"Girl With Green Eyes"

Keep us from the threshold of going insane
It’s a constant threat followed by the rain
A vision of modesty seeks a stranger to many themes
My wooden heart waits
Strike up the match and we’ll test our fate

But then it all goes wrong in a land of illusions
We don’t act with mechanical parts
Or share romantic truths with our old enemies
For every bludgeoning force, there’s a negative response
For every hind sight heard, there’s another wishing you’d never learnt
Under glorius blue sky a girl with green eyes saved my life

So we’ll leave here
And take the train to nowhere, nowhere again
Cracked from one another’s crimes, we’re crushed then quietly erased
We were conceived to blow bubbles that collide
To keep our ancestors, mothers and fathers proud
A latent power that halts our heads
Stuck in the way of what you said

And then when it all goes wrong in a land tattooed with illusions
We don’t act with mechanical parts
Or share romantic truths with our old enemies
For every bludgeoning force, there’s a negative response
For every hind sight heard, there’s another wishing you’d never learnt
Every voice on this earth needs something they can’t ignore
Under glorius blue sky a girl with green eyes saved my life

A girl with green eyes saved my life
A girl with green eyes saved my life
A girl with green eyes saved my life

David Laley 2010

"Plenipotentiary"

The trick is lowering the tone with laughs
Plying our trade without being sad
In a truck stop filled with sound
Where the plenipotentiary stood her ground
So stubborn with her wooden maths
So stubborn on a molten path
Of destruction without cracks

They generated a creature
A sort of lamb with a lion’s wrath
As I stomped bare foot across the cinders
Plagued by a child like bubble hell bent on being the teacher’s pet
So stubborn stuck in a wooden trap
Of destruction without cracks

My soul departs as the pack turn to kill our visions
Lost with someone who won’t believe them
A hidden wonder in a lion’s lair
Bored from what we held before it was grabbed

But if the time comes
And we realise our emotional mistakes
At least i’ll stand up and admit them
Whilst you’ll stand waiting, for the significant other one
To be pulled alive from a wooden trap
Of destruction without cracks

My soul departs as the pack turn to kill our visions
Lost with someone who won’t believe them
A hidden wonder in a lion’s lair
Bored from what we held before we’re told

This isn’t a premonition
Unleash the believers
To find a wonder in a lion’s lair
Bored from what we held before it was grabbed

My soul departs as the pack turn to kill our visions
Lost with someone who won’t believe them
A hidden wonder in a lion’s lair
Bored from what we held before we’re told

David Laley 2010

"A Film Without Thrill"

An effortless stroll through the dirt and the trees
Brothers in arms just prodding at the queen bees
Lost in sepia tones colouring in the passing sky
The last of an ancient brigade, let’s see if the boat’s still sinking

The drama’s done, karma cracked, soothing spots, in a summer of spills
Play with scenes before they stop, juxtaposed with what we now have
With what we now have, a film without thrill

A trembling ghost dreams of directing the matinee
Or an unfinished verse that remains a generation’s curse away
Don’t regret the days when you’re singing from the rooftops
So near yet so far from sensation to see through

The drama’s done, karma cracked, soothing spots, in a summer of spills
Play with scenes beneath the stars, sound the alarm, where are we now?
Where have we landed?
A film without thrill

We’ll roll up the roads and crash cars in the past
As we returned our brains to a summer of spills

The drama’s done, karma cracked, soothing spots, cast aversions
Play with scenes smiling back, before they release a film without thrill
It’s what we’re part of, a film without thrill

David Laley January 2010

"The End Is Almost In Sight"

Can they see you through the fog?
It’s best not mention your prosaic world
And don’t burden me with a hopeful stare
Countries filled with complexities that just don’t care
A felony of criminal respite
Can you hear the screams from your negligent denial?
Have you learnt anything from the education?
Pillage and drag everyone through a bottomless coffin
Are your dreams almost in sight?
In sight, in sight
Or are you seeking our surprise disguised as lies?


Are your dreams almost in sight?
Have you heard yourself bury and smother them?
All the wonder in your words won’t heal the facts
Will you have the time to even honour them?
Tell them you’ll pull through, tell them you’ll have proof
Tell them you’ll stand up and be counted for choking
Just tear up the papers bereft of your statements
Bleed and grieve for those men and women who you’ll not see
What’s left to reprise?
Reprise, reprise
Don’t assume you can push anyone else aside
Pushed aside, aside, aside
Are you expecting our surprise to be disguised as lies?


David Laley January 2010

Flashes: Top Ten Music Lists 2009

It's that time of year again where I expend all my energy divulging the wonderous and not so wonderous sounds my ears have caught a token glimpse of in 2009....Happy listening, gig-ing and festival-ing in 2010.

Top Ten Albums:

1. Manic Street Preachers - Journal For Plague Lovers
2. Metric - Fantasies
3. Idlewild - Post Electric Blues
4. Frank Turner- Poetry Of The Deed
5. Placebo - Battle For The Sun
6. The XX - XX
7. Manchester Orchestra - Mean Everything To Nothing
8. Twin Atlantic - Vivarium
9. Doves - Kingdom Of Rust
10. The Xcerts - In The Cold Wind We Smile

Top Ten Singles:

1. Cribs - We Share The Same Skies
2. Sad Day For Puppets - Marble Gods
3. Exlovers - You Forget So Easily
4. Doves - Kingdom Of Rust
5. Metric - Gimme Sympathy
6. Silversun Pickups - Panic Switch
7. Placebo - For What It's Worth
8. New Rhodes - Joys Of Finding And Losing That Girl
9. Frank Turner - The Road
10. Metric - Sick Muse

Top Ten Performances:

1. Manic Street Preachers - HMV Forum, London
2. Manchester Orchestra - The Duchess, York
3. Rival Schools - Lock Up Tent, Leeds Festival
4. The Joy Formidable - Festival Republic Tent, Leeds Festival
5. Placebo - Bridlington Spa
6. Metric - NME Tent, Leeds Festival
7. Twin Atlantic - Fibbers, York
8. Jack Penate - NME Tent, Leeds Festival
9. Wintersleep - Fibbers, York
10. Silversun Pickups - Bridlington Spa

Just Say No...... To Snow Patrol - Top Ten Worst Singles:

1. Snow Patrol - Just Say Yes
2. Mika - We Are Golden
3. Preston - Dressed To Kill
4. Metro Station - Shake It
5. Fall Out Boy - America's Sweethearts
6. David Gray - Fugitive
7. The Big Pink - Dominos
8. Little Boots - New In Town
9. The Virgins - Rich Girls
10. Muse - United States of Eurasia

David Laley January 2010