Tides

by Emily Leong

/
00:00
00:00

  • Digital Album

    Immediate download of 11-track album in your choice of high-quality MP3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

    Buy Now  name your price

1.
03:13
lyrics
2.
03:26
lyrics
3.
03:11
lyrics
4.
03:39
lyrics
5.
02:30
lyrics
6.
03:33
lyrics
7.
04:33
lyrics
8.
03:39
lyrics
9.
04:06
lyrics
10.
04:18
lyrics
11.
03:32
lyrics

credits

released 21 August 2012
All music was written by Emily Leong except for violin on "The Carpenter", which was written in collaboration with Essie Shachar-Hill.

Many, many thanks to:
Essie Shachar-Hill - violin
Isabel Kwon - cello
Sarah Bence - voice
Jen (Yoon Ju) Kang - voice, watercolor painting

tags

tags: acoustic east lansing female female vocals folk folk rock free free download indie massachusetts michigan northampton pop portland singer-songwriter East Lansing

license

all rights reserved

feeds

feeds for this album, this artist
Track Name: Almost Home
Empty mouths feed us hungry sounds
And we are quiet but standing tall

Broken lungs fired, words conspired
And we are grown but still so young

My feet, they were so strong
They carried me where I did not belong
And your hands, with fear-soaked skin,
They left me broken, but almost home

Children's eyes follow the paths we draw
And we are flawed but hands to hold

And we are poets in beggars' clothes,
Trading love for less of what we know
And we are small in this world
With secrets only we've been told

My feet, they were so strong
They carried me where I did not belong
And your hands, with fear-soaked skin,
They left me broken, but almost home
Track Name: Crowns
I was born on the shore of Lake Erie
Seven pounds in nature's hands
And my mother told me never to be caught
With more than I could hold in my two arms

I was gone in the wind
The second I was old enough to walk
I made crowns out of flowers
And dug down to the earth's fire core

And I run across the lands
That open up my heart to more
And I change again
Into the iron horse

And I can't believe
That they'd cut down all the trees
But they never did belong to me
They never did belong to me

I came after they left the scene
To count the rings of age
Alone for the first time
It was only the trees that ever knew my name
Track Name: Stand Silently
Would you pay attention if I wrapped my car around a tree?
Or would you stand silently, just watching me bleed?
I'm not worth your precious stability and all the tides it brings
Come on, ignore me

A ghost of the good that we once knew
Well, tell me how it left, tell me the honest to god truth
How'd your courage leave you?
What happened to the girl I thought I knew?

She broke us down in the worst ways
Made you feel like you were something of which to be ashamed
And now I'm slipping through the cracks you left unfilled
But tell me, dear girl, what do I really mean
When your home is all that you seem to need
Don't try to tell me that this is beautiful, no

I want to break into your house and show them what family really means
Because lies and conditional love are all I see
But you're gripping tight to the hand holding the knife
While I stand on the sidewalk watching through your front window

You broke us down in the worst ways
Made me feel like I never meant anything
And left me slipping through the cracks you kept unfilled
But tell me, dear girl, what did I really mean
When your home was all that you seemed to need
Don't try to tell me that we were beautiful, no
Track Name: Burn Out Bright
Squeeze tight like the lemon juice that runs through our fingers
In the summer heat, last time to build something between
But do I drop the torch into the kerosene?
Well, to me, what do you really mean?

Everything; for now, it seems
You're all I see; for now, it seems

Burn out bright, the rays tug at their brother inside
They burn me white
But does a Seer still make choices of her own?
Never waiting on the fate that she is shown

But you're everything; for now, it seems
You're all I see; for now, it seems

You shoot just like you dream big of,
And I promise I'll write the soundtrack, love

Because you're everything; for now, it seems
You're all I see; for now, it seems
Track Name: Girl of My Dreams
Summer's gone, and I've been waiting for ya
All the birds are singing songs of Florida
But I went east to pocket all my dreams
Your smile, it looked so sweet
When you gave it to me

Girl of my dreams, please don't leave me be
'Cause your hand in mine is all I need to breathe

Winter's here, and I promise I will call ya
So I can hear your voice while you're in California
But I'll meet you back east by the roaring Atlantic Sea
Boston's never seen a love like you and me

Girl of my dreams, I won't leave you be
'Cause you are the one that I love to need
We will go places we've never seen
And live in a house with a wooden porch swing

Your hand in mine is perfect poetry
The world has never seen a love like you and me
Track Name: Kerouac
I have wandered far and wide
To see the girl the miles would reveal inside

Kerouac and to be loved back
I don't need much more than that
I'll take less if it means more
All these things, you hold so tight
You count your cards and miss the point
While all the world is passing by
Right before your eyes

And I have tried to love so many things
That only left me a stranger to my own heart

Kerouac and to be loved back
I don't need much more than that
I'll take less if it means more
All these things, you hold so tight
You count your cards and miss the point
While all the world is passing by
Right before your eyes
Track Name: Treasure
I was taught to believe in God
Right as I grew up
I picked up all my treasure maps
And turned them into dust

But I saved myself
From their dreaded flames of Hell
I left their help
But that book back on its shelf
To save myself

I couldn't take the way
They talked with their two mouths
So I left their house
I couldn't blame the sin
On anybody else
Except for God Himself

And I was born to a peaceful king
But never a second time
I couldn't seem to leave this world's failures
All behind

But they killed themselves
By creating their own hell,
They are empty shells
With all their souls to sell
They killed themselves

And they can't think of anything
But treasure crowns
And power's sound
And we can't blame the empty skin on
Anything else
No, not anything else
Besides our own selves

And I was strong when the light went out
Never looking down
But now I think I've forgotten how
To love the heat of hell,
The heat of Hell
Track Name: The Carpenter
I was only ten years old
When you told me you were
Leaving our home to be with him

He was only a carpenter
But he turned the trees into works of art
And he built storms

But God Himself couldn't change the way
He dealt with every sinner's fate,
So I changed

And fifteen candles only shine so far
I reached for Heaven, but fell apart
And I was young

I've tried since then to shake His hand
The seasons change, but He never can
So I gave up

But empty things don't leave me whole
I search for fullness in this world
Sometimes

And two books in one can't change the fact
That every time I keep looking back
I don't feel young

Nineteen years I've been waiting for
Nature's truths and so much more
But I am young
Track Name: Lies You've Found
I'm gonna start buying cigarettes from the girl at the corner store
So that she'll tell me that they're killing me slowly
All the while, they taste so sweet

I still drive to the harbor on the lake where you left me
Where you told me you were sick of who I was trying to be
And that my heart was too big to fit on a sleeve
That you'd never learn to be what I need

So tell me now
All the lies you've found
In a life lived for someone else
And tell me how
I'm supposed to live without
Your voice always talking me down
Track Name: Stone by Stone
Father burns the blackened coals
The children sing of love they've known
Mother's candles light the home
Together they reap what they sow

Fire heats the calm inside
Songs turn water into wine
Ghosts of evenings past now find
A preservation owned by time

Lost were sacred hearts of gold
In the search for emperor's clothes
But found in rings at dear friends' homes
And built as castles, stone by stone
Track Name: The Barrel of a Gun
You wake up at eight and you head to church
You put on your dress and you fill your purse
With today's bible verse

But when you grow up I will tell you the truth
About how Sundays work and what to do
When you're down

Because miracles come
From the barrel of a gun

When I was nine I went to Sunday school
And all the preachers had nothing new to say
They were all the same

Love your neighbor like you love yourself
But not if you think that he's going to hell
And don't you dare believe something else

And you will find the pavement tired
From all the false smiles
And you will leave your faith behind

Because miracles come
From the barrel of a gun