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Arm's Way

by Islands

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1.
The Arm 05:38
Breathe in deep, I want you to That’s why the arm came for you Help you up, help you out, To help you through That’s why the arm came for you You faded into a different shade A completely different hue Of a kind of blue Like a lifeless carcass in a bad-ass car crash Hopefully you’ll wake up soon, hopefully y ou do I want you to That’s why the arm came for you That’s why the arm came for you That’s why the arm came for you Now you see how it feels To live like a bee Always searching for what’s honey The veins made some stains When they burst from your legs Your anxiety is a tapestry Well you swim until it’s deep Until you feel like you’re asleep Against the sound of warning cries you don’t hear Like you aren’t here Like a lifeless carcass in a bad-ass car crash Hopefully you’ll wake up soon, hopefully you do I want you to That’s why the arm came for you That’s why the arm came for you That’s why the arm came for you Don’t go to sleep Who wants you to? That’s why the arm came for you Meaning do Even if it’s pointless to Let your arms carry you You’re mine, you’re mine You’ll always be mine & lord knows I tried to keep you from leaving Goodbye You’re mine, you’re mine Is that why I lied When I told you you were breathing? Baby I tried Goodbye
2.
the capillaries of the community are hemorrhaging on everything they found your bones in the homes of a thousand little gnomes who'd taken pieces for decoration they’d opened up their mouths, seemed like peaceful little mouths inside they found a mouthful of pieces they wanted pieces of you somebody died here, I hear it was you they loved the attention they got from killing you the capillaries of the community are hemorrhaging on everything they put their fingers in your sockets if you could hear the way they talk it's madness and what they got out of your pockets a couple coins, and a key for locking its sadness in your face but they wanted pieces of you pieces of you made from pieces of you pieces of you little birds collapse in your arms break it into two beat a man to death with their hands did they regret anything? it's cold cold world we swam into it's cold cold water we sank into
3.
you said you had my back but i was attacked by a pack of dogs frothing at the mouth stabbed in the face glass in my guts crash! passed in the passenger's side you were drunk and falling, falling, falling down falling, falling, falling, falling down j'aime j'aime j'aime, partez vous? such a shame shame shame, shame on you j'aime j'aime j'aime, partez vous? but can i blame blame blame blame you? you cut your feet on the glass in the grass shards got stuck in the past when the footprints you left didn't last i threw you a bone but you bit one of my own i'm still gonna do it without it it's appalling, appalling how short your hair can go when it was good, you let it grow i know there's a problem when you gave up you were gone j'aime j'aime j'aime, partez vous? such a shame shame shame, shame on you j'aime j'aime j'aime, partez vous? but can i blame blame blame blame you? you said you had my back but i was attacked by a pack of dogs frothing at the mouth stabbed in the face glass in my guts crash! passed in the passenger's side, you were drunk
4.
rack of lamb of god we serve you instead on a bed that's sweet to sleep forever in outer space track sasquatches through the snowy climes of canada are you an upright bear? are you even there? do you exist? try like hell explode or renew on the carousel things don't change love everyone as long as everyone's to blame space space space is the place and the sun is fun fun fun severed body won't run so take your sweet time frozen head's up in outer space in a box will it crash back to earth or be brought back with moon rocks? i think i spotted a yeti yet i didn't die i'm not sure was it fur or was it a lie? they're coming home but my, how the tundra has grown since you've been gone everyone's gone bye bye bye bye bye bye rack of lamb of god we serve you instead on a bed that's sweet to sleep forever in outer space track sasquatches through the snowy climes of canada are you an upright bear? are you even there? do you exist?
5.
Creeper 03:14
Right from the start I was stabbed in the heart Didn’t know I wasn’t breathing, didn’t know I had been bleeding Opened the door, but I was not alone Someone was hiding in a dark room in my home Hum it, you will remember some of it Solve it and you will remember all of it Creeper in my home, crawled into the window I grabbed a kitchen knife, couldn’t stick it in though Creeper had his own, shining in the moonlight My room was very cold and something didn’t feel right Right from the start I was stabbed in the heart Didn’t know I wasn’t breathing, didn’t know I had been bleeding Opened the door, but I was not alone Someone was hiding in the dark room in my home Right from the start I was stabbed in the heart Didn’t know I wasn’t breathing, didn’t know I had been bleeding Opened the door, but I was not alone Someone was hiding in the dark room in my home Right from the start I was stabbed in the heart Didn’t know I wasn’t breathing, didn’t know I had been bleeding Opened the door, but I was not alone Someone was hiding in the dark room in my home
6.
lungs love holes escaping words you know smoke gets in your eyes still blowing in the wind and we can't beat this cancer, can we? answer me kids don't know shit everything they've learned is wrong boys in the neighbourhood are fit, 'cause they fight all night long kids don't know it, but everything they've touched is gone 'cause no one understands, you can't stand under something that's all wrong when you're facing the day when you're wasting away & you get lighter than your brain & it grows tighter everyday love's lungs hold air to blow a hole cold chest grows, fills up with smoke at least your head is warm still forming ways to warm the baby's bed 'cause kids don't know shit everything they've learned is wrong the girls on the block are listening in, they sing "let's get strong" kids don't know it, but everything they've got is gone we used it for some fuel and food then the rats took it from us and made a bomb words love holes getting lost in lies we know still believing branches weaving forests leaving helps them grow kids don't know shit everything we learned was wrong deep down we knew it, we always knew it all along nebulor splendor, i'll remember those constellations forever a cursory person turns to me and says "well, you won't live forever"
7.
Life In Jail 05:26
you sure you want to spend your life in jail? how you gonna spend your life in jail? i was on my way first break the skin, next open the wound now force your fingers in, then here's what you do: climb inside the vein and have some heart you said "i want to spend my life in jail" why do you want to spend your life in jail? "i've lost my way" "pour concrete on me delicately, baby so I can live my sedimental life sedentarily", what a life "i could just sit here for hours and watch TV", worthlessly so that's why you choose to spend your life in jail who would choose to spend their life in jail? you've lost your way "blow my money on my favourite company they can blow holes in my ozone so pour that propane on my clothes i like it when my skin glows besides there's nothing to live for" unless you live a little more like you're going to die so what the fuck are you going to do? they robbed your life from you tell them you want to get it back if you do, i've got your back yes it's something worth defending so throw caution to the wind and other platitudes that were written just for you take a shit in their swimming pool let them chase you if you do finally something is happening to you put an axe through the TV blow up your radio, though you can't see them now you'll hear birds singing in your soul sneak your way past the gates in a little hard heart shape if you're gonna be a shark you better learn to stay awake why you wanna spend your life in jail?
8.
barefoot, passing through i knelt down to get a better view of what grew there well what grew there? scared, heard a terrible sound lay down played dead that's when i heard it clearer in the rushes a voice said: you could walk around forever and never notice me a little closer in the rushes hiding down among the reeds a seed i swallowed it digested quick but not enough to not make me sick, i lost it it tasted like a light going off inside my mind then suddenly i was out of harm's way forgetting the desire to remember trance tourist vanished finished damaged playback i felt myself unraveling at a racetrack i felt myself unraveling at a racetrack then i coughed up blood scraped it off my tongue sucked it off my thumb but it was rotten care, to care i knelt down but you weren't there anymore i was pushed into a bush in the rushes on the screen it was all acting can't believe it believe that i had seen it remembered who was in my arms remembered when i had arms it's like a dream the way that it unfolded like i'd been in the rushes without knowing i kissed it but i must admit I missed it now i do forget like i'd been in the rushes without knowing you've been forgotten you've been forgotten you are forgotten it's been forgotten you're all forgotten
9.
We Swim 05:06
same river we swim like some sliver in skin now we're in the river again but it's moving and it feels so cold maybe you will catch it, still in the same river we swam in more different than the same river we swam in again breathing spores longing for my lungs to be filled with your fungus no more i cried as my cells divided the feeling multiplies over time and a boy sees me strumming this simple song and the boy comes close he brings his sister along the ecstatic unburdened youth, they're never wrong and the boy starts singing along after all, a voice, it's just a light all the time in front of you facing faces placing places changing every time you do set off by soundless voices singing rounded noises singing au revoir forever the same river we swam in was more different than the same river we swam in again because it's moving and it feels so cold maybe you will catch it, still
10.
To A Bond 07:47
to a bond underneath a bridge between two trees both blowing leaves into that great ravine you came swimming with me i like how you swim you do it with ease then an oar came down struck the water bad luck struck us down bruised, removed you brought you to shore before they came for you then i watched you disappear dripping bloodstained footsteps smear don't let the bleeding stop it's everything you've got in a body undergoing night surgery, enemy wants to cut into me i escaped in the nick of time, centipede floats by on a leaf i like how it floats it does it with ease saw you on the ledge talked you down talked your ear off, then we walked around 'til you had to leave to catch a train at 10 gone around the bend but bound like chinese feet don't go unravelling travelling into the blue returned to look for you couldn't say goodbye the porchlight in my heart had gone out in the dark like flies had gone out in the dark like flies gone out in the dark
11.
in the back of my mind i want to do bad things i want to be unkind when i'm in my room i love the shadows of my bad bones i have thoughts i won't share because i don't think i could bear to face you with the lights on i feel evil creeping in my blood is dirty and i like it i like it that way i could see the whole city when i pushed you out of my fucking way i left the sun on your skin so when i wore it it would fit me in the corner of my room when the ceiling's feeling thin i feel evil creeping in i feel evil creeping in a beacon landed on the shoulders with a beak to regurgitate good words i told her bird is the word little nettle stinging numbing poison seeping in humming "lost the feeling of the vessel sinking" like sleeping in the s.o.s. was lost on me my crew were swimming in a turgid sea it was me it was me who committed the felony i love the blame take my hands i'll take suffering i feel evil creeping in when i behave nobody cares when i behave badly nobody dare cross me i feel evil creeping in
12.
big boat caught in my throat it's the deck hand hitting the wrong notes came to with a pain in my gut again i cut it open wide, took out a box inside the box there was a beat keeping time is it a crime to pass the blame if every time the punishment is the same? life is a loose tooth leaving your mouth so get it out get it out dig that ditch ditch that dirt it's just a body now pick me up so i can fall back down again descending into vertigo if it's a crime they'll hang me every time i tried to offer up a reason why i tried, my dear, to set things straight i fear that i was too late to be cleared of the crime i just missed a slap on the wrist, a key witness to the stand but the jury's out creeping about & i am a guilty man and the cyst is growing into this so i drowned in the boat i choked down and the captain remained proud looked down, seeing the ground getting closer to me and now the ground is coming up my sleeves pick me up so i can fall back down again descending into vertigo if it's a crime they'll hang me every time i tried to offer up a reason why i tried, my dear, to set things straight i fear that i was too late to be cleared of the crime if it's a crime, they'll hang me every time i tried to set things straight i fear that i was too late to be cleared of the crime

credits

released May 20, 2008

Patrice Agbokou, bass
Alex Chow, violin, viola, synth, percussion Sebastian Chow, violin, piano, oboe, vocals Patrick Gregoire, guitar, bass clarinet Aaron Harris, drums, percussion, vocals Nick Thorburn, vocals, guitar
Produced by Ryan Hadlock and Islands
Engineered by Ryan Hadlock.
Assistant Engineering by Mathieu Roberge Mixed by Rob Schnapf and Doug Boehm Mix Engineer Assistant, Chris Constable Mastered by Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone Songs written by Nick Thorburn Music arranged by Islands drum programming on track 5 by Corn Gangg
Recorded at Mixart in Montreal & Bear Creek in Woodinville, April & May,
2007
Mixed at Sonora in LA, September & October 2007 Mastered at Sterling Sound in New York, December 2007
Artwork by Rebecca Bird
Photography by Alexander Wagner
Layout and Title Design by Philip Laslett
special thanks to Jamie Thompson, Jim Guthrie and Katie Perkins for their contributions to the arrangements that appear on Arm's Way.
thanks to:
Kev Moo, Geoff Travis, Dan Symons and all at Rough Trade/Beggars Banquet UK, Andy Kaulkin, Brett Gurewitz, Matt McGreevey and everyone at Anti-/Epitaph Records, Asif Ahmed, Richard Grabel, our families, Manny Hadlock, Richard Baron, Jo & Ed, Franz & Steve, Patti & Dan, Aaron Curnow at Spunk!, Christian at Kork, Colin and Jen at Agency Group, Michelle & Brian, Sinbad, Nick Petrowski.

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