Get all 18 Hemlock Smith releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Live @ CCC Festival (May 5th, 2020), Hemlock Smith & les Poissons Autistes: "The Necrophone Sessions", The Ghost Parade, St.Louis (Webcam Version), I can only see the Darkness_DEMO, Medusa EP, By the Grace of Dynamite, Living Picture (Hemlock Smith plays Jacques Feyder's "Visages d'Enfants"), and 10 more.
1. |
Search the Shadows
05:43
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Search the Shadows
It’s OK…
Well I’m far too old to tell stories now
And even older just to hear them
And everyone’s turning silent now
I’m gonna try to disappear, and
Whatever happens will be penance
For all the bad, even the good
I knew I wouldn’t get out of that –
Noone could… noone could… it’s OK…
You can cry me a river
You can shed a million tears
You can tremble – you can shiver
You can summon all your fears
You’d always be dead wrong –
- dead wrong
To search the shadows when I’m gone
To search the shadows when I’m gone
It’s OK…
You’d always be dead wrong –
- dead wrong
To search the shadows when I’m gone
Whatever happens will be penance
For all the bad, even the good
We were never meant to get out of that –
Noone could… noone could…it’s OK…
You can cry me a river
You can shed a million tears
You can tremble – you can shiver
You can summon all your fears
You’d always be dead wrong – dead wrong
To search the shadows when I’m gone
To search the shadows when I’m gone --
You can cry me a river
You can shed a million tears
You can tremble – you can shiver
You can summon all your fears
You’d always be dead wrong – dead wrong
To search the shadows when I’m gone
To search the shadows when I’m gone
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2. |
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The Glory of the Soviet Union
She said
She longed for the glory of the Soviet Union
Where brave men and women went into outer space
And hoist the flag of communism.
She said
She longed for the huge parades on the large avenues
Where tanks and missiles rolled on the moaning concrete like roaring thunder;
And everyone wore the same hats and the same scarves and the same overcoats
And everyone was happy.
She said
She’d experienced hunger but is was alright because everyone felt the same hunger at the same time
Because everyone was equal and hunger, like corn, was something everyone shared.
(But then, I guess, she’d never seen Khrushchev on TV, eating a really big dinner…)
And then she told me she was Jewish
And that her whole family had been deported by the Nazis in ‘43
And she had been raped, several times.
And her sister had been raped.
Only once. But then, they shot her.
And she said that she had only survived by escaping and hiding in a hole, in the woods, in January.
She said she didn’t feel the cold anymore, since then, except in her soul.
She said she longed for the glory of the Soviet Union
Where brave men and women fought for their freedom and everyone had the same ideas.
Usually nice ones.
She said we could have sex, but always in the dark and that she would never, ever speak.
She would never enjoy it.
She said that we could marry, that she would respect me, but that she would not ever, ever, be able to love me.
She would always smell the damp of the snow, the taste of blood in her mouth, the bitter stench of dead bodies undisposed of.
And she would hear the rats.
And then she said she also, once, hid like a rat.
But brave men and women, her people, rescued her when she had already given up.
She longed for the glory of the Soviet Union, she said -
The glory of the Soviet Union.
The glory of the Soviet Union.
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3. |
Comb the Ashes
04:40
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Comb the Ashes
In the cold light, unforgiving –
In the harsh beam of the neon
There they huddle
Just to say goodbye.
Inarticulate, like a mute bell – in the evening
Like a dead cell
Final stroke and after that –
The silence will ever lie.
Say goodbye.
(repeat)
*
Your nails turned black - Wait for the furnace
The final fire – There! - Comb the Ashes…
Your nails turned black - Wait for the furnace
The final fire – There! - Comb the Ashes…
You can comb me…
- comb me…
Your nails turned black - Wait for the furnace
The final fire – There! - Comb the Ashes…
Your nails turned black - Wait for the furnace
The final fire – There! - Come the Ashes…
*
You can comb the ashes, when I’m gone…
You can comb the ashes, when I’m gone…
You can comb the ashes, when I’m gone…
You can comb the ashes, when I’m gone…
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4. |
Krankenakte
05:42
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Krankenakte
Ich liebe Dich
Hat er gesagt
Und mir den Arm gebrochen.
Die Polizei hat mich befragt.
Ich sag: „Er hat ja nichts verbrochen“.
Ich liebe Dich
Hat er geschrien
Und mir ins Herz geschossen.
Meine Augen brachen; er war deswegen
Bei weitem nicht verdrossen.
Ich liebe Dich
Hat er geflüstert
Und sprach vom Paradies.
Ich liebe Dich
Hat er geflüstert
Und sprach vom Paradies.
Ich liege hier in meinem Grab
Weiss nicht mehr, wie ich hiess.
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5. |
Necrophone
01:30
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Necrophone
I can hear you breathe - through my machine
Whatever secrets lie, whatever stories mean
I can hear you breathe - through my machine
Will you say the words, will you come clean?
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6. |
Nowhere
06:18
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Nowhere
Everyone’s going nowhere
It seems so crystal clear
It’s the only certainty I’ve got
For myself throughout the years
Everyone’s going nowhere
And going nowhere fast
The time for desperate measures’ up
This is always gonna last
Cos’ I can’t get up - And I can’t get down - But I can get nowhere.
All over through the city
I see the people run
They fly away in panicked flocks
To be burnt down by the sun
And whatever sense of pity
Might invade us when we look
We’re the same old dangling crooks, who got
Stuck on the butcher’s hook
Cos’ I can’t get up - And I can’t get down - But I can get nowhere.
Everyone’s going nowhere
It seems so crystal clear
It’s the only certainty I’ve got
For myself throughout the years
Everyone’s going nowhere
And going nowhere fast
It’s time to drink the bitter cup
And slowly sink towards the past
Cos’ I can’t get up - And I can’t get down - But I can get nowhere.
Everyone – Everyone – Everyone – Everyone -
And all over through the city
I see the people run
They fly away in panicked flocks
To be burnt down by the sun
And whatever sense of pity
Will be useless, will be naught
We’re the same old bumbling idiots
Who scream when we get caught
Cos’ I can’t get up - And I can’t get down - But I can get nowhere.
Cos’ I can’t get up - And I can’t get down - But I can get nowhere.
But I can get nowhere.
But I can get nowhere.
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7. |
Black Friday
13:04
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Black Friday
I had done
I had done my shopping
Temporarily content - Ignoring all dissent
On a Friday
Black Friday.
That’s when I saw
Suddenly I saw, there
All the people looking up from behind their phones
Kinda blown.
Third world war
Third world war is coming
Will we find
Will we find shelter from the storm?
This kinda fear
Fear of lives being shattered
I kinda fear
It will not matter in the end.
I have done
I have done my prayers, there
Thank you God, it’s the week-end.
It’s Friday.
Black Friday.
It’s Friday.
*
I have done
I have done my prayers, there
Thank you God, it’s the week-end.
*
Breathe in - Breathe out
Day in - Day out
What for?
Breathe in - Breathe out
Day in - Day out
What for?
Breathe in - Breathe out
Day in - Day out
What for?
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Hemlock Smith Lausanne, Switzerland
Hemlock Smith come from Lausanne (Switzerland). Since 2002, they’ve released 6 regular albums with intelligent pop, as well as 2 soundtracks for silent film and 2 collaborations with Noise duo Les Poissons Autistes. Fronted by singer-songwriter Michael Frei, Hemlock Smith's distinctive voice is complemented by the ambient guitar playing of Fred Merk and the delicate piano work of Emilie Roulet. ... more
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