Kevin Devine - Make The Clocks Move CD/LP

DEFIANCE RECORDS LIX (59)

LYRICS:

1. Ballgame - A good man doesn’t drink And I’ve been drinking alone So what does that make me? My hands they always shake And no one’s calling my phone So what does that make me? And I know the kid with his guitar So drunk and anxious Has been done to death So tell me what hasn’t I’ll try it Because I’m selfish enough to wanna get better But I’m backwards enough not to take any steps to get there And when you realize it’s a pattern And not a phase It’s what you’ve become and it’s what you will stay That’s ballgame ‘Cause I don’t got room in my life for anyone else And I’ve driven away all the people that could help And I still don’t even know what I need to do to fix myself There’s a clamp around my chest That tightens every time I lapse into Another sorry story About my miserable collapse A bronze box I keep encased in glass And dust off whenever I want pity Because I’ve had to come to grips with scope and figure How my problems stack up in a world this close to ruin (Or maybe it’s rapture) Well, either way, I realize that my shit’s about as small as it could be But that makes me feel worse for even feeling this bad in the first place ‘Cause there’s a war starting soon, and all the flags’ll be waving And Daniel’s 20-year-old friend will be ready, and willing, and waiting He’s a Marine and he told me And that makes me sad Really, really fucking sad But at least he’ll act I’ll just bite my tongue and then tell Daniel to wish him luck And pray that he comes back For his mother’s sake, and then I’ll drink those thoughts away I’ve gotten good at that And when you realize it’s a pattern And not a phase It’s what you’ve become and it’s what you will stay That’s ballgame

2. Wolf’s Mouth - I got a wolf’s mouth And it suits me I chew the sides out With my sharp teeth I cut my tongue up I make my gums bleed I scare the people That pay to see me When I sing And I saw a white steam Above your blue face It makes my hands hot It makes my lips bake And the sweat just makes my shirt stick To that scratch across my ribs That space where you fell from And I haven’t sewn up since I’m trailing off again And the strain just makes my face tic And it messes with my head That space you tore open Well, I’ve had trouble closing it

3. Noose Dressed Like a Necklace - A Cadillac drives down my street A bead of sweat pouring slow down a palm line I see a bumper sticker: a bearded man with a wanted sign A myth we’ve made to scare our fears away A slogan that we slap on all our misdirected hate A muddy symbol meant to mitigate our pain But it’s really just a desert corpse we painted on a wall out in some cave Anyway, I don’t know where he’s gonna park that thing My neighborhood drunk’s on line at the deli With his shaky hands and his swollen face he waits for his coffee He blacks out curbside every night, then every day crawls back towards Wall Street So I don’t see it likes it’s “us” and “them” I just see everybody working for that same eternal weekend Droning on and on and on and never doing what we’ve wanted Heavy legs, two steps behind some forever-dangling carrot And I’m tired of it Well, who’s to say that we can’t just fucking change it? I know it seems dramatic but I treat it like a crisis From the office to the coffin, all our time and talent wasted And that weight against your throat, is that a noose dressed like a necklace? ‘Cause from here, I couldn’t really tell the difference Either way, I say let’s not take any chances

4. Not Over You Yet - You were always cute But goddamn! you got hot Hot enough to streak the streets white with sunspots when you walk And I’m still obsessed with cowboys and Indians And you bitin’ your lip when you lose your breath I’m not over you yet I know I will not call It’s this decision I’ve made So I’m up all night chanting, “Vow I can’t break” I might bite my nails so I can’t scratch my face But I’d still cut my hair if you asked the right way I’d at least comb it anyway You’re still on my towels In my eyerolls and scowls And I know what I did, and why But that don’t mean I can’t regret it When I’m watching my TV all night

5. A Flatline Blur - My friends are working on avoiding me So when we meet I keep my mouth real busy Talk out my nervous energy It never works I throw darts at the wall and get sloppy But it’s alright now If I seem surprised, it’s just a joke I’m trying out But if it floats, I guess I’ll keep it around A woman gestures lazily Through the hoods on my eyes I see her shaking her jewelry It casts a perfect light on me I feel moved and that’s strange But lately, I’ve been acting really strangely So it’s alright now I’m keeping distracted to blunt my reactions And anyhow You think less when there’s less for you to think about A paralyzed puppet sits stiff in the window Grinding his teeth and playing piano All his songs bleed together in a flatline blur A broken litany of worthless words Creating space while your drinks get served I know it gets on your nerves Just try to pretend like it’s not work A little denial never hurts

6. Whistling Dixie - We’re a nation full of dumbbells Pulling nightshifts at the gym We’re a nation full of bookworm girls Dumbing down to fall in love with them We’re a nation full of suspects Whistling Dixie at the scene We’re a nation full of bad detectives Selling clues to everyone we meet We’re a nation full of envy Insecure and losing sleep We’re a nation full of jealous boyfriends Driven nuts by facts and history We’re a nation full of ivy It’s wall-to-wall-to-wall, all green We’re a nation full of sound byte blood cells Bound in knots and swelling down the stream We wrap bibles up in blankets Just in case we’re watched in sleep But it’s the slingshots underneath our pillows That keep us calm and rested and relieved ‘Cause we’re a nation built on eggshells Bandages and appleseeds Attractive homes on top bruised foundations That come apart gradually Before they’re leveled completely

7. People Are So Fickle - Oh baby, baby please I feel an urgent need to apologize I did a terrible thing in a terrible dream And now I can’t look you in the eye It started: We were out a date And you turned to say, “I gotta tell you something odd I know I said we’d get married But I’m already married” And that’s when you laughed so hard So I turned and swung Woke up in a shock Nails digging blood from the base of my palms Because people are so fickle They fall in love at different angles So really I could lose you just as quickly as I’ve gotten you And that’s the kind of thought that makes me nervous And worried if you’ll really think I’m worth it When the rush wears off and you’re left with this busted person But if you tell me you will I will do what I can to believe it So baby all the things that I’ve seen Last night while asleep This morning, they’re messing with me And now I’m anxious as hell And looking for help Something pleasant and painless Some story to tell With a throughline of calm That could stop me from being myself ‘Cause all I think is how I wanna be your fever Just to know I make you heated ‘Cause I worry you might see me more like a blanket Who’s there for comfort and for cover From the glare of former lovers All that passion that kissed you and bit you ‘til you were devoured And I’d like to get better ‘cause thinking like this is torture And if I can’t stop it you’ll get sick of bearing crosses And you’ll jump to cut your losses You’ll go get quarantined somewhere far from me Where it’s much less dangerous But maybe if I wake up and quit dreaming I can shake the shit I’m fearing And I can realize I’m just freaking out for no good reason I’ll tell you what: If that’s a line I can cross, once I get there, I’m not ever leaving

8. Marie - Marie, you got me thinkin’ Long term and being careful with my drinkin’ And looking forward to my holidays and weekends Marie, I love the way you got me thinkin’ But Marie, I’m always workin’ Long drives, bad food, stale air, and such boredom When I get home, we’ll take a trip or just sit and do nothing Rent a movie or something Whatever gets your blood pumpin’ My Marie You’re all the pretty music that I need So lay down on that couch and sing for me

9. Country Sky Glow - You carry the beach in your way-too-short hair That you shaved off last week cause you freaked and got scared That when it’s longer, you remind me her So you offered it up with what passed for authority Some strict sort of challenge you directed straight at me You said, “Forget her, I don’t care what you two were” But it’s a trick on your ego A two-step off tempo A solid gold bracelet Under lights, in a window In some shopping mall where I never go You play coy and count tiles, drag your toes through the water Raise your eyes, bite your lip, and my mind’s in the gutter You move at me and take my face in your hands I feel light bulbs explode in a fire-cracked thunder Sense the slow seismic shift of the sprawling cloud cover But when we’re finished I feel awful again So it's the same sorry story Just the cast changes nightly And it skips like a record but it glows like a movie Or the country sky that I never see The shake in your voice makes me feel empty and ugly All scattered anger like a windstorm, howling violently And I wanna fade out and wake up somewhere else Where no face is familiar and I’m left by myself To keep plugging away on my own wasted time To eat badly and spend all my money and write To not feel too guilty to be tired at night Since I’m not fixing things here, I’ll leave them behind So you make your decision I’m through making mine Now I walk where the street swallows light like it’s water I see the slant of your smirk on every kid at the corner But if you called, I’d never know what to say So I just hope you never will Things are easier that way

10. The Longer That I’m Out Here - The longer that I’m out here the better you sound You’re scrunching up your face in this picture I found And I’m chasing after you, steadily losing ground I don’t wanna forget so I’m writing it down Have you ever? No, never never? I find that hard to believe So let’s burn the furniture To see how angry a fire could make me Now you say that there’s someone that you need to reconnect with Some scarecrow from high school that you loved but never slept with A baby with a pipe dream playing hopscotch on your bandages And I’m singing all his songs while I sleep on your couch I’m coughing up a lung but I’m covering my mouth And I paint you on the wall Yellow, red, green and brown I miss you all the time but I’m blocking it out Are you better? No, never never? What does that say about me? Now let’s break the smoke alarm To see how scared locked windows’ll make me So you say there’s a stranger staring sideways in a deep freeze A loner draped in ivy playing slumlord in his city dream A faker with an art form pulling magic tricks on the weak girls up his sleeve And I’m choking right along with the words in my throat I’m falling back in love with the letter you wrote And I think that I was wrong, but I guess I don’t know I figure that I’ll wait until you tell me so

11. Tapdance - You get back here You do it slowly Do it calm, now Don’t be so angry I got something I’ve been chasing Every day since I started walking It just sits there In the distance It always flirts with the tips of my fingers You thought that You could love it Until it touched you And now you just wanna stop it Well I’m sorry It’s not likely It was here when you got here And it’ll be here when you're not here no more And then some days I get lucky I can focus and things are less shaky And I scrape you Off the pale moon And I slip you Into soft shoes And you tapdance To a jazz band On a cruise ship Near an island And your hair’s up You wear a short dress And a wide smile Your movements are careless It’s a daydream I keep having To make the clocks move While I’m working Or a bad joke I can’t sit through And I smile because I feel like I have to But if you’d look under the table You’d see I’m playing with my knife I’m slicing stripes into my kneecaps And I’m struggling just to come off polite We could be a snapshot framed and hung like a portrait What if that’s true and I’m the only one who knows it?

12. You’re My Incentive - Your bearings are shot are your car don’t work like she used to Your friends don’t call and they don’t even bother with offering excuses Your TV is on, but it’s always on, so it’s useless Just the awful news and the sorry truth that we’re definitely sinking So I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you You’ll just hurt your chest and your face’ll turn bright blue This is how it’s gonna be, and there’s nothing that we can do And if you start believing that I’ll stop holding my breath too You’ve been praying for change but you ain’t seen a church since the 10th grade You cry at your job, don’t believe in your vote, and never celebrate your birthday So you set up a dinner to make you feel less desperate, and worthless But your dad gets drunk so your mom throws a fit while your man hits on the waitress So I wouldn’t waste my time if I were you You’ll just snap your spine and strip away your youth This is how it’s gonna be, and there’s nothing that we can do And if you start believing that I’ll stop wasting my time too Because you’re my incentive And if you go, I go too

13. Splitting Up Christmas - So what if it’s freezing, I’m awake and I’m happy The sun’s steepling its shards on my floor I drag my feet to the shower and I hear someone singing I keep the lights off while the water gets warm Now I knot up my tie and toss books in a schoolbag They keep my priorities straight So I can sleepwalk through work like an outpatient program I don’t buy but get through anyway And at some point I’ll call you and tell you I miss you And you are the point of my day And my face will get flushed and my throat will choke up When you tell me that you feel the same So I have been thinking of splitting up Christmas To see everyone I’d like to see And you’re first on that list You’re the lotto I hit You’re the star at the top of the tree And I have been feeling this good for a reason My friends and my family You all are my backbone You keep me balanced and settled And I’m in debt to you all endlessly So tonight I will call you and try to say “Thank you for being the sun on my face I know the world’s almost over but you make it seem better And I hope for you I do the same”

14. Thanks - I never knew things could be so slow I could wait so long Be so still and calm And get where I want, on your arm Thin streaks of tar spill off your right eye Where my fingers find Their way there every night we sleep side by side Your hands in mine When you get here, it’s so nice It’s just the part where you leave I don’t like Such a happy accident A note in your sneaker at 10 in the morning And all of my worry that you were offended And the catch in my breath when you weren’t It’s like I woke up and got handed
a present And I’m thanking you for it