1. ODE TO ISIS

(Instrumental)


2. WILL YOU SMILE AGAIN ?

Close the door and drift away
Into a sea of uncertainty
Where all your hopes and dreams
Have faded out of reach.
Remember all the bad dreams
Are not far from reality
Would you write again for me?

(let me whisper something in your ear)

And you awake and there you are
Not far off from the line before
And just how long did it take for you to understand
Where your feelings stopped and writing began
Convince yourself to take control
Play to the hilt this unlikely role.

Remember all the bad dreams
Are not far from reality
Will you write again for me?
And who bade you stop this living art?
Have you forgotten just what you are?
If you don't want to then you could at least pretend
That the paper's your soul and your blood's in the pen
And maybe then you'd see the light
And read the truth that you had to write.

If heaven sent you downstream
Where banished eyes haven't been
Would you smile again for me?
You misread your fate line
Had long run out of time
Would you write again for me?

And you awake and there you are
Not far off from the line before
And just how long did it take for you to understand
Where your feelings stopped and writing began
Convince yourself to take control
Play to the hilt this unlikely role.

If heaven sent you downstream
Where banished eyes haven't been
Would you smile again for me?


3. WORLDS APART

Random lost souls have asked me
"What's the future of rock'n'roll?"
I say "I don't know does it matter?"
This and that scene,
They sound all the same to me
Neither much worse nor much better

We're so fucked these days
We don't know who to hate or who to praise
Yet we consider this our suffering and pain
When we're so privileged, a fact
We all forget about as
We go whinging all over the place.

How we've laughed as they shoveled the ashes
Wrath hath soured
Blood and death, we will pay back the debt
For this candy store of ours.

Look at those cunts on MTV
With their cars, and cribs, and rings and shit
Is that what being a celebrity means?
Look, boys and girls, here's BBC
See corpses, rapes, and amputees
What do you think now of the American dream?

And our soccer moms and dads
Who raised us brats on these TV ads
I know that they sleep at night
Their conscience is intact
They've convinced themselves of that
Giving money to Jesus Fucking H Christ

How they laughed as we shoveled the ashes
Of the twin towers
Blood and death, we will pay back the debt
For this candy store of ours.


4. THE SUMMER OF '91

Lying on the grass
Afternoon, there's always something happening
Friends go floating gently by
I'm listening to a song inside my head
Although the summer's past
Those mythic dreams would never last
Nor do I care anymore
And if it makes you sad
Remember all the things you have
That can't be bought

Recollection brings me back
Sad to think that it was just a fantasy
We'd already accepted that
Which many others struggled to believe
And though it makes no sense
I know there are no accidents
I've no fear anymore
And if it makes you sad
To give up dreams you've always had
That can't be caught
It just can't be fought.

Looking back at '91
Reflecting on those things we could have
Said and done
The dancing lights across a crowd
Remind us of another town
That's dead and gone
It's just dead and gone

Take me to that summer past
And tell me is it really worth remembering?
I realize that music then
Was really just a song in my head
And though the fun has past
Those mythic dreams would never last
Have no fear anymore
And if it makes you cry
To look ahead well dry your eyes
It can be done
Yes, it can be done.


5. THE REST WILL FOLLOW

How can anyone be so unkind
As to want to take another's piece of mind?
Is acceptance so implausible?
Well I know how the best will fall
And the rest will follow.

It's important to recognize
In this world we live there is nothing worth dying
It's enough to say "hello", we're all human
But I know how the best will fall
And the rest will follow

Is it so easy to resign
To ruin this world for everyone?
I guess when it's all said and done
It's just something in our design.

We are all of us so capable of
The greatest acts of hate and the worst acts of love
I wonder sometimes what's the matter with us all
And I know how the best will fall
And the rest will follow...


6. CATERWAUL

Eyes at night never see the day
Because it's not in my nature
Golden wings rise from the plane
They burn above the red earth
Scale these walls in front of me
Have you ever stopped to wonder
Why they forced your voice to turn
From silence to a caterwaul?

Never knew I could feel this way
So old and and unremembered
Never thought it would slip away
And fall like September
Scale these walls in front of me
Have you ever stopped to wonder
Why they forced my voice
To turn from silence to a caterwaul?
Heard your caterwaul...

And what has tried to bound me
I've severed every tie
Place your arms around me
And we'll leave the rest behind

What was I to say?
How was I to know?
Was it your soft voice that said so?


7. A CLASSIC ARTS SHOWCASE

White glow of the TV set
Lights dancing on the screen
Voice-overs rise like minarets
Then fall diatonically.
Should I answer a friend's distress call
Or should I go to sleep?
Would I, like the voices rise and fall,
What's it to me?

All those hours of wasted time
Have never passed my mind.

Here I am comfortable
In arm's reach of the black remote.
Here I am comfortable
Surrounded by stings and bows.
Let everyone else go.

Nights on Kirkwood so serene
Far from the sirens and the screams
I could write or I could read
Go next door and smoke some weed
As long as I don't have to think
About who the hell's running this mess
Or what shit they're writing up the Stone or NME
Go out and make last call
Or sit here and do nothing at all
What's it to me?

All those hours of wasted time
Have never passed my mind.

Here I am comfortable
In arm's reach of the black remote.
Here I am comfortable
All those clowns, what can they know?
Let everyone else go.


8. LET IT DIVE

Now that our ties are severed
As we say goodbye
Let us not wonder whether
We are ready to take the dive

Let it dive, let it die, let it fade out of sight
Let it drag us down, let it fade

Grieve, but not grieve together
Mourn with nothing to say
Gone are those times forever
Lost as those sweet warm other days

Let it dive, let it die, let it fade out of sight
Let it drag us down, let it come between you and I
Let it dive, let it die, let it fade

Where we born to despair
Deeds done but not forgiven?
There will always be something there
As long as one of us goes on living

Let it dive, let it die
Let it fade out of sight
Let it drag us down, let it come between you and I
What's done is done, no reason to apologize
Let it dive, let it die, let it fade


9. TO RUSSIA MY HOMELAND

(Instrumental)


10. ALL WHITE

The curtain thins
Violins announce the score is over
The symphony dears the folded chairs
And walk towards the snack bar
And I forget what the libretto was all about
At eight o'clock you drop me off
And not a word was spared for us
Drinks at ten, we're off again
The crowds and bouncers stare at us
And the last one out of the car fills the meter up
Don't say your name, just dance with me
Oh no, my ride is gone it's time to leave
Then racing for the sink
I shove my head in
And the world looks like heaven
It's all white


11. THE BEST

The mime's conceit has conquered over real beauty
Grinning from a mask of hollowed bone
Where a human is somewhere to be found
But where I don't know
And things couldn't be better
From behind the halls we cannot pass
Hear the muffled traces of a boyish laugh
Hear the monster screaming "what have I become?"
Before his looking-glass
And things couldn't be better
This is one fine life
This is one fine wine
This is one fine wife
This is one fine lie
And things couldn't be better
They are the best


12. THE LOST CITY OF REFUGE

With history, your bluest grace
Falls apart, cascading down
Speak to me of beautiful hate
Of island chains swept with the tide
The coral leis of a conquering king

They're swept away
Oh, but not lost.

Beneath the waves of trembling stars
The roads wind towards
The windward side
My soul is saved by these city lights
My face is framed by the blanket of night

They're swept away
Oh, but not lost.

Was I too proud to say, or to wish for
Words that I knew were forbidden?
Because I don't want to know
I didn't want to see what I saw
When I looked in the distance

They're swept away
Oh, but not lost.


13. AGED DOLLS (LIVE)

Drip... drip on to the tombs of the soulless...
Drip on to your aorta...
Drip as fiery cinder
On to this sweltering town
No one gives a damn about your end...
This is something you can count on
Drip down onto my forehead
On to my aorta
Drip as fiery cinder
Onto the sweltering town
So I'm sweet on you
I am transparent
So I'm sweet on you
I am a motherfucking ghost...
(To amuse... to seduce...)


14. RICHTER SCALE MADNESS (LIVE)

Okay this is a song about killing everybody,
let's all sing along now

Dream machine,
John and exene,
Smear campaign,
And a swat team.

Let's have a feudal lord,
Let's have a fascist regime,
Side effects,
Coupled with withdrawal bleeding.

This is a riot, right?
Let's all riot riot,
Let's tear this place to shit,
Commit pact suicide.

(you know you all want it, now let's all kill ourselves)
Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill.

Put your hand to my mouth,
And a gun to my head,
Let's stop this false pretence,
Become real friends.

Let's have a mustard gas war,
Because a fuck's a fuck,
Richter scale madness,
Join the gun club, join the gun club