Credits
Songs by Evan Stephens Hall
Except Alcove, by Evan Stephens Hall with Josh Marré
Evan Stephens Hall – vocals, guitar, piano, percussion
Zack Levine – drums, vocals, percussion
Josh Marré – bass guitar, guitar, lap steel, vocals
Nick Levine – guitar, pedal steel, baritone guitar, vocals
Sam Skinner – guitar, synth
Nandi Rose – vocals, piano, synth
Doug Hall – piano, vocals
Michael William Levine – pedal steel
Produced by Sam Skinner & Evan Stephens Hall
Mixed by Sam Skinner with Evan Stephens Hall, Zack Levine, Nick Levine
Recorded in Amperland, NY from may 2018 – february 2019
thank you
Release Date
January 17th, 2020
ignore the wreckage on the shoulder
i cross the border into new jersey
where a dotted line from my antenna says
may no fantasy hold my head up
just another day in the polar vortex
do i do my thing & just keep my head down?
or do i eclipse back to atlanta, no
may no fantasy hold my head up
nor may no memory fold my head in
cuz i don’t know how
but i’m thinking it’ll all work out
cuz i don’t know how
but i’m thinking it’ll all work out
in the night when i feel your absence
like a dotted line across my shoulder
like a silver vision across the desert
may no memory hold my head up
now
the endless night & i lift my head up where
beyond my window a thread of light lives
with manhattan island on the horizon
no! may no memory hold my head up
nor may no fantasy fold my head in
cuz i don’t know how
but i’m thinking it’ll all work out
cuz i don’t know how
but i’m thinking it’ll all work out
cuz i don’t know how
but i’m thinking it’ll all work out
cuz i don’t know how
but i’m thinking it’ll all work out
drink water
good posture
good lighting
good evening
you’re mourning
the loss of
a feeling
a part of
a process
of living
a vision
to do what
you’re here to
you’re crying
not sleeping
i love you
good morning
i love you
you’re singing
i see you
you’re smiling
& lying
your hair in
a spiral
drink water
good posture
good lighting
good evening
good morning
good morning
good morning
i see you
you left gleaming
a green rectangle around the door
please be careful
what you wish for
i whisper to myself
then i’m spinning it half around
like an echo
a faraway sound
saying
be good to me
be good to me
marigold in the garden
my heart is out in the garbage
i am being
an alarmist
cuz for as far as i see
is terrible territory
& there’s no one
to reassure me
so it would be good to talk
for my sanity
now do what you feel like you gotta do
but be good to me
when you walk away
you still exist & i feel good knowing it
if it hurts me
why’d i rely so much on in the first place
if it’s happening
then why’s this feeling taking over me
can i believe
in the me before i knew you beautifully
can i believe
in the me before i knew you beautifully
can i believe
in the me before i’m lost on yesterday
can i believe
in the me before i knew you beautifully
you left gleaming
a green rectangle around the door
please be careful
what you wish for
i whisper to myself
then i’m spinning it half around
like an echo
a faraway sound
saying
be good to me
be good to me
marigold in the garden
my heart is out in the garbage
i am being
an alarmist
cuz for as far as i see
is terrible territory
& there’s no one
to reassure me
so it would be good to talk
for my sanity
now do what you feel like you gotta do
but be good to me
when you walk away
you still exist & i feel good knowing it
if it hurts me
why’d i rely so much on in the first place
if it’s happening
then why’s this feeling taking over me
can i believe
in the me before i knew you beautifully
can i believe
in the me before i knew you beautifully
can i believe
in the me before i’m lost on yesterday
can i believe
in the me before i knew you beautifully
scared to know
i’m scared to know
you got me talkin in the dark
saying anything i can
damnit i’m scared to know
i’m scared to know
but i need to know!
then
on the bad long drive home
i encountered an animal
scared stiff in the lights of the van & i
swerved & i flailed in the road
then i was screaming i was
shouting in the dark
saying anything i can
damnit i’m scared to know
i’m scared to know
but i need to know!
so
i’m in this moment
& i can’t see past it
i’m in this disaster
i’m in this traffic
& it keeps on going
but it keeps me asking
what’s in this moment?
i woke up grinding my teeth
with you next to me just smiling
my friend through hairpin bends
you do upend my island
through infidel skies
through asphodel eyelids
one eye at a time
i can’t wait to go home
to be there when the new world comes
i woke in startling light
then it became night just as suddenly
i’ll be as true as i can
through this circumstance but it’s tiring
through zinfandel eyes
through infinite aisles
one mile at a time
i can’t wait to go home
to be there when the new world comes
to forget where the old world was
that night when i lifted my head up
& i was seeing what was trembling there
on the edge of my restless eyelid
on the tip of the horizon’s lash
on the lip of the collapsing letter
in the lap of the confusing moon
i’m reduced to an estranged illusion
i’m consumed by all the shit in my room
well & maybe i could pick my room up
carve a path on my moonlit floor
through the colors i adorned my body with
in the ritual of life i adored
but nowadays i usually just get up
put on a sweater from the day before
like you said it’s got to get better
i wear my shadow like a uniform
& i’m torn right through
divided right in two
so well i do align my library
by the colors on the spine of my books
when i’m looking for resolution
but there’s wreckage everywhere i look
& there’s bramble scratching at the window
& there’s silver shining on the thorns
i could have sworn the moon was singing to me
strung in a phase so strange & torn
but now the stars look fake & strung up
& the colors on my floor are worn
& the hues on my body are muted
in the shadow of my uniform
& i’m torn right through
divided right in two
i’m lost & i’m losing
the brightest light i knew
i knew
is life kicking up dust right now?
has life given up for you right now as well?
o what is life giving us?
i wake up & feel totally the same
i woke up the same as yesterday
with no news of any kind
the long morning, the wide afternoon
& then night could be coming soon too
but when it finally does
it’s endless
but it’s an honor to feel this way
to feel the color of the longest day
cuz it’s a shadow that many know
& well it’s feeling pretty bad to me
but i don’t think it goes on endlessly
but the horizon’s lifting away from me
& it seems
endless
when this is over
when this is under
a foot of water
hold me forever
hold me forever
when this is under
when this is over
hold me forever
when this is over
when this is under
a foot of water
hold me forever
hold me forever
when this is under
when this is over
hold me forever
i’ll go if you want
alcove in the dark
yellow marigold
all folded up in the front
i’ll go to the west
where my family is
where emily is not
i’ll go where i want
my friends in the east
they bring me peace
but they need release
i’ll go if you want
little insect upside down & trying
to right-side-up itself felt by my right foot tapping
squirming mechanism & it spins & tips vertical
but in my alien eye i can see he is beautiful
well i love my neighbor
i love his determined behavior
if it were me i probably
might have just stayed there
mid-sized opossum in front of my house dying
collided with a vehicle driving it out through the lightning
she falls down softly in the middle of the lane incoming
& it’s clearly incumbent on me to run out to her & do something
so i approach her there i’m suddenly squirming
& i’m scared & i’m tryna do right but i guess i desecrate everything
well i love my neighbor
i loved her courageous behavior
a ray now shines out of her mouth
& it points back to nature
morning gosling echoing wide around me
a v migrating down easy to a better climate
a startling shot rings out & now the geese are all screaming
the marksman’s adrenaline’s up as he stands up smiling
well i love my neighbor but
don’t understand his behavior
i love that bird
but i don’t ever want to take her