1. |
The Movie
03:09
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Like soft fruit, we're boxed up
We're banged up and lidded
We're stacked away, packed away
Pre-taxed and gridded
Apartmented, motorised
Mortgaged and kiddied
Each income computed
And suitably quidded
Then citified, pitiful
Puddled and giddied
We're herded on waggons
And wheelied and skidded
We're animals, we're the common herd
We're cannibals of the western world
We're animals, we're the common herd
We're cannibals of the western world
We're animals, we're the common herd
We're cannibals of the western world
Cannibals of the western world
Cannibals of the western world
Of the West
And bundled to market
And monied and bidded
And cutted and gutted
And bloodied and ridded
And sliced up and eaten
And each of us did it
We're animals, we're the common herd
We're cannibals of the western world
We're animals, we're the common herd
We're the cannibals of the western world
We're animals, we're the common herd
We're the cannibals of the western world
Cannibals of the western world
Cannibals of the western world
Cannibals
Of the West
We're those feeding. We're their food
Hear us chomping. We're the chewed
We're the diners. Eat us, dude
We're the starving. We're the stewed
Farmed and fattened, caged and zooed
Roasted, toasted, boiled, baked, brewed
We're the flesh that's much valued
Hunters hunted. Prey pursued
We're the mincemeat. We're menu'd
We're the mass, the multitude
We're the flock, the breed, the brood
We're here to be barbecued
We're animals, we're the common herd
We're the cannibals of the western world
We're animals, we're the common herd
We're the cannibals of the western world
We're animals, we're the common herd
We're the cannibals of the western world
Cannibals of the western world
Cannibals of the western world
Cannibals of the western world
Cannibals of the western world
Cannibals of the western
World
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2. |
Best Wishes
05:49
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I wish you far from danger and despair
And further still from those who just don't care
I wish you shorter hours, better pay
I wish you luck in all you do and say
I wish the telephone would one day ring
And bring a voice not selling anything
I wish you brass in pocket, food on plate
And time at end of day to contemplate
Some days I wish your "No" had been a "Yes"
And often wish for more, and then for less
I wish we occupied a better place
In which war gleaned not glory but disgrace
I wish you jobs well done and comfy shoes
With music and whatever else you choose
And kindnesses and moments which amaze
To cruise you down the distance of your days
I wish you high ambition all your life
And strength when guilt cuts deep as any knife
I wish you distant journeys and returns
And wish you passion so intense it burns
I sometimes wish I liked myself much more
And we could cure what makes us insecure
I wish us doors which don’t require keys
And wish us never forced down on our knees
However, I’d be satisfied with this
Us dazzled by one glimpse of gleaming bliss
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3. |
Confidence Trick
03:35
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What if I loved you less
Could kill this intensity
Would never need to ask again if anything was wrong
And were not your impossible lover
Nor you mine?
And what if there was the money here
For me to treat us as I would?
You see, I have inside me
This better version of myself
This never jealous man
Who is always going to one day turn up at your door
His clothes are new
He has come to take you
On some grand and endless adventure
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4. |
Moon Above The Mövenpick
03:03
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In Doha, Qatar, staying at The Hotel Gloria, I often ate in the nearby Mövenpick.
Another night and the air lies thick.
The moon sits over The Mövenpick.
Idle drivers chat. Low planes growl through.
Another night and the air lies thick
The moon sits over The Mövenpick
Idle drivers chat. Low planes growl through
Ending their shift, a construction crew
Waits for their lift in the dust and heat
Where they stand or squat or slump dead-beat
Amid bits of brickwork, concrete, tar
A loud kitten crouched beneath a car
Innocently makes us all aware
Of Earthly sin. Then the call to prayer
Sees faith and fear intertwine details
Muezzun's voice mixed with feline wails
God-of-all-things, you've got much to do
Weather, work, wildlife, wickedness too
This night needs you and the air lies thick
The moon sits over The Mövenpick
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5. |
Algebra
03:07
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The exasperating imprecision of language
Keep a grip
Aimless after midnight
Wandering from room to room in a house I can't afford
Doubting my vision
There was snowfall and love in the evening
I counted forty-one political killings on today's news
Too tired to argue, I retreat into my own existence
Almost convinced that it's not what you believe
But that you believe
So passions are paramount
Enter jealousy and the fear of loss
You can't get round the fact that
Unacceptable equations
Occupy the ringside seats
Aim lower
Watch a soap opera
Play a game
Tell a joke
Cop out
Do anything
I attach too much importance to the words
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6. |
The Detective
01:00
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It wasn't a dark night
It wasn't even raining
But the phone rang anyway
'I found the answer,' said the voice
'It was here all along'
'What did you find?' I asked her
'You tell me,' she replied
'You're the detective'
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7. |
||||
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Like soft fruit, we're boxed up
We're banged up and lidded
We're stacked away, packed away
Pre-taxed and gridded
Apartmented, motorised
Mortgaged and kiddied
Each income computed
And suitably quidded
Then citified, pitiful
Puddled and giddied
We're herded on waggons
And wheelied and skidded
We're animals, we're the common herd
We're the cannibals of the western world
We're animals, we're the common herd
We're the cannibals of the western world
We're animals, we're the common herd
We're the cannibals of the western world
Cannibals of the western world
Cannibals of the western world
Of the western world
We're bundled to market
And monied and bidded
And cutted and gutted
And bloodied and ridded
And sliced up and eaten
And each of us did it
We're animals, we're the common herd
We're cannibals of the western world
We're animals, we're the common herd
We're cannibals of the western world
We're animals, we're the common herd
We're cannibals of the western world
Cannibals of the western world
Cannibals of the western world
Cannibals
Of the West
We're those feeding. We're their food
Hear us chomping. We're the chewed
We're the diners. Eat us, dude
We're the starving. We're the stewed
Farmed and fattened, caged and zooed
Roasted, toasted, boiled, baked, brewed
We're the flesh that's much valued
Hunters hunted. Prey pursued
We're the mincemeat. We're menu'd
We're the mass, the multitude
We're the flock, the breed, the brood
We're here to be barbecued
We're animals, we're the common herd
We're the cannibals of the western world
We're animals, we're the common herd
We're the cannibals of the western world
We're animals, we're the common herd
We're the cannibals of the western world
Cannibals of the western world
Cannibals of the western world
Cannibals of the western world
Cannibals of the western world
Cannibals of the western
World
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8. |
Nothing Resolves
05:15
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You live on the edge of a knife
Nothing resolves
Whatever you touch is sand
It drains from you
Until you can't put a price on anything
You feel like a supermarket that's afraid to open
But glass breaks
Shapes change
Nothing waits for you
Nothing waits
I'm just a poet man, always alive
I'm just a poet man, always survive
With feelings, meaning and notions
The usual poem put in motion
People are deserting language in their hundreds
You might as well speak Latin
You might as well write Greek
You're a joke who put his punchline in his pocket
But couldn't find it when the time came
And then the time came, and came again, and again
Like a bad dream, like a passion
It's only fashion
Like a passion
It's only fashion
I'm just a poet man, always alive
I'm just a poet man, always survive
With feelings, meaning and notions
The usual poem put in motion
You're gonna pull though
Fix it, find success and true happiness
The right brand of cigarette to start you smoking again
The right brand of drink to make you daily drunk
The right blend of compromises to make you famous
But each day rips its own pages from the book
You stand in a windy street waiting for a bus
It's the wrong stop, the wrong fare in your hand
The wrong time of day
You decide to walk, knowing it's too far
The right bus pulls up just after you've gone
The right money was in your pocket all the time
You're walking nowhere, into a mirror
Always face-to-face with yourself
You live on the edge of a knife
Nothing resolves
Nothing resolves
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9. |
Hotel Music
03:14
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By
night,
air-con
has its fans.
They whistle.
Ventilators sigh.
A balcony launches
brief bursts of language.
Out back, trash avalanches.
Then the bin lid loudly slams.
Hot kitchens exhale an oily steam.
TVs dream or ooze ill news from wars.
Cars purr, rub up, draw their claws, pause.
Loud people pour through doors, are absorbed.
Rooms murmur. Passing planes scrape at the sky.
Out here, asthmatic, I cough, silencing the single cicada
and causing roosting birds in the planted palms to complain.
They pick up phones, call reception, are told that someone will deal with me.
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10. |
Galleon
03:29
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The ghost ship glides through coastal fog.
A ghastly hand scrawls in the log:
Have pity on us, please.
High scraps of sail hang torn to shreds
And rigging rots, the ropes in threads
On flat and windless seas.
And wet weeds clamber up the wreck,
And crabs crawl cruel across the deck,
Legs bent like broken knees.
The air is bad, the silence worse,
No shanty sung nor sailor’s curse
Since thirst and since disease.
Skeleton crew, it’s truly that,
The bare-boned captain, men and cat
Might shake like rattled keys.
But treasure glitters in the hold,
And greed goes gladly after gold
To trap men by degrees.
So, hooked by hoard and its reward,
The ship finds more to lure aboard
Like mice pursuing cheese.
But once they’re there, they have to stay.
With no way off, they waste away
Or in the cold fog freeze.
Thus this galleon slowly goes
On one vast voyage no human chose,
And years pass like a breeze.
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11. |
Close Up
04:54
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Inhale, exhale; inhale, exhale
Listen to lungs. Don't let them fail
Weak where once they blew a gale
Hear them whistle. How they wail
Inhale, exhale; inhale, exhale
These ribs are bars which built this jail
Each breath an inmate begging bail
There's no reprieve. No call. No mail
Inhale, exhale; inhale, exhale
Never known struggling on this scale
Failure at the speed of a snail
And, oh, it leaves a dreadful trail
Inhale, exhale; inhale, exhale
It's crucifixion, nail by nail
A sacrifice beyond the pale
A landed fish to flap, to flail
Inhale, exhale; inhale, exhale
One day this wind will fill our sail
One day we'll live to tell this tale
One day our souls won't be for sale
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Nick Toczek & Signia Alpha Bradford, UK
Poet Nick Toczek began collaborating with Matt Webster in 2019.
They released Shooting the Messenger in 2020. A mix of
indie, jazz and funk grooves with Toczek’s surreal poems and stories.
Walking the Tightrope followed in 2021 & included a guest appearance by The Damned’s Paul Gray.
A third album in 2022. Webster plays many of the instruments with contributions from guests, including Paul Gray,
... more
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