Elbow Album

Any day now how's about getting out of this place. Any ways.
Got a lot of spare time. Some of my youth and all of my senses on overdrive.
What's got into me? Can't believe myself!
Must be someone else. Must be.
Don't play Coltrane you will sleep at the wheel

Come as you are sweetheart, come as you are.
You know you've got nothing to prove
I'll put you to bed you can let it all go
You've been playing too rough lately

You burn too bright
You live too fast
This can't go on too long
You're a tragedy starting to happen
Just as you are. Perfect just as your are
I'll give you the time you deserve.
Don't make those promises
Don't tell me again.

The whole towns slippin down a hill.
Like the spine of something dead.
Slide in shadow cobble-creep.
Burn your mark and leave.

The trench conventions yellow eyes
Follow her the local flower
The girls a priest (to me at least)
Since baptism peroxide.

And fear is not respect. Correct.
But it's the best you're gonna get
Sharp blow to the bridge of the nose

Your eyes are just like black spiders
Your hair and dress in ribbons. Babycakes
In despair or incoherent. Nothing in between
China white, my bride tonight
Smiling on the tiles

Bring that minute back
We never get so close as when the sunward flight begins

I share it all with you
Powder blue
Stumble through the crowds together
They're trying to ignore us. That's o.k.
I'm proud to be the one you hold when the shakes begin

Sallow skinned, starry eyed, blessed
In our sin
Bring that minute back
We never get so close to death
Makes you so alive
I share it all with you

You're a girl in this vicinity
I'm a dog without a collar on
This cattle-market cabaret
Is the Sabbath every Saturday

I'm full of wit and chivalry
Until you've given in to me
I'm a dog without a collar on
You're a girl in this vicinity

Bitten by the tail-fly
Too many times to change
It's a silent taxi ride away
But it's everything to get you there
You'll know when you are bitten-shy
But still you will return my stare
From a crush of blushing brides-to-be
You barely have a blossom on
Your eyes betray your diaries
I'm a dog without a collar on
I'll take you home
Get you on your own
Sweetness, don't be bashful

Were you crushed
Did I rush you
All my time is yours
My twisted heart is yours
The faithless shit is yours
The shameless fits of love that only smother you for moments
Until I fold them up and leave
All yours

(chorus)
Oh you had to ask didn't you (x2)
Oh you had to know

Show your scars
Not to rush you
The hieroglyphic hints in all the toilet scrawl
Guilty little pins
And all the things I never talk about
Are spilling with the gin
Test how tough you are
All yours

(chorus)

Not to rush you

I'll be the corpse in your bathtub
Useless
I'll be as deaf as a post
If you hold me like a newborn
Whisper what you feel
My badly strung declaration
To You
You'll spend the end of your days
Gently smiling like a newborn
Love not by degrees

Press your lips
To my eyes
Taste my tears
On your tongue,
Pull the blinds
Play our song
Nothings changed
Nothing could be wrong.

Scream in the night
Kick and strike
Like a newborn
Holding me shaking
Awake in the dark
All of these promises
Kept and unbroken
Tracing the scars
Tracing the scars
Even and cold
As we both become older.
Your arms bound about me
The hush in your voice.
The warmth of your fingers
Entwined around mine
In the eve of our lives
Never a choice.

Don't mix your drinks
Don't mix with him.
It will kill you one day.
Good advice. Sound advice.
You need to be like him, like me.
Look what you could achieve.
I'm coming cap-in-hand.
Begging you to listen
Something draws me in!
I just can't christen it.

My brother fear is only natural
You need to chill your fucking bones
You will feel Christ-like
When it's breathing in and out
Right there on the pillow

Found a hole and slipped on through
Kissed the stone and learnt the lines
Jumped the cue all the time forgetting you

Best dishevelled lover 3yrs running
Coming second to
A picket fence white 9-5 whos
Just alive

Beyond repair, there is nothing to say
Save some fading regrets
Yet I can't be without this
I want you to be around.

Spit-shone lies, juggled debts
Planted flags and made regrets.
Muddled through all the time
Forgetting you

Cut your teeth and breezed on to
another brothers fickle ways
So why amazed when it don't
Come/turn out your way

Can't stop thinking
I won't stop drinking
I need that comfort
I don't need discipline
Twilights tailing
I had self belief (They don't compromise)
This has battered me
That's my history
Hold this shaking frame
Pull this back together

What's your story?
I want to listen.
I can't fake pity.
I may not sympathize
Twilights tailing.
Try my lies for size
You might swallow them
While I fantasize
Try-my-lies-for-size.
Hold this shaking frame.

Been climbing trees I've skinned my knees
My hands are black the sun is going down
She scruffs my hair in the kitchen steam
She's listening to the dream I weaved today
Crosswords through the bathroom door
While someone sings the theme-tune to the news
And my sister buzzes through the room leaving perfume in the air
And that's what triggered this.
I come back here from time to time
I shelter here some days.

A high-back chair. He sits and stares
A thousand yards and whistles
Marching-band (Boom-ching)
Kneeling by and speaking up
He reaches out and I take a
Massive hand. Disjointed tales
That flit between short trousers
And a full dress uniform
And he talks of people ten years
Gone like I've known them all my life
Like scattered black 'n' whites….