1. |
Sane or Alive
02:57
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Sane or Alive
By Anna Brooks
I wanna steal you
like a devious keepsake.
Shadows and cheap dates,
waking with headaches.
I need a reason to sneak out at night.
Broken lights,
blackened space,
spinning vinyl
in your basement.
And you,
can show me the Ramones.
And in my ripped tied t-shirt
I can tell you that I feel it in my bones.
I don’t wanna be your girlfriend baby
but I like you maybe
you can take me
sane or alive.
One stop,
Headlight and a mug shot,
tell you that you’re wanted
with me tonight.
Another reason to give you my breath.
Waiting for that regret
wicked games are the sweetest.
Another ending I’m scared to foresee,
but your strings are so clean
flick your lighter
and grin at me.
You
were never gonna be on TV.
But you want everyone to know the show you run
is gonna burn that silver screen.
I don’t wanna be your girlfriend baby
but I like you maybe
you can take me
sane or alive.
One stop,
Headlight and a mug shot,
tell you that you’re wanted
with me tonight.
You’re breaking halos and driving on drift.
Taste the smoke on your lips
from those hundreds of girls you kissed.
Mysterious like your lyrics in clenched fists
stains on your set list
baby you’re reckless
but...
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2. |
No Other Misery
03:15
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No Other Misery
by Anna Brooks
Do you remember the musician that wrote all your songs.
I was here all along
I was her all along.
I never stopped
telling your stories from the mountain tops
and with a heart in gauze
I heard the crowd’s applause.
I’ve been her all along.
Sometimes my mind is like a train
playing into everything
your tricks,
my heartbreak
gives it kicks.
Your motivating eyes
fabricating you and I.
Your face forgotten
but your lies are ingrained
like ink on a paper plane
my thoughts fly so far.
You know who you are.
I only love you ‘case you hate me
and I don’t understand,
why you’re living in my words
baby you write my like no misery can.
No I can’t live without your blank stares
and your worn out face.
I made my bed
inside your head
and now I live
inside your jagged space.
Sometimes I find
that I only want to see your face
the only concentration
that can stem from hatred.
Desperation is a flame I try to cultivate
the words inside my brain
are burning with your name.
Inspire that desire that unfroze itself
for you,
sometimes I wish you know.
Somehow I wish you knew.
I only love you ‘case you hate me
and I don’t understand,
why you’re living in my words
baby you write my like no misery can.
No I can’t live without your blank stares
and your worn out face.
I made my bed
inside your head
and now I live
inside your jagged space.
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3. |
Safehouse
02:12
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Safehouse
By Anna Brooks
I made a safe house
out of darkness
Holding clutching pillows all alone.
I hid, writing,
musing, fighting,
cast in very narrow lighting
writing it all on my own.
I sat shrouded in a fortress
made of sticks and willow stones
buried deep in sheets and blankets,
blindness shielding
healing bones.
This time of year I really do not know me.
And while I’m here I’m only what they show me.
I do not know me.
I do not know me.
I built a safe house
in my family’s home,
I hid and escaped
for want and need
to replace a perfect world,
with one of my own.
I built a safe house
out of glass shelves,
selling rings and ugly things,
a pretty puppet,
you can't see the strings.
I made a safe house
in the mask on my own face,
growing sweat beads
between the pores
of fake and
misplaced.
I made a safe house
inside myself,
though a hummingbird heart
can only beat
so strong, so steady
and so fast,
I made mine
from scratch.
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4. |
Stitches
03:01
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Stitches
By Anna Brooks
Baby my eyes
are weather beaten.
Kissing my lips is like a blow,
you’re kissing a life that I was cheated
leaving me strong and cracked and bold.
Baby I’m trying like a beggar,
got both of my hands to blot the flame
for you to take haven in the threads
I sew on the wounds that still remain.
Baby I don’t wear your scars
but when you lifted up my shirt if you could see
that I’d been harmed
if there were stains left from the hurt.
Would you reach out to protect me
from the demons that undressed me
took my hand and stained my breath
another taste of blood and flesh
If it were me baby,
would you hurt?
Baby those doors are closed and bolted
the hourglass fastened to the floor.
And nothing you built to break them open
could make it so I don’t hurt no more.
And maybe you polished a perspective
and painted new colors on your eyes.
But it’s a long journey they subjected
and I ain’t got money for a flight.
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5. |
Rosewood
04:25
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Rosewood
Pick up your body
and play it to me.
Practice your hands
and use them to see.
Patch your pickups,
and solder your heart.
Fix all the lines
that were broken to start.
Oh you were broken
and callused too deep,
now I hope that you put down
those bad memories.
Go and rest
incredible hands
take me to music
I don’t understand
all your eight strings,
just steal me four tracks
leave a note on your rosewood
and dirt in your tire tracks.
In sound-proof asylum
you fixed my guitar.
Ingrained in it’s memory
your stories and scars.
Before it lost tune,
it saw fingers that flew
heard me tell it I loved you,
felt a real iron man
and his metal heart, too.
It’s collecting
dust.
Forgotten the days,
just some welded connection
you never
thought to
replace.
And I say so long
to the days where I'd wait.
In the seat that you plastered me,
I was replaced.
Now look who's alive,
and who follows grand plans.
But who can't say goodbye
to a talented man.
Go and rest
Incredible hands.
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6. |
Lucy
02:58
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Lucy
By Anna Brooks
After “The Wolves in the Walls”
Oh Lucy don’t be scared
of the monsters living in your stairs.
Baby don’t you shy away
from the footsteps creeping,
night and day.
Oh the wolves their watching,
and their waiting,
watching through the eyes of paintings.
Baby don’t you shy away from the
monsters only want to play.
They only wanna play.
Then the wolves came out of the walls
they came a’breaking
and nobody believed her
but no, she wasn’t faking.
Oh the wolves came out of the walls
Oh yes she knew it
now everyone is running
and nobody sees through it but her.
Lucy never learned to fight.
Those monsters in her head they kept her up all night.
They howled and roared oh yes they did.
‘Till that little girl had had enough
she threw her little fists.
(Bonus Bridge)
And in a lamplight brawl,
she fought shadowy walls
she threw her punches at the covers
and defeated them all
she didn’t stop and stare
at the scraggly hair
and what sharp white teeth
those wolves did bear.
When the wolves came out of the walls...
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7. |
Messenger
02:12
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Messenger
By Anna Brooks
She carries a messenger bag; they say she's some kind of feminist.
They make fun in her small town.
She hears and never makes a sound.
Just walk right past,
don't say hello.
Hey pallor face,
and don't you know she's contagious…
Don't get too close.
She's a messenger,
running on her heels,
she’s walking nervous,
slip'ry surface
while she's clutching her shield.
She's a loving stare,
from a mile away
but from her telescope
she sees you think she's fallen from space.
Grey clouds will dawn on her,
she bolts but they have got her
cornered.
She'll never admit fear.
Pretend to know her business here.
She's contagious, don't you get too close.
She’s a messenger running on her heels,
She’s messenger, while she’s clutching her shield,
She’s a messenger, don’t you know she’s contagious…
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8. |
Fatuous Love
02:52
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Fatuous Love
By Anna Brooks
Arms went missing,
blood beats fast.
I’ve been kissing
an invisible man.
I’ve been stained make up
on sheets from your bed.
I’ve been fake lashes
that bat from the ashes.
You said
you loved me
but I heard don’t leave me instead,
and I never let it burn.
Fatuous love, bricks in your mortar.
It’s breaking yourself
over and over.
It’s swimming in the perfume of poison
to get though
the pain in the name
of your love.
Arms went missing,
hands got cold.
Always wishing
you’d come home.
You’ve been shy charm and a shout in the rain.
You’ve been high mountains
too distant to tame.
I was waiting
with a rope and and an anchor in hand.
Oh, I didn’t understand.
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9. |
Pitch Black Noise
02:31
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Pitch Black Noise
By Anna Brooks
I would break if it would please
you,
Though I always fail to see,
If you care so very little
How you care at all for me.
I was
Who you wanted
Ripped back lights
I left you wondering you took
All of me
On your way away from me.
No I don't want to win you back
I don't want your respect
I don't need your control.
I'll be the one leaving Intact,
If you can't chase it back
To the heart
In your black hole.
So gain up drive down,
Turn your lights out.
Pitch Black Noise
you're Pitch Black Noise to me.
Room sound voice, you’re low mid
frequency.
Pitch black noise, just noise to me,
Low-cut room sound,
Cut that frequency.
What you had on your arm was
a lucky mistake.
Whoever you think you are I
could always erase.
What you thought I was not
I went off and became.
So hold up your reigns when you
take me for a ride,
baby you’re not to blame
but you need to realize that…
(Baby you’re noise to me.)
Pitch Black Noise
You’re Pitch Black Noise to me,
Room sound voice, so cut that frequency.
Pitch Black Noise
you’re Pitch Black Noise to me
Low-cut, room sound
low-mid frequency.
Drive that tune down
(Cut you right out of me)
60 Hz, Baby you’re noise to me.
So cut you right out of me.
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Anna Brooks Ann Arbor, Michigan
Anna Brooks is a lyricist and musician who writes from the perspective of a biologist.
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