Amanda Palmer: There Will Be No Intermission – a teljes album + Voicemail For Jill – videoklip

A Dresden Dolls bostoni goth-glam-punk-kabaré duó frontlányaként feltűnt Amanda a 2008-as Who Killed Amanda Palmer című első szólóalbuma után a legutóbbi sorlemezét 2012-ben adta ki Theatre Is Evil címmel, és ez a mostani There Will Be No Intermission még csak a harmadik a sorban. Az időközben eltelt bő hat évben is volt rengeteg kiadványa és kollaborációja (egy koncertalbum férjével, Neil Gaimannel, egy-egy nagylemez édesapjával és a Legendary Pink Dots énekesével, továbbá a basszusgitáros-hangszerelő Jherek Bischoff-fal közös David Bowie-, Prince-, Leonard Cohen-, Pink Floyd- és Cranberries-feldolgozások), meg egy csomó egyenként közzétett vagy élőben már kipróbált szerzeménye, melyekből tíz dalt most egy rendes stúdióalbumra is felvett, de közéjük ugyannyi instrumentális felvezetést és átkötést is illesztett (a 20 számos lemezen a páratlan számú felvételek félperces-egyperces szöveg nélküli kompozíciók).

„Most minden korábbinál sürgetőbbnek érzem, hogy megosszam a meztelen igazságot a tapasztalataimról. . . Abortusz, vetélés, rák, gyász, az anyaság sötétebb aspektusai – ezeket a történeteket, amiket a lemezen megéneklek, terápiás hatású és rémisztő munka volt dalokba foglalni” – nyilatkozta a 42 éves Amanda Palmer a nőnapra időzített nagylemezről, melyet eddigi leginkább önfeltáró munkájának tart. A hat évvel ezelőtti albumhoz hasonlóan ez az anyagot is az indie/art rock sztárproducer John Congletonnal és a már említett Jherek Bischoff-fal készítette, de kevésbé rockos, jóval puritánabb hangzású a korábbi szólólemezeinél, miközben a szövegeit tekintve szabadabbra eresztett: két tízperces számot is tett rá, köztük az A Mother’s Confession című csúcsdal, melyben 2015 óta tartó anyaszerepét elemzi.

a lemezmegjelenéshez ma bemutatott klip, az abortuszra készülő barátnőnek támogatást nyújtó Voicemail For Jill című dal videója. . .

. . .és a szintén ma kiadott teljes There Will Be No Intermission album, számonként egy-egy fotóval az énekesnő YouTube-csatornáján. . .

. . .és a Bandcamp-oldalán:

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a dalszövegek:

THE RIDE

Everyone’s too scared to open their eyes up
But everyone’s too scared to close them
Everyone’s frightened they don’t know what’s coming
But everyone’s frightened of knowing

Everyone’s reading the rules of engagement
And everyone’s starting to doubt them
Everyone’s reaching to put on a seatbelt
But this kind of ride comes without them
I want you to think of me sitting and singing beside you
I wish we could meet all the people behind us in line
The climb to the crest is less frightening with someone to clutch you
But isn’t it nice when we’re all afraid at the same time

And it’s just a ride
It’s just a ride
And you’ve got the choice to get off anytime that you like
It’s just a ride
It’s just a ride
The alternative is nothingness
We might as well give it a try

Everyone’s terrified that they’ll be justified by the collapse that will happen
Everyone’s placing their bets just in case
The whole thing’s a profound disappointment
Everyone’s trying to stay on the side where the water’s just boiling more slowly
Frogs in a pot, well that’s one thing I’ve got
At least some of the frogs in here know me

I want you to think of me sitting and singing beside you
The chain pulls us up and we know that we’re all gonna dive
The blur and the noise of the screaming can blind and distract you
But isn’t it nice when we all can scream at the same time

And it’s just a ride
It’s just a ride
And you’ve got the choice to get off anytime that you like
It’s just a ride
It’s just a ride
The alternative’s nothingness
Might as well give it a try

And as we all go down
And as we all go round
And as we pitch from side to side
Everything is gonna be alright

Everyone’s getting real scared to come out because coming out’s going down badly
Feel the city breaking and everybody’s shaking
And I just want someone to hold me
Some are too scared to let go of their children
And some are too scared now to have them
Suicide, homicide, genocide, man, that’s a fuck-ton of sides you can choose from

I want you to think of me sitting and singing beside you
I wish we could meet all the people who got left behind
The ride is so loud it can make you think nobody’s listening
But isn’t it nice when we all can cry at the same time

And it’s just a ride
It’s just a ride
And you’ve got the choice to get off anytime that you like
It’s just a ride
It’s just a ride
The alternative’s nothingness
Might as well give it a try

And as we all go down
And as we all go round
And as we switch from side to side
Everything is gonna be just fine
Everyone you love is gonna die
Hopefully, this song will come remind you

That’s it’s just a ride
It’s just a ride
From the sister you miss
To the father you don’t want to write
It’s just a ride
It’s just a ride
From the lover you loved to the one that you’re frightened to find
It’s just a ride
It’s just a ride
From the baby you lost to the one that you’re growing inside
Come out darling
And don’t you cry

It’s just a ride

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DROWNING IN THE SOUND

You worship the sun and you’re aching for change
But you keep starving your heart
You used to have sisters
You don’t anymore
You worship the sun…
But you keep feeding the dark

And I’m out in the yard
With my son and my daughter
And the sky is all black and I think we should start running…
Running from the water

And everybody’s yelling
Yelling that they’re coming
But I don’t see a single soul
They’re all so busy yelling
Not one of them is hearing
The hissing from the bottom of the boat

I got some feelings up my sleeve
I got a compass in my arm
I got a needle in my heart
It’s gonna tell us where we are

South by south west
Two miles from town
I can’t get out
I can’t look down
If you can hear
If you’re around
I’m over here
I’m over here
I’m watching everyone I love
Drowning in the sound

You worship the sun
But the moon’s in the way
So get your armaments out
She’s always looking for trouble
She’s gonna get what’s been coming to her
She’s switching the tides and we can’t have that shit around

The television they’re blaring out a warning:
That our natural state is drowning
That our natural state is burning

And you’re trying to help
And you’re clicking for change
And you’re calling it out
And you’re adding your name
And you’re marching for peace
But you’re lynching the bitch
That got up in your face
How else they gonna to take it seriously?

South by south west
Two miles from town
I can’t get out
I can’t look down
If you can hear
If you’re around
I’m over here
I’m over here
I’m watching
Everyone I love
Drowning in the sound

And your body is a temple
And the temple is a prison
And the prison’s overcrowded
And the inmates know it’s flooding
And the body politic is getting sicker by the minute
And the media’s not fake
It’s just very
Inconvenient

Do you ever feel like this should be officially the end?
And that you should be the one to do the ending but you can’t?

And do you ever feel that everyone is slowly letting go
Do you ever feel that… that incredibly alone?

And they’re saying not to panic
And it’s like a broken record
As if anybody knows what that is
And they’re saying that we’ll manage
It’s the hottest one on record
And they’re saying that that’s just the way it is

Now I can taste it coming
I can taste it with my tongue
And my children are so heavy
But I pick them up and run
And I know I’ll have to swim soon
When the water gets too high
I’ll keep on holding them above me
I’ll keep on holding them and crying

South by south west
Two miles from town
I can’t get out
I can’t look down
If you can hear
If you’re around
I’m over here
I’m over here
I’m watching
Everyone I love
Everyone I love
Everyone on earth
Drowning in the sound

You worship the sun and you’re aching for change
But you keep starving your heart
You used to have sisters
You don’t anymore
You worship the sun…
But you keep feeding the dark

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THE THING ABOUT THINGS

I’ve loaned a lot of things to a lot of friends
Like dresses and records and books
And some of the time I never see them again
And in a weird way i think that it works

Because the thing about things is they start turning evil
When you start to forget what they’re for
And so if you’re not sure what you did with my sweater
I’ll just try to love you a little bit more

I had a ring it belonged to my grandfather
He was a mason, and gay
And he was distant and bitter for all of my childhood
And we never had much to say

He wasn’t the type to give tokens of affection
And so I stole the ring when he died
And twenty years on when I lost it at a bar
I thought, that’s fine
I didn’t want him in my life

The thing about things is that they can start meaning things
Nobody actually said
And if he couldn’t make something mean something for me
I had to make up what it meant

I can carry everything I need in one collapsing suitcase
I can carry everyone I love in one phone application
Built to optimize the Facetime with the friends i’m bent on making
Actually I want to be alone
To mourn the loss of what this cost
I collected you but now you are all lost

I think it’s a poem and I think it keeps going
I’ve borrowed and lost lots of things
3 nights ago in the bar where I lost it
A bartender gave me the ring

And I lie in bed
With my phone in my hand
Thinking
What can I fix with this app

And I call my grandfather
And he doesn’t answer
And I have to make peace with that fact

Because the thing about things
Is that they can start meaning things nobody actually said
And if you’re not allowed to love people alive
Then you learn how to love people dead

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JUDY BLUME

People keep asking me why I do things that I do
In all of this measuring influence I forgot you
You and me hiding behind the Monhegan Motel
You told me things that nobody around me would tell
That was the summer that everyone touched me at once
One day they ignored me, the next, they were all down my pants
But you were in bed with me, safe, before anyone else
You opened beside me and held me when I needed help
You and me lying together at night, my hero
You’ve been inside me forever, Judy Blume

I couldn’t carry a tune but I thought I could sing
And no-one had told me that thoughts were a good or bad thing
But I started noticing grown-ups would smile and cringe
But you taught me that you could say anything you could think

I don’t remember my friends from gymnastics class
But I remember when Deenie was at the school
Dance buddy feeling her up in the locker room
Margaret, bored, counting hats in the synagogue
Davey was stirring the tea that you wouldn’t drink
Tony was watching his so-called friend shoplifting
All of them lived in my head, quietly whispering:
„You are not so strange”
I don’t remember the details of seventh grade
All I remember is lying and being afraid
But I don’t forget Katherine and Mike were going all the way
Steph on the scale in the bathroom alone that day
Karen pretending to puke so her dad would stay
Margaret arguing with God while she masturbated
All of those stacked in my head like a love letter
All of those saying „Amanda you know better
You are not to blame
The world’s a frightening place
So go on and think how you want
You will not be alone in your thoughts
Well you will but you won’t in a way
‘Cos a girl thought it too in a book that the library bought”

People will keep asking me why I do things like I do
And from now on I’ll tell them Nick Cave and I’ll talk about you
Judy, I can’t believe sometimes that I’m an adult
And the girls like I was think that I have this shit figured out
You and me lying together at night in my room
You’ll be inside them forever, Judy Blume

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BIGGER ON THE INSIDE

You’d think I’d shot their children
From the way that they are talking
And there’s no point in responding
Cause it will not make them stop

And I am tired of explaining
And of seeing so much hating
In the very same safe haven
Where I used to just see helping

I’ve been drunk and skipping dinner
Eating skin from off my fingers
And I tried to call my brother
But he no longer exists

I keep forgetting to remember
That he would have been much prouder
If he saw me shake these insults off
Instead of getting bitter

I am bigger on the inside
But you have to come inside to see me
Otherwise you’re only hating
Other people’s low-res copies

You’d think I’d learn my lesson
From the way they keep on testing
My capacity for pain
And my resolve to not get violent

But though my skin is thickened
Certain spots can still be gotten
It is typically human of me
Thinking I am different

To friends hooked up to hospital machines
To fix their cancer
And there is no better place than from this
Waiting room to answer

The French kid who sent an email
To the website late last night
His father raped him and he’s scared
He asked me
„How do you keep fighting?”

And the truth is I don’t know
I think it’s funny that he asked me
Cause I don’t feel like a fighter lately
I am too unhappy

You are bigger on the inside
But your father cannot see
You need to tell someone
Be strong
And somewhere some dumb rock star truly loves you

You’d think I’d get perspective
From my view here by the bedside
It is difficult to see the ones I love
So close to death

All their infections and proscriptions
And the will to live at all in question
Can I not accept that my own problems
Are so small?

You took my hand when you woke up
I had been crying in the darkness
We all die alone but I am so, so glad
That you are here

You whispered:

„We are so much bigger on the inside
You, me, everybody
Some day when you’re lying where I am
You’ll finally get it, beauty
We are so much bigger
Than another one can ever see
But
Trying is the point of life
So don’t stop trying
Promise me.”

.
MACHETE

I have never liked the box of knives
You said was a paradox because you’re kind
But withstood a childhood that robbed you blind
Of love that was safe and so you learned to fight

What do I do with this stuff?
It seems like yesterday I called you up
I had a terrible case of the past
I didn’t know how to get it off
I didn’t know how to get it off

And you took
Your machete
And you sliced through the vines that wrapped around me
And you said
“I don’t know what I’m doing
So I’ll just keep on cutting
It’s worth a little blood to get your hands free”

I have never liked the box of knives
You said was a paradox because you’re kind
But withstood a childhood that robbed you blind
Of love that was safe and so you learned to fight

What do I do with this stuff?
It seems like yesterday I was in love
I kept of covering the soft parts up
I didn’t know how to get them off
I didn’t know how to get them off

And you took your machete
And you hacked through the woods in the surrounding
And you said
“I don’t know where I’m going
I just know that i’m heading from
The dead things piling up behind me”
And you took
Your machete
And you carved out a path to my chest and you said
“see
There’s nothing not worth keeping
You’ve felt so many beatings
But
Nothing’s going to work if you believe me
Nothing’s going to work if you believe me”

I have never liked the box of knives
You said was a paradox because you’re kind
But withstood a childhood that robbed you blind
Of love that was safe and so you learned to fight

I have never liked the box of knives
I took it to the oceanside the day you died
I stood out on the dock
No matter how hard I tried
I couldn’t drop them in
And I collapsed and cried:

What do I do with this stuff?
It seems like yesterday you were alive
And it’s as if you never really died
And it’s as if you never really died

And you took
Your machete
And you said
“boo, guess who
But seriously, beauty”
You said
“see?
You get the drill now, don’t you?
It’s not a will or won’t
You can’t keep making symbols out of nothing”
So I took your machete
And I sliced off your head and you laughed
And you said
“see
It’s just like anti matter
It’s dumbo’s magic feather
You don’t need me here to cut you
You don’t need me here to cut you
You don’t need me here to cut you
You don’t need me here to cut you
Free”

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VOICEMAIL FOR JILL

Jill, it’s Amanda, just waving from London
I know that you’re going tomorrow, the hardest decision
And I’ve been on the side of the phone for a month
And I know you’re in hell and you know that I know what you’re feeling

Life’s such a bitch, isn’t it?
When you have a baby, they throw you a party
And then when you die they get together for a cry

But no one’s gonna celebrate you
No one’s gonna bring you cake
And no one’s gonna shower you with flowers
The doctor won’t congratulate you
No one on that pavement’s gonna
Shout at you that your heart also matters

I’m not sure that you’ll get this in time
I don’t know if you’re checking your voicemail at all
But in case it’s the morning
And you’re off at the green line and walking through Copley
I want you to stop for a second, I want you to listen
You don’t need to offer the right explanation
You don’t need to beg for redemption or ask for forgiveness
And you don’t need a courtroom inside of your head
Where you’re acting as judge and accused and defendant and witness

It’s a strange grief but it’s grief
Look at all the women in the street
You know the statistics, Jill
Even though they may not help
Isn’t it amazing
How we can never tell
Who is in an identical hell

No one’s gonna celebrate you
No one’s gonna bring you cake
And no one’s gonna shower you with flowers
The doctor won’t congratulate you
No one on that pavement’s gonna
Shout at you that your heart also matters

No one’s gonna compliment you
No one’s gonna nod their head
And wink in league with what you are pursuing
No one’s gonna tie surprise balloons
Onto your desk at work
And no one’s gonna ask you how you’re doing

But I’ll be back in Boston by next Thursday
Why don’t I come over?
I can bring some friends if you want us to come
We can bring you cake and we can bring you flowers
We can bring you wine and we can talk for hours
Ukulele by request
We’ll throw you the best
Abortion shower

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A MOTHER’S CONFESSION

Our son is four months old his name is Anthony or Ash for short
And he’s too small to do things by himself
We were in L.A. over Christmas in a rental and we jury-rigged a place
To change his diapers on a shelf
I was peeing in the bathroom and had left him for a second
Cause I thought he couldn’t move and he was safe
As I came out I saw him falling in slow motion to the floor
It was probably the worst moment of my life

And then I accidentally stole a thing of chapstick from the safeway
I didn’t see it ’til I got out to the car
I would have usually returned it but I was overwhelmed
And late to take the baby to my cousins up in Carmel Bay

In my defense, I’d bought like $87 worth of groceries
And the chapstick was a $1.99…
I know it wasn’t the right thing to use
My newborn child as an excuse
But it felt like a good reason at the time

And as I pulled out of the parking lot I cried
And as I pulled onto the highway I said “right. . .
At least the baby didn’t die. . . right?
At least the baby didn’t die. . .”

And then we went to Sarasota
To see Neil’s cousin Helen
For her birthday she just turned ninety-nine
We were also there for Sidney
Who was ninety-four two days before
But he was sick, so mostly it was Ash and Helen time

She survived the Warsaw ghetto
And she always says “I love you”
When she sees you ’cause she knows you never know
She’d worked for months while I was pregnant
On a gorgeous handmade blanket
Her almost-hundred-year-old hands crocheting every row

I’d been emailing her pictures of the baby and the blanket
Every day since she had sent it in the mail
But they were of one that someone else had knitted
She was really nice about it
Then I went and shoplifted a pair of ugly sunglasses
From Goodwill (they were on my head
I’d tried them on and left them there)
But that’s not really bad compared to
When we left the baby in the car

At least he wasn’t in there very long
And not directly in the sun
And thank god no-one walking by happened to notice what we’d done
I’m even scared to put these lyrics in a song

But
Everything is relative and everyone’s related
I can’t do that much right now
But take care of this baby
I figure everything’s technically all right
If at least this baby doesn’t die

And then I took a plane to Washington alone
So we could visit Jason Webley who’s his godfather
He’s playing the accordion
I couldn’t wait to see him and share tales of our disasters
Over dinners in his houseboat when I saw I’d lost my passport

So I got a rush appointment at the place where you replace them
And I drove the baby in and on the way I got a speeding ticket

When the cop came to the window I was shaking and I said „I’m sorry”
But you couldn’t hear me that’s how loud the sound of screaming was
Cause he was hungry and I think that I was speeding
Cause I panic when I hear him cry
My god what kind of a mother am i

And as I pulled out of the breakdown lane I cried
And as I pulled out on the highway I said “right
At least the baby didn’t die. right?
At least the baby didn’t die.”

While I was waiting for my passport I was hungry so
I twittered for a coffee in the neighborhood
And there I saw a woman who was sitting at the bar
And it was noon and she was drinking
And she called across the diner to me “How old is your baby?”
And she smiled at us nursing
And she said she had a daughter who was grown
And then she paused
And said she also had a son

And when I’d paid and was about to leave
I picked him up and crossed the room and touched her sleeve
I said, “Hey, this baby wanted to say hi.”
And she held him tight and she started to cry

And I’m sorry that this story’s gotten long
And that everybody’s crying in this song

And then I got back in the car I turned the radio and heater on
And sat there with the baby in the back
And they were talking about Syria and climate change and ISIS
And the candidates’ positions on Iraq
I feel so useless in this universe
I know I could be doing worse
I’m trying hard to stay at peace inside
I know it’s hard to be a parent
But this mess is so gigantic
…i wonder if I should have had a child

And as I pulled out of the parking lot I cried
And as I pulled out on the highway I said

“right

At least the baby didn’t die
At least the baby didn’t die
EVERYBODY:
At least the baby didn’t die!! right?!
At least the baby didn’t die!!
(i may not make it to the passport place on time!)
At least the baby didn’t die
(and they might revoke my license for a while!!)
At least the baby didn’t die
(and I might get caught for retroactive theft!!)
At least the baby didn’t die
(and I might get turned into the DSS!)

But at least the baby didn’t die.”

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LOOK MUMMY, NO HANDS

Remember the Fairmont
The two of us there, mom
By the merry-go-round
I stood there entranced
As the bright horses danced
To a magical sound
Just a dollar for pleasure untold
And I rode in a whirl of scarlet and gold

Look, Mummy, no hands
I’m riding the roundabout all by myself
Look, Mummy, no hands
I called as I passed her, faster and faster
„Hold on tight, darling”
She called out in fear
But I laughed and pretended
That I couldn’t hear

How careless we are when we’re young

Remember the years
Of the sulks and the tears
Do you recall?
I hated you when you said
Be back by ten
I knew it all
Always asking to know what I’d done
When as far as I knew, I was just having fun

Look, Mummy, no hands
I know how to take good care of myself
Look, Mummy, no hands
Please don’t be a bore, cause I know the score
She tried to warn me
But I didn’t hear her
I was grown up
And I didn’t need her

How careless we are when we’re young

Remember the daughter
And all that you taught her
She’s grown up at last
With a child of her own
She struggles alone
As the years all rush pass
But now you’re not there to answer her call
You’re not there to catch her when she stumbles and falls

Look, Mummy, no hands
I’m having to do it all by myself
Look, Mummy, no hands
I used to dismiss you, now I just miss you
As my child grows away from me
I feel my heart sinking
I look back and smile
And I find myself thinking

How careless we are when we’re young

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DEATH THING

Let’s try to end on a pleasant note
You’ve ended endless things and you how it goes
You’d lick your wounds but they’re in a jar on the shelf
You lick a stamp on a letter to your old self
You always liked being good at things, didn’t you
Isn’t it funny what a person can get used to

And now, just look what you’ve done
I hope you’re happy cause you’ve beaten everyone
I think it’s fair to say that the word is all over town

Did he answer? (No)
Did he answer? (No)
Did he answer? (No)
Not even a whisper? (No)
So it’s over? (Yes)
Now you know the drill
You’re the expert
You’re the expert
You’re the expert
You’re the expert

Congratulations, you’ve really got this death thing down

You’re really good at making introverted people come
First grade, fourth place, standing
Violent and velvet painting
Slaughtering and ego-taming
You clocked one-thousand hours, baby
You could master all of them
You can take your everlasting love and you can have it
Though you don’t always get to pick what you get good at

Now, look how far you’ve come
You used to need them
And now you could lose every one
Without even blinking an eye
So go on, put on your crown

Did she answer? (No)
Did she answer? (No)
Did she answer? (No)
Not a single heartbeat? (No)
So it’s over? (Yes)
So you know the drill
You’re the expert

Congratulations, you’ve really got this death thing down
You’ve really got this death thing down
You’ve really got this death thing down
You’ve really got this death thing down
You’ve really got this death thing down

Jai Guru Deva
Om

Yeah, you’ve really got this death thing down

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egy Facebookon élőben közvetített teljes mai fellépés két órában, a dalok mellett sok beszélgetéssel:

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a lemez Drowning in The Sound és The Ride című számai élőben egy februári rádióműsorban: