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1.
Streetfight 04:27
Walk out of the night shift The sky, it never powers down Look out for my ride home Pull out in the cold night The concrete is too young to moan The street convulses down below The mosque is open, church is closed Every person is alone It’s just another streetfight It’s just another streetfight The crowd it jerks like a shot As we pull up to the tube stop Like a violent ripple in a pool If I get out, am I a fool? It’s just another streetfight As we sail past this storm I catch my driver’s scared eye We rate each other’s bravery ‘I see this every Friday night At home I have a family What am I supposed to do? I’m being paid to take you home Is there a girl or woman there? I’m not a fucking hero’ It’s just another streetfight As we sail past this storm
2.
Evidence 03:31
There is life here, it is dawn in the city And boiler smoke dances so pretty With the freezing air as people wake It’s far too early and hard to take The bells they ring so gallantly To the bleakest sunrise ever seen And the sun it battles with the fumes To only rise and breach the cloud While you dance through sun and mountains But you never warn me of your outings You just send your evidence back I cannot take this kind of pain I am just trying not to lose this game But you just send your evidence back Staring o’er the fence Into the field of all my past desires I feel the warmth, a distant heat Still beautiful like bales on fire I see the kids, the sparks they fly And singe their thrift shop clothes and smiles You children keep it, have your fun I turn and wander slow for miles While you dance through sun and mountains But you never warn me of your outings You just send your evidence back I cannot take this kind of pain I am just trying not to lose this game But you just send your evidence back
3.
This dark bridlepath lane No wonder this town is rotten Look at its veins No wonder it shudders in pain Its heart is broken Look at the pressure points, the bottlenecks We’re in danger, out in the open We’re in danger, out in the open And no protection comes From the ones we send our wages to No it only comes from togetherness of me and you We stand together like opposite shapes We fit together like noses and napes Breathe in the puddle mist All the dirty mouths I’ve kissed I taste the cough of a stranger so well Tickled by another man’s beard Hearing other people’s problems That don’t sound as bad as my own Cos I don’t even wanna leave this pub and go home There's babies and blacks Whites close to heart attacks Stone cold crazies and mentally well We all sit around together in hell Looking at the pornographic neon Telling us which kind of alcohol we need to be on Beware the man who turns 180 degrees In the middle of the night Why would he make such a strange decision If things were going alright? I've been that man many, many times I needed to wander the cobbles at night Beneath the cosy beds and the clear heads I go from feeling poetic to lying half dead This dark bridlepath lane No wonder this town is rotten Look at its veins No wonder it shudders in pain Its heart is broken
4.
My love, she tumbles slowly On a wave of violent water She remains the Green Isle’s daughter But she journeyed with the crowds And flew across the ocean About as far as she could travel Met with knives, cold snow and gravel Stretched the cord of memory And stretched the ties of family Definitions of closeness Just to keep two lives in play Such a job to do each day Re-creations of past lives Within this harsh and bitter town Poorly framed was my advice And I began to let her down And the ones that we call friends Oh they are few and far between And not every one of them Will be around for our last scene From the heart of the Clapton Road All the way down to Bethnal Green I was so flippant, without a clue I almost lost my queen of queens Such a brutal honeymoon We were entwined as one so soon I couldn’t bear to lose my solitude Or work to find the tools Didn’t realise my character Had grown to be this cruel This city's made me hard enoughTo call the meek the fool But maybe my DNA My tarnished home life, I could say Maybe the things I saw and heardGave me this coward’s deck of words Which pushed her away My precious dream was almost slain But she has the fortitude of oxen Luckily for me And the ones that we call friends Oh they are few and far between And not every one of them Will be around for our last scene From the heart of the Clapton Road All the way down to Bethnal Green I was so flippant, without a clue I almost lost my queen of queens And one day she stepped beside me On a stage in front of few Sang the same words as I sang The same melancholy old tune So much more than a song It tied a knot between our souls Over fire and violent water We began to search for pearls In the abscesses of memory And the dangerous things we'd done We sang beside each other proudly In the jail cells and the pubs And the ones that we call friends Oh they are few and far between And not every one of them Will be around for our last scene From the heart of the Clapton Road All the way down to Bethnal Green I was so flippant, without a clue I almost lost my queen of queens
5.
To the country, this city’s sinking Like a corpse covered in coins and gold lace And they will only ever dish out the tools To hide away our face So we’ll build up in the wilderness as a savage race Return with the toolsTo tempt away those with a little taste Old soho, eccentricities of art, brick and booze Now diluted by steelwork Used to feel like writing songs Drowning in gutters with John Hurt To the country with our pockets full of dreams Fresh earth and fuck work Oh my old bride, sick of silver pits As the life and the colour drips From the alleys where we used to kiss And we could stay, give ‘em hell each day Whittle all our little lives away To the country where we still fit Now its digital, our better power lies In correlation of plans, gathering of massesAnd death of lies When we all are saying no as a chorus And our empathy is finally tried To the country and our flags, bibles and guns They’re gonna burn on fires Oh your dreams, so much louder than a symphony Hard and jagged like black sand But they’re delicate like bubbles As you carry them round in your hand Only let the wizards see the colour and shape Cos they understand Oh my old bride, sick of silver pits As the life and the colour drips From the alleys where we used to kiss And we could stay, give ‘em hell each day Whittle all our little lives away To the country where we still fit
6.
We live by paradises Not by do-before-I-die lists We live off paid-up tourists And we smile into their eyes You come for the blue sea Polite waiters are amusing You soak up the sunsets And you bitch about the rain Waltzing, playing music All the events and abuses Left us feeling battered, crooked Dead behind the eyes We cracked the piggy open Spent some money, started hoping We thought of being noble But I saw it in their eyes This is My Home Down boulevards you wander With red faces full of wonder Did we make a blunder Putting our land up to sell? When you leave we shake the carpets, Prepare restaurants, apartments To make new sets of memories That you carry back to hell And they built a brand new city Round the corner it’s a pity All the booze is free and safe activities galore The beaches they are private Not sure how we will survive it My town is as it’s always been And already you seem bored This is My Home
7.
The Spring 06:12
Just one urination Upon one blade of grass One ghastly taste of human And all will be lost I stopped to drink the water But I’d never drunk like this Only bottled, clear blue liquid From a factory run by a pig Who pays his workers like children Treats his children like kings Treats his kings like his best friends And his best friends like rival pigs Oh all will be lost Writing our tale, caught up in the spring South of the border, where purity wins Hang on for dear life, to the city we sing Do what you want, just don't touch the water And while this languid city water Labours clumsily like puke Over diseased, lumpy porcelain From the old rich to the poor youth Different shades, chemicals and blood A million ways to poison us There’s some water in there somewhere But its energy’s all used up Writing our tale, caught up in the spring South of the border, where purity wins Hang on for dear life, to the city we sing Do what you want, just don't touch the water Such a beautiful journey Over pristine rock and earth Over tumbling waterfall Punctured only by beak of bird To be dropped into a whirlpool Spun around like a lovers’ dance During their headiest routine At the beginning of the sweetest romance Oh all is not lost
8.
We had a good run Drifting around ‘neath the stars Top floor of Spooner’s, over bonnets of cars Under pissy bridges to the dark bridlepath Doin’ our worst, king and queen of these bars From the back room of The Nag’s Head Watching through the arch like a sage As if I’m not on the very same page But it’s me who drinks alone here Amid the dark wood and stale beer And the night, it explodes In a white hot blur of street lights Curious women who stand under lights Looking at me like a victim of drugs But I love this feeling And it fits like a glove But while I want my nights quiet Oh, I hear sirens And oh, why deny it? You are to blame So before I turn to leave you Thanks for the good times Together, we’re too dangerous For this not to end Until I am repaired And I waltz back again Well, we had a good time Running around ‘neath the moon 11.30am we’re back on the juice But it’s really kicking in this time It’s quicker, it’s cheaper And it’s way out of line And if you were a wheel I’ve spun you a thousand times I bought your t-shirt Committed my crimes When hurting myself was a tragedy Hurting everybody else was too easy for me But I’m glad that I danced with you As fearlessly as I did Cos God knows now I am scared like a kid Of your power to clip my wings Send me down to the bottom of things
9.
Deep Blood 06:27
Well, I dreamt you into life Before the day that we met Clearer than any vision I have ever been sent Except the angels who Returned to bathe in your deep blood Dancing around this battered citadel with my love Alone, ’neath ancient walls That creak and shatter over us Past the fallen statues Waltz in the dregs of the flood Smoke the ash of angels Breath out the mist of their deep blood But you tried to show me the world You listened ‘til my throat was dry You tried to dazzle me When your blood red sunrise gallops towards me And your gaze, it shelters like the empress tree I see all your cities rebuilt on words I follow new children and fledgling birds And brothers and sisters I saw bleed first The city elevates itself to temple status Whispers within our ear ’til we believe our own fuss Boulevards and gardens mesh together and lose us You fade in like Haring neon dancing in the black light Soothe me with all the violence of the best Basquiat All the hearts and minds Within this room are your toys You worry about your age But no-one else hears that noise When your blood red sunrise gallops towards me And your gaze, it shelters like the empress tree I see all your cities rebuilt on words I follow new children and fledgling birds And brothers and sisters I saw bleed first

credits

released November 1, 2023

All songs written, vocals, guitars, banjo, bass (except tracks 1 & 2), drum machine programming & synths by Russell Joslin.

Thank you to everyone who lent their talents to bring this album to life. Vocals on all songs except Deep Blood by Sarah McCaig. Bass guitar on Streetfight and Evidence by Rolfin Nyhus. Drums on Bridlepath Lane, The Spring, Waltz Back Again & Deep Blood by Brian Hedemann. Drums on To the Country & This is My Home by Thomas Broda. Flute on Streetfight by Alyson Frazier. Saxophone on Bridlepath Lane & horns on The Spring, Waltz Back Again, Deep Blood by Terry Edwards. Violin on To the Country & Waltz Back Again by Richard Jones. Keys on Deep Blood by Ned Cartwright. Cello on The Spring by Naomi Gee Wright.

Produced by Ed Deegan & Russell Joslin. Recorded, mixed & mastered by Ed Deegan at Gizzard Recording, London.

Album photography by Ben Sommers. Artwork by Russell Joslin.

Thank you to Nina Gillian Hoppe and all who supported the album through crowdfunding & pre-ordering.

Special thanks to my mum, Patricia; my beautiful partner, Sarah; and my wild geniuses, Ben S. and Rolf; as always, I couldn’t have made this without you lot.

For my dad, Geoff, thanks for visiting me when things got tough in the studio... when things get tough anywhere.

Thank you for listening.

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