Get all 8 A Metropolitan Guide releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The One That Isn't Burned, The Girls You Sang to Sleep, Alternate Histories Vol. I, These Hills Are Gonna Rise, The Grand Revolution of Lakeside, Simulation Avenue, Pioneering, and Lesser Tragedies.
1. |
Lesser Tragedies Pt. 2
01:38
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Jack went stumbling down the hill and Jill came tumbling after
But a tumble’s nothin’ more than a stumble with some motivation
And falling down’s nothing but the fault of a little inspiration
But he’s always thinking that the fall’s gonna’ make him bleed
When it’s nothing more than a scrape and dirt on the knee
But while you’re going down, you best surrender your crown
And find a place in the history of lesser tragedy
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2. |
The Chase
03:30
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Cross that busy highway right around the bend
To justify beginning you need to justify your end
The thief made his call in the middle of the night
saying “brother, we’re too good for the others to find
let’s give’em a chance and leave some evidence behind”
The thief he gave his loyalty threw allegiance behind
“The others will rise against us” was his battle cry
But as each light went flashing by he dove for cover
As if each light was a chance to dodge an ex-lover
“Can’t take the risk I might have actually loved her”
But then he said “No, it’s not about you saving face
or trying to make them understand in each and every place
No, brother it’s all in the chase”
They had their chance to catch us, time and again
but where do you turn when you’ve got nothing to believe in
You build your own empire and build it up strong
Then you torch it to the ground like there was nothing all along
Life’s about what’s here, not what’s come and gone
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3. |
Pioneering
03:50
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Don’t step on the flowers in the neighbor’s yard
or go making your escape by the light of the stars
For they’ll say it’s all give and take
disguised as your mistake
It’s just a misrepresentation of laws
and a misordering of yours over ours
But they’re gonna’ say that there’s no time for staying
And your objections, well, they’re all in your imagination
They’re just speaking to your lack of exploration
It’s just another day of pioneering
The doctor said “what’s so great about
discovery because its violent and loud?”
But there’s no time to think it through boys
We’re on the verge of something new
All the others are gonna’ have to wait their turn
And if they can’t handle that we’ll be sure they learn
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4. |
A Little Profit
04:02
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The trains are coasting above
roaring up and over Third
The destinations don’t matter
while the children run and scatter with all the certainty and madness of the forecasted weather
but here, freedom’s the word
But the band is playing our song
the melodies and chords are twisted, backwards, and wrong
Toss another dollar in the jar
And watch how a little profit can turn a mess of incompetence
into a star
The trio is standing in the rain
ignoring all of their requests
Most of the crowd’s already left
angry at what they didn’t get, or something that they should have said with drums, sax, and trumpet
but here, that courtesy is dead
But the band is playing our song
the solos are illustrious though hopelessly long
Toss another dollar in the jar
And watch how the saxophone, and audience and trumpet drone
are replaced by guitar
The guitarist is waiting by the train
smashes the guitar to the tracks
The wood all cracked and splintered
for they wanted it altered and it wouldn’t before long that they had it conquered
but here, freedom’s the word
But the band is playing our song
it’s barely recognizable if even at all
Scatter all the remnants of the jar
And watch how a little profit and some confidence and consequence, with occasional excellence
makes you forget what you are
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5. |
Ships & Stones
03:26
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We’re finding ships, we’re finding stones
buried under city streets and dried up sewer streams
Rumors of waterways, prison cells, and masquerades
You’re just a wizard or a unicorn away
from all the realms of fiction you said you’d like to visit someday
But child take my word for it
All these ships and all these stones quarried from the depths below
are nothing more than cheap parlor tricks
But all the children watch their step
of all the strangers on either side, or up in front, or off behind
Folks of the strangely sort in towers of strategic import
You’re just the fickle loyalty away
from falling to the sword of one whose concern is only for the next page
But child take my word for it
For these ships they founder under waves, not in centralized stony caves
well this dream, you best abandon it
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