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The City of Gold and Lead

by The Sound of The Ladies

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  • Special Edition CD
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    CURRENTLY SOLD OUT. Drop me an email at thesoundoftheladies@gmail.com, and I'll make some more if enough people bother me.

    Die cut and hand made pop-up CD case. Limited to how many I can make by hand before I got insane and stab myself in the jugular with an antique bone folder. The Special Edition album is cut from 160gsm card and hand-glued - please treat with care to prevent damage to your copy.

    (All CD editions of The City of Gold and Lead feature a bonus track of 11 minutes of silence, to allow you to reflect on what you've learned and make any significant life choices.)

    Includes unlimited streaming of The City of Gold and Lead via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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  • Regular CD
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Simple CD in a card case.

    (All CD editions of The City of Gold and Lead feature a bonus track of 11 minutes of silence, to allow you to reflect on what you've learned and make any significant life choices)

    Includes unlimited streaming of The City of Gold and Lead via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

1.
Past the blast and the roar of the tungsten Slumps an army of interested men And the bright little flashes you see Are all making aspirational allowances, like me The glare has been dimmed (Through hostile eyelids) But you'll never change (I saw a small hand) So protect yourself and breathe, breathe (Clenching unconciously) Chin up, chin up (Arms outstretched) Shoulders relaxed (To echo a jawline) You got dressed up (Right leg tensed, slightly bent at the knee) Retrospectively I don't know (I have angles) Where this will end (I have devices) But talking won't make this better, my friend (My chest rises and falls) And if you really think (But sometimes in my) This world is so good (Secret heart, I) Why don't you marry the world (Wonder if I'm human at all)
2.
I've never stepped Into the downpour I stand between raindrops Hearing their heartbeats And breathing the petrichor The sultry sky sent me 10,000 love letters "You never knew all I needed was you" But how could I know? And how could she know me When I never once met her? I once met Bazalgette Your prince of affections He craved the glory But hated the attention From 10,000 plumbers And their endless questions They honoured and badged him Imperial style For reflecting your pitter-pat tears In his smile You weren't even worthy A cursory mention You'd not have been grateful for the attention I wonder whether I'd have liked him better If he'd shut his mouth and just listened some more He'd smell petrichor And his body would ripple and fall to the floor And what did he dream But a labyrinth of brick Where he'd roam in a rain Of 10,000 tributes from the city above 10,000 letters Letters of love
3.
I'm a man And nothing can make me cry Quite as fast as the sight Of a man of great might Exercising great power in the cause of great right I don't want to hear a story about a little man crying Over a solitary meal I want to hear a story about a great big bear Single-handedly dragging a tractor over a field Well it happened Well maybe it wasn't a bear Maybe it was a man (in a bearskin) And maybe he wasn't so tall But he was strong I could see the knots in his muscles as he dragged that tractor along When the crowd had gone home They looked down upon The small patch of grass where his trailer was camped From their miniature homes Watched him go inside And fill up his saucepan with red beans and rice He rubbed his sore shoulders with his left hand And with his right, he shook pepper in the pan But his thoughts we so far away, dreaming of that lucky day He wouldn't drag a tractor over a field He'd stop drinking and save money for his daughter Maybe she'd be a doctor or lawyer And he'd buy a miniature home With a view of a small patch of grass With a breakfast bar and central heating And all the while he'd been daydreaming He'd shaken cloud upon cloud of black pepper Over the food he'd be eating And all the crowd split apart in their miniature homes Let out a solitary sneeze in their solitary sleep The tiny strong man haunted their solitary dreams And back in the trailer the white pepper burn Brought a small tear to his eyes
4.
When he smiled, he'd smile so gingerly Where he fell, in the unmowed grass behind his home We go wandering at night, and are consumed by fire Both arrogant and angry, both fragile and alone He used to have such a wonderful beard of bees So when he smiled, he'd smile so gingerly And then one day they turned on him and they stung him on his chin And they stung him on his cheeks And they stung him in his eyes And they stung him on his lips and tongue And they stung him in his mouth And so his throat closed up And that was how he died They took his lifeless body and made the place their own Where he fell, in the unmowed grass behind his home We go wandering at night and are consumed by fire And the smoke that's rising from us is a cloud of tiny bones Her widow's weed burn brightly, my morning suit a magnet For every flitting firefly, each angry and alone And if I dream I rise above our bed Walk naked into the garden Where he lies exposed Open arms receiving And the soil splits wide, his ginger smile Pours forth a cloud of efferscence And I walk among it, dazzled Distracted, 'till the evening Parts the sea with accusations cast with thunderclouds convening
5.
City of Gold 04:11
Another sunset over the city of gold and lead And I begin to picture your life as a series of staggered steps Up a spiral staircase, dizzyingly high And when you finally reach the top, I'll be waiting there, arms open wide Well what a strange insult - "A man who breathes through his mouth" Well I think it's nice that you should observe such niceties, such distinctions But aren't you just flesh? Little fleshy devices Converting sunlight to gold until your extinction When your epiphany arrives they'll start boiling you alive You greatest asset, your flawless and beautiful complexion Permanently preserved You've the manners of a magpie, you can never be a butterfly But you could be a silkworm You could be a silkworm
6.
Do you remember the day when you nearly died All the doctors and the nurses, even they were horrified By all the things you lost to bring this child into the world And nobody could tell if it was a boy or a girl But you loved it as a mother does You hid it from the others cos they wouldn't understand And anyone could see it was a brick I thought you were aloof and cool Lost in contemplation I realised I was wrong when you came off your medication And you talked and talked and talked about your pride and joy And nobody could tell if it was a girl or a boy You took it to the lake to see the lily and the lotus Watching for police and hoping nobody would notice it's a brick One day they caught you in the park and you ranted and you raved About the met's collaboration with the building trade How in every single home and factory, every single brick Is another that from it's mother's arms was untimely ripped And they locked you in a hospital in one of many wings In one of many rooms of women saying the same thing Untimely ripped
7.
I didn't know you were vegetarian When I ordered rare fillet steak And I was as upset as you When the waiter tripped over the shoe I'd slipped off And the food slipped right off the plate And into your lap You screamed and stormed out into the snow I raced, shoeless, after you, the furious maitre d' in tow I could see from your apocalyptic scowl At the moment you could not like me less But before you could speak, a single bark rang out The first of the dogs to smell the steak on your dress Others joined, and soon it was a cacophany A very large pack of feral beasts So we ran and we ran and we ran and we ran and we ran and we ran Through the snow falling down onto our city streets I pushed you into the February river in the hope that the dirty water would cover the smell And as you sat on the bank wrapped in my winter coat I asked if I could kiss you and you said "Go to hell" You said "I don't know what you see in me But I hardly even know you, And already I wish you would leave me alone - won't you? That's not a single thing I can think of that I like about you You've got to stop hanging around the places I go. And on this of all nights I just wanted to be on my own." And a shivering hand brushed a wandering tear away. And I thought to myself "One day I will tell my grandchildren about How you and I spent our first Valentine's Day"
8.
Why is it so hard After heavy rain To step between the snails and spare their lives? Our mindless feet remake Their homes into deadly blades The perfect instruments of their demise And if I were transformed into a giant slug Would I be most cursed on this earth? And if I one day die and am reborn a man Should I rejoice in my rebirth? Evil's on the march It stalks my stuttering steps I can feel its voodoo in my head But it needs a lock of hair To perform its spells So I'll collect my hair And I'll keep it in the jars beneath my bed With fingernails and skin And bottles of urine Anything that might bear my DNA And I know that I must hide From the storm that dwells outside But I will step into the light some lucky day The oily rain that falls upon the flooded pavement tells me that it's here within my castle I must stay And while I know that I must hide From the storm that howls outside I will step into the light some lucky day
9.
I could never be without you, so why'd you want to do that? Smoke my tobacco heart and blow it on the snow Why will no one tell me where the active agents go You make good your escape and I am left alone In the coldest western city The coldest city outside Anchorage I'll be waiting for you there, I'll be waiting in the snow Why'd you want to live out in American With its rows of corn windswept by the midwest air Far away from London's crowds of misdirected strangers Well I suppose it's fair to say I have my answer there You couldn't be a farmer's wife I couldn't be a farmer's wife's husband You'd go down into town, come back with venom on your lips You'd spit "This town is full of dicks, the locals up to their old tricks And all the same pointless ways that people find to get their kicks" I could never be without you, so why'd you want to do that? To snap my caplet heart and throw it on the snow Why will no one tell me where the active agents go You make good your escape and I am left alone In the coldest western city The coldest city outside Anchorage I'll be waiting for you there, I'll be wrapped up in a blanket In the coldest western city In the coldest city outside Anchorage I'll be waiting for you there, I'll be waiting in the snow
10.
When I first reached New York City and got the terrible news At Port Authority I did not know what to do So I got a Greyhound to New Jersey, as exotic as that sounds And asked if I could make love to you inside a stranger's house It's not as if I got turned on by the thought that you might cry But back then, that was my answer to everything, that's why And when I think about what happened it still leaves a nasty taste She was just a girl, tambourine around her waist You said "Our bodies are a mystery to us" But you didn't even know where your beauty was Would I have told you if I'd known from the start That you would be the only girl who would ever break my heart And I think about Wynona - on the telly, in the movies She was just a girl when I was just a boy And when I first saw Heathers, it was like I had a second cousin Or a second sister, because I already have one I knew that things were not ok, but I was not alone Like when I first saw Slacker by Richard Linklater On a small TV at home So I saw that you got married Had a family and caught malaria From a mutual friend, and thanks to the power of the internet Because we are getting older and life takes things away If we let it, well this time I think about Wynona She was just a girl when I was just a boy
11.
It's hard, it's really hard Just to paint a smile on When they say so much more, these little acts of violence Well I could nod your head and eventually you'd agree But it's just my hand upon your chin, that's that it will be Don't ask me what to do with all these sandkickers around We dance our pretty jigs, our feet are clawing at the ground This isn't what you want Can I set fire to ashes? Find another grain of sand in my Billie Holiday eyelashes I'll hold your hands in mine and say "The life-line's strong with this one You'll meet a tall dark stranger from the middle east You'll have two rosy babies, and the life that you want" Like I know every wrinkle, every crease You said you might enjoy a lemonade one evening I'm not a fool, that stung my pride And hurt me in my sensitive feelings

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released November 23, 2012

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The Sound of The Ladies London, UK

The Sound of The Ladies are the indie-schmindie alt. folk stylings of Martin Austwick, except live where it's him plus a bunch of cool musicians. He likes Tom Waits, Elliot Smith, and some other bands and solo musicians.

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