1. |
With Small We Start
04:03
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He’s never seen the northern lights glow
from a wooden hut nearby Abisko
there’s a National Geographic photo
that’s been ripped out of a magazine
On a bench by his old radio
morning sunlight through the shed window
colours faded now but for the green
the fantasy is all we need
Take note, take heart, with small we start
To rewire, rethink, step back from the brink
Take hold, tear old, worn habits apart
Go steady, go, with small we start
She’ll probably never live in Portland
with graffiti roses for a garden
but new stories form on the horizon
as she lets go of moving over there
Instead she walks her niece to school
looks for swallows by the river pool
and learns when you’re not in a rush
that tiny things can mean so much
Take note, take heart, with small we start
To rewire, rethink, step back from the brink
Take hold, tear old, worn habits apart
Go steady, go, with small we start
Some days I’m flooded with emotion
by our blind dystopian devotion
and it’s hard to see where we are going
the lack of empathy, the lack of love
But I’ll try to plant some little seeds
try to sift out all my wants from needs
sort the mess out in my own backyard
light the future with this spark
Take note, take heart, with small we start
To rewire, rethink, step back from the brink
Take hold, tear old, worn habits apart
Go steady, go, with small we start
(Northern lights, northern lights)
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2. |
Call it a Day
03:45
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How long has it been since I put on paper wings
and flew on a whim to this fraught land?
Longer than I thought any whim could be caught
I never really had much of a plan
There’s not enough to keep me here
my heart is with another sea
Oh it’s time for me to move on
it’s nothing that you’ve done wrong believe me
They say it’s evolutionary we don’t forget the harder days
That the good times are all very well but we don’t survive that way
Argue all you want but it’s the good I will take, I will take
Goodbye to pebbled shores I’ll write of you no more
I’ll fill my notebooks with white sand
Goodbye to all of those who loved me through the lows
I hold your light now in my hands
It’s not enough this house we painted
in colours fit for a home
Oh dear friends who’ve been my family
without you I’d have felt so alone
It’s evolutionary we don’t forget the harder days
That the good times are all very well but we don’t survive that way
Argue all you want but it’s the good I will take, I will take
I give up on this cold the story I have told
for half my life lived far away
Give up on these hills grey skies and bitter pills
the time has come to call it a day
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3. |
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I see a thousand worlds in the window
of a train as it passes me by
Each one plugged into an orbit,
their own pain, their own lullaby
Isn’t it wild to be sharing this moment
the same very thimble of time
Isn’t it wild that we each hold an ocean
yet fail to fathom other tides
Down at the edge of the water
A mother weeps on the shore
How can we study the wounds of our history
and still send our children to war
Isn’t it wild to be sharing this moment
the same very thimble of time
Isn’t it wild to be living when love is
endangered, denied
Isn’t it wild to be sharing this moment
the same very thimble of time
Isn’t it wild that we each hold an ocean
yet fail to fathom other tides
A child with hands in the soil
wakes without question and grows
truth is a hope to hold onto
and where it blooms we will go
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4. |
Loneliness
04:11
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See the horses from my window
Bodies huddled and shape one shadow
Flowers open, slow then violent
Time is passing, I stay quiet
Loneliness, your letter came
you know my house, you know my name
Loneliness, I hear you call
from the kitchen, through the wall
Loneliness, alive and well
is there someone I can tell?
Loneliness, you fill the day
I wish that you would go away, would go away
Everyone else seems surrounded
With people and purpose and things that ground them
Take me outside, shake the dust off
In the sunshine all is not –
Loneliness, your letter came
you know my house, you know my name
Loneliness, I hear you call
from the kitchen, through the wall
Loneliness, alive and well
is there someone I can tell?
Loneliness, you fill the day
I wish that you would go away
Loneliness, I feel you breathe
down my back, upon my cheek
Loneliness, I’ve had enough
of moving slow, I want a rush, I want a rush
I want a rush, I want a rush
See the horses, from my window
Bodies huddled and shape one shadow
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5. |
The Quiet Ways
03:19
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Has this time misshapen me?
Budding branch on fallen tree
I’m not who I used to be
I am not who I used to be
Budding branch on fallen tree
My new reply when nothing calls:
A poem read, a painted wall
Sad is sometimes beautiful
This sadness can be beautiful
A poem read, a painted wall
When this dream comes to an end
My introvert, my winter friend
Will you hide with me again?
Will you hide with me back here again?
I need you, my winter friend
What of this will stay the same?
The slowing down, the smaller days
The quiet ways that we have changed
The quiet ways that we have changed
The slowing down, the smaller days
Has this time misshapen me
Budding branch on fallen tree
I’m not who I used to be
I am not who I used to be
Budding branch on fallen tree
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6. |
Feathered Thing
03:59
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I went to the burnt-out woods
A tourist with some damaged goods
Remembered how the trees withstood
fires before
Blue wren in the monochrome
sifting through the ash and bone
reminding me if hope is home
then grief is a door
The quiet pause where dead ends burn
And new beginnings wait their turn
Indigo wing be the body I bring
to the door as before
feathered thing, a feathered thing
It’s so hard to let go, wanted to know
wanted to know you
with my body I stand on the ashen floor
let go your hand
I was hoping I’d forget
the possibility we’d met
where you were a ghost is left
and grief is a war
Wish there was something I could do
find a way to see this through
Did everything I could for you
there’s nothing more
The quiet pause where dead ends burn
And new beginnings wait their turn
Indigo wing be the body I bring
to the door as before
feathered thing, a feathered thing
It’s so hard to let go, wanted to know
wanted to know you
with my body I stand on the ashen floor
let go your hand
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7. |
Fragile as Humans
03:54
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My teenage heart once beat for a boy
with a Bulls cap turned to the side
His sepia skin and his night-ocean eyes
used to flood every shore of my mind
It’s true that he shaped me
in ways I’m still learning – as if I were made of clay
And it’s true we are healing, healing then breaking
fragile as memory and made of who we love
Now I find myself moving steady on an island
with the one I married by my side
And our roots seem to deepen
with each day that passes
he’s my favourite way to spend my time
It’s true that he shaped me
in ways I’m still learning – as if I were made of wood
And it’s true we are growing, growing then failing
fragile as humans and made of who we love
My older self knows one day he won’t be with me
there’s an order to life should it obey
And I’m daily reminded by those who left early
to always find the time to say:
It’s true that you shaped me
in ways I’m still learning – as if I were made of you
And it’s true we are living, living then dying
fragile as humans and made of who we love
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8. |
Sad Songs
03:31
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I got new shoes, stepped onto the court
I knew you’d like the pair I bought
I wore bright blue mascara
Did you notice that too?
Every choice I made then was for you
What happened in all the years apart?
Used to have your photo in a heart
Fourteen, about to leave high school
Move to a different town
I thought time would stop without you around
Life rolled out like a lyric to the sad songs that we danced to
Not then knowing their meaning but you taught me and I taught you
You came back when we lost one of our friends
We wept for hours, thought it wouldn’t end
Drove to the Indian ocean walked out into the waves
We were seventeen and forever changed
Life rolled out like a lyric to the sad songs that we danced to
Not then knowing their meaning but you taught me and I taught you
Time moved on with the seasons throwing heavens in between us
Not then knowing the sad songs that would see us through the distance
Years passed by in a moment
Only see you when I’m sleeping
To slip love notes into school trays
Like the kids we were so many lifetimes ago
I’m drunk at the disco and you catch me as I’m falling
Now I’m waking, don’t know where time goes
Life rolled out like a lyric to the sad songs that we danced to
Not then knowing their meaning but you taught me and I taught you
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9. |
Life is for an Hour
03:03
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Letter folded in a cotton pocket with a
pencil loaded poised for all the words to come
Caught before they could decay –
The Gorgeous Nothings of her day
If life is for an hour I was seconds with you
Time enough to flower for you to imbue
Cool colours of lasting fast inspiration
Life is for an hour
Notebooks buried in a box beneath the bed
All the worries that he wrote but never said
Found before it was too late –
Lonely letters and mixtapes
If life is for an hour I was seconds with you
Time enough to flower for you to imbue
Cool colours of lasting fast inspiration
Life is for an hour
Life is for an hour
Paradox, paradigm, oh you can’t live a life without saying goodbye
Love unlost, love unwind, oh don’t leave me behind without saying goodbye
If life is for an hour I was seconds with you
Time enough to flower for you to imbue
Cool colours of lasting fast inspiration
Life is for an hour
Life is for an hour
Life is for an hour
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10. |
Acisoma
03:26
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Can I write you a rhyme through dragonfly wings?
Four windows shimmer in the light
Through the sapphire blue running down her spine
born when the summer is new
She breaks from old skin, Acisoma
After you’re gone, returned to water
Inked into the blue of these veins
Soft sinking sun, so little in our power
See you through the eyes of her slow motion frame
Can I lie about life never whispering death
without lessening the breadth of here?
In the moss where the past and the perished find peace
in the silence the answers are clear
She lays her head down, Acisoma
After you’re gone, returned to water
Inked into the blue of these veins
Soft sinking sun, so little in our power
See you through the eyes of her slow motion frame
Magnify, magnify, simplify my time
let me see through the lens of your life
here you are, soon you’ll go
when the leaves start to fall
Can I write you a rhyme through dragonfly wings?
Four windows shimmer in the light
Through the sapphire blue running down her spine
gone when the autumn is due
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Emily Barker UK
Emily Barker is the award-winning songwriter and performer of the theme to BBC TV’s Wallander starring Kenneth Branagh. Her music is an indie blend of influences from alt-country to folk via 60s pop, with comparisons ranging from PJ Harvey to Joni Mitchell. ... more
Emily Barker recommends:
Simmerdim: Curlew Sounds
by Various Artists
I was honoured to be invited by Merlyn Driver to contribute a track to this wonderful project. All proceeds go to support the RSPB and its work.
go to albumIf you like Emily Barker, you may also like:
Onliness (songs of solitude & singularity)
by Josienne Clarke
supported by 28 fans who also own “Fragile as Humans”
I really can't pick a favorite track. this album has to be heard in its entirety to be fully savoured and imbibed.
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The Edge of the Land
by Katie Spencer
supported by 24 fans who also own “Fragile as Humans”
I first heard Katie Spencer on YouTube when she was featured on the For Bert Jansch playlist. Katie played her own song called Shannon Road. The lead break that she plays twice really got my attention. I became a fan instantly. Every track on this album is lovely. The whole listening experience is like a favourite film running through my head. I'm so glad that in my twilight years I discovered Katie. I wish her a long and succesful career in music.
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supported by 23 fans who also own “Fragile as Humans”
Love the complexity of this track and the rising and falling of the violins, and the texture. Makes me want to dance. Thank you so much for this album. I really love it, and find it really inspiring my own work on the Witchcraft Trials ❤️
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Here in the Pitch
by Jessica Pratt
On her fourth album, Jessica Pratt blends up 60s pop and bossa nova into a spooky mix of soft psychedelia.
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The Australian singer's debut solo album is filled with creative indie pop tracks.
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