Get all 6 Adam Nieting releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Bahorik in Bm, A Captive, Exiled to the Void, Songs to Forget Me By, Songs to Demo Me By, Half-Truths and Hyperbole, and The Ex Mass EP.
1. |
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She moved into the house
where I grew from a boy
into an old man
who forgot all his toys.
I had wandered in clouds
and the snow of the heights.
I left and arrived
'till that little boy died
but learned all about ice
as she came from the seas.
By the time she arrived
I had lost all my leaves,
now all that is left
is a tired old man
with eyes on
a pretty young lady
with an empty left hand.
At night for her love
she cleans up the mud
that he tracks past her feet
as he comes without love.
In the daylight she hides,
but I see how she weeps.
In this empty orchard
we were fated to meet.
Won't you put down your broom
and sweep me away.
I know you're committed
but I need you to sway,
for his hands bring no smiles,
no relief to your face
and your sad little features
make me cry, "what a shame
what a shame." What a shame.
And I want to uplift you,
I want to be kind.
I want to ensnare you
in all my designs.
But you keep to your chains
and blink me away
while staring
this tired old man
deep in his face.
I don't know what you want,
but I'll guess at your needs
and from what I've seen
I am forced to believe
that you're wanting for warmth
and a clear and free voice
going into an ear
that would hear you by choice.
She moved into the house
where I grew from a boy
into an old man
who remembers his joys
in the flashes of eyes
of a darling that hides.
I want to reveal you,
I want to be kind.
I want to avail you
of only your own designs.
But you keep to your chains
and blink me away.
All the while staring
this tired old man
in his tired old face.
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2. |
Archways and Silk
03:50
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You lower your veil
when I come to you:
hands poised on hem
prepared to remove.
But still currently
securing,
camouflaging,
calling doom.
I find me
bitter
as I hunt for you,
only you without
the truth that stares
and answer sorely
from the comfort of your room.
But still I'll take your hand
and raise it to the stars.
I'll spin you round beneath
and through this twisting
archway of our arms.
And you look at me
so quizzically
with a hint of homeward misery
wanting more than silence in our song.
But oh how I love your
sense of duty,
how you lay and lie
for love
that must be lost
yet stares at me
sternly, me with eyes
long ravaged and locked.
I feel bound to wither
as I wait for you,
growing my proof from
your words deeply pruned
into passions in pining
and wilting,
wilting before the bloom.
Your countenance heady,
your vision a brew
that brings me to boil
by toil for you
needing me down on my knees
at your feet, of true
love destitute.
But still I'll take your hand
and raise challenge to the stars
while trapped, you here between us:
this rock, this haunting of your heart.
And you look at me so wistfully
as though you mean to
reach for me.
Ends with eyes unfocused
and distraught.
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3. |
Formality and Proximity
04:18
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One step closer to where you have remained,
three seats closer to them gorgeous gray
tights inside your boots,
stickin' sidelong looks
but speech I'd long to send your way-
curse this tongue that always love betrays.
Your makeup sits lightly there on your face
and darkens your eyes down to a shade
I once misunderstood
yet longed for, looked.
Now I can't help but gaze your way
longing to ask, "Darling, what is your name?"
While here I sit learning in silence
that your script is fantastic and rare.
I'd be privileged to be writ by it.
I'd treat your words with such care.
I fear I can't stay but I sure cannot go.
This here's where I belong, with a song in the snow
where my arms grow cold
and my fingers stick.
I fear myself when I'm at home...
and the color of your eyes I have to know
along with every detail painted in your frame,
where the creases in your fingers have been placed.
But darling, all I know is that
you've got those hands
and eyes that won't look to where I stand
grasping for the strength to be your man.
Won't you please stay by me awhile?
Let me praise that pen to make your smile.
Don't walk away.
Don't turn your face.
Please stay, let me for you play
songs writ in your unknown name.
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4. |
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There's one more pretty girl I see
whose heart will soon be surely breaking,
whose lips will soon be quivering.
That's just what hearts and lips will do.
Surely there's more men than me
who want your ear to be caressing
and your breath held, not rejecting
the things that hearts and lips will do.
'Cause we're all chasing things like these
to hold and keep, and keep releasing
tear filled eyes, a life deceiving -
Hating what we're wont to do.
I cannot but I'll try to leave.
In lonesome loads I'll be retiring.
Keep myself alone displacing
fear of what hearts and lips will do.
But always pretty girls I see
and my resolve is slowly breaking.
I need a broken heart, lips quivering.
That's just what hearts and lips should do.
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5. |
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When you think about the years,
how many have come
and then disappeared
leaving you to find
nothing for you here,
you're gonna need someone on your mind.
When you've got nothin' to be
and no legs to run,
no reason to rise
beyond the much too kind invites
that you so fear
you're gonna need someone on your mind.
When you've given up on fun
and you're livin' too clean
for the nothin' you've done,
you need something to bind,
something to hold you here.
You're gonna need someone on your mind.
When you've lost all your dreams
but still live in one
that's nothing but fears
and things left behind
now ever nowhere near,
you're gonna need someone on your mind.
When you're thinkin' on blood,
that piece of steel so keen
against the whispered jeers
of your long decline
to rest upon the bier,
you're gonna need someone on your mind.
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6. |
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Well you can take your young love
and stay across the street.
I'll shoot my glances
as you act out
my life at seventeen.
And I'll remember young love:
wearing my darling's rings,
chasing romances
that surpassed what I had-
a too good
soothing little Queen.
For that was my young love,
broke, but cherished like a dream,
a forever that then passes
with it's hopes and with it's lacks
for you can't go back to sleep.
I've lost my youth, thrown out each love
that would pretend to come,
that came but couldn't catch my tongue,
that felt like truth aged like a drug.
So you can take your young love
and lay across the street.
Hold fast your chances
and with your hands
forget you're all of seventeen.
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7. |
Wings for Falling
05:50
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I've lost my heads,
fell from my strings.
What painful silence
I'm learning I can bring
when lacking for a burden
of the simplest little dream.
But I could accomplish something.
And if my voice don't turn to blood,
I could still sing
for you my dear.
Though who you are
grows increasingly unclear.
I broke my neck,
or so it would seem.
Unknowing, you've been
so generous with me.
You're certainly deserving
something more than I can be,
than I can let
myself to need.
More than this silence
that threatens all I see.
But you are like a bookend
as I gently touch your feet.
I can almost remember this
in how it's simple and it's slow.
I can almost handle this...
Almost sincerely wish
for the trouble
wrapped up so sweetly
in a kiss.
Then I could accomplish something.
And if my voice don't turn to blood,
I could still sing
for you my dear.
Though who you are
is still so damned unclear.
Perhaps you're just
the pretty girl so near.
I lost my legs
and grew some wings.
And oh what tense
emotions closeness brings
when my head's deserted
good things into only dreams.
But I could accomplish something.
And if my voice don't turn to blood,
I could still sing
for you my dear.
Though who you are
is ever so unclear.
I hope you're not
just the prettiest girl near.
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8. |
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All that I can do is wait for you
and hope I don't turn into rust.
All that I can do is wait for you,
watch you live on while I lay here in the dust.
Every day I hope to see you,
knowing I can't hope for much.
Every day I hope to see you.
Outta my bed to get punched in the gut
and I don't even know just quite for what.
But
all that I can do is look to you,
and try not to look too much.
But
all that I can do is look to you,
and live in those days you smile at me so much.
All that I can do is run from you
'cause I can't bear to be your frown.
All that I can do is run from you,
though I can never go nowhere when you're around.
No, all that I can do is wait for you
and hope I don't turn into rust.
All that I can do is want for you
and know that you'll leave me in the dust.
All that I can do is want for you
and notice your man ain't on your mind so much.
Still all that I could ever rightly do
is take good care of you.
All that I could ever rightly do
is treat you better than anybody else can do,
and your man is sure one righteous dude.
All that I can do is look to you
and wish I could do something with this stupid crush.
All that I can do is look to you
and swoon at every fateful chance we touch.
Every night I hope to dream of you.
Some nights I can't seem to stop.
Every night I hope to dream of you.
I guess we all dream what we ain't got.
All that I can do is wait for you and hope
I don't turn into rust.
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