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Five Fathom Round

by News From Nowhere

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1.
Cold and grey now grows the sun On a city morning, just begun Teeming millions walk and run on the spot And all that’s lost and won Can be counted in a second, and might Under that indifferent light. Metal fingers moon stretched strive While Balcony emperors yawn and thrive And do their best to hedonize By collecting things that they despise Golden trinkets and toys that sing but only sorrow do their riches bring. The asphalt tears in the searing heat Of the rat-race morning’s busy feet. When frenzy dawns upon the street, Flocks of confusion run to meet With bitter fates and tired grace Lines of weakness in every face. Mary lives under a bridge by the river In a semi-detached cardboard space And deep into the dark night as she shivers Her thoughts turn to her imminent fate, To retire – get up somewhere higher On the property ladder And the food chain Get up where it’s drier – To be ready when the flood comes in. Sam Jones runs a café on Castle Street And he wakes up every day at five to eight And he rubs his hands together to keep in the heat And him and his wife, well they just can’t wait To retire – get up somewhere higher On the property ladder And the food chain Get up where it’s drier – To be ready when the flood comes in. Sarah Green cleans the station every morning And evening, with a battered plastic broom. And yawning she dreams of the moment That cannot come too soon, To retire – get up somewhere higher On the property ladder And the food chain Get up where it’s drier – To be ready when the flood comes in. Mr Smith lives in a tower of polished glass That rings with the sound of a thousand telephones But he is only flesh and bone. And his dream is not his own - To retire – get up somewhere higher On the property ladder And the food chain Get up where it’s drier – To be ready when the flood comes in. As the shining towers come tumbling down People come and gather around They gasp and applaud with a crashing sound As their labours are glimpsed, lost, and unwound Like broken clocks that are tossed away Onto the hard unfeeling clay. And juggernauts howl on worn out paths Carry absurd loads of diamond and glass To society ladies glowing and vast While starving millions wander past. Some see themselves in coins they’ve begged And others in a mirror that hangs by their bed. Grey metal flesh and brittle bones Sprout in twisted urban zones Steel roots tearing through stone Glass boughs reaching unknown Heights, and when the worst is confirmed The city will fall by its own bastard worm.
2.
Drowned rats in waterproof Macs, Soaked through despite their armour, Shelter under parapets getting wet. And framed in library windows, Librarians clutch desperately at books And wait for the storm to pass, but the rain keeps falling. The motorways are flooded, all exits are blocked. No chance of a quick escape by car, And my home is far. I think of all that has drowned - labyrinths and cities vast. This vulnerability can’t last, And the rain keeps falling. Drizzle obscures my vision, The road home twists uncannily Through slender dripping glass. Has anyone else noticed that the clouds Are going the wrong way today? There are shadows at play, And the rain keeps falling. The rain fell harder and harder Drowning our wayward stars Drowning our foolish schemes Drowning our hopeless dreams People ran madly for shelter Buildings burst like water balloons The sky was cracked and split and ripped The city devoured by monstrous lips. I have seen the whitewash waters pound The shining towers, five fathom round I have sung the songs of the drowned That the sea in shackles bound.
3.
And when the storm was over When the world was new We crawled out from the rubble The last unlucky few And the cries of the newborn sun Echoed through the spires The naked bones of buildings Broken glass and twisted wires. In the water , Lovers reach out their fingers. In the harbour, The unlucky ones linger. And we know and we see and we fear That the sea is our mother. And the sun burns Green at the edges And the wind yearns For a child’s sketches. Lost in the line between The sky and the sea. And fishermen prowl along broken shores, Casting for slim rewards. And I vaguely Through shades of memory, Remember A quickening city Whose pulse increased And awakened the ravenous sea. And shanties Of fishbone and coral Protect these Sea-shaken people That cling to the rocks And sing of faraway days. And fishermen prowl along broken shores, Casting for slim rewards. We make do with what we have, And our heads that scraped the sky Are safe and dry And want for nothing. In the caverns of the waves, No light breaks on city graves Foolish men Who brought the north wind down.
4.

about

Five Fathom Round is an epic narrative album-length piece divided into three acts which tells the tale of a city doomed to destruction. Written in Swansea and Bangor over roughly seven months and recorded at Paperstone Studios in Nottingham, the album represents a fulfillment of News From Nowhere's progressive ambitions.

credits

released September 6, 2013

Tom Emlyn Williams - Guitar and Vocals
Aled Meredith - Piano and Vocals
Simon Davies - Bass guitar and flute
Jack Patrick - Drums, percussion, and whistling

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News From Nowhere Swansea, UK

Psychedelic indie from Swansea, Wales.

New album out very soon!

www.youtube.com/channel/UCU9Fx5318P4cSHzcJAmMkPQ

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