Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase. Album Lyrics

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3 Years Older

You cross the schoolyard with your head held down
And walk the streets under the breaking cloud
With a 100 futures cascading out
It's complicated

You think of love as just a memory
A fog that smothers you, its hard to breathe
But when you're on your own that's when you're free
You're three years older
And you'll always be now

I can feel you more than you really know
I will love you more than I'll ever show

There was a time when someone seemed to care
A tourist in your bed you left him there
You found a simple life with no-one to share
It's not complicated

You make a list of all your big regrets
You share with people that you never met
You slowly move towards the medicine chest
You're three years older
And you'll always be now

I can feel you more than you really know
I will love you more than I'll ever show
You only have to say
And the world will slip away
From you.........

Shame on you for getting older every day
This place is not for you so why do you still stay?
You stand there with the other f*ckers in the rain
Life is not some sinecure for you to pay
You have to pay

I can feel you more than you really know
I will love you more than I'll ever show
You only have to say
And the world will slip away
From you...

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Hand Cannot Erase

Together we have this love
Even so it's not enough
Bruised and burned we won't lose heart
And just because life gets hard

Writing lying e-mails to our friends back home
Feeling guilty if we sometimes wanna be alone

Hand cannot erase this love
Hand cannot erase this love

And a love like this makes us strong
We laugh it off if things go wrong
It's not you, forgive me if i find i need more space
Cause trust means we don't have to be together everyday

Hand cannot erase this love
Hand cannot erase this love

Hand cannot erase this love
Hand cannot erase this love

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Perfect Life

When I was 13 I had a sister for 6 months.
She arrived one February morning, pale and shellshocked,
from past lives I could not imagine.
She was 3 years older than me,
but in no time we became friends.
We'd listen to her mix tapes;
Dead Can Dance, Felt, This Mortal Coil...
She introduced me to her favourite books,
gave me clothes, and my first cigarette.
Sometimes we would head down to Blackbirds moor
to watch the barges on Grand Union in the twilight.
She said "The water has no memory.�
For a few months everything about our lives was perfect.
It was only us, we were inseparable.
But gradually, she passed into another distant part of my memory,
until I could no longer remember her face, her voice, even her name.

We have got
We have got the perfect life...

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Routine

What do I do with all the children's clothes
such tiny things that still smell of them
And the footprints in the hallway
onto my knees scrub them away

And how to be of use make the tea and the soup
All of their favorites throw them away
And all their schoolbooks and the running shoes
Washing and cleaning the dirty still sink

Routine keeps me in line
Helps me pass the time
Concentrate my mind
Helps me to sleep

And keep making beds and keep the cat fed
Open the Windows let the air in
And keep the house clean and keep the routine
Paintings they make still stuck to the fridge

Keep cleaning keep ironing
Cooking their meals on the stainless steel hop
Keep washing keep scrubbing
Long until the dark comes to bruise the sky
Deep in the debt to night

Routine keeps me in line
Helps me pass the time
Helps me to sleep

Routine keeps me in line
Helps me pass the time
Helps me to sleep

The most beautiful morning forever
Like the ones from far off, far off away
With the hum of the bees in the jasmine sway
Don't ever let go
Try to let go
Don't ever let go
Try to let go
Don't ever......

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Home Invasion

Download sex and download God.
Download the funds to meet the cost.
Download a dream home and a wife.
Download the ocean and the sky.

Another day of life has passed me by.
But I have lost all faith in what's outside.
They only are the stars across the sky
And the wreckage of the night.

Download love and download war.
Download the shit you didn't want.
Download the things that make you MAD.
Download the life you wish you had.

Another day of life has passed me by.
But I have lost all faith in what's outside.
They only are the stars across the sky
And the wreckage of the night.

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Transience

Cut through the countries, speed through the dark
A child in a train, distressed as it departs
It's only the start

Faded green circles rounded your wrist
Her mother is frowning, it's something she missed
She fixes her hair

At the failing of the day she heard
Her father always say, "Remember, it's only the start,
It's only the start."
When she drifted off to sleep
She had the whole world at her feet because
It's only the start, it's only the start
Before they fell away, it seemed to matter all the same
But it was only the start, only the start
Only the start

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Ancestral

Reason never seems to come to guilty men
Things that meant so much mean nothing in the end
That function is dysfunction and to hide the truth
Distracted by their faith, ignoring every proof

A bicycle
A garden wall
A mother's call
A love is born
And after all, the sleet that falls on me

In this city there are these who'd live alone
Twilight brings them from the gloom into our homes
And hiding there among the wreckage left behind
They see things that aren't there when they close their eyes

Come back if you want to
And remember who you are
'Cause there's nothing here for you my dear
And everything must pass

When the world doesn't want you
It will never tell you why
You can shut the door but you can't ignore
The crawl of your decline

You can try if you want to
You can try...

Come child
Go back if you want to

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Happy Returns

Hey brother, happy returns
It's been a while now
I bet you thought that I was dead
But I'm still here, nothing's changed

Hey brother, I'd love to tell you
I've been busy
But that would be a lie
'Cause the truth is
The years just pass like trains
I wave but they don't slow down

Hey brother, I see the freaks
Dispossessed on day release
Avoiding the police
I feel I'm falling once again
But now there's no one left to catch me

Hey brother, I feel I'm living in parentheses
And I've got trouble with the bills
Do the kids remember me?
Well I got gifts for them
And for you more sorrow
But I'm feeling kind of drowsy now
So I'll finish this tomorrow