Another World (2007 – Acoustic)

Another World album cover

“This is Killer, stellar, and worthy of drooling over. Great, powerful, gigantic songs.”
The Black and White Magazine, Canada

Another World was the first album I took a lot of time with. The songs were actually written before Secrets of Soho was released, but myself and producer Jack Reynolds were being meticulous about how we wanted Another World to sound, so the album was eventually released after Secrets of Soho. There were two words that prevailed throughout the writing and recording: Acoustic and Beautiful. I wanted to make a record with only organic sounds. Acoustic guitars, violins, cellos, pianos and harps. I wanted to make something that would always sound like it could have been made any time in the last 100 years.

It’s a gentle sounding album, and I think that’s what I needed more than anything else during that time. Life wasn’t gentle, but working on this album made it seem like it was. Along with I Am For you, it’s probably the most beautiful sounding record I have made. I performed it live twice, both times at The Union Chapel in London – one of my favourite venues.

Almost all of the songs began as poems that I later put to music. Listening to it 10 years later, I wonder why I didn’t promote the record more than I did because it’s carries some of the most prosaic and adventurous lyrics I’ve written. Similar to Secrets of Soho, there are actually a lot of secrets on this album. Thoughts and feelings about people that I would never say out loud. Letters Never Sent – that could have been an alternative title for this record, but Another World captured where I was at.

Occasionally I still go into another world. Don’t we all?

 

Tracks and Lyrics

1. If You Could See Hope

If you, you could see hope in the smallest sign
And smile ‘til the sun sets and dry a perfect eye
If you, you could see hope in the golden chance
But no eye is perfect for more then an glance
It’s a trial, learning to smile when you hate everything that you need

But you don’t have to be, you don’t have to be anything else
You don’t see it now, today it’s all you know
One day you’ll have to let it go
Just sign here and wait in the corner
Your time will come
And it won’t be too late
Some things I cannot help but love about you
I wish I was that great cause I’ll tell you something
If it’s only one thing
What you don’t dream won’t make you cry

You’re crying, you’re hiding
You’re smiling and you don’t know how
You wonder, what’s under
Every blessing and every curse
That’s made you into what you are now

2. Another World

The game isn’t over but the headline’s already been written
You buy it just to ask yourself what for
In the quick changeover you know you lost something
You really want to see it like you’ve never seen it written before

I want to know what you would do
I want to know what you would do
Cause when the doors all close
Well I just go into another world
I never found another way
Into another world
If I could find you there you know I’d stay

I tell you one more lie to make you love me
When all I really want’s already there
I tell you it’s not the arrow going in
It’s when they start to pull it out again

I want to know what you would do
I want to know what you would do
Cause when the doors all close
Well I just go into another world
I never found another way
Into another world
If I could find you there you know I’d stay

I want to know what you would do
I want to know what you would do
Cause when the doors all close
Well I just go into another world
Into another world

3. Close Enough

The hearts of mere acquaintances undo no pain to them
But those who are close enough, I think, can make life but lose again
And guess who’s in a quandary to chance and now commit
I wrestle the doubts to the ground unafraid
The engine cries out: step on it!
And tear yourself into the light
I beg don’t move any closer I’ll cry
Because that’s close enough
That’s close enough to keep these eyes of mine dry.

And armed with nought but shadows it’s a dream to optimize
When love’s one foreign currency whose rates fail to surprise
And love’s rule’s very fashion is a stranger to all hearts
Yet no kinder style could make you smile
Shake hands and laugh, but just for a while
The question is burning inside
Embers answer but never decide
Just stop
That’s close enough, that’s close enough to keep these eyes of mine dry.

4. Nothing Like I Feel

I pick up the remote as she turns and disappears into herself again
She disappears into her self again
I thought I was one of the good few
But I’m typical and Neanderthal
How can I ever hope to understand

How she must feel through our daily silences
How she must feel through our daily silences
How she must feel through our daily silences
And I’m nothing like I feel

I affirm that we are fine today
But I haven’t ever been that way
But I haven’t ever been that way
Oh, for a fight would make a change
Does it hurt to make us well again
Oh must it hurt to make us well again?

How she must feel through our daily silences
How she must feel through our daily silences
How she must feel through our daily silences
And I’m nothing like I feel

One more minute later and I’ve made the same mistake
I sometimes wonder where the limits lie
And how much more she will take
One more minute later I’ve slipped back into the habit
When its clear how we should have it
And its so much more than this

How she must feel through our daily silences
How she must feel through our daily silences
How she must feel through our daily silences
And I’m nothing like I feel

5. Giving Yourself Away

What’s this feeling?
I think I’ve been here before
Getting on a ride to nowhere
Somehing’s wrong
Why isn’t there a little light
To tell us before we move on

I’m looking out the window now
It’s crashing in against the bough
I try to think it through a lot
But all I see is what I haven’t got

Everyone’s selling nothing for something
But they’re giving themselves away
We shatter when we lose
And we scatter the winnings
Before the wheel’s been spun

And I don’t believe that it’s over
I don’t believe that it’s even begun

It won’t be easy
But give it a try anyway
You might get a little nearer
And all that’s stopping you
Is never what you see outside
It’s what’s always in your mirror

And everyone’s selling nothing for something
But they’re giving themselves away
We shatter when we lose
And we scatter the winnings
Before the wheel’s been spun

And I don’t believe that it’s over
I don’t believe that it’s even begun
It hasn’t even begun

And everyone’s selling nothing for something
But they’re giving themselves away
We shatter when we lose
And we scatter the winnings
Before we really won

And I don’t believe that it’s over
I don’t believe that it’s even begun
And I don’t believe that it’s over
I don’t believe that it’s even begun
I don’t believe that it’s over
I don’t believe that it’s even begun

6. Something Special

Is it true what they say when you plan something else
Life’s what happens?
And are snowflakes like dreams? When you catch them
Its easy to snap them
I wasn’t looking but while everything change
You’ve been the only hope that’s stayed the same

And only time will let us know
And though it’s hard for me to show

Because there’s something that’s so special about you
You’re the only one who never gave up
There’s something that’s so special about you
And if love’s what happens when we forget ourselves
Lets not make that the plan
Lets plan something else

If you believe angels dance on the head of a pin
Then you’ll see it
It’s what you say to me like a child when
I want to stop breathing
And if there’s a shadow in the back of my mind
That makes me feel its all over

I know you’ll try to make it go
I know you’ll make it go

Because there’s something that’s so special about you
You’re the only one who never gave up
There’s something that’s so special about you
And if love’s what happens when we forget ourselves
Lets not make that the plan
Lets plan something else

7. Hide and Seek

So do you really have to go, you know this heart just started to beat.
If I could keep you on like this until the dawn,
I’d stop all this paralysis and get back to being born.
Is there something wrong with my name? Is there something wrong with my face?
I feel as beautiful as you look. And there’s no one I can blame.

Tear me apart again but its not just me you’re just as breakable.
We’re playing hide and seek but we’re both to weak to get up and find ourselves.
And we’re so far away that we’re face to face.

So do you really have to go, I sold tomorrow to yesterday now you’re all I’ll ever know
I sit and pray through the matinee for a sacred dancer
I’ve been a question for far to long and I know that you’re the answer
Did I aim to high? Was I coming on to strong?
Well mama said to play hard to get but I let you know that I’m interested

Tear me apart again but its not just me you’re just as breakable.
We’re playing hide and seek but we’re both to weak to get up and find ourselves.
And we’re so far away that we’re face to face.

8. Fireworks in December

Fireworks in December

A close-up’s not a picture
Details make you blind
So you cross another ocean
To find out what’s left behind

And the road that you’re taking
Ain’t the road you think you’re on
And its cold when the promise you made is breaking
But its warm inside the steps you’re taking

With fireworks in December, you’re not alone

I’m cornered in the wrestle
Forgot to use those wings
If I find a home to fly to
Will you take me out the ring?

And I’ll sing a dream until I lose it
‘cause you said if its all you’ve got then use it
Want to say, want to say it to you
But I’m scared the meaning will go right through you

With fireworks in December, you’re not alone

9. Chaos And Love

So do you really have to go, you know this heart just started to beat.
If I could keep you on like this until the dawn,
I’d stop all this paralysis and get back to being born.
Is there something wrong with my name? Is there something wrong with my face?
I feel as beautiful as you look. And there’s no one I can blame.

Tear me apart again but its not just me you’re just as breakable.
We’re playing hide and seek but we’re both to weak to get up and find ourselves.
And we’re so far away that we’re face to face.

So do you really have to go, I sold tomorrow to yesterday now you’re all I’ll ever know
I sit and pray through the matinee for a sacred dancer
I’ve been a question for far to long and I know that you’re the answer
Did I aim to high? Was I coming on to strong?
Well mama said to play hard to get but I let you know that I’m interested

Tear me apart again but its not just me you’re just as breakable.
We’re playing hide and seek but we’re both to weak to get up and find ourselves.
And we’re so far away that we’re face to face.

10. The Same things make us cry

When the things you want to tell the world
Won’t come naturally
You hide behind a smile and say its ok
Well you’re not the only one who clung on to a broken dream
You play it cool but we’re all fools, we’re all the same

So you can say to me you’re scared to be alone forever
So you can say to me you’re scared to be alone forever

Well the tears are racing down your face
But you still won’t put your hand on your heart
You saw the future in someone’s eyes
But you said goodbye

What is it? What is it?
Why won’t you say what’s on everybody’s lips?
Come on reel it in and try
You’re alone in a crowd
But not alone when you’ve found
The Same things make us cry

So you can say to me you’re scared to be alone forever
So you can say to me you’re scared to be alone forever

So let it out or you’ll always be looking back
And it ain’t wrong to feel that strong on love

So you can say to me you’re scared to be alone forever
So you can say to me you’re scared to be alone forever

11. Feeling The Change Inside

I saw you in a photograph
It looked at me and I started to laugh
But I don’t know where it goes
I saw you on the stage in a play
You caught my eye with the things that you say
But you couldn’t see how
That even now

I’ve been feeling the change inside
Just as if you were at my side
We were holding on to a lie
And we were too afraid to cry
We were too afraid to cry
We were too afraid to cry

I carved our names out on a tree
I call you up when I’m overseas
And I don’t mind yet
That we’ve not met
Stop taking what you take to get on
You’re beautiful you just need to belong
You say I’m slowing down
But now I’ve found

I’ve been feeling the change inside
Just as if you were at my side
We were holding on to a lie
And we were too afraid to cry
We were too afraid to cry

I was feeling the change inside
Like you never left my side
But it’s not too late to realise
I’m not too afraid to cry
If you’re not too afraid to try
I’m not too afraid to cry, cry
If you’re not too afraid to try

Can you feel the change inside?
Can you feel the change inside?

I saw you in a photograph
It looked at me and I started to laugh
But I don’t know where it goes

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