CLOCKS     PAGES     13 SONGS     BIRD


CLOCKS LYRICS

+ Dear John

Dear John, I wrote this song for you,
I want to do right by you, I want to make you shine

Dear John, I read between the lines for you,
You protected the future you, you had pride.

Many of the miracles then were golden,
Innocence, precious, wise and golden,
Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!

Everything is relative looking through the keyhole,
A kaleidoscope twisting, who tells the story then?
Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Wondering what it’s going to be like

What a fantastic day! A marvellous wonder! What a great day!
What a fantastic day! What a great day!

What a fantastic day! A marvellous wonder! What a great day!
What a fantastic day!

Waiting on a moonlit night, wondering what it’s going to be like
Waiting on a moonlit night, wondering what it’s going to be like
Waiting on a moonlit night, wondering what it’s going to be like
Waiting on a moonlit night, wondering what it’s going to be like
And you revelled in the spell of a beating pleasing stroke of the country air
And you revelled in the spell of the echoes then to hush of the velvet pair
And you revelled in the spell of a beating pleasing stroke of the country air
And you revelled in the spell of the echoes then to hush of the velvet pair

What a fantastic day! A marvellous wonder! What a great day!
What a fantastic day! What a great day!

What a fantastic day! A marvellous wonder! What a great day!
What a fantastic day!

+ Cold Water

You pour cold water on my heart,
And I can’t tell you because of my pride.
I know that your pounding plentiful blemished heart’s hurting
I wish that I could unblemish your great heart’s hurt,
And pull you through,
Pull you through, but I can’t pull you through

You pour cold water on my heart,
And you can’t tell me. because of your pride.
I know that your beautiful blemished poor heart is hurting and
I wish that I could unblemish your poor heart’s hurt,
But you choose to wallow, you choose to wallow,
So I can’t pull you through
We pour cold water on our hearts,
And we can’t talk about it because of our pride.
I know that your pounding plentiful blemished heart’s hurting and
I wish that I could unblemish your great heart’s hurt,
But you choose to wallow, you choose to wallow,
So I can’t pull you through
I know that your pounding plentiful blemished heart’s hurting and
I wish that I could unblemish your great heart’s hurt,
And pull you through, pull you through,
I can’t pull you through.

We pour cold water on our hearts,
And we can’t talk about it because of our pride.

+ Julia

Tonight, wading in the water, Julia, Julia.
And I cry out to the river, Julia, Julia

The echoes of her beauty circle ripples of her losing
I hear echoes in my bosom, ripping circles in my oozing yearning

Cry, I loved her then as I love her now when I can only
Cry, cry, to the river.

Tonight, wading in the water, Julia, Julia.
And I cry out to the river, Julia, Julia

The echoes of her laughter ringing ripples in my bosom
I hear echoes in the ripples from my crying, Oh My Julia

I cry, I loved her then as I love her now when I can only
Cry, cry, to the river.

Tonight, wading in the water, Julia, Julia.
And I cry out to the river, Julia, Julia

+ Just a Few Hours

Just a few hours in my heart before it’s breaking,
I can’t tell you that I love you or I’ll break it,
But I know what’s coming down the line for my heart so I can’t say that I love you

Just a few hours in my heart before it’s shaking,
I can’t think of how I love you or I’ll break it,
But I know what’s coming down the line,
So I can’t think about how I love you.

I’m losing steam with grief and disbelief how tables turn, I’m reeling,
Washes full of tears, like a year within the night

Hey you! With my heart, how can I lick up the wound that’s tearing my side
Hey You! With my heart, how can I lick up the wound that’s tearing my side

Just a few hours in my heart before it’s breaking,
I can’t tell you that I love you or I’ll break it,
But I know what’s coming down the line for my heart so I can’t say that I love you

I’m losing steam with grief and disbelief how tables turn, I’m reeling,
Washes full of tears, like a year within the night

Hey you! With my heart, how can I lick up the wound that’s tearing my side
Hey You! With my heart, how can I lick up the wound that’s tearing my side

Just a few hours in my heart before it’s shaking,
I can’t tell you that I love you or I’ll break it,
But I know what’s coming down the line,
So I can’t say that I love you.

+ Galway Boy

She was serene when there were wigs in the green
When it was complicated she let him be
But she ruled as easy as water off a little duck’s back
For posterity she built a sanctuary she sings

Galway Boy I love you,
My eyes are wide for you,
I delight in the fire in you,
I smile when I think of you.

Galway Boy I’d side for you,
Your guises I’d bind for you,
Your ideas I’d hold true,
Your expounding I’d listen to.

Ever tender tears for you,
Ever fastening falls,
Ever standing tall for
Ever my boy from Galway

She was serene when there were wigs in the green
When it was complicated she let him be
But she ruled as easy as water off a little duck’s back
For posterity she built a sanctuary she sings

Galway Boy I dream with you,
By night I fly with you,
Miracles I wish for you,
I’m spinning auras round you

Ever tender tears for you,
Ever fastening falls,
Ever standing tall for
Ever my boy from Galway

Galway Boy I dream with you,
By night I fly with you,
Miracles I wish for you,
I’m spinning auras round you

+ If I Lose You Tonight

If I lose you tonight my love,
Will I ever know the ache in you?
Will your soul sooth over the toil in you My Love,
or will the pain ever soften?

If I lose you tonight My Love,
Will your heaving lull within?
Will you eclipse the toil within your heart My Love
Or will your soul build a haven?

If I lose you tonight My Love,
Will you hold fort around the blue?
Will you guard the wall around your heart my love
Is there a furrow left to step through.

If I lose you tonight My Love,
Will the sombre dispel and thin?
Will the sadness behind your eyes weave My Love,
And let a crevice small to begin?

If I lose you tonight My Love,
Will you ever know my toil within?
Will you ever know the ache inside my soul
And that your aching is familiar?

For I moulded a furrow small,
I furrowed more till the crevice tilled,
A chink of airy light began to fill My Love,
To fill the sombre heart again.

I won’t lose you tonight My Love,
I won’t leave your furrow untilled,
I won’t leave you tonight My Love,
Until the airy ray has broken in

I won’t leave you tonight My Love,
I won’t leave your furrow untilled,
I won’t leave you tonight My Love,
Until the airy ray has broken in

+ Moment

After the moment you’re shot down,
Like a haze-inducing drown

Will you eat humble pie and turn a blind eye, Oh now,
The elephant’s in the room, fairytale is askew,

And kind words can only frame
the rough and tumble of a harsh game, you thought was

Music to your ears before it was revealed that
You’re not in the role of gate-keeper

But after you renew comes
A moment out of the blue.

After the moment you’re knocked down
Like a haze inducing crown

Ah but faces were light for you ,
How great a fighter were you
You were lured by the sight of, you caught yourself smiling and

Well meaning words can only frame,
The rough and tumble of a harsh game you thought was

Music to your ears before it was revealed that
You’re not in the role of gate-keeper

But mountains move to bring a moment out of the blue.

After the moment you’re struck down
Like a haze inducing crown

You were king of the town, you were laughing renowned you,
Now you were hanging onto compliments, remembering talk of you

And sugar-coating won’t explain
the rough and tumble of this harsh game you thought was

Music to your ears before it was revealed that
You’re not in the role of gate-keeper

But after you renew comes a moment out of the blue
And mountains move to bring a moment out of the blue.
a moment out of the blue
a moment out of the blue

+ Every Inch A Woman

Catherina so fine of a glorious time irrefutably she was blessed
Her intricate designs she surpassed showing signs that she’d wander North, South East and West.

She was every inch a woman who revealed in every pictorial might,
She was every inch a woman with numerous various riches in sight.

By a fast country mile she excelled time and time
Word began to spread with tales of splendiferous merit

She was every inch a woman, a sparkling, magnificent luminous gem,
She was every inch a woman, spell-binding and blossoming, shining within.

Catherina so fine at this glorious time, in Glasgow she chanced upon Sally
Sally was sweet and Sally was chic, devotees around her were many.

A small envy began in the luminous gem, but so small Catherina could quell it,
And day after day as she wished it away, she discovered she couldn’t allay it.

She was every inch a woman but darkness was growing and growing within,
She was every inch a woman but oh a great blackness so quickly set in.

Catherina so fine of a beautiful mind, no intricate designs were appearing
Intertwined in a mind was a scourge of a bind, an envy that made her so weary.

Catherina so fine of a beautiful mind,
her intricate designs had waned over time

She was every inch a woman but darkness kept growing and growing within,
She was every inch a woman no longer a sparkling magnificent gem.

She was every inch a woman but darkness had grown and grown within,
She was every inch a woman no longer a sparkling magnificent gem.

+ Worry

Worry is a thing that you build around a superstitious feeling and
Addle is a thing that can incapacitate your every movement

And it grows, and it erodes and it explodes your insides
And it grows, and it erodes and it explodes your insides

Do the next right thing, and for a minute do the next right thing,
Do the next right thing, and for a minute do the next right thing,

And let it go, let it go, let it go , let it go…………….

Anger is a thing that you build around an inconvenient happening and
anger at the world is an inconvenient thing to be disbanded

Cos it grows, and it erodes, it explodes your insides
It grows, and it erodes and it explodes your insides

Do the next right thing, and for a minute do the next right thing,
Do the next right thing, and for a minute do the next right thing,

And let it go, let it go, let it go , let it go…………….

+ Happy Ever After

For eleven minutes round she was astounded when she heard it was
planned that she’d marry the king and she thought,

Thank you for the dreams but hold a minute if you please,
I just need to dig deep in my dreaming wonderland
Thank you for the dreams but hold a minute if you please,
I just need to dig deep in my dreaming wonderland

Cos somewhere someone killed something inside my heart without a trace,
It’s a mystery what the missing something was

So thank you for the dreams but wait a little if you please
I just need a little ease to crack a puzzle in my heart I know
So thank you for the dreams, wait a little if you please
I just need a little ease to crack a puzzle in my heart I know

Cos marrying a King has a ring of happy ever and it’s
Easy to live as someone else

So thank you for the dream but my heart needs me
I’m off to dig deep in my dreaming wonderland so
thank you for the dream, happy ever’s within me
I’ll find it digging deep in my dreaming wonderland

For eleven minutes round she was astounded when she heard it was
planned that she’d marry the king and she thought,

Thank you for the dreams but hold a minute if you please,
I just need to dig deep in my dreaming wonderland
Thank you for the dreams but hold a minute if you please,
I just need to dig deep in my dreaming wonderland

Cos somewhere someone killed something inside my heart without a trace,
It’s a mystery what the missing something was

So thank you for the dreams but wait a little if you please
I just need a little ease to crack a puzzle in my heart I know
So thank you for the dreams, wait a little if you please
I just need a little ease to crack a puzzle in my heart I know

Cos marrying a King has a ring of happy ever and it’s
Easy to live as someone else

So thank you for the dream but my heart needs me
I’m off to dig deep in my dreaming wonderland so
thank you for the dream, happy ever’s within me
I’ll find it digging deep in my dreaming wonderland

+ Imperfect Love

This love has come now and yes it’s true,
This love is here now no less a hue,
And let it come now, a relished thing,
And let it ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring this imperfect love.

Cos fleeting treasures vanish hushed down deep
And impressions carve down deep
Embers rest a fragile heap down deep
Steady imprints pave.

So will I hold love and let it drum
Or live a hard love or sad love numb
Or sit in cries of a rapid zest
Or like the cries, the cries, the cries of this imperfect love.

But as the echoes bellow long down down deep
When the twilight rolls down deep
As the parting song is sung down deep
With the chiming casting tolls

Will have taken love and let it swell
Will I have dwarfed love or let it dwell
Will I have dealt love without a rein
Will I have carried, carried, carried this imperfect love.

Cos whether whimsical or plain down deep,
And whether quick or true down
Or only fleeting moments it’s a gift
A great imperfect love

Cos whether whimsical or plain down deep,
And whether quick or true down
Or only fleeting moments it’s a gift
A great imperfect love.

This love has come now and yes it’s true,
This love is here now no less a hue,
And let it come now, a relished thing,
And let it ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring this imperfect love.


ABOUT CLOCKS

+ THE STORY OF THE ALBUM

If Pages is, effectively and efficiently, a pop album using an orchestra with the songs, then Clocks is something else altogether.

Pages took on a whole other life of its own,” says Julie, remarking that the success of the live shows, particularly in New York, came as a pleasant shock to her, “but through all of that I was letting things develop in my head. I always let songs come to me, in that once they arrive I feel they want to be here.”

As these early thoughts filtered through, it became clear to Julie that a loose theme was emerging – one of close family, generations past, the value of personal roots, all of which are referenced on Clocks. “I’m not into the notion of a concept album – you’d have to contrive something, which is not really what I’m into – but I knew I wanted to write songs and make a record about some amazing people in my family tree.”

When Julie wasn't wowing audiences and critics in America (“Ms. Feeney's songs don't shout,” wrote New York Times Chief Pop Music critic, Jon Pareles, following her sold-out run of ten nights at the Irish Arts Center. “They tease, ponder, reminisce, philosophize and invent parables”), she was visiting her family in Galway, asking questions about the Feeney and Murphy elders, both present and departed. It was, she says, a profound experience to hear stories of those she only knew through meandering family conversations, vivid hearsay and monochrome images.

“You think that your own life is busy and complex, but these people that lived before me felt exactly the same emotions – heartbreak and loss don’t change – whilst living in a less hectic time period. History tells us they had a much harder time – more simple, perhaps, but certainly harder. Once that clicked with me, I felt like I was sitting on time in history – a history very much based in Galway.”

To root herself and her thoughts even further – as well as wanting to experience an authentic sense of location – Julie undertook songwriting spells in Ballynahinch Castle and Lough Inagh Valley Cottages, and recorded all the album’s vocals (over eight nights in the freezing Irish winter of 2012) at the inspirational Kylemore Abbey Gothic Church. She sensed, she says, “as if I was being minded by my ancestors… I felt very comfortable in places, not scared. And it was a natural, often intense connection with these people…”

The songs on Clocks range from Dear John (“that’s about my grandfather and grandmother, and how they would wait for a moonlit night to go cycling on the road”), Julia (“about my grandmother, as if sung by my grandfather, who once said that he had nothing to sing about after his wife passed on”) and Galway Boy (“about tricky men and staunch women”), while musically it’s a perfect blend of radio-friendly, intelligent pop music and effortlessly smart curve-ball melodies that reference both the traditional (If I Lose You Tonight) and the contemporary (Moment Out Of The Blue, Happy Ever After).

The number one album she released in Ireland with an avant-garde approach by scoring her music for ten different choirs in ten different towns over ten different nights in a row. The album was crowd-funded by fans on Fundit.ie and is the still most successful crowd-funded project yet on the Irish crowdfunding site Fundit.

As a whole, says Julie, the mood, feel, sound and creative sensibilities of Clocks hints at her rockier debut album rather than its chamber-pop follow-up. “It has a new direction for me. It’s much more vibey and far more assured. It’s fair to say that I’m going out on a limb a little bit, creatively.”

Not that Julie is overly concerned about what people may say about that. “My job as an artist is to create something that is true, to grow and develop – and the music has to reflect that.”

Onwards and upwards, then, while at the same time not necessarily providing what people might expect? “I could easily make another album like pages,” says Julie, quite reasonably, “but, really, what’s the point?”

Clocks went straight to No. 1 in the Independent Irish Album Charts on its Irish release. It was voted ‘Best Album' in The Irish Times ‘Album of the Year' as voted by The Irish Times readers and it was also shortlisted for the Choice Music Prize.

+ ABOUT THE VINYL VERSION

Julie was very keen to make a vinyl record of 'Clocks' and Life and Living Records, a small record label in London kindly took on the task. It didn't take long to decide on the mastering engineer. The label had first come across Matt Colton at London’s Air Studios in his capacity as mastering engineer, and the they had no hesitation in following him to Alchemy Mastering when he set up a great new space for mastering music there. In February 2013 Matt picked up the prize for ‘Mastering Engineer of the Year’ at the MPG awards, having been nominated for his work with Coldplay, James Blake, JJ Doom and George Michael.

Matt mastered Julie’s studio files for the vinyl format - the signal being transported through the cutting stylus onto a soft lacquer master in the acoustically perfect space at Alchemy. That’s where the Latin inscription we probably all know was scratched onto the disc, and which can be found between the play-out grooves of the vinyl. You just have to take the record out of the inner sleeve once you’ve taken that out of the outer sleeve and put aside the insert, in order to see these two little words that can change the way we live our lives!

For the manufacture of the physical album itself, Disc Solutions employ a process of galvanic electrolysis creating inversed nickel plates of the lacquer master. The final plates, the stampers, are attached to the 30 year old Toolex Alpha press and hot vinyl is compressed to form the record pressing. It’s a top quality process all the way.

And additionally, Peter Hobbs worked with Adrian O’Sullivan’s fabulous graphics many of you will already know from the CD edition of ‘Clocks’ to adapt the artwork to the new format. In the process a sleeve has been printed on a high-end 300gsm double white board with a matt varnish, and includes a full-size insert with Cale Brennan Aaslepp’s photography, Julie’s lovely lyrics and full credits.

Was the process worth all the trouble taken? Yes, it is simply a beautiful item to have and to hold, and in our opinion your ears will not hear anything warmer and more sumptuous than this vinyl edition. And we’re not sure if it’s collectable or collectible, but it certainly must be one of those things…


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