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Surface Tension

by The Plague Monkeys

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1.
Safe 03:40
I said save your breath Try to save your breath I tried to save your breath I tell people to return your futures They're not for them to wear I can't quite put you together You could be anywhere Safe, safe... Summer, summer is my life Just a few days long Just a few days, long But I, I don't have to worry 'Cause you said I'd be alright But didn't you say, didn't you say I'd be Safe, safe... I can't quite put you together I can't quite put you together I can't quite put you together I can't, can't, can't Safe, safe... Just a few days long, just a few days long Just a few days long, long, long
2.
This return trip is just a lie Life is a lark and then you... With object lessons With static reason Sometimes it's what it is Sometimes I'm what I see Sometimes it hardly means enough To be surrendering And those religious thieves They stole the words from me My purpose, meaning My courage, feeling Sometimes it's what it is Sometimes I'm what I need Sometimes it almost seems enough To be surrendering, to be surrendering The last days are calling The lost years are calling This soul surrendering
3.
Jack 03:25
Fear of flying Delirium at the idea The tendency to motion of man is understood He came to lift me My orb and gravity And to fall is second nature Mercury in the blood There was a warning signal A weight was lightening Into the open sky through dirty windows Lead and I will follow. Leave, swallow fear Now listen here Fear of darkness Clearway to the sea of dreams The nightmare execution Of the night-light's children He came to lift me To offer me concern With such difficulty breathing Air seemed an illusion Rain check and test of mettle, I have all the time to rise Into the dirty sky through open windows I want to lower my head and look down on you He came to lift me with you... listen here
4.
Sometimes I feel the wind blowing through me The wind is carrying spores I don't want to be afraid anymore If my house were a colony of ghosts I could learn their words At my invocation on occasion They enter but do not stay A black rag drifting to earth White shoes running without feet Anything but sunken so deep in this clay Sometimes I feel the wind blowing through me The breath of the dead Diaspora I don't want to be afraid anymore I will set traps for these shipwrecks So like a God, knowing them all
5.
In the northern sky Studying auroras Differentials in the shifting surface layers The abiding law Of summer thaws And losing our direction Our common lack, We have a radio transmitter And I note you are haywire Bearing up on the shelf Our common wealth This is strange terrain; A plain white topograph I move out with my all sky camera To immerse myself In the wealth of words That will not translate These units express Elements of culture I must limit my horizons To survive And these glyphs and graphs The power tools To cut through Like a scythe Our common lack... Now which way? Now which way
6.
7.
Bloomsday 03:42
I remove the centre staples From a summer diary And let the wind take up the pages So they can fly Leaves fly, leaves again Once shy, twice bitten All gone soon, all gone soon Somewhere in the middle hundreds Of some encyclopaedia To keep the weather from the deadheads So they can dry Leaves pressed, inter-leaved At rest, white lilies All gone soon, all gone soon The character inside In its seasonal flame By any other name is still a rose And so it goes, goes And leaves, leaves again Dry seeds, for women All gone now, all gone now Blooms, soon, blooms, soon
8.
Surfacing 06:29
When the surface breaks And the water comes in between Who will save you When the surface breaks? Let it go… I remember I saw god in an optic And I asked: Are you a wave or a particle? He said: I am… …Balanced on the crest of a world winding down That over which you pass in silence The absolute noun But there is a water-wheel Turning inside This dam-building You cannot win against the water Memory is a reservoir of resonances And dreams are crystalline They fall out of the noise When you could measure the effects They kept you high and you went running wild And clean out of daydreams You cannot win against the water No the tide has time on its side I remember I read that life is s-shaped And from my place on the bell-curve I turn my back on her Resounding on the drum of summer But there is a water-wheel Turning inside This damn building You cannot win against the water The tide has time on its side I remember I saw god in an optic And I asked: Are you a mirror or a lamp? He said: I am …I am…
9.
I hate these severed hands I turn you onto me Are you still into me? I know it, I know it It's out there Nothing, waiting I know it, I know it I have nothing to say, nothing to say It's all here So will you take it off my hands Please I hate these severed ties I turn you onto me Are you still on two minds I know it, I know it It's out there Nothing, waiting I know it, I know it I have nothing to say It's all here Does it ever cross your mind? Can you remember not being? Does it ever cross your mind? This static fear You should know that nothing is so close to everything, everything No more lightning, no more tungsten No more radium, no more fuselage
10.
I was with the Ephesians when he preached Now we are breathing in hotels, (Artemis) Elaborate theatre of service on my knees And Paul in the temple, (Artemis) His was the language of rhetoric And only speech translates, (Artemis) He read my silence as admission of the world Admission of his faith And Paul in the temple, (Artemis) I was with the Ephesians when he came Now we are dreaming in hotels, (I'm breathing) This brutal act of understanding that will steal Steal him away Like Paul in the temple, away away
11.
Last Watch 05:04
[Dedicated to the last lightkeepers, 24th March 1997] Latter days, mechanical Winch would haul the lead weight up the shaft Tread the stairs again, to wind the light For revolution What the hand performs, the mind records I have this stored away from daylight From daylight, from daylight I am the heritage Of manpower that is running in the wires To the signal box, dead sentinel With artificial eyes What the mind perceives The soul can read If language runs to seed In daylight, in daylight A light that knows reflections In infinite recession A light that knows geometry, mirrors that can teach The mortal grace to turn the face discreetly to the wall In daylight, in daylight
12.

about

The first studio album by The Plague Monkeys. ℗ & © Crosstown Music 1998.
All songs were written, performed and produced by The Plague Monkeys.
Recorded at Cannibal Studios.
Track 12 is an uncredited instrumental.
Track 6 is also an instrumental.

credits

released April 10, 1998

Bass – Barry Roden
Drums, Percussion, Keyboards – Thomas Haugh
Engineer – Paul Keegan
Guitar, Keyboards, Mandolin – Donal O'Mahony
Mixed By – Paul Keegan
Vocals, Lead Vocals, Lyrics By – Carol Keogh
Cello on "Last Watch" - Kevin Murphy

Photography - Carol Keogh, Thomas Haugh
Sleeve Design - Simon Roche and The Plague Monkeys

Special thanks to Declan Jones.

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Carol Keogh Ireland

THE WICC album one - WOLF will be released on 22nd March 2022.

Carol Keogh, has written and sung with a number of bands including The Plague Monkeys, The Tycho Brahe, The Natural History Museum (with Dunk Murphy) and Autamata.
Keogh's first solo release (backed by The City Fathers), "Mongrel City", was released in 2014.
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