Symptoms Of A Leveling Spirit
 

1.  Fire Engine Red
2.  Enter The Unapproachables
3.  Yesterday's Headlines
4.  Great Leap Forward
5.  Cheyenne
6.  Libertine
7.  Trial Of The Century
8.  Nobody Likes A Cynic
9.  Year Of The Rat
10.  Pisces/Almost Home
11.  Defusing The Popular Struggle
12.  All The Joy You've Ever Known
13.  Blue Black Eyes
14.  Spit You Out
 

Fire Engine Red
you talk funny where're you from california i hate california forgotten stories of excess both real and fiction too many hollow lives spent chasing benediction we plummet to the earth like scores of fallen angels play out our tragedies on empty weathered stages but before we lose it all the final curtain call conflicted and dejected and dejected beware the opulence inherent in confusion when reality's obscured by clouds of disillusion held under far too long by the weight of our existence we labor fruitlessly against both time and distance but before we lose it all the final curtain call conflicted and dejected what's in the past can't be undone you've got to separate to become one your indecision hides the guilt just underneath your clouded eyes so sick you'd sell your soul for another fifteen minute lie.

Enter The Unapproachables
yeah you don't speak not a single word can't correlate a single thing you've heard you just erase all the things we've said with a mask of disapproval and it's always about you convinced yourself there's better things to do like building a wall hey hey you double up at the thought of fun you're not concerned about anyone you're alone when the sun goes down like a cold forsaken shadow and you're trapped inside yourself nothing can reach you nobody matters anyway just building a wall hey hey hey taking a fall hey hey hey and it's always about you convinced yourself there's better things to do you're looking outside for purpose and piece of mind and you may never find you'll never find freedom.

Yesterday's Headlines
running short on imagination still we waste it all on words spoken without the benefit of our minds the candle burns the edges fray our best intentions waste away and everybody loves the things we've done and on and on and on life appears weightless for everyone but me this world grows heavier everyday deterioration growing old before my time nobody cares nevermind we all prey on a vain condition and the hopelessness of it all these days there's nothing we can trust the dreams we made we've seen them fade trampled by our sad parade yet we're so pleased with what we've done and on and on and i'm done life appears weightless for everyone but me this world grows heavier everyday deterioration growing old before my time nobody cares the mind breaks down when it dies our machine's doubled in size to orchestrate the grand collapse i see us all trapped in its path there was a time we were unbound as if we'd never hit the ground but just like rain we can't keep from falling.

The Great Leap Forward
once were standing for something with true strength and heart but the old manifesto has splintered apart driven from homes to the depths of despair hear the cries of the innocent ring through the air genocide a new class warfare pushed aside to make all the people one drop dead because freedom's a cancer and state sponsored terror's the new land reform blinded by pride and national impulse weaned on the doctrines of lenin and marx a blood red scar on the new face of china exploding like tinder too close to the spark genocide the new class warfare pushed aside to make all the people one drop dead because freedom's a cancer and state sponsored terror's the new land reform oh this time it's genocide and the terror comes from within nobody's safe from the latest wave as the new repbulic's in we'll do away with agrarian notions bleed the population into fear you can't stop our populist expansion you've got no freedoms here hey.

Cheyenne
an infant reared on hatred never learns to hold diversity inviolate while so called moralists proclaim they've got the test to monitor the ways our love's expressed so just think it through hatred is the stillborn child of ignorance and boredom such a narrow view means seeds of tolerance are sown by those who can't afford them what will you do it's not too late for you to change your xenophobic point of view now your pontifications leave us draped in disbelief why should we suffer for the fear that's underneath if we could learn to cherish what sets us apart keep love instead of fear within our hearts so just think it through hatred is the stillborn child of ignorance and boredom such a narrow view means seeds of tolerance are sown by those who can't afford them what will you do it's not too late for you to change your xenophobic point of view big fucking man contestant in a freak show so quick to terrorize someone you hardly know don't see the pain when will you realize that love is never wrong just learn to empathize.

Libertine
i've been put down and pushed around but they won't break me i still believe been cast aside stood up for ridicule but i'm still here i feel the same this one's for those who'll never understand it's not a blueprint or a master plan all i know is nothing that i've done before held me so strong never steered me wrong and with every passing day distills my dedication in a clouded world you kept me clear and there's a part of you in all i've done been second guessed thought immature but for what it's worth know that i'm still here i wonder what i could have done instead to quell the anger boiling in my head unlike so many things you've never let me down never steered me wrong and with every passing day distilled my dedication with you i've never felt alone and as i stumble through these days i hope you'll understand it's so much more than a phase it's everything i am when i've strayed in darker times when i'm feeling left behind you're always there the music somehow seems to get me by.

Trial Of The Century
what does it mean when you're sixteen the world's a cold and lonely place but you're still kicking every door down in the place the war of words they're so uptight you pass a hundred sleepless nights and the worst is yet to come or so they say here comes seventeen and just beyond there's tolerance and empathy to protect you from them all a stand of evergreen just like the places we would always talk about to catch you when you fall you hear a knock outside the door it never rains here anymore so now there's nothing new to wash away the pain a frightened face your clouded mind the memories you've trailed behind and seventeen still feels light years away here comes seventeen and just beyond there's tolerance and empathy to protect you from them all a stand of evergreen just like the places we would always talk about to catch you when you fall nobody seems to understand you as you're grasping for that innocence sequestered in your mind was it guilt or were they blind all this time a frightened face your clouded mind the memories you've trailed behind and seventeen still feels light years away here comes seventeen and just beyond there's tolerance and empathy to protect you from them all a stand of evergreen just like the places we would always talk about to catch you when you fall.

Nobody Likes A Cynic
cause trash like you will never have the means with which to live in any modicum of luxury or vague derivative of comfort don't stray beyond your class you'll never crack this ceiling made of glass oh just live to work and then expire keep your mouth shut you might retire with something more than debts stretched far beyond your means pledge allegiance to the corporate machines don't you dare step out of line everything will be just fine but you'd better mind your place just learn to be a good consumer you're now a number you've no longer got a face oh oh oh oh let my anger be my declaration my dissent my participation resistance isn't any use just comsume obey and reproduce the next working class who'll shoulder your burden of despair your empty cries for a living wage our system doesn't care we don't care that our system won't provide for public health we don't care that you're left out in the cold all by yourself we don't care.

Year Of The Rat
a fool's crusade a proxy war we justify we keep the score with millions dead too blind to see the cryptic clash of world war three did your country's sons and daughters die to make this world a safer place or do we just defy flesh and blood become one the stakes keep rising the time has come the band performs a martyr's versse and the dominoes fall in reverse did your country's sons and daughters die to make this world a safer place or do we just defy the lines are drawn don't you see it's too late to turn back now we won't abide a stalemate the end is predicated on the loss of life what's so sinister we're only trying to do what we think is right conscience administered by the ones with the shortest sight this business will get out of control it will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it.

Pisces/Almost Home
the sense of fear on which you feed when the people can't believe the things they read we've been brought up to feel left out eclipsed by the shadows of our doubts the pieces rise and rearrange and all the smiling faces seem so strange with tacit symmetry and prose i feel the doors behind me close you're here alone inside this crowd you've faced the world and made us proud but when the bitterness returns there's nothing left to hide the burns burns i've waited i've written on promises and dreams a thousand times still relegated to these lines like water untainted the sad quixotic trail i've left behind somehow it echoes in my mind and it almost feels like coming home.

Defusing The Popular Struggle
think i'm gonna like this democracy stuff once lost we will never find our way shutting down we're devoid of things to say our prospects are growing worse with every hour with no voice it seems we've got no power overcome by headlines we believe what isn't true you've got no empathy for anyone but you moral contradictions and subjective hollow tomes perpetuate the fear asphyxiating us at home so seems like there's no place left to hid from the cold amorphous dread that we all feel inside actions might dictate who survives the hopelessness which punctuates our empty lives could there be something i need a reason could there be anything at all systems of technology that once kept us informed now endeavor to perpetuate the norm privatization of concentrated wealth while millions still suffer in dilapidated health so who cares to calculate what indigence will cost how can we replicate urbanity that's lost the curtain falls on the ultimate disgrace we hunger for equality though we've never had a taste so seems like there's no place left to hid from the cold amorphous dread that we all feel inside actions might dictate who survives the hopelessness which punctuates our empty lives could there be something i need a reason could there be anything at all the irony will make you laugh intervene on our behalf to undo this mask of false complicity the right wing despotic government has manufactured our consent can we entrust ourselves to transorm their doctrine to dissent.

All The Joy You've Ever Known
when there's something that won't let you sleep can you live with the secrets you keep all the pain all the pride all the poison you've taken that's killing you inside there's a manifested bitterness in all the joy you've known there's no point in redemption some things are better left alone i've waited for freedom from bondage of self grown tired of grown cold grown sick of the doctrine the lies that i've been told there's a manifested bitterness in all the joy you've known there's no point in redemption some things are better left alone.

Blue Black Eyes
outlived a wasted life too soon to say goodbye one plot to call your own now it's our turn to cry i've been through this before these things are hard to take was it too much to live for one choice you felt you had to make and i've pissed my time away through countless life long wasted days why are all the simple things so lost in sorrow and my perspective so unclear life's cold and think with lies seen through the blue black eyes we squander as we smile things which once appeared worthwhile how views on life distort when we see a life cut short no cause to calculate absentia renders no debate and i've pissed my time away through countless life long wasted days why are all the simple things so lost in sorrow and my perspective so unclear through pain i've grown to learn just as long as life still burns won't sit around and wait until i burn down heaven's gate i know that i've pissed my time away through countless life long wasted days why are all the simple things so lost in sorrow and my perspective so unclear.

Spit You Out
uh we must therefore ensure that those idiots out there don't get into trouble by actually using their theoretical right to vote to interfere where they don't belong like in the public arena rejection like a promise unfulfilled from an emptiness distilled as one final sign perpetuates our slow decline we've failed the systems we've created drag us down on crowded streets we'll die alone our dreams are only flesh and bone one day some way when you fall apart and waste away you'll see no doubt this world is gonna spit you out drained no sign of life this world of lies is gonna cut you down to size one day some way when you fall apart and waste away you'll see no doubt this world is gonna spit they'll spit you out like a spoke in their machine some people break like glass it just might be your final chance to feel can you distinguish fate from what seems real enamored by the romance of regret i come pulling all the stops putting rain on all of this when the siren's in my sleep and her sorrow at my kiss i can't turn away all the have to when you pray all her vanity and vain pinning on her crazy face here in my head i hear you say here in my head i hear you pray time is what it's made made by others i regret remember me i hear it said out of faces i forget hope you get up off your feet shake the dust out of your shoes city lights and all my jazz all my demonstrations too here in my head i hear you say here in my head i hear you pray time is what it's made made by others i regret remember me i hear it said out of faces i forget here in my head i hear you say here in my head i hear you pray here in my head i hear you say here in my head i hear you pray.
 
 
 

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