Closing Ceremony [Full Album]

Rhododendrons - track 4 from the album Closing Ceremony (2020)

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Rhododendrons - Lyrics

Light the way
I don’t have the words to say
Anything in any way
They’re floating in the bay

Spider hands
Crawling ‘round inside my head
I wear my brother’s clothes to bed
Fill the pockets up with lead

A videotape
Playing in the garden with my sister in spring
It’s distorted and grey
On Valentine’s Day
I might look like I’m living
Living on the outside
But I’m fading away

Drown the day
I don’t have the nerve to stay
Lemon juice and Valium
I am very thin

Out of breath
Every night I dream of death
In Bethlehem and Nazareth
All their hands are falling off

A videotape
Playing in the garden with my sister in spring
It’s distorted and grey
On Valentine’s Day
I might look like I’m living
Living on the outside
But I’m fading away

And with light on your side
You live another life but I
Am in the bible blackness

A videotape
Playing in the garden with my sister in spring
It’s distorted and grey
On Valentine’s Day
I might look like I’m living
Living on the outside
But I’m fading away

Closing Ceremony

Rhododendrons

I Am All - track 1 from the album Closing Ceremony (2020)

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I Am All - Lyrics

Further in, not further on
Waters rise, the ground is gone
Where were you when we were one?
I am what the water’s done

North of here is constant ache
Songs to old gods, fire as praise
Ashes gone now, leave no trace
I am where the fire stays

Sweeter now, the air outside
Earth in glory, nature’s pride
Tread lightly here for beauty lies
I am what the flowers hide

First of my line to give in
Learn to love my own within
Good and bad: my kith and kin
I am all and all is sin

I Am All

Vespertine Animal - track 3 from the album Closing Ceremony (2020)

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Vespertine Animal - Lyrics

I thought I saw a light in the dark
I thought I saw a light in the dark
I thought I saw a light in the dark
I thought I saw a spark
But it was just the devil coming home

I didn’t see the way you looked at me
Lilac lover
You see the sun
You see the sun in me
Lilac light
Vespertine

I thought I saw the birth of the world
I thought I saw the birth of the world
I thought I saw the birth of the world
I saw it all unfurl
But it was just the devil coming home

I didn’t see the way you looked at me
Lilac lover
You see the sun
You see the sun in me
Lilac lover
Lilac light
Vespertine

Vespertine Animal

I Remember The Rain - track 3 from the album Closing Ceremony (2020)

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I Remember The Rain - Lyrics

Standing next to me
In the memory
I just want you to know
That you are a friend to me
Not the enemy
Even though, even though

I miss my brother
And my grandmother
I will remember the crows
What happens forever
Now everything’s over?
Who says that the world is a rose?

You know my face
Darling, you know my name
But nothing is all the same

What happens forever
Now everything’s over?
You missed that final refrain
I remember the rain

The house smells like flowers
Weeks after the funeral
Put away all the clothes
I sat for hours
By the roman numerals
At the end of the road

A mysterious stranger
Is reading Corinthians
Silver dragonflies float
What happens forever
Now everything’s over?
Who says that the world is a rose?

You know my face
Darling, you know my name
But nothing is all the same

What happens forever
Now everything’s over?
You missed that final refrain
I remember the rain

Familiar strangers
Have been coming over
To stick the spike in the vein
I remember the rain

I Remember The Rain

Sobriquet - track 5 from the album Closing Ceremony (2020)

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Sobriquet - Lyrics

I’m not quite yet so unafraid
That I might let you use my Christian name
You’ll call me whatever you please –
It usually fits and I get my kicks
When your tongue plucks your lips

What is precious to you these days?
What do you wrap in your coat when the wind howls?
When is it worth it to open your mouth?
I’ve been quiet for years, yet I perk up my ears
At certain turns of phrase, certain days

I asked you to turn out the light
“Why don’t you just close your eyes?” you said
But I can still see the glow from behind
And it’s not fair
I won’t pay for your nightmares

Sobriquet

Polygraph - track 8 from the album Closing Ceremony (2020)

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Polygraph - Lyrics

You were the everything
You left here in the spring
I know you, babe
An imploding fireball

I was a broken one
You were a setting sun
I know you, babe
Or I have to believe I do

I don’t know the dream you had
That made you hesitate
I don’t want to
I don’t want to

I don’t know what made you call
The devil to the gate
But I still love you
I still love you
Babe

There was no photograph
There was no polygraph
But you know me, babe
Or I have to believe you do

I don’t wanna live a life
Without you in the space
I don’t want to
I don’t want to

The universe, it turned away
And laid it all to waste
But I still love you
I still love you
Babe

Polygraph

U M B R E L L A B I R D S

The new album BACK TO LAND: out now 🔮

Umbrellabirds is Sam Blickhan, Lewis Daly, and Alex Hunt. The band began as a long-distance recording project when Sam Blickhan and Lewis Daly began exchanging demos in 2013. Alex Hunt heard these sparsely beautiful demos and initially signed up to produce, but was soon recruited as a full band member. The intricate, autumnal debut album was recorded in 2014-16, the product of many late nights and countless miles of travel. Oda Almås played strings on the self-titled debut. Shortly thereafter, the band began work on their second album—Closing Ceremony (2020)—featuring a bigger sound and a wider collective of musicians including Shyam Prasad on drums, Will Harvey on strings, and Cath Day on clarinet. Their third album—BACK TO LAND—was released in November 2025, further developing their signature indie-folk sound. Umbrellabirds have been played on BBC 6 Music by DJ Tom Robinson and featured on the BBC Introducing Mixtape.

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