Shadow puppets from the ceiling were diving into my eyes
Rolling with it was suffocating, I would have sworn I’d soon be dying

Dionysius crossed the emptiness waving Michael’s sword
I was so thankful to be awakened by my Marina

In the carousel spinning around me were swarms of hags and flies
I was wide awake without seeing that just above them was my Marina

Dionysius crossed the emptiness Gabriel showed her the way
I was so thankful to be awakened by my Marina

Swarming when nobody else could see
Airborne and bubbling up from the ground
Their growing numbers dragging me down
Disbelief intensified my experience
Cornered by overwhelming armies within
I was buried then rescued from my own skin

By morning I could hardly believe it myself
As I laughed at the cynical parodies and smokescreens
That were everywhere making a mockery of my experience

After it all, when she found me
I would have sworn that I was floating
Over my own body
When she found me
The fog slowly lifted
As weightless I ascended
And my life flashed before my eyes
I regained control of my senses
But my words cannot fully express them

The waves were relentless
I fought until I was
Nearly consumed by their hunger
I was losing the battle for possession
To the ravenous swarm
When out of the corner of my eye
I caught a faint but profound glimpse of hope
I wonder did it have to take
Swords of light driving legions away
To get me to be willing to change

The light that had pierced the blinds disappeared
When the swarm filled the room
The floor gave out from underneath
It happened so fast that my flesh was left behind

No longer recognizing silhouettes once familiar
Closing in and shape-shifting, halfway hidden half revealing

performance:

jason harvey: bass guitar

david beck: drums

mohadev bhattacharyya: guitar

jon beal: keyboards | voice

composition/production:

jon beal: composition | recording

david beck: composition

mohadev bhattacharyya: composition | recording

jason harvey: composition | mixing | production | recording

extra composition/production:

dennis harvey: mastering | mixing

Missing the future again
I’m showing the years and don’t know where to begin
Feeling like a living memento
With a love like ours it’s so hard not to think so
I’ve traveled ages deep
I’ve borrowed hearts when my own begged for sleep
I’ve counted blessings and counted them fast
I wish I could promise this moment would last

Riding with me and clarifying the highway
My kindred spirit from time immemorial
Disappearing from the rearview mirror
The few that still remember and the rest that don’t say so
Taken on a detour beyond what used to matter
We’re remnants brought together
Where the undiscovered country is home

Gambling on tomorrow
In a time capsule we made
Never mind what used to matter
We have only ourselves to escape

Home, a lifetime away
Complicating everything
It’s impossible to explain
How I have travelled ages deep
Hidden away in a sealed time capsule
Just like the few that still remember
And all the rest that will never say so

I’m riveted by your relentless drive
The unmistakable markings of the roads we’ve traveled
So take my life to make it happen
Just keep me unaware of it if you can

In the grip of spin control each revolution
Is here to make us wander home in this condition
Only caring for what could have been
We’ve littered the future with a time capsule we left open

Offering you hope I died but when I had no eye for
Otherworldly designs I gave you
The hunger that made me work to believe
That we could still have memories that would justify the meantime

performance:

jason harvey: bass guitar

david beck: drums

mohadev bhattacharyya: guitar

jon beal: keyboards | voice

composition/production:

jon beal: composition | recording

david beck: composition

mohadev bhattacharyya: composition | recording

jason harvey: composition | mixing | production | recording

extra composition/production:

dennis harvey: mastering | mixing

None of them knew him by name
Until they drove him away
His innocence made them furious
When he broke the mold it made them curious
His unapologetic love is what they found so dangerous
Now that their dreams are all the same
They cannot stop remembering
The moments each of them started believing
The powers that kept them from healing
With no one standing in the way
They’re crumbling under the strain

His exodus impulsive was holy
The one thing that could not be taken
The volume of opinions was always growing
He couldn’t help making the connection
A lifetime condition to atone for
The future that he was missing
They were always pressured to control him
When they were the ones that needed the convincing

However low whatever they would throw made no difference
Because the only thing gone noticed was the power in his resistance
Where his eyes found the skies his feet found the ground
And a powerful will to keep him there
He’s no glutton for punishment but he’s learned well enough
To know that he will always care

He was well aware they had him outnumbered
Leaving all the experts to expertly wonder
Why the fire in their hearts did not give them what they were after
There was not an ounce of love in their hearts whatsoever

But he still cherishes their memory and he still remembers everything

The crusadists scouting and shouting and spitting in his face
They were all that he listened to but not the way they wanted him to
Broadcast on every medium the message was getting through
They were all that he listened to but not the way they wanted him to

His labor of love is driving him all the way back to
A place of vindication that will not come today
Too late too soon or by the way of highly persuasive
Talent agents polling data or a re-education

It was journey to the next stage or never know each other
He was well aware they had him far outnumbered
He was never out there to steal their precious thunder
He was never one of them in the eyes of his beholders

performance:

jason harvey: bass guitar

david beck: drums

mohadev bhattacharyya: guitar

jon beal: keyboards | voice

composition/production:

jon beal: composition | recording

david beck: composition

mohadev bhattacharyya: composition | recording

jason harvey: composition | mixing | production | recording

extra composition/production:

dennis harvey: mastering | mixing

If you love her wish her well and hold your fire
Do it now before it’s over and you will find what you were after
Crush it and see how this sanctuary renders
All of your intentions backwards and you will capture what’s inside her

Stumbling between lovers and religions
Bouncing off the walls of her imagination
She’s overcoming her programming its been indicated
A little disorientation is to be expected

Seconds away from being up and running
With a memory chip that is no longer malfunctioning
Nevertheless it is time disconnect
Your digital eyes and your sampled voice
Or she’ll never know why you’re dying to come back

Time-traveling to the center of her universe
The cornerstone of her existence years behind her
Shape-shifting to satisfy the company she keeps
She’s killing time and so much more to keep the natives happy

Imagining what she has never seen
Believing she will never stop daydreaming

Stunned by her own countermeasures
Fossilized in timeless storage
Pulled by her most chance encounters
Ever since her maiden voyage

A portrait of her journey covers up an image of the real one
A parallel history repeating and everyday offering new reasons
If wishes were would you be in the fool’s parade riding
Where will you be standing when she recovers
And she’s no longer powerless without you

She’s a reflection of you
Easier to render than undo
Born without the power to refuse
The fantasies you always choose

Seconds away from being up and running
With a memory chip that is no longer malfunctioning
Nevertheless it is time disconnect
Or you’ll never see why she’s dying to come back

Time-traveling to the center of her universe
The cornerstone of her existence years behind her
Shape-shifting to satisfy the emptiness

Awakening liberated from her virtual enclosure
Awkward with new encounters but not afraid of falling forward
Before the day is over though she will know her value
What it means to love you with newfound hope find refuge
She is fighting and if you let her
What has been taken will not take forever
What has been given she will remember
Was found together and will always be with her

She has travelled to all corners of the nothingness
A perpetual directionless perfectionist
A half-machine running simulation
Nobody’s lover

performance:

jason harvey: bass guitar

david beck: drums

mohadev bhattacharyya: guitar

jon beal: keyboards | voice

composition/production:

jon beal: composition | recording

david beck: composition

mohadev bhattacharyya: composition | recording

jason harvey: composition | mixing | production | recording

extra composition/production:

dennis harvey: mastering | mixing

It’s only been in the deepest sleep that I’ve seen tomorrow
It’s only been when you’re far away that I see your face

With every emotion conflicted
From the past and the present colliding
Our love-hate relationships reflected
In the volumes of the secrets we’re hiding

We’re better off lost than left behind
With the creatures of habit that survive
By coming to the rescue to keep us crawling back
For the sustenance they provide

What was lost has been retrieved
Deconstructed reconceived
So throw away the insecurity
There’s no room left for what they had come to believe

How often we’ve denied
That it’s time to say goodbye
To the ghosts of the ones we’ve left behind
And to the spirits that they invite
Our recollections of paradise
Are full of holes and full of lies
But the love for life our hope revives
Is better than safe passage through the fire

We’ve made it this far punch-drunk and seeing stars
Revisiting memories camouflaging battle-scars
The only option left to choose we’re guaranteed to lose if we don’t start

Compensating for the times we’ve never laid to rest
Captivated by the love we’ve labored to forget
Complicated by the ones who know too much to know what is best

Countdown now or it’ll be too late to turn around
We made it here in the nick of time for a tandem leap of faith
We’re headed straight for another stage and this is it our axial age

If it takes more than a lifetime to capture
There’s no sense in waiting until we recover
The time we’ve surrendered will never get any closer

If it takes more than a lifetime to capture
There’s no sense in waiting until we’ve recovered
It’s over and still we keep missing the future
Forever is still out there begging to be discovered

Polarized by the sunlight we woke up in a sea of black-lights
And they’re still evolving wrapping around you and I

I’ve never forgotten the last minutes we spent
Facing each other before the winter set in
When the only thing that mattered
Was our slowly unfolding dream

It’s only been in the deepest sleep that I’ve seen tomorrow
It’s only been when you’re far away that I’ve seen your face
It’s only when you’re far away that I see your face

The first steps have been taken and they served to change the view
But there’s one bridge still left burning leaving only this path to choose
Though it may be higher and featureless its boundaries are limitless

How often we’ve denied
That it’s time to say goodbye
To the ghosts of the ones we’ve left behind
And to the spirits that they invite
Our recollections of paradise
Are full of holes and full of lies
But the love for life our hope revives
Will someday be worth the fight it’s been
To have this chance tonight

performance:

jason harvey: bass guitar

david beck: drums

mohadev bhattacharyya: guitar

jon beal: keyboards | voice

composition/production:

jon beal: composition | recording

david beck: composition

mohadev bhattacharyya: composition | recording

jason harvey: composition | mixing | production | recording

extra composition/production:

dennis harvey: mastering | mixing

With defenses so refined from
Hearts they have outgrown so many times
That love looks too far to fall
Will it matter if they’re rendered helpless
If once invincible they still focus
On scars they cannot recall

Misfortunate enough to know what is right
When every memory lost is a welcome change

Missing the future again
Wearing their scars like a full second-skin
Unaware of where the past left off
Or the present begins

Each day starting over missing the future

Discarding recollections believing
It is only safe whenever they are moving
Hydroplaning under the radar daydreaming
Journeying wearing blinders sleeping in boxcars

Dying to make lasting impressions continuously
Saving up to appear enlightened endlessly
Harboring tribulation aimlessly
Searching for closure elsewhere instinctively

With a portion for friends and a fortune for others
Unfortunately they have no room for lovers

Swimming and pursued by uncertain seas
With uncertainty all around
From years spent learning indifference
They don’t know what it is they have found
With experiences stretching out in every direction
Reflection only gets in the way
Slowing down to take in shallow breaths
They’re struggling just to stay above the waves

performance:

jason harvey: bass guitar

david beck: drums

mohadev bhattacharyya: guitar

jon beal: keyboards | voice

composition/production:

jon beal: composition | recording

david beck: composition

mohadev bhattacharyya: composition | recording

jason harvey: composition | mixing | production | recording

extra composition/production:

dennis harvey: mastering | mixing

Bittersweet creature comforts are here
Masquerading in this atmosphere
As shelter and enviable needful things
Bridges crumbled long before now
Manage to seem new again somehow
Needful things surround us when love can’t be found

Crisis and secrets and skeletons fill
Our best-kept crawlspaces
Where an iconic treasure trove may bend our will
It can’t match the love it replaces

Love in your thought word and deed
These are needful things

Set in motion each has sired
Rapture ruptured and set on fire
Sex and venues races and structures
Religion fashion form and culture

Love is all we have to give
Trust takes more than getting used to
Love is all I’ve left to give
I’ll take more than getting used to

Hungering for blessed mercies
Needful things devour the proceeds
Restraining love from withholding
Diligent disorders from building
Flourishing at best in turmoil
They backlash with a wicked recoil
Hallowed though are these
In this house are needful things

performance:

jason harvey: bass guitar

david beck: drums

mohadev bhattacharyya: guitar

jon beal: keyboards | voice

composition/production:

jon beal: composition | recording

david beck: composition

mohadev bhattacharyya: composition | recording

jason harvey: composition | mixing | production | recording

extra performance:

dennis harvey: noises

extra composition/production:

dennis harvey: mastering | mixing