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PRETERETROSPECTIVE

by The Noise Who Runs

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1.
Beautiful Perhaps Heaven needs water
 To short out the nausea 
And to dampen the token contempt
 Heaven needs water
 The party is over
 Hung, drawn and quartered and toxic with cul-de-sac intent
 The narrative seeks redemption
 But it’s a picture book version, censored to fiction, as the demons pull us apart The truth isn’t pretty but it is beautiful perhaps The truth isn’t pretty but it is beautiful perhaps I translate my pain down 
A little structure and a little shape now 
A record needle in a defective groove
 My pain becomes language
 An echo of disadvantage
 The art of detachment in an open wound
 The scars can heal to perfection
 But it’s a picture book version, censored to fiction, as the demons pull us apart The truth isn’t pretty but it is beautiful perhaps The truth isn’t pretty but it is beautiful perhaps Heaven needs water 
But kindness is in short order 
Just a lotus flower in the mud
 Heaven sees misery
 With outraged but hollow sympathy 
And happiness is a single raindrop swallowed in the wretched flood
 The fairytale of salvation
, It’s just a picture book version, senseless, bewildered, as the demons pull us apart
 The truth isn’t pretty but it is beautiful perhaps, The truth isn’t pretty but it is beautiful perhaps - the truth isn’t pretty
2.
Off the rails Everybody here’s fucked up, all off the rails Everybody here’s fucked up, all off the rails Everybody here’s fucked up, all off the rails Everybody here’s fucked up, all off the rails Looks like we’ll same tomorrow Unlike as wake tomorrow, trawling stories Failing to piece together The crash before the wreckage Everybody here’s fucked up, all off the rails Everybody here’s fucked up, all off the rails Everybody here’s fucked up, all off the rails Stretched out in closed directions Break down to forming circles, slowly Thick-skinned to all autopsies Loose lips and blame by proxy Spit in oceans All aboard, or maybe wait a little longer All aboard, or maybe take a little longer Flash the pan, spit in the ocean Everybody here’s fucked up, all off the rails Looks like we’ll same tomorrow Cave in on all tomorrow, wasting, early Stretched out in closed directions Break down to forming circles, slowly All aboard, or maybe wait a little longer All aboard, or maybe take a little longer Flash the pan, spit in the ocean Everybody here’s fucked up, all off the rails Everybody here’s fucked up, all off the rails Everybody here’s fucked up, all off the rails Everybody here’s fucked up, all off the rails 

3.
Things Fall Apart How these things fall apart Please yourself and just talk about it all night long Don’t start Leave the Devil some work There’s a line and you’re so crossed over it So far over it hurts Things fall apart – breaking like a change of heart Things fall apart And what goes comes around and it’s nothing to put us down Every window is free Open any day of the week but no one’s going to be here for dust If it hurts like it bleeds Play the advocate – say what you see In whatever make of God that you trust Things fall apart – breaking like a change of heart Things fall apart And what goes comes around and it’s nothing to put us down Turn your back, look away Break the ranks and call it a day Just unattached and under attack And it’s all how it seems Compensate me and take what you need Like you’re happy ever after the fact Things fall apart – breaking like a change of heart Things fall apart And what goes comes around and it’s nothing to put us down
4.
Electronic Babysitter I’m on it, I’m on it - breaks my day I’m on it, I’m on it - off my case Electronic babysitter, less to blame, primitive and timeless, outplayed Auto asphyxiate, profit over principles, prescription, soundbites, downplayed I’m on it, I’m on it - breaks my day I’m on it, I’m on it - off my case Bless your corporate parents, professional family, can’t eat money, won’t love money Work around me, more light, less heat, firewall, focus, third way, what say? - Bingo! I’m on it, I’m on it - breaks my day I’m on it, I’m on it - off my case Weekend inertia, sidelined, sidetracked - consumer eye candy, reading from the back
5.
Those are not the dogs that are eating your mother These are not the wolves who were sheep at her door History sticks to your skin like a lesson in napalm But the vultures will carry her to the sun No-one needs insistence, keep your social distance Sooner find me somewhere between dogs and wolves Those are not the dogs that are eating your mother These are not the wolves who were sheep at her door History sticks to your skin like a lesson in napalm But the vultures will carry her to the sun No-one needs insistence, keep your social distance Sooner find me somewhere between dogs and wolves Back to jackanories, pasts of former glories Back to selling stories about life on Mars
6.
So Good It’s Free Well, I know my worth but I see my place 
As not a foot in the door, more a door in the face The deal is I coin phrases, you sing my praises For a positive zero in the negative spaces I don’t want much as such just more than never enough After rent and bills we scrape for food all month
 Try to juggle with what’s not even up in the air
 We start from flat on the floor and descend from there So good it’s free, so good it’s free So good it’s free, so good it’s free You either hate me so much or love me too little
 Sure if I were sick you’d hope it’s nothing trivial
 You’ve got me pond scum feeding, revenge daydreaming
 And your pennies don’t bite so I won’t be grateful
 And this whole middle class thing I’m scared might be catching 
If you wondering what’s the point then don’t bother asking PLEASE So good it’s free, so good it’s free So good it’s free, so good it’s free They put their toe for a second in the shark-filled tanks
 And they’re hailed as inspirational, deserving of thanks
 If I could only stop drowning, I’d round up the ranks
 And march them crying all the way down to the bailed out banks I’d cull these advertising and these marketing skanks And hand their money to the scientists to give peace a chance. And so we’re sumo-consumers and change needs a slogan, Then it’s payback time for all the dignity stolen So good it’s free, so good it’s free, so good it’s free, so good it’s free So good it’s free, so good it’s free, so good it’s free, so good it’s free I want a new world order, want it done in style 
I want a 21st century Nuremberg trial
 I’d watch the whole meritocracy’s elite mediocrities Suffer their hypocrisy - gallows for miles...
7.
Zoe’s Edible Garden Begging your pardon, but accidents happen And who knows where accidents might lead Zoe’s Edible Garden A hardline insistence on least line resistance So just leave them waiting for stones to bleed Zoe’s Edible Garden Call me when you taste how it feels and we’ll take it all back on top New money same old Waltzing to techno Irrelevancy like a dead sun sets on Zoe’s Edible Garden From protest inferno to Disney potato was all I expected and so much less Zoe’s Edible Garden Call me when you taste how it feels and we’ll take it all back on top Call me when you taste how it feels and we’ll take it all back on top I’m blown back to the stone age where I could reinvent the wheel but would I should I not bother Surely not bother The whole world’s wide open, I’d swallow the ocean Same, same but different - it’s only a token I’ll barcode my sweet soul to pay off the black hole Scratching the dirt where you count your blessings In Zoe’s Edible Garden The leftovers hanging, crying for Stalin, 10 billionaires and 10 million begging In Zoe’s Edible Garden Call me when you taste how it feels and we’ll take it all back on top Call me when you taste how it feels and we’ll take it all back on top
8.
2poor2die 04:41
2poor2die Nothing like the four walls crashing round your ears Constant in the background to a soundtrack of tears Funny how the style still sweeps the content aside Always in bite-size, swollen and bite-size Rip it up, strip it down, over again Pack it up, wrap it up, over again Sick it up, spit it up, over again Rip it up, tear it up, start it again Too poor to die, too poor to die, Too poor to die, too poor to die A shell now of a shadow in nostalgic rewind Jingles over slogans for your national pride A reading of the future likes it’s yesterday’s news Dormant and no use, ornament, no use Rip it up, strip it down, over again Pack it up, wrap it up, over again Sick it up, spit it up, over again Rip it up, tear it up, start it again Too poor to die, too poor to die, Too poor to die, too poor to die
9.
So It Goes 05:47
So it goes… Right time to turn our minds to figure out something better than living this way Too many people at the top, bottom, middle too put upon to even contemplate the light of day I know you think that it’s all talk Utopian dreaming My kind’s been tied to your mast, I refuse, so I’m screaming It ends when it ends and so it begins and so it goes This ends where it ends, and slowly begins to let us go No reason to lose hope but world you need working on I know that you fear that its dangerous Utopian thinking My time’s been abused in your names and enslaved It ends when it ends and so it begins and so it goes This ends where it ends, and slowly begins to let us go No reason to lose hope but world you need working on
10.
Smile, Smile, Smile Don’t want to save the world today Think that it seems OK All you want you’ll never need and nothing you say matters Don’t want to face the world today Maybe just hide away Shellshock treatment, draft and drag us wheel-fire-moon hedge backwards Tell me how you smile, smile, smile Don’t want to lead the world astray Maybe will anyway Choking on your appetite, entrenched in your disasters Tell me how you smile, smile, smile, smile I could turn you, I could turn you Inside out I could turn you, I could turn you Inside out But I choose not to do - not to do Love you half to death for all those happy ever afters Don’t want to change the world today Maybe just hide away No mark overseas, your Eden safe at home in tatters Tell me how you smile, smile, smile
11.
Takes a Long Cold Look And Then The Kitchen Sink You’ve been taking up my time funny man You’ve been wasting all that’s mine funny man Drag your habit on your knees off my street I know the line, so not one more, off once more into the breach Hey - start of the breakdown Say - bridges to take down Say now - what are you after? Hey now - what do you have there? Takes a long cold look and then the kitchen sink Don’t believe you caught the score funny man No one’s laughing anymore funny man Drag your habit on your knees off my street Leave me smiling by the skin of my teeth A long long line of just one more - out of touch and out of reach Hey - start of the breakdown Say - bridges to take down Say now - what are you after? Hey now - what do you have there? Flashes hollow smile and fixes self a drink I know the line, so not one more, off once more into the breach Hey - start of the breakdown Say - bridges to take down Say now - what are you after? Hey now - what do you have there? Takes a long cold look and then the kitchen sink Hey, hey, hey now

12.
New York to L.A. in two ’n’ a half minutes To be the death of kings in words To hear it in the long goodbye Is it if somebody’s not hurt Then you’re losing somehow? Name the time, name the place I would meet you anywhere Any time, any place You’re not going anywhere Now it’s all New York to L.A in 2 ’n' a half minutes To think about the last day it was beautiful Suppose the view from god’s chair Is suffering remains detached There’s always someone’s misery To let you know that you’re on track Living memory’s a curse that becomes unbearable I was there on the last day that things were beautiful Now it’s all New York to L.A in 2 ’n' a half minutes And nothing much else left between Now it’s all New York to L.A in 2 ’n' a half minutes To think about the last day it was beautiful
13.
Under the Sun This near perfection wastes away We watched the bloodshot skyline kill the day The streets were burning, the city aflame as violence and panic and outrage were served up as gilt laid on their plate I foresee thunderstorms, nothing but lightning forms, counting your breath til the kingdoms come We walk as one with the earth and carry our lives by our fingernails under the sun The night found us closing, the narratives fell, tired to buy time in the same prison yard and cold comfort for our cells The buildings still blazing when morning came round, fire in the sky and a whole new horizon as decency breaks out I foresee thunderstorms, nothing but lightning forms, counting your breath til the kingdoms come We walk as one with the earth and carry our lives by our fingernails under the sun
14.
L'altruisme 05:35
L’altruisme If you could hear me, if you could hear me out, I’m calling home and crawling off on all fours, star me now If you could hear me, if you could hear me, I’d be so happy, so happy If you could see me, if you could see me now, I’m out here, lonely, time of my life, eat your heart out If you could see me, if you could see me, I’d be so happy, so happy It’s all true, the earth revolves without you It’s all true, the world revolves around you It’s all true, but freedom never reigns, it pours A hopeless case on hopeful cause that’s all If you could see me, if you could hear me, I’d be so happy, so happy It’s all true, the earth revolves without you It’s all true, the world revolves around you It’s all true, but freedom never reigns, it pours A hopeless case on hopeful cause that’s all

credits

released April 21, 2023

The Noise Who Runs Ian Pickering and Felipe Goes
All songs written by Ian Pickering
All songs recorded, engineered and produced by The Noise Who Runs
Drums, additional recording and production by Julien Guyot
Additional production by Colin C at The Cell Studio (thecellstudio.com) except Beautiful Perhaps, recorded and produced by Claudio Meza aka 'Spural' at Mauco Records, Chile.
All songs mixed and mastered by Colin C at The Cell Studio

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The Noise Who Runs Lille, France

Anglo-French dark electronic rock and pop with heavy influences of indie, EDM and trip hop.
Formed in 2019 by Sneaker Pimps’ lyricist Ian Pickering along with guitarist Felipe Goes.

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