1. |
Change This World
04:13
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Change this world I would
Change this world if I could
I drove into the city
I walked into the restaurant
To tell my brother that he
No longer terrified me
I took the time to say it
To work up to the moment
Where courage meets conviction
Where cold facts meet devotion
Change this world I would
Change this world if I could
And when the words escaped he
Realised the fear had left me
He spoke the words so slowly
The truth never hurts nobody
Change this world I would
Change this world if I could
I held the briefcase lightly
It had never been about the money
But to waste it seems a pity
So I drove out of the city
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2. |
Banoffee
03:29
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You take a magazine off the shelf
Suddenly you feel you should be someone else
But when I see that my heart just melts
Cause I don’t want to spend my life with anybody else
The only one is you
And no one else can do
The things that make me smile
Your love it makes me sing
You light up everything
Your spirit shines for miles
Our friends are laughing as you clean your plate
Cause you’ve always thought banoffee was a place in the States
But your humility which lets them laugh
Is something I wish I could capture like in a photograph
The only one is you
And no one else can do
The things that make me smile
Your love it makes me sing
You light up everything
Your spirit shines for miles
You can’t stay and we can’t stay here forever
You can’t stay and we can’t stay here for long
You can’t stay and we can’t stay together forever
Someday one of us will be left on our own
So let’s not hurry to be old and grey
Let’s break every little rule and transcend every dumb cliché
The only one is you
And no one else can do
The things that make me smile
Your love it makes me sing
You light up everything
Your spirit shines for miles
Your love it makes me sing
You light up everything
Your love
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3. |
Retreat (feat. Jo Mango)
04:57
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Turn off the light
This headache is blinding my sight
Give me your wrist
So you can't hurt yourself with your fist
All this fear and doubt
Is just trying to fight it’s way out
This box of stones
Made me feel we weren't alone
Now I can't hide
From this thought that we've been filled with lies
Open your eyes
Pull me inside
So I can
Hide with you my love
When our answers are not enough
When we question all we've seen
Come retreat to love with me
That’s where I’ll be
When you can’t understand
Why we think there is more
Than the sleight of our hands
When the curtain comes down
When silence is king
When people are fools
To believe in anything
I’ll hide with you my love
When our answers are no longer enough
When we question all we’ve seen
Come retreat to love with me
I’ll hide with you my love
When our answers are not enough
When we question all we’ve seen
Come retreat
Retreat with me
Turn off the light
This headache is blinding my sight
I dreamed last night
That we fell through the holes in our lives
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4. |
Testimony
03:45
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I know what you’re gonna say
When things don’t go my way
You say “I don’t fault your faith, I still think that it’s true”
I know what you’re gonna do
When faced with people like me
You say “I don’t know what you want, but this is not what you need”
But I want to know
I want to know
Why everybody looks to the past to be their testimony
When all that I can recall is I was bored and lonely
Tell me what’s wrong with today
Tell me what’s right about tomorrow
And I can’t believe you
When I know that you’re wrong
Why can’t you wake up and see
That we are not who we claimed we could be
I know what you believe
But you’re not the same as me
So don’t push me around and tell me the same old stories
Where everybody looks to the past to be their testimony
When all that I can recall is I was bored and lonely
Tell me what’s wrong with today
Tell me what’s right about tomorrow
Everybody looks to the past to be their testimony
When all that I can recall is I was bored and lonely
Tell me what’s wrong with today
Tell me what’s gonna change tomorrow
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5. |
Sad and Lonely World
03:39
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Now as then, seven years on
In my heart you are strong
Every day I feel the same
No regrets, nothing’s changed
Still the most beautiful girl
In this sad and lonely world
My eyes are clean, body untouched
Come to me, better come
Every tape, every song
All to say I belong
With the most beautiful girl
In this sad and lonely world
Overtaken by desire
My love is cast in a burning fire
I can’t go forwards won’t go back
Some say we are getting old
Losing beauty in this world
But every night when we pray
I wake up younger every day
In this invisible world
With the most beautiful girl
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6. |
Honestly
04:29
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I have been this way for forever
Yeah always waiting on your honest reply
What more can I give than my heart, my come and my cry
You didn’t get this far all on your own
You didn’t get this far by leaving home
You didn’t get this far by avoiding my calls
So why can’t you open up your heart
Is being honest all that hard
You have no reason to be scared
Or under prepared
All that I can hear is singing
Sometimes I think I’d rather hear your disgust
At the way that you think you’ve been treated since you rose from the dust
You didn’t get this far all on your own
You didn’t get this far being all alone
You didn’t get this far by pretending I’m dead
So why can’t you open up your heart
Is being honest all that hard
You have no reason to be scared
Or under prepared
You’re telling me lies every single day
Think you’re keeping the peace
You’re only paving the way
For a bitter day
You think I should suffer all over again
Are you my enemy or friend
What you want now is what you’ll get in the end
So why can’t you open up your heart
Is being honest all that hard
You have no reason to be scared
So you’re free to run away from here
Down to the depths I’ll still be near
A simple no is all I need
Honestly
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7. |
City is Mine
04:50
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I dreamed all your dreams
As a young man
Now I’ve deleted those scenes
I don’t understand
Why you would choose
To model the role
Of the powerful king
Who gives up control
This city is mine
This city is mine
To hide behind
The winter is here
The dark quiet nights
And in them the fear
That one day you might
Break through the defences
That border my land
And pull out my tongue
And cut off my hands
This city is mine
This city is mine
To hide behind
When you come to meet me
All dressed in white
Your eye on the sparrow
Your eyes filled with light
Will you wrap your arms
Round my loveless bones
My vision fuelled heart
That’s turned into stone
This city is mine
This vision
This kingdom
This love
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8. |
A Bad Friend
03:58
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Nothing makes me shiver with regret like when I think
Of all the friends I’ve had and how I’ve made all their hearts sink
By doing something stupid that could bring things to an end
I’m sorry for being a bad friend
So if I punched you in a rage, did not defend you when attacked
Dropped you for another friend at the drop of a hat
I made you the joke so I was not the one laughed at
I’m sorry for being a bad friend
I always wanted to control you, did not allow you to be free
Undermined your sweet uniqueness, thought that you should be like me
Criticised you for your weaknesses, denied you any grace
I called you the c-word directly to your face
I’m sorry for being a bad friend
A good friend would not have hurt you
A good friend would not have let you down
The way I’ve done
I didn’t send you any invites to the parties that I held
Told all the world the secrets that I’d sworn I wouldn’t tell
Got drunk out of loneliness and scared you with my need
To have someone to hold and who would want to hold me
I’m sorry for being a bad friend
So I believe in God’s forgetfulness but maybe not in yours
If I’ve hurt you then I’m sorry, I hope she can heal the bruise
Her failing memory is a mercy that none of us deserve
Her forgiveness is the road from which now on I will not swerve
I’m sorry for being a bad friend
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9. |
Touch My Skin
04:32
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I don’t have time for you to be my
Conqueror or conquest, friend or foe
The sun’s coming up now and you’ve got to go
But I don’t want to fight you anymore
Just touch my skin or else I’ll never let go
I can’t decide if I should be afraid
Will you strike me down if I laugh in your face
Beat you till daybreak and kick out your teeth
My knuckles and bones ache but I give no relief
And I don’t want to fight you anymore
Just touch my skin or else I’ll never let go
Ask me my name I’ll tell you each dirty letter
Just promise that you’ll change it to something better
And I thought I couldn’t hurt you
But I could not have been more wrong
Why else would I be holding on
You don’t need protection from people like me
So I’ve stopped pretending to like what I see
I think you’ve a soft spot beneath your thick skin
For people who fight even you for what they believe in
And I don’t want to fight you anymore
Just touch my skin or else I’ll never let go
Ask me my name I’ll tell you each dirty letter
Just promise that you’ll change it to something better
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10. |
A Crumbling Empire
02:55
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Give me a clean slate
Give me a cold day
Clear skies and sunlight
Fogged breath and frostbite
Breakfast in Brooklyn
The day wasted looking
Over the skyline
The city I’d thought was mine
A packet of Camels
A flask of Jack Daniels
A fire by the lochside
Talking past midnight
My friends keep on calling
On someone who’s fallen
They think I’ve forgotten
Who I’ve turned my back on
And in the silence
In the dark
Under your stars
I give you my heart
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Andrew Howie Scotland, UK
Andrew Howie is a Scottish singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist & community music tutor who has been writing, recording and releasing his own music for over two decades.
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