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1. |
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I wrote it to remember
Something terrible & true
A prayer beneath your breath
Teardrops in the pew
A diver in the rapture
The air is running out
I watched it like a fool
Without a hope or doubt
It's the way you keep me guessing
I can never see the future
But I can make it easy if I never try to reach you
Leave me something to remember
Something beautiful & real
There nothing time can do
for a wound that never heals
A moth mistakes a streetlight
For the crescent of the moon
If the glimmer burns forever
Will I burn forever too
It's the way you keep me guessing
I can never see the future
But I can make it easy if I never try to reach you
Does it always have to die
Do we always have to let go
Do you see it in your mind or is it just an echo
I can't go back to nothing
Touch the hand inside the casket
You make me want to find if there could be an answer
It's the way you keep me guessing
I can never see the future
But I can make it easy if I never try to reach you
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2. |
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I'm good at reading maps but never trust the direction I'm in
Am I close to letting go or will I hold on to everything you said
The grief of the living's always missing the grief of the dead
Keep what's bitter from the sorrow we don't have to be anything else
Take you where you want to go
I can never be free
If heaven is a hell below
Then I never want to leave
A heart off its leash can no longer find beauty in trust
It doesn't know it's been caught till the trap's already been sprung
If you wear your beauty like a bruise, maybe it will never cause you pain
We wake up in different cities & if we get lucky it fades
Take you where you want to go
I can never be free
If heaven is a hell below
Then I never want to leave
Maybe it's something you had now you don't
Promise yourself that you will but you won't
Do you love in spite of fear, is it simple enough
Dreams don't cost a dime but they’re worth just as much
A secret only we could know
We will never be free
If heaven is a hell below
Then we're somewhere in between
Take you where you want to go
But I can never be free
If heaven is a hell below
Then I never want to leave
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3. |
Artificial Stars
02:54
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Wish on artificial stars
Over California cities
Dance around a shallow heart
full of vanity & pity
Congratulations taste like dust
For the rival who succeeds
Say you're happy through your teeth
Does it make you want to scream
Goodness might as well be blind
When you paint a pretty picture
Forgiveness doesn't mind
When a promise leads to failure
Evil only smiles
when you surrender what you love
When he's laughing in your face
Do you ever cry for us
I'll be as honest & true as I can
Who could be as in love with you as I am
I try to put this fire dead out again & again & again
We're just tiny sparks
In blue nights & barbed wire
Feel our way around the dark
For something that's familiar
Only when we lose ourselves
Is when we find we're free
We're here & gone forever
So take me in my sleep
Take me in my sleep
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4. |
Is Your Life Electric
02:55
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Love thrashes in the net
Until it's suffocated
Best to let the magic go
Until it's drained and desiccated
Hold a hand over a flame
Like a joke that lost its humor
As if time could break the spell
I'm laughing at the future
Failure loops like a movie
Shadowless in carbon arc
The projectionist slumped over
Knows all the cues by heart
Cut every fume of fancy
With acetate & alcohol
When the scenes are all assembled
It's a tribute just as false
Is your life electric
Is it alchemy or art
Is it a universe of silent waves, black holes, & ancient sparks
It all matters till it doesn't
Nothing matters till it does
The past is prelude & contrition
Throw it in the well for us
Fantasies die in the hollow
Desires remanded to their cells
Celebration for the devils
Proud of their little hells
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5. |
Doom Forever
03:06
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Blow a kiss 11:59
Can I sleep through the new year
Just have to keep the coals alive
Microdosing on disco lights
What separates you from your fear
You don't need courage to survive
Am I chasing ghosts
Tracing ashes in a room
The way they float
Just breathe them in like doom
Till they're gone forever
Till they're gone forever
Trees & memories creak & moan
Still find a way to miss you
Searching for the shortest line
If I ever make it home
There's nothing I can give you
From a life that isn't even mine
Am I chasing ghosts
Tracing ashes in a room
The way they float
Just breathe them in like doom
Am I doomed forever to be doomed forever
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6. |
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Would you let me stay
Until the fireworks are over
Is it wiser to meet fate
Or is it something to be thwarted
Can't retrace the footsteps that we walked
The consequence is never what we thought
Would you let me stay
Until the fireworks are over
I'm the blushing bride
Left waiting at the altar
A priest that's lost his sight
Makes him easier to lie to
He says the devil will never judge you
But the road to hell is gilded by the ones who say they love you
I'm the blushing bride
Left waiting at the altar
It's not about the lie
We forget what's real & true
It's not about the past
The future always makes the rules
Every April's heart becomes a fool
And I don't know how to make it bulletproof
Emergency emerges from the truth
And I don't know how to say the words to you
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7. |
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Broken mirrors, fractured smoke
Ballet dancers & bachelorettes
You get so lonely, everything's a joke
Night spirals like pirouettes
Eyes cloudy & faithless
When you're lost or you just don't know
This world is more than secrets
But truth fades like afterglow
This is where I lose my nerve
I don't know how to tell the truth
I don't think that this is gonna work
When every road leads back to you
Twice my hope is still nothing
A whisper from inside the tomb
Try to make it count for something
I love the way red looks on you
This is where I lose my nerve
I don't know how to tell the truth
I don't think that this is gonna work
When every road leads back to you
I don't know how to find my nerve
I always try to fight the truth
I don't know how to make this work
When every road leads back to you
Sometimes all that we're good for
Is a momentary glimpse
Holding on to you is like when I wake up & I try to make a fist
This is where I lose my nerve
I don't know how to tell the truth
I don't think that this is gonna work
When every road leads back to you
I don't know how to find my nerve
I always try to fight the truth
I don't know how to make this work
When every road leads back to you
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8. |
On The Vine
03:44
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Don't tell me your dreams
It won't change anything
Always running in place
Always frozen in silence
A hand through your hair
Use your phone as a mirror
Does the person staring back make the future look any clearer
We never know how far or close we are
To possibility
Or the shadows of our hearts
You made me less of a fake
You made me more of a fool
But if your heart is free I can never lose
I never asked you to follow
Because I knew you'd say yes
Although I wish we were lovers
It's for the best
I'm just being honest
You were never mine
Anything that I try to grow withers on the vine
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9. |
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A ghost can't rest until it's understood
It drags its chains, haunts your neighborhood
Tugging at your sheets, does it meet your eye
The catch in your voice needs nothing to be justified
I know that this has to stop but I don't want to disappear
Every secret has a cost but I can make it easier
Put our love in lights, in silent faith
When we dream of death it only means we're afraid of change
Beauty smiles but beauty doesn't keep the walls from closing in
Some are beautiful but they don't know what real beauty is
I know that this has to stop but I don't want to disappear
Every secret has a cost but I can make it easier
We're only getting older & it's only more dangerous
If there's something to be saved baby I can keep it safe for us
We're only getting older & it's only more dangerous
If there's something to be saved honey I can keep it safe for us
We're only getting older & it's only more dangerous
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10. |
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I tried to get away but fear pulls me like a chain
That leaves me at the mercy of a ghost train
If decay is still a friend then I should be checking in
Before he takes me in his loving arms again
I left the party feeling sorry for myself
Lonely lights of Cheesesteak Vegas shine at 1AM
A line of trash & pretty people on the pavement
Staring at an alien or some unfrozen caveman
Is it better to find love & refuse it
Than to hold it your hand & simply lose it
Better to shrink away than make it true
Memory is a stack of clouds that we keep falling through
If you fall at least you tried
At least you know that you'll survive
I wish that you were here & I want you to be mine
But I don't know how to keep anything alive
Dulcimers & decibels, the streets are all a blur
You said everyone should get a chance to see their funeral
You're funny when you're funny
I laugh for no reason
You can live forever as long as you never weaken
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11. |
Color of Light
02:25
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Every color of light
Moves towards the invisible
Seasons shorter than night
Darkness outlasts a miracle
Do you see what I see
Is there snow where you are
So quick to meet destiny
You put too much trust in the stars
Light through the storefront
Fading like letters
Cards that you saved
An acquaintance remembered
The ghost of the past prays for your surrender
This year
Bad habits like steel wool
Bend their will to the cold
The trash of the new year
Sews itself to the old
I've been a coward
But I can't fight the truth
I don't have an answer
Why I hold back when it comes to you
Light through the storefront
Fading like letters
Cards that you saved
An acquaintance remembered
The ghost of the future cries for your surrender
This year
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12. |
Color of Light (Reprise)
02:40
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13. |
We Won't Read Every Book
02:05
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Scoop me up before I blow away like sand
Try to find a grain of joy before it slips through your hands
We won't read every book or open their covers
Won't see every film or love every lover
But at least for today we'll be together
The copper splash before a wish dies in the well
Sometimes hope's just an echo we have to hear for ourselves
We won't read every book or open their covers
Won't see every film or love every lover
But at least for today we'll be together
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That Dream Was Our Life Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Introspective & prolific, James Cuartero AKA That Dream Was Our Life has been making music as a solo artist since 2014. Described as "a thinking man’s songwriter who stays away from the trap of being defined by a single genre", Cuartero has released fifty EPs, six compilations, & numerous singles over the past ten years. No t-shirts though. ... more
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