Connections/Departures

Lyrics

1. Ladykillers

It’s a man’s world
It’s a man’s business
How does it feel
To be one of the few?
To be cheerleaders to a revolution
Not what we had in mind to do
Let’s have some credit
Where credit’s due

We’ve been learning how to jump through hoops
And we’ve been learning how to watch our backs
Competing for men till we’re isolated
Holed up in our overpriced cul-de-sacs
But when he’s got you pinned to the bed
Becoming a part of the one in three
The right to vote
Will not set you free

I’m tired of settling for less
I’m tired of hearing I’m too young and you know best
I don’t wanna be a notch on your bedpost
No I will not be impressed by ladykillers

I’ve been thinking about your theory
And I believe you are misled
Does the world look that much different
From the other side of the bed?

I could be de Beauvoir to your Sartre
But is this jealousy innate?
Another nature versus nurture debate

I’m tired of settling for less
I’m tired of hearing I’m too young and you know best
I don’t wanna be a notch on your bedpost
No I will not be impressed by ladykillers

If you’re not above cheating
If you’re not above beating
Then I guess we’re not moving forward

I’m tired of settling for less
I’m tired of hearing I’m too young and you know best
I don’t wanna be a notch on your bedpost
No I will not be impressed by ladykillers


2. Enduring Freedom

I only just fell from the womb all wet and screaming
Now I'm supposed to be a functioning adult
Sometimes I wish that I could crawl back in there
I tell myself it can't be me that is at fault

But you and I, I think we make a good team
You know I'm crazy and you don't seem to mind
So as long as we are both enduring freedom
If I can choose, then I choose you every time

You are the closest thing I have to a home
I need to tell someone the truth
Or suffer epic failure of the heart
This is no science and there is no law or formula
To tell you how to feel, but I think you should know
I'm asking you not to go

I'm not ready to accept that life is not fair
And I'll spend my whole life trying to make it change
Just being here so utterly unlikely
Terrifying, beautiful and strange

But you and I, I think we make a good team
You know I'm crazy and you don't seem to mind
So as long as we are both enduring freedom
If I can choose, then I choose you every time

You are the closest thing I have to a home
I need to tell someone the truth
Or suffer epic failure of the heart
This is no science and there is no law or formula
To tell you how to feel, but I think you should know
I'm asking you not to go

I need to tell someone the truth
Or suffer epic failure of the heart
This is no science and there is no law or formula
To tell you how to feel, but I think you should know
I'm asking you not to go


3. Baggage

Say a prayer for us, Thatcher’s children all are we
Do not ask for whom the bell tolls – it tolls for thee
And it seems we are stuck together like Karl and Susan Kennedy
And I think I like it that way

Staring at the jobs page, eeking out your overdraft
It’s the days you spend suspended in your thoughts that seem to last
And all I need’s a place to sit until the nightmares have all passed
Will I be lucky this time?

I need a fix, a new direction or a holiday from my
Fair-weather friends and all my baggage
I need a fix, a new direction or a holiday from my
Fair-weather friends and all my baggage

When seeking life experience, we don’t mind ridicule
So we drink until the morning then decide on who to pull
But when the glasses are all empty and the ashtrays are all full
We are still stuck with ourselves

I need a fix, a new direction or a holiday from my
Fair-weather friends and all my baggage
I need a fix, a new direction or a holiday from my
Fair-weather friends and all my baggage


4. Whole Crazy Thing

We watched the sky too long, it snowed again
In the town where we grew up and old, despondent, decayed and greyed before we were adults
Somewhere we read that outside of anomie
A sun might rise that didn’t burn and poison every last crying human impulse

And the whole crazy thing was not a play that we staged
But a war that we waged upon the world
And the whole crazy thing was not a play that we staged
But a war that we waged upon the world

No one knew we were exchanging paperbacks
Each one a manifesto, a future and salvation for our crazed, distracted minds
Piecing together a life that imitates art
To be untethered, to be clean, to be anything, anything but blind

And the whole crazy thing was not a play that we staged
But a war that we waged upon the world
And the whole crazy thing was not a play that we staged
But a war that we waged upon the world

And the whole crazy thing was not a play that we staged
But a war that we waged upon the world
And the whole crazy thing was not a play that we staged
But a war that we waged upon the world


5. Tigerstrikes

I’m always the DJ and never the bride
You said you would change that, it turns out you lied
And now I kick myself for being so naïve
I don’t need a saviour, I need your respect
Your selfish behaviour is making me wretch
Is it you or me you’re hoping to deceive?

Please don’t explain to me the way the world works
I don’t remember signing up for your class

I don’t dream of white dresses
I've greater successes
Here on in you won’t catch me looking back
You’re a habit I’m kicking
A game that I’m quitting
You mistook me for a pussycat
So watch out for when the tiger strikes

You talked to me like I was weaker than you
I began to believe I was nobody too
But maybe I could have a speaking part in this scene
I’ve come here to tell you it’s time to let go
I still love you more than you will ever know
But what does that say about what I think of me?

Please don’t explain to me my motivations
I knew me long before I first met you

I don’t dream of white dresses
I've greater successes
Here on in you won’t catch me looking back
You’re a habit I’m kicking
A game that I’m quitting
You mistook me for a pussycat
So watch out for when the tiger strikes

How I feel about me
Won’t depend on
How you feel about me

I don’t dream of white dresses
I've greater successes
Here on in you won’t catch me looking back
You’re a habit I’m kicking
A game that I’m quitting
You mistook me for a pussycat
So watch out for when the tiger strikes


6. These Machines

Back to work, you’ve got corporate mouths to feed
They make their living from you buying things you don’t need
We all long for a lifestyle we can’t afford
But getting drugs off the streets will just leave us bored

While you were worried about immigration
We came, saw, conquered, called it liberation
We’ll send them our carpet bombs for free
The public purse says this is the year to be thrifty
But the writing on the wall says “make property history”
Where next for the monkeys that crawled out of the sea?

These machines are self aware
These machines are self aware

I thought I was left wing, turns out it’s low self-esteem
Don’t wanna screw people over out of selfish greed
Always trying so hard just to do things right
But do we fight for a cause or find cause for a fight?

While you were worried about immigration
We came, saw, conquered, called it liberalisation
We’ll send them our carpet bombs for free
The public purse says this is the year to be thrifty
But the writing on the wall says “make property history”
Where next for the monkeys that crawled out of the sea?

These machines are self aware
These machines are self aware


7. Plans and Friends and Records

On a fault-line in your soul
I built my castle made of sand
Its flag was deepest red
And it became my holy land
As if believing in it might just
Make it truer

But parading through your rain
I learned a lot about the politics
Of love and loneliness
How every now and then
The impossible happens
And when I said I had no protection
That wasn’t what I meant

Off into the sunset
We’d have gone without much fuss
But the buses don’t turn up here
And we just don’t have the guts
I guess your letters got lost
In the post or something, love

But finally I can say
That I don’t care about your whereabouts
Or who you’re screwing now
I’m happy making plans and
Friends and records and
I learned misanthropy is boring
And perfect honesty is beautiful

So I take thee (insert name here)
To be my husband or wife
To have and to hurt
For the rest of my life
To love and to cherish
For better or for worse
For richer to get poorer
In a court of divorce
In sickness, but not too much sickness
And in health
I shall stay faithful until I fall
For somebody else

And I’ve taken bruises
And thinly veiled excuses
But next time I’ll break
This pattern of mistakes
No I am not yet through
I think it’s time you knew
That the ice age is not coming
This is not the dying of the light


8. No Man is an Island

Goodbye, good luck and I’ll see you in the next life
It’s been fun, and I’m sorry, and you take care
I know the world’s on its 99th second chance now
But I hope you can get what you want and you can keep it there

And when you hit 25 and say “I’ve done it all now”
I hope you don’t feel you did it all wrong
And when you finally ask for someone to help you
I hope the waiting list isn’t too long

(No more rainstorms, no rules)
I still believe that no man is an island
And when have I ever let you down?

I hope that sometimes you laugh and love doesn’t elude you
And when it leaves, I hope its memory helps you carry on
And when you settle for someone who’s not what you advertised for
I hope it’s not hard to pretend this is what you want

(No more rainstorms, no rules)
I still believe that no man is an island
And when have I ever let you down?

No more rainstorms
No rules
No rules


9. Same Ghost Every Night

You’ve seen the thought that makes me cry
Keeps me awake in the dead of night
You're the password, you’re the answer
You were in my nightmares as a child

But I’m haunted by the same ghost every night
And you’re haunted by the same ghost every night
I’m haunted by the same ghost every night
And you’re haunted by the same ghost every night

A road becomes a runway in the dark
Just take us anywhere, take us right back to the start
It’s the exit, it’s the ending
It’s the one thing you’ll always find hard

But I’m haunted by the same ghost every night
And you’re haunted by the same ghost every night
I’m haunted by the same ghost every night
And you’re haunted by the same ghost every night

This is the last chance, we fly tonight
But I’m haunted by the same ghost every night
The engine is failing, we’re losing height
And you’re haunted by the same ghost every night
It’s the end of your end of my world tonight
And one day all this will all be alright
But I’m haunted by the same ghost every night
And you’re haunted by the same ghost every night


10. Some Kind of Badly Planned Recovery

Four AM waking, I lie and wait for daylight
I think of my ex-lovers, sleeping in their beds
I’m reminded of the days when I'd never sleep at all
Until my memory, like a record, starts to skip

Books lay across my carpet, like islands in an atlas
Each page was turned with wonder or dismay
Tests of our endurance, the troubles we were born with
Are our travelling companions for the ride

But the horse that jumps the fence and runs for freedom never looks back once he’s gone
And if I look over my shoulder now, I’ll only see things better left in eras lost or loved and left behind
Feel the weight of telling everyone “goodbye”

Counting on my fingers the things that I’ve accomplished
Like some kind of badly planned recovery
You’ll only get disheartened, waiting for approval
You’ve got to keep on trying anyway

But the girl with the prosthetic heart could make the boys sigh like I never could
And please do not mistake my dedication for some kind of talent that I've never found but longed for all my life
A twist of fate I’m sure you’ll come to recognise

I think I’ve really done it this time
I think I’ve really done it for the final time
I think I’ve really done it this time
I think I’ve really done it for the final time

So I step out of the car and say goodnight and then I watch you drive away
But what I really want to say is, “This is not me, I am different. I swear I’m not the wreck you’ve seen today.”
And if you find you’re always running then I guess that that’s okay as long as you run fast enough that they can’t catch you
As long as you run fast enough to get away


11. Take it Down

Work all week just for peace on the weekend
Then do it all again
It’s no way to live, my friend

And we’ve been reading up on the next stage
But when you close the page
You still have to earn your wage

A cog in a machine, a target market
So raise your glasses to liberté
Egalité, fraternité, I am the millionth customer
And I’m waiting for my prize
This system lies, let’s take it down now

And I have felt this way since I was seventeen
Sitting on the college green
Wondering what these stories mean

Why do we share these thoughts with our therapists?
How is it we still exist?
They cannot answer this

A cog in a machine, a target market
So raise your glasses to liberté
Egalité, fraternité, I am the millionth customer
And I’m waiting for my prize
This system lies, let’s take it down now

A cog in a machine, a target market
So raise your glasses to liberté
Egalité, fraternité, we are the million customers
And we’re waiting for our prize
This system lies, let’s take it down now