TRANSGRESSOR (2015)

Seven Hells

Did you forget yourself? Get yourself into it? Thought you might have had a chance and blew it? I shouldn’t have to be the one to tell you this… But if you’re pinning all your hopes on another, why not bite the curb, leave your brains in the gutter? Well, I ain’t ever one to judge you, brother, I tend to like my mind in the gutter too.

Seven hells to hold you, old Transgressor’s coming out. So make peace with all your demons when you just don’t have the strength to cast ’em out.

I’ve got a problem and I can’t seem to fix it. Midas touch of turning things to shit I’m trying to learn to keep my curses to myself. But now everyone I love has figured out what I do. And so everyone I love is living out the same awful truth.

Hope, I tried to catch you with my broken fingers… Hope, I tried to plant you in my garden so you’d grow Then I wondered why you didn’t flourish, now I know… Transgressor crushes all the things he can’t let go.

Darlin’, let me hold you, we’ll remember why we stay. I’ll memorize the cadence of every word you say. And gather up the dark clouds, line ‘em up and make ‘em sing of all the better days that their subtle silver linings are bound to bring.

The Most Dangerous Game

Stick your hands up, let 'em down. Don’t we all feel so much smarter having played a part in this. It’s a nice hat, it’s a crown. Out of all the hats I wear it’s easily the heaviest.

I know that everything I build here will burn Once you understand the problem you can learn how to be part of it’s a lesson I’m unlikely to learn. Now my veins are full of rust and it’s worse than I thought.

Keep it pent up, let it out. I used to have opinions too, still probably have more than you do. But if it’s free I like it less, but if it costs me flesh I like it best! You want regrets? I’ve got a few.

I know that everything I build here will burn But once you understand the problem you can learn how to be part of it’s a lesson I’m unlikely to learn. Now my veins are full of rust and it’s worse than we thought.

Oh I have been so afraid, down and out and planned to stay in the gutter with my name just staring at the sun. Count my blessings, what a waste, oh I have just begun to play.

Keep your hands up, what a show! Don’t we all feel so much stronger Having dealt a part of some extravagantly brutal crushing blow

I know that everything I build here will burn Once you understand the problem you can learn how to be part of it’s a lesson I’m unlikely to learn. Now my veins are full of rust and it’s worse than I thought.

Now my heart is pumping dust but my body won’t stop. My body won’t stop

MOTHER OF A DEAL

Come a little closer tell me what you need it’s a mother of a deal Got a pocket full of power, a promise up my sleeve and I know just how you feel So gimme your hand, let me take you to the river, no one is around Do you wanna see a trick, I can walk on water, I can show you how But when I do, you gotta promise that you won’t go runnin’ for the hills, So do you wanna know?

When I’m drowning in blood I keep swinging. When I’m down in the mud I keep singing And I’m starting to feel so much better This is how you play the game

I am the patron saint of making bad decisions, it’s been long enough to know I got a penchant for the masochistic, prefer the taste of the pessimistic. And I don’t think I’m ever gonna be the kinda man I wanted me to be But I can scrap with the best of ‘em yeah, I can out bleed the rest of ‘em And when I do, I really do I really do I really do so I think I wanna go home Yeah I do, yeah I do, I really do I really do I think I wanna go home

When I’m drowning in blood I keep swinging. With my hands full of mud, I keep slinging it. I’m starting to feel so much better This is how we play the game

Sunken eyes don’t radiate The way they did in Ninety Eight These tired songs don’t resonate They never did much anyway still, I feel them in my bones and I thought that you might like to know that I still function

Sell yourself Everything is gonna be much better now Sell yourself Everything you build could be much bigger now So ring those bells Just another pound of flesh might do it Just sell yourself Sell! Sell! Sell!

THE ROAD TO PERDITION

I looked across the room and saw a face shining in the dark like a lighthouse, warning weary sailors of the rocks below,

And telling stories bigger than the Iliad or Odyssey. I’ve got a feeling you’re my alpha and omega and my in between.

Yes I do really think that I could like you Yeah, it’s true, that you don’t know me but I’d like you to spend some time 'cause I can’t get you off my mind

I heard that you’re a jew, is it a problem I’m a christian? well I don’t give a damn, I’ve got a habit of abandoning traditions. 'cause I like the way you laugh, that I seem to make it happen, if you want to know the truth, it was something that I needed. I have been so depressed.

Yes I do really think that I could like you Yeah, it’s true, that you don’t know me but I’d like you to spend some time 'cause I can’t get you off my mind



UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM

So I think by now I understand the problem That this was not at all the life you wanted If I’m not around, then how could I be any version of the man you need

You’re a single mom And I’m always gone.

When I say I’m alone, I’m alone (Screaming at the top of my lungs Screaming at the top of my lungs) I mean to say that, “We’re alone, we’re all alone”

Let me hear you sing it in a whisper Let me know which words will draw you closer I won’t make a sound if you don’t wanna I’m just feeling old so if I let you down, or when I let you down, could I be forgiven

So I tell myself I’ll be home before the morning When I can right the wrongs my absence has been causing I’ll be strong and kind. I will follow through. I’ll do everything that she asked me to, I will neutralize I equalize

I'll be screaming at the top of my lungs screaming at the top of my lungs

I’m so tired of practicing on stages. Every empty bar a bad decision that I’m making. I wish I was someone else, I wish that you loved someone else.

KINDNESS

Open up the cloud, let the flood come down and wash the earth. Carry all the dust and the dirt and the ash of what we were. And the wolves only come at night, but darlin’, you and I, we were made for the light. Open up the clouds, let the flood come down on me.

And I’ll say with all the confidence I have, if your feet are getting tired I can take you on my back, and we will carry one another as we march into the sun, saying darlin’ I will never get enough of your kindness, of your laughter, of your love.

I can hear the trees as they bend in the breeze and they call our names. Calling us forth, we were born from the earth in a golden age. And I walked all across this land looking for a love I could understand, looking for a price that a soul could pay and a blessed plot of land where our bodies lay with a stone put above our heads, it'll mark our place.

Say that we will always be this way: always moving, always shaking, always building, always breaking. I'm gonna love you ‘til the grave: I’ll make songs of all the things we said, build a monument in the place we met, teach the cynics what it means to be in love.

I HEARD THE DEVIL SAY MY NAME

Call it what you want. Is it a golden age, or just everybody seeing what they want? Oh, it’s hard to say. Yeah I was thinking maybe I was born to be a smaller flame. Might light the path of fewer men but keeps the fear at bay. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid.

I once had my hands on a heart that beat, with every breath I’d breathe, so consistently. Now I have got my hands on a heart that bleeds, I got a heart that leaks, so uncontrollably

I know you’re probably tired of all the jokes I tell. I know you’ve heard ’em all a million times, and they don’t age well. If you wanna know the truth, sometimes I tire of them myself. If you wanna know the truth, I fear I dried the well when I could not be someone else. And now to pay for all my sins, I’ll never make you laugh again.

I’m begging you to know me, I’m begging you to figure me out. Are you brave enough to love me? Are you smart enough to have your doubts? I’m begging you to know me, but I’m always wishing I was someone else. Can you make an honest man of the kind of liar that deludes himself? I’m begging you to know me, I’m begging you to figure me out. And when the panic motivates me, are you strong enough to hold me down? Are you strong enough to hold me down?

Because I heard the devil say my name out loud, and now he’s never gonna let me out.

A YEAR IN DECLINE

I guess I should be a little stronger than I am, a little stronger like I promised I’d be, now I know what doesn’t kill you makes you weak. And I wish I could be a little smarter than I am, a little quicker than I was the last time, now it seems the ground is frozen to my feet.

I could make this work, I can make this happen, if I wanted to...If I wanted to. I can make this work, I can make it happen, if I wanted to...If I wanted to.

I can’t sleep, if you’re not laying next to me...

Sing a sweeter song. Sing a song of love and faith, sing a song of courage and devotion, sing it 'til we all remember how it feels. Celebration songs are filling up our houses, I will love the earth again, I will know my name again, I will find my place again.

And I could make this work, I can make this happen, if I wanted to...If I wanted to. I could wake this up, my little sleeping dragon, If I wanted to…if I wanted to..

But I can’t sleep, if you’re not laying next to me. It’s incomplete. There’s plenty quiet, never peace. So sing it out! Like angels perched on steady shoulders. And cast them down! Those devils of our lesser natures.

WHEREVER YOU TAKE ME

Remember when I lived in Tennessee And you came to visit slept next to me We shared a wooden bed not meant for two And I told you I loved you and I still do

But I’m tired of talking let’s go to bed Cause I just need to get out of my head I been trying to keep our burdens light I just wasn’t made for these times

I‘ll stay as long as long as you will have me And I’ll follow if you want to lead And I’ll share the load that gets so heavy Wherever you take me, home I will be

I think that maybe I lost myself On a year of trying to be someone else Now I'm scared and sad and feeling stuck but I ain't ever gonna give you up

Wherever you take me, home I will be

THE VIRGIN'S APARTMENT

It was the summer when I met my lover We were much younger I guess we all were

I knew then Like I know now That our lives would be Intertwined somehow

It was the only thing I knew She would be my hope my truth

Curse the skin that we were born in Shrug it off We will set the world on fire and watch it burn All I need is time and patience oh my love We will make these four walls sacred Parthenon Parthenon Oh Parthenon

All I need is time and patience oh my love We will make these four walls sacred Parthenon Curse the skin that we were born in Shrug it off We will set the world on fire Watch it burn Watch it burn Watch it burn

I all I need is time and patience We will make these four walls sacred Parthenon Parthenon Oh Parthenon

MIDNIGHT AT THE DAIRY PALACE

Crowd's thinning out, our friends are going home, and I’d love if you’d be the one to make a move, but I know you won’t. There’s something you do, does something to me…. I made up my mind, when I saw you there. If I get a chance I will whisper the truth where no one can hear. 'Cause there's something you do, that does something to me. For once in my life, I know what I want.

And I’m tired of waiting for you to finally see. At the end of the day, 'til the end of our days, you belong with me. I lost all the blood in my head to my heart, and I'd give up anything else that I want, in spite of the friends that don't see what we've got, you came to me.

I’m tired of waiting for you to finally see. At the end of the day, 'til the end of our days, you belong with me.

ALONE IN THE DARK (Vinyl version bonus track)

You and me at the rocket park, you and me at the El Lugar, you and me at the Opry Land, and you and me reaching out our hands

Alone in the dark Stay!

All our friends got the cynic's touch. All our friends think they know so much. None of them ever been in love, so all our friends they can all get fucked.

Alone in the dark Stay!

Sing a love song with the words wrong, make it last a while. I'll take the blue skies with the black nights. It's you and me all year long, and I think that we belong.

Driving fast better get there soon. It's you and me at the ICU. One of us is going home alone, and one of us into the unknown. Well I don't want to go. I don't want to go.

You Are Destroyer (Vinyl version bonus track)

You’ve had a long kind of year, had the wrong kind of year, you’re finally tired enough to know fear, and you pretend to have some kind of hope, but you know that you don’t. You’re just beating a horse that can’t run.

You should be thankful now. You should be thankful.

You really thought you would be showing up on TV. Changing lives every time that you speak. Do you believe every lie that you tell, can you live with yourself? You are destroyer of all that you love.

You should be thankful now. You should be thankful.

If you learned your lesson and escaped with your life, If you were selfish and petty but you’ve still got your wife.

You should be thankful now. You should be thankful.

If you found the bottom of a bottomless well, but you can still feel the sunlight and you can still hear the bells. So if songs still mend broken hearts, and carry their weight to the top. If you've still got some air in your lungs, and you can sing with your mouth full of blood, 'cause you never know when to give up. You never know when to give up.