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First Aid for the Drowning

by Matthew the Oxx

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    With photos and lyrics...

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1.
Beyond the Gates (free) 02:18
Beyond the Gates I'd sooner go beyond the gates Not to stand and stare I'd sooner know what's on my plate Not no longer know nor care Because fear's calling out my name I know I've never rolled my dice I'm yet to kiss and blow Standing on the banks as cold as ice Watching the cold river flow While fear's calling out my name I waited far too long for the writing of this song Nobody's in my way, I was just frightened of being wrong Under any circumstance We're all but flesh and blood And we're all up against chance We'll never stop the flood And fear's calling all of our names Nobody here really knows what's out beyond the gates
2.
I Want You (free) 02:57
I Want You I want you inside a real understanding of the weapon The rock that you wear is such a heavy thing to bear Take it off, face up to your affliction I want you Born for the raw, born for the law The fiddler and his whore Born for the ride, you're on nobody's side You never show your skin I want you beyond a ball and a finger and a rhythm There is a market town square where you just might sell your wares You'll never be in time and that's addiction I want you Born for the fall, the undertaker's call He's a hopper and he's mad Born for the ride, you're on nobody's side You never show your skin I want you tied to a rope and a crowd to watch your weeping As the beneficiary of the girl who conquered me I'll always hold you up to my admission I want you Born for the stand, you never hold my hand It's a criminal enterprise Born for the ride, you're on nobody's side You never show your skin I want you against the pink and the yellow of the desert With a marble in one hand and in the other a grain of sand Once you are alone we'll be together I want you
3.
I Am A Crow (free) 03:07
The days are darker The wind is closer The fire is high maintenance The kitchen's colder The knives are sharper The washing up has been here for weeks There's someone squatting above my ceiling You'd never know but for the cracks The pool is frozen where it is leaking I haven't had the time to care I am a crow trying to fly But my wings were broken before I knew why Up for adoption at the age of 35 For some unknown reason they're keeping me alive The separation must be the reason For telling the others apart Condemned to boredom The condensation Sits comfortably on all my body parts If I go down to the station I'll get for whatever that I ask These days are darker We've all got our mark-up The schools all close at this time of year I am a crow trying to fly But my wings were broken before i knew why Up for adoption at the age of 35 For some unknown reason they're keeping me alive There's a marker in the mud that tells you why the kitchen's shut We haven't eaten for 43 days A page is missing from the book I didn't know until I looked But it's important if you want to know the rules
4.
In the morning just as I was waking up There was nothing I could say but fuck You shattered my legs, left me in a stretcher So if I get past all this pouring rain You'll know me by the smell of the odorous stain You blinded my eyes, you cut 'em with a butterfly knife Why don't you go solo? Don't you know how low the belly of the copper is stemming the crowd? After supper you reach for your cigarette It's a familiar craving, something warm and wet You quiver and quake, you cough into an endless wake Now the hallway is dark it is Frankie's eternal joke She's the girl in the curtain, a velvety wash of smoke She pocketed my brain, she'll do it to you too she's totally insane Why don't you go solo? Don't you know how low the belly of the copper is stemming the crowd? Improvisation is just an excuse to make noise And during the chatter her marvellous skin makes it's choice It's not you or me, it's a toss up between mesquite and chablis So a-roving I must go collide with chance But before I go can I take one last glance? I'll give you my sky, I'll wrap it in stardust-moon-river-bow-tie
5.
Elizabeth Mary McCann (free) 03:24
When the court decided your fate You were told that you'd have to wait Underneath the bars, underneath the stars, and hope Now you're older than you should You're cold and you're always hungry But you never give and you never have been alone You were hoping to move further south Where the waves are as big as a house And you'd marry your queen in the moonlight just like in your dreams It wasn't the first time you'd stolen a car It was just a shame that you'd been in the bar You could never have known that Elizabeth was on her way home But the brakes came on way too late At 90 you were driving too fast for the state The law says it's 40 where Elizabeth was crossing the road And the fact that you were only 18 Didn't affect the jury's spleen 'Lock him away till the day that he dies and throw away the key' They served your sentence at the stand Then they carried you off to the can There is no happy ending, there's no way of mending Elizabeth Mary McCann
6.
We're All Going to Die (free) 02:55
We're all going to die, it is the only thing we know And the taxes that we pay along the way are just for show We're all going to lie, it is the way this world got geared And the lovers that you lie to lie to you in turn my dear We're holding it up, holding it out, holding the crack against the crowd We are a long way away from where we're standing We're all on our way and as the path reveals the rain There's a photograph of life in the past, a rope tied to the rail That's where I long to be but it's a distant memory Now the Monday morning march up o'er the hill, it's calling to me We're holding it up, holding it out, holding the crack against the crowd We are a long way away from where we're standing Half a mind away down where the children all go play there is a natural world that sings and twirls and dances in the spray We're still at the door and though we knock we know not what for Just keep knocking until we bleed, the door's already open (a push is all it needs) Holding it shut, holding it out, holding the crack against the crowd We are a long way away from where we're standing
7.
I Have Seen the Dogs (free) 02:53
I have seen the dogs And they bay Roses and children beside my bed Where you comfort me with a bended knee We stand unchosen Lack and amazed Branded tokens Cracked and afraid And afraid I am amazed by the whole human race You will see my love burning at the stake I am amazed by the whole of the human race You will see my love burning at the stake Oh lord I am my master's world Still you comfort me with a bended knee But I have seen the dogs And they bay
8.
A Diamond in the Foam (free) 04:28
At the turning of the days there is a cutting of the nines and then a jangling of the pay I’m a rota on the wheel, I’ve got a shipment in the water that is made to mark the day And if it don’t make the money I’ve been shouting out about about I’ll be a dead man in the morning, you can cut my body loose I’ll be raging Efforts shatter the effect that poverty has on the weak, they keep on rattling at the door When it comes out in the papers there’ll be murder in the streets and then a culling of the poor And if I don’t make the money, I’ve been bleating on and on I’ll be a man amongst the masses, you can hang me in the wind I’ll be raging It’s coming out like it’s been known It’s always harder to come home Oh she’s a diamond in the foam I’ll be raging Then at the muddy turnstile where the radio collects the call that falls away when we’re inclined Still 40 miles until we hit the valley bottom where the water has a taste that’ll turn you blind And if the silver still remains in the shadows of her eyes We’ll be arrested in the reeds, you can suck my body dry I’ll be raging Then coming out between the pillars and the past there’ll be a man who wears a dress and holds a sword He’ll smile and say 'you never met me here today' and then he’ll lead you to the dungeons at the core And if the gold still collects around the corners of her eyes We’ll be a crowd of copper calling 'you can fuck me on the nines' I’ll be raging It’s coming out like it’s been known It’s always harder to come home Oh she’s a diamond in the foam I’ll be raging So the time has come to talk about the relegated rabble and the way they always cry It's got to the point now we've been forced to make a choice between the love of human life and then the nines And if I’m honest, if I'm direct I choose a buzzing and a bleeding In the deepest dark of night I can hear them pushing in their meals I’ll be raging Standing up upon the hill with every image like a still they keep on strutting down the line A smiley woman held my hand, she kissed me on the other cheek before she poured a glass of wine Then we made love amongst the buzzing and the bleeding and the feeling That a deep and beating city heart's still slipping up the slime I’ll be raging It’s coming out like it’s been known It’s always harder to come home She’s a diamond in the foam I’ll be raging
9.
The Island (free) 04:13
We called her a star We called her a genius We called her the answer to all the questions that plague us We knew she was flesh and blood We knew she was woman Despite this we put her up for sale at the auction It came out one early morning The pills got popped by the pile Her body was a time bomb waiting for the doctor Who knew it was a problem Her agent had his hand in and the notes on the prescription Meant our love never got to see the island Oh my love, you would have loved it on the island We called her a font of youth A lake for the drowning Don't stop at the water's edge, be sure to keep moving Her love is a commodity Going to the highest bidder You heart is her history, no longer considered It came out one early morning The pills got popped by the pile Her body was a time bomb waiting for the doctor Who knew it was a problem Her agent had his hand in and the notes on the prescription Meant our love never got to see the island Oh my love, you would have loved it on the island It's always at christmas time I drink fortified wine I make a mess of myself and I begin to smell Then I think of the day I could have helped her in some way I could have pulled her away from the men that demented her love As vulnerable as she was She never went unwilling She wanted what came with fame, the temporary quelling Of a common insecurity That a drop in the ocean Has no meaning or gravity, so the vultures go on circling It came out one early morning The pills got popped by the pile Her body was a time bomb waiting for the doctor Who knew it was a problem Her agent had his hand in and the notes on the prescription Meant our love never got to see the island Oh my love, you would have loved it on the island
10.
Tonight's the Night (free) 02:45
One day all you know will be gone It'll all be gone, it'll all be gone Some pray, some fall, some try to fight It'll be alright, it'll be alright You will carry your light across the river Bown pas the bay, then the bight, and deliver your light Tonight's the night Those that you love along the way They'll want you to stay, they'll say 'please stay' That love will be your source of war and peace You'll wear the ring, you'll bear the ring You will carry your light across the river Down past the bay, then the bight, and deliver your light Tonight's the night In your eyes is a flooding up of tears There's nothing to fear, no not to fear There's a fire burning in your heart A spark's the start, now play your part You must carry your light across the river Down past the bay, then the bight, and deliver your light Tonight's the night
11.
A Mighty Good Time (free) 02:47
Challenge the magazines of vanity Eat like a bone Challenge the figures of authority Sink like a stone She is the bill you will pay at the end of the day She is the still water at the centre of a wave But i am not about to make a fool of myself No i'm not about to be that cruel to myself My body is a marble example of the rain Her body is cut from the fibre of a vein And the hardest part of calling you master is that I must say goodbye The easy part in that is that I'll never have to lie Because I've been lying most of my life Slowly dyeing the day into night And i have had a mighty good time

about

'First Aid For The Drowning' is pasted to a plaque held by a character on the banks of the Seine in Paris at the beginning of Balzac's great work 'The Wild Ass's Skin'.

Balzac's story is one of a man who goes to the greatest imaginable lengths to avoid death, not before he has considered instigating his own.

In this album are compositions concerning death, peering in from some of the perspectives I've known so far. It might be an oxymoron but a life spent considering death can be a life well lived, death's scrutiny always seems to bring me back into the present.

Our ideas about death are probably just that: suggestions. If so, death is a concept wide open to interpretation. If it's from one life to another, from this world to the next, or simply into the blue; life is moment to moment, a bridging from one experience into the next.

All appears to me to be in an uninterrupted state of metamorphosis, a condition of growth and change that transcends relativity.

I have tried in earnest to instil into these songs the sad, the angry, the afraid, excited and the curious. They have come from those heavy, fiery and frayed places we all know so well.

'First Aid For The Drowning' is a human attempt to observe and express the sense that in all of this we are eternally passing by...

www.matthewtheoxx.com

'It is as if each song is lapping over your feet as you stand watching the sea receding from the shoreline' Leah Parker-Turnock - FATEA

'At the heart of this record is what I would describe as a classic folk-singer's voice, direct, forthright, clear and earthy.' Greag Mac a'tSaoir - R2 Magazine

'That'll knock your socks off, even if you're not wearing any!' Max Reinhardt - BBC Radio 3's LATE JUNCTION

'The whole album is rather beautiful' Cerys Matthews - BBC6

'This, I really like' Steve Lamacq - BBC6

'simply mind boggling - poetry of the finest order' JP - Acoustic Magazine

'You could write a thesis on the first track' Dai Jeffries - Folking.com

'brings to mind a scene of incredible vastness, a space which can never be filled' Nathan Roach - Subba-Cultcha

'Intriguingly Cohenesque meditations on death in passionate poetic language' - Froots Magazine

credits

released December 31, 2015

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Matthew the Oxx Lewes, UK

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