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We Were Enchanted (2008 album)

by Roommate

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1.
Day After 02:51
We laughed so much our chests caved in our stomachs ruptured Some kind of rapture like in scripture We cried so much we thought we'd drown We thought we'd perish withered pale and hairless naked and embarrassed But instead we washed up on gentle shores our wounds healed and sealed and our bones restored We ate and ate until we could eat no more We drank and drank until we drink no more We slept and slept until we could sleep no more We dreamt until there was no morning We dreamt until there was no morning We dreamt until there was no mourning.
2.
It's been happening a lot lately just before I wake up I see the most terrible things-- School buses exploding volcanos erupting from the tops of skyscrapers moustaches dripping with blood The kid's playing video games he's probably been up all night He's mumbling something about potions and daggers he's firing missiles into corpses He says that the ghost in the kitchen keeps turning the microwave on Is that you funny monkey? Where'd you learn to do that? Please don't teach the new cat Someday we'll let the machines do everything, everything Someday we'll never complain And our most talented friends will wake up and work again, work again Shake shake shake their skinny fists again The old man tried to kill the curse but he only made it worse He left us with a song and dance he left us, he left us, he left us with a heart attack A mother in the hospital a sister in the grave A brother in a supermax with no one to save him and no one to save The kid's teacher tells him this is not the golden age Something tells me that there was never a golden age never a golden age Someday the oil will run out and airplanes forever will be grounded We will learn to survive from the neighbor's garbage Troubled heads will prevail with songs that shimmer and wail Kings of pain will reign via email Like all the other kings they will fail. Funny monkey, come haunt us again attack us, distract us with your gale force winds Bring us a virus, unite us in irrational fear Bring us a mandate and some band-aids and a six-pack of beer Bring us something to make us think of something else Bring us medicine but don't bring us health Bring us money but don't bring us wealth Bring us something else, something else It's been happening a lot lately just before I fall asleep I see the most beautiful things The kid's playing video games with a glint in his eyes like flint in a brushfire He's singing along to some secondhand song He's flying a Porsche through a gorgeous sunset There is beauty all around Even when we wandered in a terrible trance We could feel the romance We made such magical sounds as we climbed from terraces verdant and rancid We were enchanted.
3.
Way Out 04:04
It's raining, it's raining and the sun is out There is fever, there is fever in the town There are fires in the castle and all around There is cancer, there is cancer in my house Bone doctor says I'm in trouble That I should save for medicine Witch doctor pulled me from the rubble He saved my life then made a deathmask from my skin You're crying, you're crying and your hair is down There is fighting, there is fighting in the street There are soldiers in the schoolhouse and underground There's a pile of flesh and flowers at your feet Town cryer says we're in trouble That we should run toward the sun Crooks and liars, picks and shovels We'll leave them all behind before this day is done I'm floating, I'm floating over angry crowds There is magic, there is magic in the sky Will you find me in my tiny corner of the clouds? I'll be waiting with my hands over my eyes Ringbearer, bring another eulogy Make it short and sweet and pretty, get it right this time Wayfarer, burn another effigy Make a show of it They won't be getting over this, not tonight Get on with it Keep the bonfires lit, all right All right.
4.
New Steam 04:39
Newsman Sing me the blues, man Please don't cry I've seen the images I've heard the screams I need you to tell me how to feel about the whole thing, yeah? It's all so horrible I'm inconsolable Why don't you sing me something anyway, yeah? Sing me a lullaby I'd like to sleep tonight I've been staring at the news for five days Newswoman There's a bad storm coming Don't look so afraid You've got a tidy script You'd be wise to stick to it We know that we'll be fucked when we wake up But please just tell us we'll be safe, yeah We'll all be watching you So sing us a tune or two Isn't that what you get paid so much to do, yeah? Sing us a lullaby We just might sleep tonight Maybe we can dream the news away, yeah Maybe we can dream the news away, yeah Maybe we will dream the news away.
5.
Tea Leaves 04:04
You've got it really good at least that much is understood You've got a lot of nerve to say I don't deserve you Did I hurt you when I conquered all the earth for you when I signed my life in blood to you when I swallowed up the flood and struck the thunder of our love We've got everything to lose we've got papercuts and bruises and constitutional abuses in this the palace of our choosing We could flee this dynasty in paper wigs and latex faces we could hide in distant places places we once promised we'd destroy We'll kill the killjoys and sell the story to the tabloids they'll sift for glory through the boring details the gory details of our love I've read the tea leaves and I know that you will never leave me and even though I know you won't believe me I know I know I know I know I know I know we'll never die The gods will find us and with their sacraments they'll bind us and they will cast our love behind us leaving nothing to remind us that we were once the greatest lovers in the world They will cast our love behind us leaving nothing to remind us that we were once the greatest lovers in the world.
6.
Rise and shine my friend It's your birthday--the first day of summer Yeah, the world's getting dumber but don't you stop getting smart It might be news to you that you are no one until someone makes you I know you've been waiting to break through Try not to break apart Get your best guitar and take your mother's car up to the lake house Get the lead out-- your new friends are expecting you You won't sleep tonight-- as long as there's light you'll be singing The songs you're bringing will drown out the howls of the midnight sun Sing your best for them-- let them see the fear and hear the love You'll never work again if you can show them what you're made of All your city friends will spin and spin and spin and spin you into legend They will close their eyes and proselytize as waste flames light up the sky Rise and shine my friend In this riverbed you are born again On this mountain of garbage such beautiful grasses grow Scale the canyon wall From the cliffs you will see how a great city falls into ruin In that crater of fire there soon will be mountains of snow In your second life you're a siren song of awkward sex And it's a putrid rain that beats against your glory chest You are sick with rage waiting for the scene to render Don't you close your eyes when the dragons fly and fake names light up the sky In your dreams tonight you will suffer salvation by candlelight and I will tell you that in hell there are worse things than fire And the ghost brigades in their slow parade up to heaven They will sing with a fury that only the Lord can inspire We are young and strong and death is whistling through the trees It's a stupid song but still it brings us to our knees We are sick with rage waiting for the light to change We'd better close our eyes.
7.
It is the night It is the night It is the night come in the afternoon We are the flies We are the flies We're always flying over your dead bodies Because we're all real tired of me We're real tired of the shitty stuff Well let's eliminate the downtime and the throw-up Let's fool ourselves again Well let's eliminate the temple and the anchor and the hooks that don't sink in Because we're all real tired of me We're real tired of the city...
8.
Isn't Radio 06:07
You can keep your cheap nostalgia You can keep your lucky pen Never mind what your parents called you You're a fine little specimen Who will you regale with your family folk-tales now that the radio ran away? (and a sunset blaze fades to smoke trails) You could take to the streets You could take to the shadows You could fake like you've taken your own life and you could hide in Colorado or really anywhere the wind don't blow go, go go go go make your way past the border patrol and into Mexico! At the top of the mountain your brain turns to cotton and your veins turn to ice Transmitters are on but the songs are long forgotten These bone-tired anthems will have to suffice stone-fired anthems will have to suffice It isn't radio but it almost sounds like what radio used to sound like long ago A schoolboy's magic show in a field of candy Mouths foaming and bodies slamming and hearts aglow It isn't radio it's a brokedown torch song buried under a stamped-out campfire It's the last hot coal It's isn't radio but it almost sounds like what radio used to sound like long ago.

about

100% of Roommate's share of proceeds to benefit The National Network of Abortion Funds:
abortionfunds.org

"The album title, We Were Enchanted, holds all the keys. It starts with fantasy not as escapism but introspection and ends with a promising new direction for groupthink. Lambert finds enchantment not in fantasy outside of reality but in the strange fantasies that teem beneath reality, the oozing stuff that dreams are made of. To explore this territory on a purely personal level is indulgent in an honorable enough, sabbatical-type way but to join with a host of peers in mining those depths for some kind of transcendent commonality, some communion, some community…that shit’s dangerously close to sublime."

-Chet Betz, Cokemachineglow (from blurb at #17 in Top 50 Albums of 2008)

credits

released April 15, 2008

All songs by Kent Lambert (ASCAP) except “Night” by Cody Hennesy.
String arrangements by Erica Dicker except “Last Dreams of Summer” by Erica Dicker and Keith Lawrence.

Produced in Chicago between November 2006 and October 2007 by Gerard Barreto, Seth Vanek, Kent Lambert, Justin Petertil, Luther Rochester, Jamie Carter and Todd Leibov at Roommate HQ, the Ice Factory, Milquetoast Sounds, Three Pear Studios, Carterco Recording, the Compound, and the Mix Suite. Mastered by Carl Saff.

Artwork by Dean Rank.

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Roommate Chicago

Roommate began as a Kent Lambert solo project in NYC in 2000 and has been an ever-mutating Chicago band since 2004. The band's 2015 album MAKE LIKE was described by [sic] magazine's Tim Clarke as "astute, economical, meticulously performed and produced, and deeply affecting, both lyrically and musically." ... more

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