1. |
What Took You
04:01
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What took you so long
What took you so long
What made up your mind
What's different this time
What took you so long
What took you so long
Since velvet April skies
Filled up your eyes
Only now can you see
What you wanted to see
Only now can you hear
What you needed to hear
Only now can you feel
All that you feel in this place
All that you feel on this day
What took you so long
What took you so long
The heart upon my sleeve
Was always yours to reprieve
What took you so long
What took you so long
In a life as short as this
And the struggle to resist
[Chorus]
How does this play
Now you're on your own
The vision never fades
But the time has gone
Holding on, I’m holding on
I’m holding on, I’m holding on to you
The promise half a life away
But the rays are still streaming through
[Chorus]
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2. |
Don't Speak For Me
03:32
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What might change if it came to it
That each with a voice could not betray it
What could change should we expose
The last of the emperor’s new clothes
I don’t want you to ask me for the truth
There’s more than meets the eye running through
There’s no black and white, and too much here to lose
So don’t speak for me I may not follow you
You measure the sugar to your own taste
Never contemplate each cup is just a waste
You try to control every shiver
Yet my thoughts are not yours to deliver
[CHORUS]
Duty bound, not empathy,
No common ground, not here for me
[CHORUS]
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3. |
Ebb And Flow
03:57
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Questions ebb and flow
But love is not the goal
It’s loneliness we seek
To distance in our sleep
No sense that we should start
But oceans never part
We’re lost inside the waves
That break inside the heart
It’s true I have no plan
But what love can withstand
The unforgiving blade
Of every promise made
Does there have to be a reason
No love falls out of season
Here’s where I should falter
But I need to have the answer
It’s too late to retrieve
The words that I let leave
In the letter to your lips
Through my fingertips
And so for just one day
The soul is not contained
The heart unravelling
The world is wide again
So the ebb and flow
The lonely undertow
Two seconds of the heart
Illuminate the dark
Tracing every line
With your eyes on mine
It's easy to forget
Nothing happened yet
Now you open up
You offer me your cup
The taste is lingering
The taste is lingering
Days and days roll by
The night left high and dry
I watch it all unfold
Because you're not here to hold
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4. |
Stars
03:36
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Rising to the sound
Of the sweetest bird
You turned to say
I cannot recall
What came before
Or what remains
Sometimes the stars collide
We're still falling on the other side
From dreamers on the hill
You took a second tongue
To a second life
Miles and miles apart
Yet your heart
Was not untied
Sometimes the stars collide
We're still falling on the other side
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5. |
The Bridge
03:49
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Is there no love lost between us
When we all begin as dreamers
Blind to the fault lines
Running through our lives
A spoken word separates us
Our souls are cast as strangers
And desire burns
With no disguise
Hear the voices cry
The waters reach too high and run too wide
I'm trying to keep a simple view
I wonder are they trying to build from the other side
Is there no end in sight for a generation
All waiting for a revelation
While the great divide
Still dominates the sky
And if you were to ask me will I stay
Could I take your hand and faith
I would answer
I don’t have the right
Hear the voices cry
The waters reach too high and run too wide
I'm trying to keep a simple view
I wonder are they trying to build from the other side
Here across the bridge
A bridge that I can only make in my mind
I'm trying to keep a simple view
I wonder are they trying to build from the other side
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6. |
Radio
03:50
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Please stay
For you know
I cannot escape
The endless tirade
From the voice in my head
That berates my soul
Will not let me rest
If you're lucky, maybe it's easy
But I stay low
Silent running past the dreams
I listen to the radio
I listen to the radio
I listen to the radio
The days fade away
But still there remains
No mark on the page
I'm chasing my tail
Finding nothing has changed
And I lose every faith
That I dare to entertain
The waves are out of phase
I look for an inflection
And the myriad of ways
To see your intention
If you're lucky, maybe it's easy
But I stay low
Silent running past the dreams
I listen to the radio
I listen to the radio
I listen to the radio
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7. |
Sold Out
02:35
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Are you holding out
For redemption
A way out of this
Your own exemption
You sold out
You gave in
Was there ever any doubt
You'd save your own skin
And you once knew
How you wanted to live
Now it seems that you have
Nothing left to give
Is there something that I miss
Is the game all there is
[chorus]
There was a time
You knew what to say
Now it seems you never had
Any cards to play
The carnival turned grey
In this cold light of day
[chorus]
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8. |
No Returning Angel
04:16
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Swimming in clear water pools
The noise of the falls and the moon shining down
On the backs of the horses
Cut through by the lovers' voices
She hungered for the answers
She turned over every stone
But for all that she uncovered
She still stood miles from home
Oh the demons never sleep
Oh you try to figure out what to keep
Oh but you need nothing save release
Fires still raging for the loss
Of a love cut so unkindly short
A life so unfairly taken
The souls torn apart
He told he'd seen her portrait
Still set out on a table
But she knew it could not be true
She never was the returning angel
[Chorus]
Who was more afraid of the truth
Who more enslaved to their heart
Who was more sorry to surrender
Who more resigned to the dark
Who was more in danger of falling
Who more certain to cry
Who was more sure to suffer
Who more afraid to die
[Chorus]
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9. |
Tomorrow
03:41
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Once it was that she would linger
Make excuses and exceptions
Just to spend some time
Can you tell me just how long
You would wait for that girl
If she were you, if you were me
Was a time there was only laughter
Hard to imagine what tomorrow would bring
Hard to imagine what tomorrow could bring
The rain has started again and its louder now
And it's getting harder
Now the night is closing in
Can you tell me is there something
You would say to that girl
If she were you, if you were me
Was a time there was only laughter
Hard to imagine what tomorrow would bring
Hard to imagine how tomorrow could sting
[Instr]
And all the reasons left unsaid
Your footsteps quicken
As you reach the gate
And you know you're just one step away
Just one breath away
And you hesitate
Was a time there was only laughter
Hard to imagine what tomorrow would bring
Hard to imagine what tomorrow could bring
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10. |
All Or Nothing
03:58
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You should know better
Than to sail so close to the sun
And you know well
Broken hearts cannot be undone
You could turn on your heels
Take the river, take the fields
All the same
The promise lies revealed
Is it a love that you can show
Is it a love that you must hide
Is it a love that you can run to
Is it a love you must divide
You can decide
With your embrace to sacrifice
You can invite, if they will hear your cries
Angels to advise
You can feel yourself slip
Under the water's skin
And the needle
Of the winter setting in
Is it a love that you can trust
Is it a love that still has hope
Is it a love that you can shelter
Is it enough to eclipse the cold
Is it a love you have neglected
Is it a love that has taken its toll
Is it a love you never expected
Are you running ahead on a vanishing road
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11. |
Touch
03:52
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I need your touch
To reach through the veil
That has fallen over me
I need your breath
To rush over my skin
To push against the void
This is not hope
This is not life
This is my trial
And you are my guide
I need your voice
To cut through the darkness
That has filled my eyes
I will not feel afraid
while that I know
You will not leave my side
This is not hope
This is not life
This is my trial
And you are my guide
Take up my hand
Take me outside
Into the cold air
The fathomless skies
There's a wide open space
And a slow rising sun
And I see your face
And then everyone
Oh, and I know, yes I know
You will carry me to the end
Paper thin escaping dreams
Are scattered to the wind
Oh, and I know, yes I know
I know that you'll always be near
Oh, and I breathe, and I breathe
And I breathe
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Oli Rees UK
Songwriter from South Oxfordshire. Latest album 'Elusive Truth', recorded at Henwood Studios, and released on March 25th 2022.
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