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Queens of the Breakers

by The Barr Brothers

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1.
---Lyrics--- Draw the line, draw it again I only lie to my closest friends Straight as an arrow, but that depends You hit the road and the road bends I have no quarrels, no enemies I know my failure is my expertise The righteous gamin of '82 You came to me but I was born to you Where would you wander, what would it mean There might be saviors but no guarantees When we needed something kind of like love We fell together, I guess, just because Oh my friend Sorrow, you are relieved I no longer need your company And what's stuck in my throat is a mystery And what it is is a heartbreaking, soul shaking Overwhelming undertaking Hit me once again I knew your mother, she was my friend It's only love to her I do extend When I fell under, sometimes nightly She was the branch to which I held on tightly Tried my stable of remedies I know its harder to see the light when you're on your knees Had a map, borrowed a car North Colorado via Arkansas Island to island, breaking my silence I'm hemmed in water Quelling the violence behind my eyelids I close and open Something inside you is bending like I do Its like that feckless song Down the road if you should find Some box of clues that I left behind I just thought I'd save you some time Straighten it out here and make it rhyme Its not in my nature to pretend That any one road leads to any one end And maybe victory's too heavy for arms like these And freedom's too loaded when you speak of destinies You just try to see the thing for what it is And what it is is a heartbreaking, soul shaking Overwhelming exhalation Hit me once again
2.
---Lyrics--- I put my arms up And felt the sea in front of me I let my guard down The ocean spoke these words to me She said I've been trying For about a million centuries Just to get up on that shore And not get pulled back anymore Mostly I'm just breathing…… Look before it changes Cause when it changes, It changes for good When you were screaming And I was too deaf to hear When you were leaving I said I don't need you here You said I've been trying To see what's going on behind your eyes I said mostly I'm just breathing…….. Look before it changes Cause when it changes, It changes for good
3.
---Lyrics--- In the same reckless city where Great Antonio died On the island in the river with a mountain at its side I came to scatter ashes of the bridges I had burned And to know the name of the song that I heard Yeah to know the name of the song that I heard Like a moonlight mathematician I subtracted my concerns Multiplied my options and divided my returns Sacrificed the angel who was tugging at my shirt I was already claimed by the song that I heard Yeah already chained to the song that I heard From the corner of my eye I caught the shadow of a girl But my shoes were tied together and my face was in the dirt Her gentle eyes said everything before she said a word I knew I was changed by the song that I heard Yeah I knew right away by the song I heard In the cult of desperation we stay just behind the curve No one here admits we're getting more than we deserve I was born a first child and she was born a third We were already named by the songs that we heard Yeah already cleaned by the songs we heard Did I make you out a phoenix from the ashes of a bird? Did we build our palace and watch it as it burned? Its kind of like a lesson that had to be unlearned Like a fool-maker fall taker forsaker heartbreaker earth-quaker soul shaker sooth sayer moon bayer sun slayer ye sayer mistaker rattlesnaker We are already changed by the songs we heard
4.
---Lyrics--- I wish I knew the magic words To dry up all our tears I wish I had a magic wand To make our troubles disappear But I don't know no magic words And I don't have a magic wand But here's my empty hand, my dear Hold on, hold on, hold on When I woke up this morning The dream was on my mind Beside me was a cigarette Floating in a glass of wine So I picked up my guitar Started strumming out of time Couldn't find a reason I could only find a rhyme Maybe someday, maybe someday Maybe someday, maybe someday soon I won't be this far away I won't be the man in the moon I know just what you would say If you heard me sing this tune Singing someday, maybe someday Singing someday, maybe someday soon Singing someday, maybe someday soon Someday maybe someday soon
5.
Kompromat 04:34
---Lyrics--- Look at the sun go behind the hill Look at the country through a dollar bill I can't see the bottom of the hole that we're trying to fill I think we're in love with your abuse You got one hand on the driver's wheel, in the other a noose You can call it whatever you want, I say we call it a truce Whether it breaks, whether it bends I don't know where I begin and the madness ends Last time it happened we said we wouldn't let it happen again White sand, black horses White sand, black horses A gold ring in deep water Why call it anything but…. Greed I woke up from a bad dream I was wanted in 11 states for murder it seemed I was dragging the head of a buffalo through the city streets White sand, black horses White sand, black horses A gold ring in deep water Why call it anything but…. Greed
6.
---Lyrics--- The speed of love returning To my depraved heart Like a song, it carries the memory still You waited til the river froze To come and find me With your voice, speaking the words in my throat The dream you dream of falling Out of the blue, child Like a stone--I think I've been dreaming it too We were never forced to love You would have to lose your mind You would have to lose your mind You would have to lose your mind When Icarus was falling Burning and blinded He was born and buried along with his pride Woke up in the bed last night Her features were golden And the walls, they were crowded with symbols of lust And then, an emperor returning Dragging his sword From the guerre, cutting the snow on the ground We were never forced to love You would have to lose your mind You would have to lose your mind You would have to lose your mind The Line that you were drawing You would have to lose your mind You would have to lose your mind
7.
---Lyrics--- It'll never come easy Babe if it don't come clean And if it won't come sweet, babe Sometimes it comes mean Its like trying to put a fire out With matches and gasoline We've been going around and around But how have you really been? You know we were good friends Its funny how we don't talk I flew over your city last night On a red-eye flight from New York I was looking for you down on the ground Wondering if you still remember The way that we just walked around Like the Queens of the Breakers I've been making up time I've been borrowing it too I've been taking advice that I Threw off in my youth Should have left it right there where you found it Instead of picking it up You wanted the world, but you drowned it At the bottom of the blues Its a reckoning feeling At the bottom of the blues We're begging and stealing You were ready to confuse Knowing and believing But you were right about the blues You were wrong about the meaning Talked with your mother We remembered when you were sick Felt like no one could help you You were falling and falling quick And it made a very heavy sound Like thunder on the mountain We were waiting for you to come around With the Queens of the Breakers I've been making up time and borrowing it too and I’ve been taking off disguises that I know are not true Should have left it right there where you found it You had to pick it up You wanted the world, but you drowned it At the bottom of the blues Is your arbitrator giving up At the broken alter of your love? Took the sugar out of your coffee cup Every sulfur morning, waking up At the bottom of the blues At the bottom of the blues At the bottom of the blues But you were right about the blues
8.
---Lyrics--- Thrown out of the company ball Breaking bottles on the Berlin Wall I been shaking all the bushes on the Champs Élysées Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall Then it came to me Yeah it came to me Then it came to me It came to me I was looking for your face On a three dollar bill Marking my bible in red Drinking ripple with my daily bread I been asking all the ladies in the March of Dimes I should have been home instead Cause it came to me Yeah it came to me It came to me It came to me I was looking for the nose At the end of my face I was wrong and I heard you right I was wrong and I heard you right I was wrong and I heard you right I was wrong and I heard, yes I heard Yes I heard it right Tugging at the tiger's tail Bobbing apples with the humpback whale I been knocking all the jockeys off the rich folks lawns Raising anchor and setting sail Then it came to me Yeah it came to me It came to me It came to me I was looking for the truth Til it kicked in my door I was wrong and I heard you right I was wrong and I heard you right I was wrong and I heard you right I was wrong and I heard you right I was wrong and I heard you right I was wrong and I heard you right I was wrong and I heard you right I was wrong and I heard, yes I heard Yes I heard it right Then it came to me Yeah it came to me It came to me Oh, it came to me Oh, it came to me Oh, it came to me Oh, it came to me
9.
---Lyrics--- Did you come here for an ambush? Did you come here for the truth? Did you come here to tighten it down Or to turn it loose? I'm running out of reasons For keeping it neat Running out of ground Beneath my feet Darling I'm not Saying that you are not The best thing I've got And that's saying a lot I can still feel the hole Where the revelation nailed me to the wall Now I can't recall If there was any revelation there at all Or just some kids getting high about it all There's nothing easy about it Don't know which way I should run Maybe go to Mississippi Get a ride to Gunnisson Wanna remember how we did it The first a thousand times Wanna be a thousand people Living a thousand different lives I can still feel the hole Where the revelation nailed me to the wall Now I can't recall If there was any revelation there at all Or just some kids getting high about it all Bury us In the delirious Hideous glorious Alright
10.
11.
---Lyrics--- In the violence of the morning I'm as wrong as I am free And Saint Cecilia Holds a candle out for me Its an obligated offer But I'll accept it just the same It's better than trying Not to feel anyone else's pain I'm not talking about beauty Don't feel like speaking anymore Cause when it finds me I'm ready for war I'm ready for war I'm ready for war Now they're burning down the temples Of some long forgotten grace And Shiva sits With that look upon her face If you think you're done pretending That you don't feel it anymore And win or lose Say I'm ready for war I'm ready for war The heart screams Is this what you wanted? Blood on your hands To feel something of your own Everybody does It was raining in Savannah And you kept your apron on While we danced slowly To that Van Morrison song Well you brought me to the vanguard Let me see behind the door And in my fury I said I'm ready for war I'm ready for war I'm ready for war

about

To begin their third album, The Barr Brothers weren't writing any songs. For the first time, the Montreal outfit's three members - namesake siblings Brad and Andrew Barr, harpist Sarah Pagé - went empty-handed into the studio. No plans or preconceptions, no books of lyrics or sheets of chords - they went down miles of snowy road to a cabin on a frozen lake, a place full of windows and microphones and starlight and sunshine, with amplifiers in the bedrooms, their volumes turned up loud. On the fringes of Saint Zenon, Québec (pop. 1,1150), a 30-minute snowmobile ride to the nearest grocery store, the band spent seven days making things up. Improvisations that lasted hours at a time - noons and midnights, dusks and dawns, with grooves inspired by India, West Africa and 808s; by Brad's scorching electric guitar; and by Pagé's new inventions, hacks to turn her harp into a versatile, sub-bass-booming noisemaker.

Queens of the Breakers was born at that cabin in the country. Then the band took that racket and distilled it into songs: 11 tracks of blazing courage and failing resolve; suffused with groove, melody and the Barr Brothers' wide-open sense of the blues. At times the sound's all twinkling, the score for a lost John Hughes film; at other times it's whetted, searching, like the stuff of Lhasa de Sela or Led Zeppelin's III. These are tales of teenagers prowling through Rhode Island mansions (the title track), coming to Montreal and falling in love ("Song That I Heard"), tattered patriotism and clenching fists ("Kompromat", "Ready for War"). There's also "Defibrillation", a mournful letter from a father to his son, inspired by the broken rhythm of a pair of hospital heart monitors - and a drumbeat based on that dither.

It's this tension, this dither, that lives at the centre of Queens of the Breakers. Three players - friends, comrades, music-makers, all of them trying to play in sync. Three bandmates - each of them fumbling, remembering, trying to invent something together. A band still playing, even occasionally reimagining, their rock'n'roll.

credits

released October 13, 2017

The Barr Brothers are : Brad Barr, Andrew Barr, Sarah Pagé

Produced by Brad and Andrew Barr

Mixed by Ryan Freeland at Stampede Origin Studio, except "Queens of The Breakers" mixed by Marcus Paquin

Engineered by Ryan Freeland except "Queens of The Breakers"and "Hideous Glorious" engineered by Graham Lessard; "It Came to Me" engineered by Marcus Paquin; "Look Before It Changes" and "You Would Have To Lose Your Mind" engineered by The Barr Brothers and Pierre Remillard

Additional engineering by The Barr Brothers on all tracks, and by Richard Swift on "Defibrillation"

Assistant engineer Francis Bélanger

Mastered by Kim Rosen at Knack Mastering

Recorded at Studio Mixart (Montreal), Wild Studio (Saint-Zénon, QC), Professional Awesome Studios (Montreal), and Cottage Grove (Oregon) between February 2016 and May 2017

All songs written by Brad Barr

Music arranged by Brad Barr, Andrew Barr and Sarah Pagé, except: "Maybe Someday", written by Nathan Moore, arranged by The Barr Brothers

Additional lyrics on "Queens of the Breakers" by Nathan Moore

String arrangements by Brad Barr and Boris Petrowski

Horn arrangement on "Song That I Heard" by Andy King

Vocals on "Défibrillation" by Lucius (Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig). Appears courtesy of Mom+Pop Music and Dine Alone Records.

Artwork by Brigitte Henry
Graphic Design by Andrew Robinson

2017 Secret City Records Inc.

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