1. |
Opportunity
03:49
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Start your thirties here; embrace the fusion
Of self-loathing and self-delusion
Opportunity favors the harmless
Buying loyalty to the charmless
The young boss loves irony (not certain questions)
His drunken pratfalls are sober deflections
Middle management needs willing dancers
Watch us pirouette with classic answers
Take your opportunity
Take your opportunity
Take your opportunity
A billion points of data, hand-collected, placed in series
But your client hates the findings so you twiddle with the queries
Cold War authors all predicted pompous towers and dying greenery
Not that humans would read There Will Come Soft Rains to the machinery
Here’s your opportunity
Here’s your opportunity
Here’s your opportunity
Here’s your opportunity
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2. |
Hideaway
03:53
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Sightseers will appear
To rent the sun
They’ve spent their summers here
Since they were young
On dual salary, it’s attainable
But lately a bit less sustainable
Private yard where the kids can play
Hideaway
Hideaway
A place to loosen ties
Leave doors unlocked
Smile at passersby
Buy the same stock
It’s easy to live generously
When you’ve been guaranteed your slice of luxury
Half the point is to overpay
Hideaway
Hideaway
Why not unplug the siren bell?
It doesn’t serve the clientele
You’ll get to watch it all unfold
If you can either sell or be upsold
Not a worry for you today
Hide away
Hide away
Sidelines still risk a ricochet
Hide away
Hide away
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3. |
Compromised
04:39
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Tom learned the rules
Principled commerce from our best schools
To spend his days
Teaching compliance to MBAs
No one takes notes
Who writes down jokes?
At least they pay his full quote
Tell me your compromise
Something to romanticize
Tom joined a band, bought new guitars
Played Bowie covers to empty bars
A vintage amp, another grand
His credit card drawn by sleight of hand
Fantasy met
Spark glows a speck
Then back to work off the debt
Were we so compromised
By what we romanticized?
When did you compromise?
When did you compromise?
When did you dress up your passions in sequin gowns-
Raise walls around them, pour resin down?
When did you compromise?
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4. |
I Could Be Better
02:05
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Someone whispered
That to hold tight is greed
Midnight seeds sprout indecision
Stop maintaining
Let the garden decay
While you wait for validation
I could be better
I won’t be someone else
If I’m your tether
Moving the fence won’t keep you happy long
Ultimatums
Clear assignments to fail
Martyrs wail, parade their toils
You want a burden
You want a warden
You’re casting parts in a play
Either way
I could be better
I just want you to want me to
But I’m no beggar
And I guess neither are you
I could be better
I won’t be someone else
I could be better
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5. |
Tonight's Entertainment
03:27
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Dine with our tortoise-shell villain
Already has a drink in him
Tentative words as if his thoughts aren’t final
Sits in silence, staring idly at his chair’s flaking vinyl
Avoids your eyes, swearing, “Honest…”
Some other time he might want this
Tentative words as if his thoughts made by others
Sits in silence in the shadow of the laughter and lovers
Band takes the stage, house lights dwindling
As smooth as fire takes kindling
Finish your drink and weigh your dining arrangement
If there’s nothing more to find here than tonight’s entertainment
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6. |
Wealth On Display
04:04
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’61 Betty Crocker guide:
“Charm your guests with Chiffon cake inside”
By ’64 Mom dropped the attribution
If you ask, a Campbell family institution
Dad plays host; out comes the Cavalcade projector
Slides and smoke as he boasts of our last adventure
“Have you heard? That Salazar has rescued Lisbon.
Call our man; he’ll book a trip just off commission.”
Dad retires to his phonograph:
Cheap Nonesuch records
Slap stylish covers
On dusty imports,
Early composers
Class signifiers
Met mass assembly
All of our wealth on display,
Intellectually
American gentility crawled back to the harpsichord and ballroom
Dad demands we learn to play grandma’s painted heirloom
Neighbor’s boy plinks For Your Love on his mail-order kit
Mom can’t quite explain what makes it such a dire threat
Brubeck toured Asia;
His model example
produced a hit record
for Eisenhower’s mantle
Bureaucrats heard jazz
and circled like vultures
for laundering Dulles
through the counterculture
All on display
All on display
All on display
All on display
All on display
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Andrew Schneider Chicago, Illinois
Andrew Schneider is a multi-instrumentalist based out of Chicago, writing and producing Art Rock, Jazz, Indie/Alternative, Psychedelia, Post Punk, and more. Andrew is inspired by XTC, Talking Heads, Joe Jackson, David Bowie, and any other artist who refuses to commit to a single sound or style. ... more
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