Get all 8 Tiger Cooke releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Will It Burn Or Will It Sting, Fingertips of the Silversmith, Out Of Reach, Live on the Orbital, Live at St Kevin's, Know You Hate Me, Wax & Seal, and The Sparks EP.
1. |
Rid Of Her
04:08
|
|||
|
Rid Of Her
My bad deeds and misdemeanours
Course through me
Every time I sleep
Next to you
Bowled over in a back street
Trying to glue myself together again
Like I was before
It’s just a flesh wound
Her face appears like a political statement
All angles fumbling for a foothold
I never wanted her
But I can’t get rid of her
Blind sided, hung over
‘cause I tried to flush her out of my frame
Blind sided, blitzkrieged
I could never do it in the cold light of day
I dried up two years ago
Now I’ve nothing but a few stray sentiments
Her face appears like a political statement
All angles fumblin' for a foothold
I never wanted her
But I can’t get rid of her
She ends on uptones, flies her flag
Wears her bloodline, like a military badge
Why do I feel just like your Ted Hughes
I don’t know what’s coming
Don’t know which tone
Don’t know which tone
to use
I’m an upstanding young citizen
Bystanding in my own show
Try not to think about it
Try not to think about it
I want a weapon that will cleanse my soul
Her face appears like a political statement
All angles fumbling for a foothold
I never wanted her
But I can’t get rid of her
|
||||
2. |
Andrea's Fault
05:05
|
|||
|
Andrea’s Fault
I knew this'd be my last stand
So how could you have saved me?
I blindfolded myself 8 months ago
I really believed in this distance thing
I’ve been blissfully moving myself along
Not doubting our positions at all
Now I’m playing it back in my head
Tryna work out the changes
I suppose I saw it coming
And you can call it what you will
I stepped over each chasm
Because I thought it was all Andrea’s Fault
Andrea's Fault
I remember someone on the starboard bow
Playing games with you over my head
And it never made sense ‘til now
And now I see it I don’t know how I missed it before
I suppose I saw it coming
And you can call it what you will
I stepped over each chasm
Because I thought it was all Andrea’s Fault
Andrea’s Fault
I knew this would be my last stand
So what could you have done for me
It’s a peculiar position
That I now find myself in (x3)
find myself in (x4)
wire myself in
tie myself in
to the faultline (x4)
I've got my hands on a seismic shift
oh can't you feel these platelets drift
But this is no Chelsea nor Lorraine
This is strange unmapped terrain
Fool that I am
I'm not a man
I am carrion
|
||||
3. |
Out Of Reach
03:44
|
|||
|
OUT OF REACH
It’s early afternoon
Dusty sunlight spilling through your door
I’d long given up on you
O, my pale blue muse
But every phrase I scrawl
On my bedsit walls… say
That you’re out of reach, out of time,
Out of mind, but not out of mine,
I can’t let your scent fade
No matter who you’re waiting
Or saving your sighing for
Pitch clouds forming, deep in my skull,
Have my troubles begun?
I can’t trace them, these knots I've tied,
years trying to explain you
with every phrase I scrawl on my bedsit walls…
But you’re out of reach, out of time,
Out of mind, but not out of mine,
I can’t let your scent fade
No matter who you’re waiting
Or saving your sighing for
Loving or hating
Or demystifying…
Oh some good things come to those who wait
But I do alright on my own
With no patience of my own
To reach you…
|
||||
4. |
Grinding Teeth
04:33
|
|||
|
GRINDING TEETH
This is a war of subtle defences
Grinding teeth and hidden agendas
All this time I've longed for defection... to your side
But who would you trade me for?
This is a war of subtle defences...
You're cut in black, and I'm stealing advances
Flash of your flesh heightens my senses
This is a war of subtle defences...
I say,... “I will protect you always”
And we both know that's not true
But these are the lies that keep things smooth
Keep things smooth
I'm not sure any more where I stand
Born a refugee in my own land
This is a war of subtle defences...
And I will protect you always
And we both know that's not true
But these are the lies that keep things smooth...
|
||||
5. |
This Isn't Easy
04:04
|
|||
|
THIS ISN'T EASY
Every day seems ripe
But it's all turned to wine by night
And I feel curiously reconciled
With the knots you tie around my spine
Falling through your hoops
It's not like I can't see the truth
But I gravitate towards the gun
With every text you fire through my lungs
This isn't easy for me
Nor should it be
I was wrong all along about you
But I'm too far gone to change my view
All it took was a mild transgression
And a question
My space or yours
This isn't easy for me
This isn't easy for me
Bruises start to show
It'd make sense to let it go
But I drink-dial you every night
You play me without dice
This isn't easy for me
Nor should it be
|
||||
6. |
Not In My Nature
03:05
|
|||
|
Not In My Nature
I hold vague beliefs
That leave me nowhere to belong
I crave your approval
But I’m clinging to the walls
I worship your detachment
Even when my bluffs are called
Feel no shame nor contradiction
In where my loyalties fall
But it’s not in my nature
To wait and see
If I slip between the cracks
‘cause you make it hard for me
My eyes, scattered and bloodshot
Tell tales of a reckless mind
Your frame, gilded and golden
Voice full of money, in a sinner's smile
Seeking love in anonymous places
A second life on a wireless basis
Somewhere I don't have to read the faces
You never notice my distractions
While I’ve got tattoos of yours
I never claimed to understand it
But I've got a thing for your Polly Jean
But it’s not in my nature
To wait and see
If I fall between the cracks
‘cause you make it hard for me
|
||||
7. |
||||
|
There’s An Elvis In Us All
Bedlam on the corner
there’s a darkness on the town
yet another fella’s burned out
and gone
Home-brewed fuse is burning
a little too fast for the crowd
bite the bitter bullet
to sleep prescribe to dream
wonder how I’ll end up
will I go that far?
who’ll be there to push me?
there’s an elvis in us all
stealing all the outtakes
clearing out the vaults
wrap him up in autumn
to have and be sold
wonder how I’ll end up
will I go that far?
who’ll be there to push me?
there’s an elvis in us all
between the heart and the life lines
maps of wars you wage and lose
dread the hours of last orders
with all these unlived lives
with all these unlived lives
with all these unlived lives....
...buying all the bootlegs
learning all the words
listening closely
for the signs we missed before
|
||||
8. |
Your Green Lights
04:17
|
|||
|
YOUR GREEN LIGHTS
I was breaking
my deficits were surely down to her
I was waking
and suddenly tracing every string back to you
Moving in tangents
waltzing with strangers through music aisles
But I’m signal blind and I can’t see
your green lights
in your blue eyes
Resurrected,
and I find myself browsing again
I know names now,
and I forget them, but at least that’s a start
Moving through circuits new and old,
fumbling for sparks and footholds
But I’m signal blind and I can’t see
your green lights
in your blue eyes
if they’re there at all
vinyl hissing through a warm sweet evening
talking til the temperature’s freezing
I love not knowing what you’re thinking
but it’s killing you
getting washed up on the rocks
self control picks these locks
why ruin this gorgeous tension
'though it’s killing me
'though it's killing me
'though it’s killing me
But I’m signal blind and I can’t see
your green lights
in your blue eyes
in your blue eyes...
in your blue eyes...
if they're there at all...
|
||||
9. |
I Knew Better
03:49
|
|||
|
I Knew Better
I was lost, upstate, On a wave of psychadelic
urges and dirges and beaches of the heart
Someone screamed, and the sky sung seconds
As we faded and fell like cinematic art
Over here, With the stone cold nights
I can’t sleep without pasting up pictures in my mind
Of home, where nothing ever changes
It’s caught in a current of double time
I knew better
Times like these never come without a price
We took what we could
But we all left something sweet behind
I was down, Run down
I was drowning in tides of friend’s friends
I was lost, Double-crossed and alone
With gunslinger fingers ready by the phone
Oh you know better you say, “nothing changes here”
But I know when I’m gone it’ll all disappear
I knew better
Times like these never come without a price
We took what we could
But we all left something sweet behind
|
||||
10. |
Your True North
04:18
|
|||
|
Your True North
Crossing the lines, blurring the factions
am I yours or are you mine?
But now's no time to get possessive
not while I'm circling your lights
I need to calibrate
your true north is my escape
o you chose my fate
your true north, my firth of Forth
spilling forth from my lips
the ancient meter swells and dips...
Losing the thread, leaving the tramlines
shred my knuckles on your city walls
I shoot to the south of where your heart is
'cause I fear a full dose
I might break or come close
though that's not a bad way to go
I need to calibrate
your true north is my escape
o you chose my fate
your true north, my firth of Forth
spilling forth from my lips...
...Redcoats are coming
without warning
and it won't be long
'til I'm caught, hung and quartered
in that order
and the sound of the fall
the breath in your hall
o the waste of it all
the waste of it all...
I need to calibrate
your true north is my escape
o you chose my fate
your true north, my firth of Forth
spilling forth from my lips
the ancient meter swells and dips...
|
||||
Tiger Cooke Dublin, Ireland
I write amazing songs that nobody knows. Indie Irish songwriter & musician with a dark-folk soul sound. (formerly Tadhg Cooke)
Tiger Cooke recommends:
Inherit
by Join Me in the Pines
"Inherit" is Join Me In The Pines' first album. I have the pleasure of playing live with David Geraghty and his brilliant band of humans. Listen up!
go to album
Great new EP from Norn Iron, featuring my current favourite lyric, "Song About A Song". Alana's currently touring the world with Hozier. Just listen to this though. That'll take care of everything.
go to album
Solar is Rebecca's third full-length album. To my ears it sounds like PJ Harvey and Metallica's Black album thrown into a Coltrane tumble drier. Go listen to I Heart U and This Sensual Pursuit.
go to albumIf you like Tiger Cooke, you may also like:
THEY'VEBEENCALLED
by Jep and Dep
Sydney's folk noir duo expand their sound into haunting compositions that are somewhere between beautiful and melancholy.
go to album
String Of Pearls
by Annabelle Chvostek
Buoyant songs that summon the spirit of New Orleans, with beautifully bleary brass, light up the latest from Annabelle Chvostek
go to album
featured on Bandcamp Radio Jul 27, 2021
go to album
