"Polar"
 
Anchors down
We've hit the bottom
A vacant resolution
We've always revolved to
But the pivot's loose
The axis is off-centered
Don't look down past your equator
Your balance has transcended your anchor

The Storms Of Early Summer: Semantics Of Song (1998)



1.   The Rhyme Scheme
2.   A Career In Transcendence
3.   The Road To Financial Stability
4.   Tempest
5.   Break In The New Year
6.   Proposals
7.   Semantics Of Sermon
8.   A Little Song And Dance
9.   When Summer's Over Will We Dream Of Spring
10.   Northern Winds
11.   Abscense Makes The Day Go Longer

"The Rhyme Scheme"
 
Words have no feeling without loaded meanings
Words take too long to come across
Meanings are meant for defining defintions
We load them for efect, it's cheap but it's working

It's the best I've got to get your attention
I could never get your attention
I could never please you
The verses are wasted on words you won't relate to
On words you'll never hear

It's not working -- I don't feel any better
I don't feel so well
The verbal breakdown has failed
So I'm whispering secrets
Hush, hush, on the loudspeaker
Words sculpted on verse become absurd

But it's the best I've got to get your attention
I could never get your attention
I could never please you
Words so sympathetic -- symphonic, yet pathetic -- are tossed on to the song

The meaning is lost...
The meaning is lost...

Words... just... won't... work...
Words... are... slowly demeaning their meanings
Words... make... things... worse
Words... are... always repeating
Losing their meaning
These words failed
Words fail

"A Career In Transcendence"
 
Congratulations
Looks like you've finally made it, boy
You're a real major-leaguer now
Mama must be so, so, so proud
The word around
Is that your nest was too cozy
Well, some words are like bricks
And so we build our fortresses

You're on your own now, boy
I bet you've got the whole world figured out
One man cleans up after the pony
And another man rides that pony in,
And prances around
Isn't that what you were trained for?
But your words weigh you down
You've built your nest of bricks
Built your nest of bricks...

All we are is all we'll be
We think today, we say tomorrow
All (we think) we are (today) is all (we say) we'll be (tomorrow)
All (we think) we are (today) is all (we say) we'll be (tomorrow)

"The Road To Financial Stability"
 
Watching cars
Will anyone stop for us?
Or will we be passed by
Be passed on
The day passes away
The moment cracks along the sidewalk
And we're alone
Imagining what songs would be on our soundtrack

Maybe it's me
I've lost faith in visibility
On this street we are ghosts of the passers-by
Passive and stranded
The clouds are closing on
It's a storm watch, so beware
These cars have been known to capsize in strong winds

We've lost transmission...
We've lost transmission...

Don't tell me this is how it ends
Don't tell me this is how it ends

"Tempest"
 
Wind blown
A semi capsized in the storm
Stranded
The rains of June have cleansed it
A baptism of sufferage

Take two
One man beneath a waning moon
Still birth
The abortive child of entropy
Careening for identity

Tempt him
Break him in slowly
His heart is quick to judge
But his hands are too lonely
Break him in slowly...

Red dawn
Another storm opens her arms
She's whispering
"Surrender all your loyalties"
Hand over your idle hands of false idols
Let the rains embrace you

Now...
Break them in slowly
Young hearts are quick to judge
But their hands are so lonely
Break them in slowly...
Break them in slowly...

"Break In The New Year"
 
New years ago
We drank and danced and left our sour hearts behind
We sweetened for a kiss --
The kiss of a new year to come
But those days are gone
We never got resolution -- it never comes
All the best wishes were blown
So blow out your candles -- the year won
So long, to longing for the ressurrection of an unbrindled wantonness

Break in the new year...
Break in the new year...
Break in the new year...
Break in the new year...

Fear
Whipped us in shape
We must stay afraid -- our new god is discipline
New, but hardly improved, it's just new cliches
"They might nail your hands, but your neck has been saved"
So break in the new year with a vintage wine
Here's to aging, when some things just get bitter with age
And other are made to be broken
Broken
Broken in...

We're disciples of discipline
Sweetened for the kiss...
Off

"Proposals"
 
Let's get one thing straight: we don't have any answers
We are proposals in a cosmic nursery
And these massive stars -- they're just little twinkles
If I can't possess them at such magnificence
So if you can really hear me,
And you think you really believe in it
Then there must be some kind of privelege here
To putter around with such an existence
And if you see me on some stage
And you really believe it's me over there
Well, there's a chance it's not really me
Maybe we're not ourselves at all
And maybe being is simply believing that each breath we take in
Must lead to another breath out, one more breath yesterday
From yesterday -- and a timeline of yesterdays
Filled in with love or with pain or whatever bullshit we smear on our sleeves
I've found my cause, and this is it --
There are no answers

Am I what I am? Is that what this is? Is this all there is

"Semantics Of Sermon"
 
Since I wrote this am I the culprit
These useless wisdoms I dispense
At your expense
Picture postcards
A three minute essay
Some scribbled words to four line verse

Meanwhile, we mean well
We cannot escalate or escape this
So let's pretend our little songs are more than songs
More like sermons

Attention, attention
That's all we're asking for
Our little songs are our little whores
Jukebox cupids -- and the medium's a trend
The music lends itself to it -- to itself
The lyrics bend to make the song

Attention, attention
Don't tell me that's all we're writing for
Picture postcards
Three minute essays
We can never fit in what we want to say

"A Little Song And Dance"
 
I sat around for hours on end
For an end so clearly predetermined
I shall no longer play a part of your equation
I missed your boat a thousand times, I swear
You must have stayed off shore to avoid such relations
Avoidance has been your trump
But still I wait for you
This is the best I can do
To throw my energy into your apathy
It's the best I can do

I once had pride, I once had guts
But I gave up all that shit for the big easy
So now I rely on you to get me through this
I once believe I had a name
But my name was changed to the numbers on my resume
So I hope that you're impressed
I did it all for you
It's the best that I could do
A little song and dance
Can have its consequences
It's the best that I can do
To sit around the phone
The patience waits for you
This is the best that I can do
This is the best that I can do...

I sweat it out for hours on end
For an end so obviously predetermined