Get all 14 Mark Lenover releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of A Small White Flag, All Dressed In Rags, Wandering Stars, Every Time It Rains, We're In Motion Pictures, Obliterate, Signs of Violence, The Arsonists, and 6 more.
1. |
Tell Yourself Lies
02:50
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I am an unloaded gun
I am out of opinions
I don't have a bit of sense
I am of no consequence
My intellectual incest
produced nothing of interest
I have done my very best
to decorate my empty nest
When the truth feels
devastating and unreal
I tell myself lies
A theory without evidence
a slight, perfunctory argument
I am impotent and small
I am hardly here at all
I don't know what to tell you
How I wish I could help you
I have one piece of muffled advice:
plug your ears and cover your eyes
Take a vacation
from self-deprecation
and tell yourself lies
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2. |
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I can hear you breathing
and I can feel your pulse
Your pallor was deceiving
and your death-rattle was false
Dead men can force a smile
Dead men can yet survive
You can always retreat to your coffin
when things get beyond your control
It's a strategy that's served you well
but how far are you willing to go?
A hiding place must be kept secret
and death is a dangerous role
You might just get buried alive
Just how far are you willing to go?
You can hear us laughing
but you pretend you don't
Your calm veneer is cracking
and soon you'll be exposed
Dead men can force a smile
Dead men can yet survive
In a way you are starved for attention
but you only feel safe on your own
The cuts and the burns might imply
just how far you are willing to go
Your scars are a manifestation
of a suffering nobody knows
but some day the cuts might dig too deep
Just how far are you willing to go?
Dead men can force a smile
Dead men can yet survive
Dead men can act awhile
just as though they're alive
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3. |
A Small White Flag
03:53
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They've built a life
and maybe that's enough
I'm so far behind
I will never catch up
They've got their children
and their weekends off
but I don't want children
and I don't have a job
They might think I'm jealous
they're only half wrong
They've got careers
and I've only got songs
They've got responsibilities and bills
while I live on charity, junk food and pills
I've gotta run, gotta run, gotta run, gotta run
some other way
I dive under the water's
untroubled surface
through the murky pollution
to discover my purpose
I'm alone when I surface
Are they so far ahead?
Or are they just better
at holding their breath?
Considering romance
my heart turns to stone
I really just want to be
left on my own
If nobody wants me
I really don't care
I've got what I need
and I don't want to share
I've gotta run, gotta run, gotta run, gotta run
some other way
I suppose it all boils down to one simple question:
Will I be the rule, or the lonesome exception?
Am I prepared to give up all that I've got
for a place out amongst you, or my own private spot
in a quiet asylum where nobody speaks
of treatment as the building settles and creaks
behind razor-wire fencing, reaching all around
not to keep our kind in, but to keep the rest out
I've gotta run...
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Mark Lenover
Through a distinctive fusion of folk, rock, theatre and electronica, Mark Lenover critically examines pop culture’s ubiquitous influence, its moral philosophy and the potentially devastating effects of drug abuse and mental illness. His recent work frequently challenges an increasingly pervasive culture of celebrity, self-indulgence, distraction and desire. ... more
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