1. |
Confess
02:04
|
|
||
I don’t know what I’m doing,
But I know it’s my time to be.
If I must be, may I be free.
I don’t know what I’m saying,
But I know it’s my turn to speak.
If I must speak, may I do so honestly.
Simply put,
The modern age has shaken my faith.
My body is bad technology too defective to be remade.
No subset of society keeps my focus in its frames.
I’m not a punk,
I’m not a radical,
I don’t feel sober,
Not much of an artist.
I’m not a joke,
Not a name or a number,
Or a waste of space & days.
I’m just a simple human being,
Searching for joy through entropy.
To feel the faintest light,
I might name it truth;
If there is truth to be believed.
|
||||
2. |
Plain
03:49
|
|
||
I’m the kind of guy
Who will try until he dies,
But then I’ll catch a flat or run out of gas
On my drive to the after-life.
Patrons, saints, sinners & auto mechanics
Pass me by,
As I struggle on the shoulder
Between the Devil and a man in white.
Who needs a savior when you finally feel the light?
I’m the kind of person
Always talking about a better future,
But every day I do the same thing
Every night I fall asleep in the same place.
Genius called that insanity
Most just call it maturity
Grow up, grow your hair out,
Start a career or crash your car.
Who needs a plan when failure’s never all that far?
I’m not a good man,
I’m just a Layman;
Stupid, simple & plain.
When moving forward feels like standing in place,
When there’s always something else to blame,
When the questions are always hard to phrase,
When the answers are almost always vague:
Why even move your feet at all?
Why stand up just to take the fall?
Why search for words inside your head
When your voice will never reach the passing cars?
I’m not a good man,
I’m just a Layman;
Stupid, simple & plain.
I’m not quite worthless,
I’m just a person;
Stupid, simple & plain.
|
||||
3. |
Stubble
02:11
|
|
||
When I feel awful,
I tend to fill my head
With cold truths that “I am nothing”,
That the gloom might pass in death.
A better tomorrow
Seems so improbable,
To the point that every day
Feels survived & every night
Is endured.
I can’t save the world,
I can’t save my friends,
Why try and save myself
When I’m consumed like all the rest?
Money, success & purpose,
Anxiety & nothingness.
Am I humanitarian or narcissist?
Why live between the lies
Of right & wrong?
From the outside looking in
Growth without torment
Doubt is not a sin
Fear is human
Now when I feel awful
I’m going to shave my head.
If I can change the way it looks,
I can change what’s inside of it.
It’s not about perfection,
Or equilibrium;
If you get a tomorrow,
You better live it better
Than the other ones.
What if I fall back down and my hair’s too short to shave?
Will I go without a scalp, let the flesh decay inside a trophy case?
|
||||
4. |
Again
03:20
|
|
||
Pack it up, pack it in
Let me begin to live again.
Outside this lonely heart
Full of false starts &
Unpaid debts.
I want my world back
Solitude
With six strings & a pen.
Where a night in is a choice
Not the only option left.
Where nobody knows your name
No one calls to see your around.
Palahniuk told me I wasn’t unique
At fifteen I just didn’t believe him.
At twenty-something,
I put both my feet on the ground
Made a promise to pretend to be different:
I’d be successful.
I’d have passion.
I’d be exciting.
I’d have direction.
When I traded in reality for a dream
The confidence was spent with the paycheck.
I’m still just an aimless kid with a college degree.
All things considered, I still have that going for me.
Keep a diary of every day
You’ll still lose track of every day you’re misplaced
Keep a tally of all your shortcomings
You may run out of empty space
No matter how far you fall
There is still some room to get back up.
The choices are rarely easy
No-one said that life was something you’d love.
Pack it up, pack it in
Let me begin to live again.
|
||||
5. |
All Of Me
03:06
|
|
||
This is a song by Half Hearted Hero off their album "Isn't Real".
|
||||
6. |
Sealed
02:10
|
|
||
Searching between the pause
Of spinning spokes & circling sirens
For any way to keep
My head on straight and my debts paid.
In the lulls I try to write you something
Apologetic & earnest.
To show you are worth the time
Space on a page, postage and lines.
All my letters are buried
Under the weight of what the postman brings.
I can’t say I place blame on life
Keeping you from guilt laid in page.
From best friends to pen-pals,
Pen pals to memories,
Memory to story,
Story to fable,
Fable to name you forget.
You can’t keep your love together
With packing tape
Your friends won’t wait in boxes
While you drift in and out of states
When you change your address
Some things get left behind
Some passed because you had to
Some things get lost with time
|
||||
7. |
Enough
01:10
|
|
||
A severed head in an art installation
Isn’t enough.
A spray tanned skull on the White House lawn
Still won’t be enough.
If this administration’s found face-down
In a fracking waste-water pit,
It would be a single dent in a cop car
Running down another kid
Unlearn every word for “master”
Or get out of the way.
Melt down every word for “weapon”
Or get out of the way.
It’s not a list of names I’m after
Culture must be unmade
Go pray to your god
That I don’t rise to the surface one day.
But you know I will.
|
||||
8. |
Witness
03:24
|
|
||
I wrote you something better than this
Right after we met, right after we first kissed.
I searched the world for that lost limb of words
But now it’s gone, I’ll start over.
Back up on the rooftop
Of the Wolf of West Philly’s bike shop,
We exchanged names
Along with shirt-sleeves;
Passed filters with the crashing sun.
Then Sam burned down the hospital
With the help of the Crutchfield Queens.
We were spreading sparks,
Eyes flying like larks;
With torch songs burning
In every hearth.
I thought I could find your fire
If I stayed on that rooftop
The city’s lights just cast a blight
I could barely see the moon.
You said to me your mind was dirty,
I thought sultry, coy and bright
You said to me your mind was evil,
Illegible, unkind.
I ripped the strings of my guitars.
Hoped you’d trust your hands, see how they work
I thought if you looked inside
You’d see something you’d recognize.
Two broken smiles and battered bodies
Yearning for something bigger
A pair of hands with trembling fingers
When forced in between lines
We walked together when the leaves unhinged
We built fires in hearths when days grew dark
We walked together with stiff roots sucking at the summer rolling in
Let’s see the seasons turn again
On our heads and sides for the rest of our lives
Let’s see the seasons turn again
While we’re burning with time
|
||||
9. |
Remains
03:20
|
|
||
What’s a writer with nothing to say?
A drunk without a cent left to his name?
A man without a cause?
Pitiful & selfish, but aren’t we all?
Too often, we cast hope into the sea;
Take what fits, abandon what can’t be.
You’re safe for now, but what’s the cost?
Is a blank page the worth of everything you’ve lost?
Distance cannot drive a stake between
The written past and fresh uncertainty,
That feeling there is so much more;
The yearning to be someone is inescapable.
You can make sense of the wreckage and debris
Build a stronger frame from your defeats
Burnt synapses and fractured skulls
Take the broken pieces & build a better home.
Or you can build the fences high around your heart,
Blood mixed with cement hold stakes from end to start.
Metal wires twisted sharp;
No decompression, no expansion,
No motion in or out.
What’s a life without the chance to breathe?
Love trapped within fear or a mind feral and free?
Do you give everything, or just enough?
You’re terrified, you’re trying; but aren’t we all?
|
||||
10. |
|
|||
This is a song by John K Samson off their album "Winter Wheat".
|
Streaming and Download help
If you like Steve Layman, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp