Noble Beast

Andrew Bird Noble Beast Lyrics
1.Oh No

in the salsify mains of what was thought but unsaid
all the calcified arhythmitists were doing the math
it would take a calculated blow to the head
to light the eyes of all the harmless sociopaths
oh arm and arm we are the harmless sociopaths
oh arm and arm with all the harmless sociopaths
calcium mines were buried deep in your chest
oh calcim mines you buried deep in your chest
oh no we're deep in a mine
oh no a calcium mine
so let's get out of here
past the atmosphere
squint your eyes and no one dies or goes to jail
past the silver bridge, oh the silver bridge
wearing nothing but a one-sie and a veil
oh oh deep in a mine,
oh oh a calcium mine
arm and arm we are the harmless sociopaths
arm and arm with all the harmless sociopaths
in the calcium mines buried deep in your chest
oh the calcium mines buried deep in your chest
oh oh deep in a mine oh no
oh oh calcium mines oh no


2.Masterswarm

come what may
lay your eggs where it's warm
we come here to swarm
come by sea
swarm like smoke in the dawn
we were the young
we were the swarm
radiolarians
midges and moths
cut from a cloth
we were the young
we were the swarm

flailing fetal fleas
feeding from the arms of the master
burrow into me
and this is sure to misspell disaster
Oh and the young in the larval stage
orchestrating plays
in vestments of translucent alabaster

so they took me to the hospital
they put my body through a scan
what they saw there would impress them all
for inside me grows a man
who speaks with perfect diction
as he orders my eviction
as he acts with more conviction than I

oh, burrow into me
this is sure to misspell disaster
oh, burrow into me
you're feeding from the arms of the master

we were the young
we were the swarm
we were the young
radiolarians
we were the young
we were the swarm
we were the young
radiolarians
we were the young
we were the swarm
we were the young
radiolarians
come what may
come what may
come


3.Fitz and the Dizzyspells

Comes and goes
Like the fits and dizzyspells, like the weather
And it gloats
Like it knows whats going wrong, like its clever

Has a name, oh but the name goes unspoken
Where the veins oh are all twisted and broken.
Soldier on
Soldier on
Soldier on
Soldier on

Flare into the whirr of the snack machine
Muted screams of an old regime
And then oh, something gets in
But nausea gets in
and we were all fast asleep
we were all so fast asleep

but you woke up, woke up from the strangest dream
that an old regime could ever know
would ever know, would ever know

Lava flows over the crooks and cragged cliffs to the ocean
and explodes like in a steam heat fevered sickly commotion
Has a name but the name goes unspoken
its in vein 'cause that language is broken
Cast your own
Cast your own
Cast your own
Cast your own
Soldier on
Soldier on
Soldier on
Soldier on
Soldier on
Soldier on


4.Effigy

If you come to find me affable
And build a replica for me
Would the idea to you be laughable
Of a pale facsimile

So will you come to burn an effigy
It should keep the flies away
And when you long to burn this effigy
It should be of the hours that slip away
Slip away

It could be you
It could be me
Working the door
Drinking for free
Carrying on with your conspiracies
Filling the room with a sense of unease
Fake conversations on a nonexistent telephone
Like the words of a man
who's spent a little too much time alone
When one has spent too much time alone

So will you come to burn my effigy
It should keep the flies away
If you long to burn an effigy
It should be of a man whose lost his way
Slips away

It could be you
It could be me
Working the door
Drinking for free
Carrying on with your conspiracies
Filling the room with a sense of unease
Fake conversations on a nonexistent telephone
Like the words of a man
who's spent a little too much time alone
When one has spent too much time alone


5.Tenuousness

Tenuous at best was all he had to say
when pressed about the rest of it, the world that is
from proto-Sanskrit Minoans to Porto-centric Lisboans
Greek Cypriots and and harbor-sorts who hang around in quotes a
lot

Here's where things start getting weird
while chinless men will scratch their beards
and to their minds a sharpened axe
is brushed upon the Uralic syntaxes

Love of hate acts as an axis
Love of hate acts as an axis
First it wanes and then it waxes
So procreate and pay your taxes

Tenuousness
Less seven comes to three
Them, you, us plus eleven thank the heavens for their elasticity
And as for those who live and die for astronomy

Know when to stand or when to sit
Can't stand to stand can't stand to sit
Now who would want to know this

Who wants to look upon this
Who wants to look upon this
Pray tell
Who wants to look upon this
Who wants to look upon this
Pray tell
Pray tell

Tenuousness
Less seven comes to three
Them, you, us plus eleven comes just shy of infinity
and as for those who live and die from numerology


6.Nomenclature

Just think of the lives you could swap with your own
While you're selling your coats, you're sewing your own
You know it's not the easy way

Sometimes we've got to pay to play
With finger paints and macrame
It's time we asked the sea and say

'Could you bring a different nomenclature?'
Now the colors have bled to grey
To ones that don't exist in nature

A nomenclature is washing away
Washing away
A nomenclature is washing away
Washing away

But did it carry you away?
Carry you all the way
Ah bum bum bum bum bum ah bum bum bum oooo...

Did it carry you away?
Carry you away?
Nomenclature's washing away
Oh it's washing us all away
Nomenclature's washing away
Oh it's washing us all away


7.ouo


8.Not a Robot,But a Ghost

I run the numbers through the floor
here's how it goes:I crack the codes
I crack the codes that end the war
I crack the codes that end the war

I pushed a note under your door
here's how it goes: things come to blows
but we don't want this anymore
No we don't want this anymore
We don't want this anymore

I crack the codes, you end the war

I hear the clockwork in your core
time strips the gears till you forget what they were for
I push the numbers through your pores
I crack the codes
I crack the codes that end the war

How's my view and
you can call
encrypted numbers
on bathroom stalls
there's something burning
it casts a pall
it's melting numbers
right off the wall

I run the numbers through the floor
here's how it goes: I crack the codes
I crack the codes, you end the war


9.Unfolding Fans


10.Anonanimal

I see a sea anemone
The enemy see a sea anemone
And that'll be the end of me.

While the vicious fish was caught unawares in the tenderest of
tendrils
Underneath her tender gills

I will become this animal
Perfectly adapted to the music halls
I will become this animal
Anomalous appendages
A non-animal

Hold on just a second
Don't tell me this one you know
I know this one I know this song
I know this one I love this song
Hold on just a second
Don't tell me this one you know
i know this one I know this song
I know this one I love this song
I know this one

Underneath the stalactites
The troglobites lost their sight
Uh oh
The seemingly innocuous plecostomus
though posthumus
They talk to us
They talk too much

See a sea anemone
The enemy see a sea anemone
That'll be the end of me

Vicious fish was caught unawares
In the tend'rest tendrils
Underneath her tender gills and

I will become this animal
Perfectly adapted to a music hall
I will become this animal
Anomalous appendages
A non-animal


11.Natural Disaster

Look upon the field of snow
To find the desert sea
Under the ice the springs will flow to release
Fecundates like a natural disaster
From the first drop of water
To the rage of Niagara

Collapse upon the forest floor and down upon your knees
Anthurium Lacrimae decays underneath the canopies like a natural
disaster
It's the one that's been happening over and over and over again

No peace in the valleys
Malarial alleys where the kittens have pleurisy
Donning our goggles
Valerian ogles
To see microscopically
A colony of dermestids
Undressed and digested
A grey spotted owl
And a wolf with a lung disease

Collapse upon the forest floor and down upon your knees
Anthurium Lacrimae decays underneath the canopies like a natural
disaster

It's the one that keeps happening over and over and over again


12.The Privateers

Don't sell me anything
Your one time offer, so uncalled for
You call it piece of mind

Cause I can see your house from here
Now leaves have fallen, dear
I can see you're just a little privateer
As your confession draws more near

Time and again, I find I'm listless
Or rather, fistless
In time, oh, that's what I find

So carry me to Mecca
With what you may divine
Take me with you, take me with you
Don't leave me behind

Oh cause I, I don't want your life insurance
Home, moto, health, flood, and fire insurance
Oh, just make, please make this basic inference
And speak of me in the present tense

Oh cause I, I can see your ship from here
Now the weather, so bright and clear
I can see you're just a little profiteer
As your confession draws more near
As your confession draws more near
As your confession draws more near


13.Souverian

The bells will ring
Church steeple's catching fire
And if you promise spring
Then I know you are a liar

'Cause in the spring
Tender grasses won't burn easily
The thrushes sing
Still my lover won't return to me

Wild parsnips they still scar my lungs
While thistles will burn my feet
And if you join our chorus
You'll never fear anymore
So here it comes, just the chorus
We will meet on a fatal shore

Souverian
Souverian
The elder

Souverian
Souverian
The free

Souverian
Souverian
The felled heart

So very young
So very young
Were we

Birds were singing
Still my lover won't return to me
You promise spring
Still my lover won't return to me
Wild parsnips scar my lungs
And the thistles are burning my feet

So here it comes, the chorus
You will never fear anymore
If you join our chorus
We will meet on a fatal shore

Under the elders
the older get younger
the younger get over
over the elders
and under the elders
pretend that you're older now

Under the elders
the older get younger
the younger get older
over the elders
under the elders
bending the branches down

We were so very young
Still my lover won't return to me
Thrushes sing
Still my lover won't return to me
Wild parsnips they still scar my lungs
While thistles still burn my feet


14.On Ho