[instrumental]

You cross the schoolyard with your head held down
And walk the streets under the breaking cloud
With a hundred futures cascading out
It's complicated

You think of love as just a memory
A fog that smothers you, it's hard to breathe
But when you're on your own, that's when you're free
You're 3 years older and you'll always be now

I can feel you more than you really know
I will love you more than I'll ever show

There was a time when someone seemed to care
A tourist in your bed, you left him there
And found a simple life with no one to share
It's not complicated

You make a list of all your big regrets
And share with people that you've never met
You slowly move towards the medicine chest
You're 3 years older and you'll always be now

I can feel you more than you really know
I will love you more than I'll ever show
You only have to say
And the world will slip away from you

Shame on you for getting older every day
This place is not for you so why do you still stay?
You're standing with the other fuckers in the rain
Life is not some sinecure for you to claim
You have to pay

I can feel you more than you really know
I will love you more than I'll ever show
You only have to say
And the world will slip away from you...

Together we have this love
Even so it's not enough
Bruised and burned
We won't loose heart
Just because
Life gets hard

Writing lying emails to our friends back home
Feeling guilty if we sometimes wanna be alone

Hand cannot erase this love
A love like this makes us strong
We laugh it off when things go wrong

It's not you, forgive me if I find I need more space
Cos trust means we don't have to be together every day

Hand Cannot Erase this love

When I was 13 I had a sister for 6 months.
She arrived one February morning, pale and shellshocked, from past lives I could not imagine
She was 3 years older than me, but in no time we became friends.

We'd listen to her mix tapes; Dead Can Dance, Felt, This Mortal Coil...

She introduced me to her favourite books, gave me clothes, and my first cigarette.

Sometimes we would head down to Blackbirds moor to watch the barges on Grand Union in the twilight.

She said "The water has no memory".

For a few months everything about our lives was perfect.

It was only us, we were inseparable.

But gradually she passed into another distant part of my memory.

Until I could no longer remember her face, her voice, even her name.

We have got, we have got the perfect life.

What do I do with all the children's clothes?
Such tiny things that still smell of them
And the footprints in the hall
On to my knees, scrub them away

And how to be of use?
Make the tea and the soup
All of their favourites, throw them away
And all their school books and their running shoes
Washing them clean in the dirty steel sink

Routine keeps me in line
Helps me pass the time
Concentrates my mind
Helps me to sleep

Keep making beds, keep the cat fed
Open the windows, let the air in
Keep the house clean, keep the routine
Paintings they made still stuck to the fridge

Keep cleaning, keep ironing
Cooking their meals on the stainless steel hob
Keep washing, keep scrubbing
Long until the dark comes to bruise the sky
Deep in the debt to night

The most beautiful morning forever
Like the ones from far off, far off away
With the hum of the bees in the jasmine sway
Don't even let go
Try to let go
Don't ever let go
Try to let go
Don't ever

Download sex and download god
Download the funds to meet the cost
Download a dream home and a wife
Download the ocean and the sky

Another day on earth has passed me by
But I have lost all faith in what's outside
The awning of the stars across the sky
And the wreckage of the night

Download love and download war
Download the shit you didn't want
Download the things that make you mad
Download the life you wish you had

[instrumental]

Cut through the country, speed through the dark
A child in a train, tristessa departs
It's only the start

Filigree circles round her young wrist
Her mother is frowning at something she missed
She fixes her hair

At the failing of the day she heard her father always say
"Remember, it's only the start"

When she drifted off to sleep she had the whole world at her feet
Because it's only the start

Before they fell away it seemed to matter all the same
But it was only the start
It's only the start

Reason never seems to come to guilty men
Things that meant so much mean nothing in the end
Their function is disfunction and to hide the truth
Distracted by their faith, ignoring every proof

A bicycle
A garden wall
A mother's call
A love is born
And after all the sleep that falls on me

And in the city there are those that live alone
Twilight brings them from the gloom into our homes
And hiding there among the wreckage left behind
They see things that haunt them when they close their eyes

Come back if you want to
And remember who you were
But there's nothing here for you my dear
And everything must pass

When the world doesn't want you
It will never tell you why
You can shut the door but you can't ignore
The crawl of your decline

(Come child)
Come back if you want to
Come back if you want to
Come back

A bicycle
A garden wall
A mother's call
A love is born
And after all the sleep that falls on me

Hey Brother
Happy returns, it's been a while now
I bet you thought that I was dead
But I'm still here, nothing's changed

Hey brother, I'd love to tell you I've been busy
But that would be a lie
Cos the truth is the years just pass like trains
I wave but they don't slow down

Hey brother, I see the freaks and dispossessed on day release avoiding the police
I feel I'm falling once again
But now there's no one left to catch me

Hey brother, I feel I'm living in parentheses and I got trouble with the bills
Do the kids remember me?
Well I got gifts for them
And for you and sorrow
But I'm feeling kind of drowsy now
So I'll finish this tomorrow...

[instrumental]