Distance [REA.01], by Roedel Et Alia

Distance [REA.01]

by Roedel Et Alia

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Deluxe 15-track edition of Distance featuring an exclusive secret bonus track in a 6-panel Digipak.

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1.	The Daily Worry 02:33	lyrics	buy track
THE DAILY WORRY Always fear, the media is here Twenty-twenty’s gonna last hundreds of years So why such a hurry to read The Daily Worry It’s always on when you most expect it But then again, we had something good And let a monster wreck it Just look up And up and up My aunt always says that’s the secret to life Cuz it can hand you a prize or it can hand you a knife On any night like tonight When your thoughts trail across the stars like whispers of prayers gone, Solitary they carry on Alight in the dark But maybe all I need is a little leave me alone When they take my temperature and break my bones Tell me I should panic Tell me I should stay at home Head down to the ground Eyes darting around When your voice fades in the shadows of the parades we’ve lost It’s paradise’s cost When you can’t travel to arrive When the touch of a friend is all that’s keeping you alive On any night like tonight When the stars are scars, they go on They glow slurry with fury And you can’t tell them apart from The Daily Worry So why the hurry? Just look up And up and up And up and up and up Even if the stars look blurry Drink long, drink deep from an ancient cup Say hello to the owls They’ll teach you to howl Louder and louder than The Daily Worry On any night like tonight So, go on tonight Where you can breathe all right When you’ve missed the mark Walk on in the dark Fold your hands and your hymns for the flight That spark, hold it tight That’s the prize for the fight When you turn off the worry And never lose sight
2.	The Death of the Heart 04:20	lyrics	buy track
THE DEATH OF THE HEART Here is the church, here is the steeple And see all the people are black T-Shirt tombstones carved right into their backs Who turned off all the sacred songs, who’s paving over the Holy art? When will we listen? Where will we start? How do we eulogize the death of the heart? Your altars now glow neon They echo on and on in the dark Have you seen my son? Is he still on the run? Why must we fight for brown skin bodies armed only with numbers on a chart? When will we listen? Where will we start? How do we eulogize the death of the heart? Overlooked over yonder What lies deep beneath this silent sonder? Forgotten in frenzy, remembered in dust Lusts for watercolor memory, dripping Dickens and Descarte When will we listen? Where will we start? How do we eulogize the death of the heart? There’s a joker on the avenue There’s little more to say When your brothers are his subjects rolled up and thrown away Poets motor down the boulevard, spitting songs that often spark When will we listen? Where will we start? How do we eulogize the death of the heart? Split down the middle these fiddlers they flee Leaving Love Field with their riddlers who bark But we’re American, so we’re happy, you see? We’re happy, we’re happy, we’re happy We’re happy to play a part When will we listen? Where will we start? How do we eulogize the death of the heart? For Thine is the kingdom The power and the glory Are violence and oppression our only stories? Or is change just a matter of turning a page in a sobering search for another part? When will we listen? Where will we start? How do we eulogize the death of the heart?
3.	The Door Left Unlocked 02:42	lyrics	buy track
THE DOOR LEFT UNLOCKED Where is the path when you’re pushed to the limit? When your throat is sore from singing with John Lennon You twist, you shout The feeling you’re feeling you can’t figure out When you’re really, really in it Believe in the infinite Breathe in the infinite Conceive, receive, achieve the infinite Never develop a firm grasp of what is impossible Let Babylon babble on, while you speak the Gospel Ask Seek Knock Don’t ever be stopped Accept Find The door left unlocked Don’t ever be stopped The door is unlocked
4.	The Black Eye 01:24	lyrics	buy track
THE BLACK EYE This town has a black eye And we’re not even a mile wide Sit next to me—let’s dream a while But half of us can’t see the sky The other half don’t wonder why This town blinks with black, black eyes This dream sinks with black, black eyes This dream of mine, in this stream of lies It’ll be all-right, just settle down, sonny Take this milk Taste this honey You can sell that soul for plenty of money Ignore the fight -- go head and try You think you can, your skin is white But this town has a black eye You see the truth’s gone out of style Walk next to me -- let’s work a while But half of us can’t reach the sky The other half don’t wonder why This town has a black eye
5.	The Villains of Virtue 02:28	lyrics	buy track
THE VILLAINS OF VIRTUE This is what happens when I try to force it note after note, looking like tome after tome Laughing at me from the screen of my phone A Whole lotta typing and no real writing Nothing to call my own Nothing that says anything about anything that anyone will know Wasted Effort and guess work with nothing to show Who cares if I finish it. Who cares how it goes. Emotions in punches, they’re blows after blows. A dozen at most maybe, a real high for the lows. Toasted and boasted while fending off crows I’m supposed to be productive in these quarantine woes But I’m not, not a jot Just triggered and bittered From this writer’s block With nothing really nothing to unlock Let’s give this blank page an electric shock See I wanted to say something about the virtues they spoil The poison in the ground trading soil for oil Recoiled and cold, foiled and stole That’s me at my best when I can’t feel the rest, this theme takes me for a ride because I feel it inside But maybe there’s one someone who’s virtues are tested, their life’s got them down, their hearts got them bested, they’ll hear this small struggle and feel strangely invested In the words of a stranger On the same path through the danger Yeah, the villains of virtue are the sneakiest lot Make you blink and rethink everything that you thought Then They’ll tell you and sell you And leave you to rot So, give virtue everything, cuz everything’s what you got And Just know this, that this is final the plot: if how it goes is for real, if it helps you to heal, if it’s from the deep, if it’s for keeps, and if it’s so important to you— Then it’ll be a virtue for others, just from their own point of view
6.	The War is Open 02:24	lyrics	buy track
THE WAR IS OPEN I’m pulling on my boots and mask I’m tired of the chore I’m driving down an empty street I’m going to a War My hands are raw, they choke the wheel My glove’s already torn My neighbor said the fight’s a steal If only we get born If only we get born I’m passing vacant parking lots I’m counting darkened doors I’m sure the News said I was shot And Wall Street lost its Lords My head is high and smothered My dollars with the poor My songs are from my brothers But they’re dying on all fours But they’re dying on all fours My thoughts are lonely drifters All blistered to the core I want the things we’ve whispered Written reborn as a roar I take a breath, could be my last I want to do much more I forgot just what was on my list I’m going to the Store I’m going to a War Yes, I’m going to a War
7.	The You Part of it All 04:32	lyrics	buy track
THE YOU PART OF IT ALL Can you hear me? Can you hear me? That’s the YOU part of it all The YOU part of it all You are part of it all
8.	The Path and the Tree 01:53	lyrics	buy track
THE PATH AND THE TREE Stop looking for the map. Start focusing on the path. Try. Try. Try. Try. Try. Try. Try. Try. Try. The path is right in front of you. Try to spend as much time as you possibly can doing the things that only you can do. Sometimes it’s hard to express how you feel, but you just have to try. Everyone doesn’t try the exact same way. It’s the trying that’s the YOU part of it all. And that’s what people want to see. You. Just remember to never develop a firm grasp on what is impossible. Because you're you—and you don’t have all the answers. And you don’t need them. Stop trying to understand everything. Understand yourself, and how you react to everything. Look at the tree. Does the tree have all the answers? The tree doesn’t know exactly how long its branches will grow or which direction they will reach. The tree just grows, and it reaches. The tree is the path. The tree just grows, and it reaches.
9.	The Trespasser's Handbook 02:06	lyrics	buy track
THE TRESPASSER’S HANDBOOK Do androids dream of electric fences? Can we talk of the future in all these past tenses Will the forest grow back, once it’s burned black Been cordoned and cut up and sold in a sack Are these steps we step in on the right track There’s a road to the heart, a long serenade There’s a quick way to start, but it ain’t in the shade With their potions on sale from the all-night brigade You know them all right, they take aim on sight With faces made famous in the oppression arcade One to cross over Two to turn back Three to take cover And four to attack See, reformers Deformers And performers pursue Each is an oligarch, an alligator, too They think they can fit in a forester’s shoes From a bridge too far and a distance not new Still they can’t and they won’t and they don’t have a clue But if you can see what’s inside, you will walk all the way through The electric fences can’t dream of ever touching you And if we all feel where the truth goes, we can all heal what’s untrue So why is this trespassing so hard to do?
10.	The Summer Sons 02:22	lyrics	buy track
THE SUMMER SONS Whatever you want Whenever you’re able Because I’ve had ghosts at my kitchen table Say it’s over now. All over now. Take a passionate rest Take a look at your clean, clean chest Keep only the best Only the best Make them reaches right Make sense of yourself this time There’s always a light Always a light It’s the Roaring Twenties Who’s got plenty? It’s the winter’s daughter Her tongue for water It’s the summer sons Soaring on empty But the stars are still inside you Ain’t nothing that can hide you I can tell Yes, I can tell That’s where the stars last the longest Where your breath it breathes its strongest The forever well Forever well
11.	The Next Augustine 02:15	lyrics	buy track
THE NEXT AUGUSTINE Someone told me to enjoy my apocalypse, I bent my ear and asked him if he had any tips, and he said: Hey there boy, keep your head clean You look like you’re taller than St. Augustine Chin up, cheer up, work to clear it all up in this unmapped town Zapped all around If these chemtrails are our folktales You can finish the story when the last campfire dies down With your own fabled fiction, a broken-down diction, a cart of lost arts and found starts that fly with some friction tambourine Laughing and distracting, math with the kids Mistakes put on breaks and catastrophes hid But you’ll show ‘em alright You’ll call to the void, you’ll ring up the night Just to keep everyone clung to their screen You’ll write to the Host, and you’ll write ‘em the most — imperfect poem they’ve ever seen So how does it go? No, no, no. not the one you wanted — the one that wanted to show. Well, here it is, come on near this, fear this, steer this, the letters will get better and better and better than your old dead routine And in doing that, you might stumble on the mat, but you might be the next Augustine! Everyone has a distance to travel. So unravel the layers of smooth-talkers and soothsayers And when the ground beneath your feet is cracked, don’t look down. Don’t walk back.
12.	The Wake Up Machine 01:14	lyrics	buy track
THE WAKE UP MACHINE I wake up restlessly I wake up memory I wake up and I see I wake up to debris I wake up wanting free I wake up bourgeoisie I wake up don’t agree I wake up referee I wake up pay a fee I wake up reality I wake up and decree I wake up chop a tree I wake up lose the key I wake up guilty plea I wake up deportee I wake up invisibly I wake up absentee I wake up forget me I wake up oh mercy When I wake up Then I’ll be
13.	The Last Strawberry 03:00	lyrics	buy track
THE LAST STRAWBERRY It was sunny and bright out here today. The sun just went down. If she goes down, or do we go up or down or all around? Whichever way the wind is blowin’, that’s the way we’re goin’, it’s a fool who claims to perceive, celestial tricks up sky stretched sleeves, there’s never total knowin’, because who’s to say? But that’s my favorite time of day. When the clouds shine cotton candy loud, and the birds sigh and sing again, they say goodnight. That’s what we need right now, I think. A little more of the ole flow river flow, and let it all go. Rethink our minds, redraw our ancestor’s rhymes. Scratch it out, scratch it out, scratch it out, we try. Even strawberries have to explode sometimes. Or maybe they don’t Perhaps explosions are distractions And instead of rethinking we unlearn We strip ourselves of all we knew Removing layers of sweet prejudice And honeydew Perhaps the strawberry wants to be whole And grow in glory next to that old river flow And grow without the plight of an old systems sow In the field where soul food grows Under the sun where callus hands row And my ancestors sung freedom into the wind Even the strawberry wants to be whole So, we try again Scratch it out Scratch it out Scratch it out We unlearn what we thought we once knew Removing layers of sweet prejudice And honeydew Without the plight of an old systems sow We cultivate seeds of hope Next to that old river flow. Yes, flow river flow, and let it all go. Rethink our minds, redraw our ancestor’s rhymes. Even strawberries have to explode sometimes. But if we can calm down, don’t breathe so fast, do our parts, build what can last, then this too shall say goodnight. Because the wave is not the tide. And we weren’t made to repeat the past.
14.	The Strawberry Dream Planted in the Field Where the Soul Food Grows 06:03	lyrics	buy track
THE STRAWBERRY DREAM PLANTED IN THE FIELD WHERE THE SOUL FOOD GROWS Even strawberries have to explode So, they repaint this prose so everybody knows You plant ‘em in the field where the soul food grows Plant ‘em in the field where the soul food grows

about

credits

released February 19, 2021

Words, production and creative direction by Jeffrey Roedel. The following contributed to the music in this collection: Barrett Black, Scott Campbell, Cohen Hartman, Benjamin Herrington, Josh LeBlanc, Casey McAllister, Norbert Redmond, Jay Michael Roswell, Emily Sholes Smith, John Tulley, and James West. “The Summer Sons” has a conversation with Brandon Lewis. “The Last Strawberry” has a guest verse written and performed by Monique Lorden. Album design by Damien Mitchell. Cover painting is “Spring: Shelter, Lake, Sun II” by Edward Pramuk, courtesy of Edward Pramuk. Interior painting is “Dawn” by Rebekah May, courtesy of Claire Elizabeth Gallery. Distance Strawberry illustrated by Julie Odell. Logo by Stay Gray Ponyboy.
Limited Edition, 15-track CD version of this album is available at wondersouth.com/store.