Jocasta – No Coincidence (1997)

Jocasta - No Coin. 10001

“The mixture of searing power pop, swooning serenades and swelling string sections is often magnificent.”
Q Magazine

I wrote and orchestrated this album between the age of 17 and 20, and then put the songs into the hands of 3 extraordinarily gifted musicians – Jack Reynolds, Adrian Meehan and Andy Lewis. Together, we became known as Jocasta.

The ingredients of my writing, their musical muscle and our combined energy got us signed to Sony after ripping through these songs at The Borderline, London in 1995. This is the sound of my first steps into the life of limitless creativity I am blessed to experience today. We didn’t make the rest of the journey together as a band, but the magical musical journey I have taken ever since is forever informed by each band member’s nurturing of my music at that time. Jocasta made enough of a mark on the London music scene to secure a somewhat odd place in Britpop history. However, only the rest of the band understood just what each lyric and note of music meant to me.

I’d also like to acknowledge Nick Ingman and The London Symphony Orchestra, without whose collaboration, I would never have been able to discipline the orchestral instincts that have possessed me for the last 3 decades. This album was my university. I learnt a lot from everyone who worked on the album and it gave me the firm push I needed to be a frontman – something that was never one of my ambitions. It’s an incredible album of extraordinary musicianship, production, ideas and raw angst ridden lyrics that I still believe in now.

Jocasta’s album ‘No Coincidence’ was finally release again exactly 20 years after the original release, June 1st 2017.

 

Tracks and Lyrics

1. Laughing

Please can somebody tell me what is happening to all of the people?
I can’t take it anymore, I’m sick of the cynics
And it’s happening to more and more people

Come on, attack a cartoon character,
Where you gonna find Mickey Mouse in the Ministry of Defence?
Come on, you know you won’t defend us, or turn against us
In fact it means you’ll be just too hooked to care

And they’re laughing, laughing at the world
And they’re laughing, laughing at the world

Tease them, I see where it leads to
It makes money look as strong as the people
I’ll keep on dying the days you all celebrate
Until I have become one of those people

Come on, attack a cartoon character,
Where you gonna find Mickey Mouse in the Ministry of Defence?
Come on, you know you won’t defend us, or turn against us
In fact it means you’ll be just too hooked to care

And they’re laughing, laughing at the world
And they’re laughing, laughing at the world

Laughing
Laughing
Laughing
Laughing

2. Go

Day by day is all I see
‘Cause there’s nothing I can hope that’s guaranteed
I don’t believe in schemes or dreams
It’s what happens on the way that makes me,
It makes me tired, it makes me strong, it makes me tense
It makes a lot of things but it don’t make sense
It don’t make sense…

With my love in the air
I wanted to be
A version of me, and though it seems
I never wanted to stay
In more than one place
But I just want to
Go, go, go, go, go
Go, go, go, go, go
Go, go, go, go, go

Hour by hour is all you get
And anything that’s more just turns to debt
Live your life as you can
And just do anything you like but don’t pretend
It makes you tired, it makes you strong, it makes you tense
It makes a lot of things but it don’t make sense
It don’t make sense…

With my love in the air
I wanted to be
A version of me, and though it seems
I never wanted to stay In more than one place
But I just want to

Go, go, go, go, go
Go, go, go, go, go
Go, go, go, go, go
Go…

I want to go
I want to go
I want to go

With my love in the air
I wanted to be
A version of me and though it seems
I never wanted to stay
in more than one place
But I just want to

Go, go, go, go, go
Go, go, go, go, go
Go, go, go, go, go
Go…

3. Life In A Day

There’s a girl on the door and she’s flaunting her all
At the shy passers by who’ll pay all she affords
It was only supposed to be a short stint in the industry
Now she does a rock round the clock for the dough she affords
It’s taking her mind off the hoards
And it’s breaking her heart

Jo’s just gone and blown her life in a day

She’s stopped writing letters to mummy and her purse is so light
It’s that tight, she can’t buy the stamps
She’s through with freebasing and now she’s just chasing
And chasing, the big city ain’t what it seems any more
She’s high but she don’t know what for
And it’s breaking my heart

Jo’s just gone and blown her life in a day

She’s scratching around like a rat
Yeah, she’s out of her head
She just can’t go on, so she’s gone and got a gun
And pumped herself full of lead

Jo’s just gone and blown her life in a day

4. Change Me

Everybody’s sticking to their guns and mother licking
And I don’t know what to think about you living how you’re taught to live
Is it how I ought to live?
My my my what a beautiful sty,
I’m gonna stay dead skinny so they don’t pick me to fry
I, don’t want to die anything like everyone says I might
I’ve had it, I’ve had it, I’ve had it with thinking it’s wrong to be right

I don’t need to sell a story to a second rate tabloid
I don’t need to look good ‘cause I don’t want a friends approval
I’m gonna remove all that categorization, any situation, alienation
I don’t want to know it
I’ve just got to throw it
Off it’s course like everyone says we could
I’ve had it, I’ve had it, I’ve had it
With saying we could, when we should
Change Me

I’ll get around to it but I’m not going to do it
With dope or bones or keeping up with the Jones’
I don’t need to get whipped or clipped by a tom
‘cause you’re always wrong if you’re wondering if I’m lonely
Ah, if only I could live like everyone says I might
I’ve had it, I’ve had it, I’ve had it
With saying it’s wrong to be right
Change Me

5. Leave The Light On

I wish I were sad
Like a cliché granny, stuck to the stars
For tall, dark and handsome strangers
I wish I were washed up at the edge of my life
So I could feel genuine about
Leaving the light on, just because it makes me feel
Like someone might be home

A knocking on the door
Just makes me feel more
Like sitting here by myself
And a letter makes me cry
And I’m a little boy again
Feeling so…
Left out, hoping as I leave that someone might be home

I am nothing special.  The roles trap me too
I am nothing special.  The roles trap me too
I am nothing special.  The roles trap me too
I am nothing special.

Someone might be home.

6. Single As Hell

When they asked me what you’d do if I bedded your friend
You said you’d have me back if I could make you understand
Buy when you did it to me, you said you had no problem justifying
But I’m still crying

When we make love do we really want to fight?
When we’re open, do we really need to hide?
I hate it when you mention other men
But I mention other women all the time

Heavens, with our Double standards, we’ll be Single as Hell

We’ve been through so much but we’re still here
This thing survived, so did the fear
I learn the new games as quickly as you change the rules

When we make love do we really want to fight?
When we’re open, do we really need to hide?
I hate it when you mention other men
But I mention other women all the time

Heavens, with our Double standards, we’ll be Single as Hell

When we make love do we really want to fight?

7. Something to Say

I don’t know how I did it
I don’t know how I did it
I don’t know how I did it

And how I hid it from her hurt too much for me to admit it
Ok, so I did it and maybe there’s a time and a place, but there’s never a reason
I broke a promise to myself

Hey, I think I’ve thought of something to say
Hey, If I’d thought of it before would you have stayed?

I don’t know how I do it
I don’t know how I do it
I don’t know how I do it

And how I get through it day by day when friends will say
That I blew it, and that she already knew it was over years ago
I don’t know if I’ve got a reply.  I’m racking my brains ‘til I die

Hey, I think I’ve thought of something to say
Hey, If I’d thought of it before would you have stayed with me this time?
Like you stayed with me every time
And though you stayed so many times
I feel weaker than ever and I’m still not sure you’re really mine

I don’t know how I’ll do it
I don’t know how I’ll do it
I don’t know how I’ll do it

How am I going to do it?

8. Actress

Actress, actress… why did you pull the show?.
When you know how much I would have liked to go
With a seaside stare and your new forest air….
My only care is when
I’ll be under your arrest again

So, temptress, temptress… play another part
For I’ve seen this role played too few times apart
I’m no also-ran or flash-pan-fan
I never cared to fake it
And if you keep on breaking hearts like this
You’ll make it

It’s hard to know where I should go from here
Run me through the script, a walk on would be fine
Thoughts of you to me are just as typical as
Props inside a pantomime

Actress, actress…
One more encore
Don’t leave just yet, without me, not yet
The crowds will always stand
One day you’ll find your perfect leading man
Until then I’ll do the best I can

9. Perfect

Let’s not get too carried away with this
even though there’s been a lot of coincidences
it shouldn’t really matter much to us anymore
And if there’s enough blue in the sky
To make a sailor a suit and a tie
Then we can tie ourselves up together
And hold on tight
Would it be wrong to say?
Would it be right to say?
We get each other wrong
When we think we’re not that strong
‘cause we know that we’re perfect on our own

We never run out, there’s always enough
There’s no on else to switch our favourite channel off
We can open up and shut out
The things that drag us down
Would it be wrong to say?
Would it be right to say?
We get each other wrong
When we think we’re not that strong
‘cause we know that we’re perfect on our own

10. Crackbaby

He’s coming up a second time just like we prophesied
He’s coming up under any star, surprise, surprise surprise
He’s not a savior, so good behavior won’t help you out this time
He’ll be a crackbaby, and he’ll shoot you for a future
So don’t wait.  He’s coming up.

I’m six years old and I;ve been told “you always get up when you’re out of the game”
But the little girl we kicked yesterday is still lying down today
‘Cause you never run out of lives.  You just go on and on

As long as the software makes you feel strong

He’ll be a crackbaby, and he’ll shoot you for a future
So don’t wait.  He’s coming up.

He’s coming up again for so much more than frankincense and myrrh this time

Slowly, slow we’ve all been hanging off a cross to die for him this time.  He’s got to mine.

He’ll be a crackbaby, and he’ll shoot you for a future
So don’t wait.  He’s coming up.

11. Face You

It’s so unfair that we can’t talk
But I made it so I wouldn’t win
I made all of this
Even that poor fool you stuck yourself with
And some day we’ll lose this separation
But till then, I can wait to face you

You know it’s only us two
You know it’s only us two

Forget about him, forget about everyone
Even though they try to claim apart of me and you
They don’t realise it confuses things

If one day you need
If one day you ever need
You can have what you need from me
You can have what you need from me

But ‘til then I can wait to face you
But ‘til then I can wait to face you

‘cause I know we will be again

Yes I know we will be again

12. Inside Out

This is after midnight
Anything can happen
You might fall in love
Or find a doctor to pop the potion
But we just night get ripped off

This is Sloanes and hobos
Helping each other out for a bit of brown
This is you and me
Inside out in the middle of the town

And we don’t believe in anything unless anything believes in us
Where a girl on the door gets a lift with a limousine straight back to Kings Cross
Where you get a lift from whatever In our prime
And surfing channels is a waste of time?

We just get inside out you know
We just get inside out you know
We just get inside out you know
We just get inside out you know

We’re just looking out
And waiting for a wave to waste the wreck we’re in
What’s the worth in worrying at all
There’s always someone who knows your pin
Yeah, all you need is love, but I’ve still got hope
I’ve still got hope

This is all we’ve got, so let us not
Forget to say a prayer to whatever substitute you use
To get you clean out of your head
There’s no great escape or hidden agenda

You’ve gotta keep moving through the crowds
You’ve got to face the world or lose

We just get inside out you know
We just get inside out you know
We just get inside out you know
We just get inside out you know

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