocals & keyboard
James Vincent: bass & vocals
Sam Soper: guitar
Ivan Misquita-Rice: drums

Paragraphing

Wires

You can't see the lines of silver
Tie them up tight
Tie them up tight

How the wires vibrate
How the wires vibrate
How the wires vibrate

Dream on her name and the next day
You may see her 
You may see her

How the wires vibrate
How the wires vibrate
How the wires vibrate

This is our secret

I will follow the lines on the palm of my hand
In the highness of this climb if we fail I don't mind

All your actions and intentions
pull the wires
pull the wires

How the wires vibrate
How the wires vibrate
How the wires vibrate

This is our secret

I will follow the lines on the palm of my hand
In the highness of this climb if we fail I don't mind

In the highness of this climb we will fail, I don't mind

© 2007 The Total Drop

Recorded live at Liveroom.tv, June 2007

Anna Vincent: vocals & keyboard
James Vincent: bass & vocals
Sam Soper: guitar
Ivan Misquita-Rice: drums

Wires

The Total Drop were a four piece art rock/no-wave band from New Cross in south-east London, active between 2005 and 2007.

Releasing through their own Snakes & Ladders label, with songs set in south London against a backdrop of late nights, bus rides, indie discos and some kind of post-teenage millennial angst, and a sound which ranged between melodic new wave, wiry post-punk and angular art-rock, the band took influence from the likes of Magazine, Talking Heads, The Slits, Wire, Gang of Four, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and were a regular fixture playing at the bars and venues which lined the New Cross Road (and sometimes even north of the river too).

The members went on to form various other projects, including electro-pop outfit My Tiger My Timing, and dream-rock band Heavy Heart, but The Total Drop's music still stands up as the exuberant, rough and ready sound of four kids from south London making their first real forays into music and having, from the sounds of it, a pretty good time along the way.

The Total Drop

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