1. |
Egomaniac
02:45
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You’re a machine, I don’t know where to start.
No doubt about it, you’re a real piece of art.
Dressed up to the nines but you’re falling apart.
Every guy in the room takes a stab at your heart.
Turbo charged running at your peak
You could make the headlines any day of the week:
Sensational news every time that you speak
I’m starting to lose my grip on your reality.
And maybe baby I’m just jealous cos you’re
So damn likeable, totally indescribable.
And maybe baby I’m just frightened cos you’re
Taking me somewhere I’ve never been before:
And that’s the Sovereign Republic of You.
Cos you’re an Egomaniac, you’re an Ego- Ego-
Maniac and you don’t give a damn about
Anything that isn’t explicitly implicitly exclusively to do with You
You Egomaniac, you’re an Ego- Ego-
Maniac and you don’t give a damn about
Anything that isn’t explicitly implicitly exclusively to do with You
And maybe baby I’m just jealous cos you’re
So damn likeable, totally indescribable.
And maybe baby I’m just frightened cos you’re
Taking me somewhere I’ve never been before:
And that’s the Sovereign Republic of You.
Cos you’re an Egomaniac, you’re an Ego- Ego-
Maniac and you don’t give a damn about
Anything that isn’t explicitly implicitly exclusively to do with You
You Egomaniac.
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2. |
Bad Indie Movie
02:53
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You don’t like films as much as I do
You don’t like books as much as I do
But you like me – that’s what you tell me, anyway.
You only like your old records and your songbooks
That you play from every day – playing your
Same old
Same old
Same old
Same old
Songs
You play your
Same old
Same old
Same old
Same old
Songs
But you don’t play for me – not anymore, not anymore.
Sitting on the floor of your old attic room with the
Draught through the door and the light coming in through the
Skylight, blue skies thinking skylight
Head in the clouds.
Needle sticks on a rut in the groove and
You jump up to nurse it back to health like a
Sick hedgehog that only you can heal.
Things my father used to say like:
Music is an international language.
I never knew what he meant.
But we play records every day
And still run out of things to say.
And in spite of diligent hours of practice
I still don’t speak You very well.
And you just play your
Same old
Same old
Same old
Same old
Songs
You play your
Same old
Same old
Same old
Same old
Songs
But not for me anymore
I could be anyone
You just want the crowd, now.
And it’s months now since we sat on your
Cold attic floor listening to your old records
Like a scene from a bad indie movie.
You are a bad indie movie,
You are a bad indie movie,
Movie, movie, movie,
Movie, movie,
Movie…
You don’t like films as much as I do
You don’t like books as much as I do
But you like me – that’s what you tell me, anyway.
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3. |
Last Decade of Love
03:41
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Wait by the phone and be in when I call
Reading your Radio Times
I don’t want to leave a message again
On the answer machine, for your father to find.
I’ll tell you to meet me at 10
Down by the reservoir
And our story can end
So make sure there’s space on the VHS cassette
And press record on the last decade of love.
I’m sorry my darling
I know you wanted to see that programme so badly
I’m sorry my darling
But tonight will be a dream they can’t show on TV
Your father is watching his nature documentaries
Your mother is minding her own
Will they notice if you go for a minute, for a lifetime
From this lost place they make you call home
I’m sorry my darling
I know you had so many hopes and dreams
But I dream too – of you
Drifting in a bath of avocado green
Your father is watching his nature documentaries
Your mother is minding her own
Will they notice if you go for a minute, for a lifetime
From this lost place they make you call home
I’m sorry my darling
I know you had so many hopes and dreams
I’m sorry my darling
But tonight will be a dream they can’t show on TV
So make sure there’s space on the VHS cassette
And press record on the last decade of love.
So make sure there’s space on the VHS cassette
And press record
And close the door
On the last decade of love.
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4. |
Ornaments
03:07
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You have made a sanctuary
Of Etiquette and Propriety
And places not to stand
On the carpets
With your shoes on
And surfaces that must be wiped microscopically
At every touch of human hand.
And you are so proud of all your things
And you are so loud in your meticulous opinions
On how to better run the country
Though you barely ever ever go out anymore
You just stay in
Collecting ornaments that nobody likes
But you keep dusting, and dusting.
Ornaments that nobody likes
But you keep dusting.
And there are Rules and there are Regulations
That you uphold with the rigour of a general
Going into war
Though you barely ever ever have guests anymore
Not anymore.
And you are so proud of all your Things
And you are so loud in your
Eloquently documented views on how
Everyone else is wrong while you are right:
You are always right.
And you are so old now.
And your sight is diminished
To the narrowest point of view
That keeps you safe and sounf
In the house
Collecting ornaments that nobody likes
But you keep dusting, and dusting.
Ornaments that nobody likes
But you keep dusting.
Nobody likes your ornaments
Nobody likes your ornaments
Nobody likes, nobody likes
Nobody likes your ornaments
Nobody likes them.
Dust away the touch of human contamination.
Dust, dust
(dust)
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5. |
Down To The Sea
05:14
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Let’s go down to the sea
It’s been so long since you left me
That I have cried all the tears from my eyes
So let’s go down to the sea.
Battered old promenade, going nowhere fast now –
And the cracked chapped peeling paintwork on shop windows
You only remember from holidays
Bathed in rain and heartache
And card games in the evening.
And buckets and spades cost four pounds fifty nowadays –
Do you remember when they used to be a pound?
Well no one remembers that really
But no one wants to forget.
Get yer glad rags on for the evening.
And there’s a man on the pier, sing you any song
From the last twenty years –
As long as it’s the Fairytale of New York.
And nothing grows here now but
Tracksuits and remorse.
Plant a rose for England’s dying shore.
Lazy days lost to slot machine dreaming
Stained chinos rolled up with meaning.
And you were a postcard someone left on the sand
Red wine and soda hand in hand.
And you were the deckchair colonnade
Left out to rot in the wind and the storm and the waves.
And Arcadia calls and the seagulls howl
And the scum, and the scum collects in your shoes
And the mermaids, they are singing now –
Do they sing to you?
Do they sing?
Do they sing to you too?
Let’s go down to the sea
It’s been so long since you left me
That I have cried all the tears from my eyes
And no one comes here anymore,
No one comes here anymore.
So let’s go down
Will you follow me down
To the sea?
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6. |
Interlude
02:29
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Maybe this time will be different
Maybe this time it won’t hurt so badly
And the pain of all the
past last chance lost
Hopes will go away.
As long as this one stays
You can be happy
Until it’s time
(there’s always time)
To do it all over again.
Maybe this time will be different, will be better
And maybe this time it won’t hurt so badly
And the pain of all the
past last chance lost
Hopes will go away
You’ll be made better by the balm
You can be whole again in his arms
As long as he stays
Will this one stay?
Maybe this time
Maybe this one.
Maybe this time will be different, will be better
And maybe this time it won’t hurt so badly
And maybe this one will be
The one to make everything right
Who will love you
Forever, and ever and ever and ever and ever
And never stop to let you down -
And if not
You can just start
To do it all over again
And try, and try and try and try
You can try and try and try and try and try
You can only try.
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7. |
Cryptic Crossword
04:57
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I am an anagram, you are an anagram
I am an anagram, you are an anagram
I am an anagram, you are an anagram
I am an anagram, you are an anagram
I am an anagram.
Mr Cryptic Crossword
Mr Cryptic Crossword
And seventeen down looks like fun
But in fact it is the Kings of England
The Kings of England.
And you decipher all the clues.
Ordinary conversation is too
Good for you, too good for you.
Mr Cryptic Crossword
Mr Cryptic Crossword
And in the pilfered guts of the
Eviscerated dictionary
Your practice augury
Your augury.
You are a prophet of paper squares
You only speak in tongues, in tonguessssssssssss
Mr Cryptic Crossword
Mr Cryptic Crossword
And in that treasure horde
Of contorted words
Is there any space for meaning
Is there any space for me?
Thirteen cardinals chasing through the
Sistine Chapel painted in the
Ministries of Zoroastra
In an old department store.
And my first is in unbroken
Amatory remonstrances,
Fifteen bells to make a dozen
Dancing on the kitchen floor.
Are we there yet?
Do you give up yet?
Two makes three makes
Pretty girls all in a row.
All your promises
Were coded goodbyes.
Obfuscation, fuscation.
All I wanted
Was to see
The clues
And construe
The world
With you.
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8. |
Dream Of Me
04:34
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Do you ever dream of me
Lying between the sheets
Some other body beside you
Well known by necessity.
Do you ever dream of me
As I do of you
Your hands, your heart
Your blood-warm heart.
And we could meet
One of these days
If only to speak
In espresso platitudes
Drown out the sound of ‘what if?’
Do you ever dream of me
Lying between the sheets
Beside the one soft body
You have sworn allegiance to.
Impossible to extricate yourself
From a life you have chosen by degrees
Sleepwalking into unintentional —- catastrophe.
And we could meet
And never talk about
All the things
We said that we would do
You could tell me
What your wife is up to these days
And your children whose names
I have already forgotten.
Watch these loves thrive and diminish,
Thrive and diminish
Thrive and diminish, and diminish.
But you have not fastened your soul
You have not fastened your soul
You have not fastened your soul
To me
And the wallpaper is crawling with regrets
As you pin up your daughter’s drawing on the fridge
And your wife, your lover, your love
Sleeps uneasy.
Watch these loves thrive and diminish,
Thrive and diminish
Thrive and diminish, and diminish.
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9. |
Glory Days
04:33
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A ruined castle stands by the sea
Waiting for the glory days to come again
And we went walking one weekend,
Away from the battles of the people
We’re supposed to understand.
And you seemed happier than me.
You told me how you wished that you could
See it in its glory days, that ruined castle
By the sea.
And as we walked we argued over vague histories
That neither of us knew the first two things about
But still we fought on ancient stones
And you supposed that in between
All of the bloody wars, there must have been
Some centuries of peace
But I could not agree.
History looked different to us:
I saw battlements of dust, I saw lives born to be lost
But you saw serenity.
Nothing can hurt you now
Nothing can hurt you now
Nothing can hurt you now
And nothing will come from nothing, now.
And we don’t talk so much these days
I heard that you were thinking of moving away
Somewhere new.
And I remember the philosopher
That you liked to quote from:
He said that pain is just a symptom
Of a sentimental mind.
Happiness comes easily to you
Onto better and to brighter things
And always something new
But you remain my ruined castle
By the sea.
Nothing can hurt you now
Nothing can hurt you now
Nothing can hurt you now
And nothing will come from nothing, now.
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10. |
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If I could have had anyone, it would have been you
It would have been you
If I could have been anyone, it would have been you
It would have been you
I have been locked in this stupid personality all my life
All my life
And you are the only reality I would happily
Inhabit
And the fact that I am destined to die
Doesn’t bother me in the slightest.
Smash my bones into meteorite dust
I am done, yes I am done.
But the fact that you will be gone as well
Is there anything more hateful
To prove the world is going to hell?
How could the universe destroy something
As beautiful
as you
as you
as you
(REPRISE)
If I could have had anyone, it would have been you
It would have been you
If I could have been anyone, it would have been you
It would have been you
I have been locked in this stupid personality all my life
All my life
And you are the only reality I would happily
Inhabit
How could the universe destroy something
As beautiful
as you
as you
as you
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Tsarzi Sheffield, UK
'The most imaginative record I heard all year' - Tom Robinson, BBC 6Music
'Kate Bush at her
most Brechtian' (Now Then Magazine)
TSarzi is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist who has opened for established acts like Richard Dawson.
Her show Gone to the Dogs was a Lyn Gardner pick at VAULT Festival will be at EdFringe (Gilded Balloon) 2023.
The album is due for release in autumn.
... more
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