Ben Gibbard - Former Lives Album Lyrics

In London, it's raining, but I'm not complaining
As I walk in the grey afternoon
And under my umbrella, I sing a cappella
This melancholy whimsical tune
And I hope you can hear me in dreams
Be near me as you sleep an ocean away
And know that I love you, my every thought is of you
Oh the clouds are beginning to break

He's been waking all through the night
And pacing 'round in the moonlight
'Cause these same dreams won't let him be
Their cameras photograph everything
That he's been burying down beneath
And show him what he don't wanna see

He counts the hours creeping by
His thoughts racing, eyes stuck open wide
Tossing and turning through the night every night

He has this one where he's being pursued
By every woman he ever knew
And at first grasp he wakes in gasps
He watches her laying there sound asleep
And wonders who's chasing her through her dreams
And when they do if it scares her too

He counts the hours creeping by
His thoughts racing, eyes stuck open wide
Tossing and turning through the night every night
And oh how he needs to get some sleep
But who waits down there so deep
Leaves him shaking at the knees

Oh

He counts the hours creeping by
His thoughts racing, eyes stuck open wide
Tossing and turning through the night every night
And oh how he needs to get some sleep
But who waits down there so deep
Leaves him shaking at the knees

Teardrop windows crying in the sky
He is all alone and wondering why
Ivory white, but feeling kinda blue
'Cause there's no one there to share the view

There's too many vacancies
He's been feeling, oh so empty
And when the sun sets over the sound
He just goes to sleep

Built in boast as the tallest on the coast
He was once a city's only toast
Old postcards was positioned as the star
He was looked up to with fond regard
But in 1962, the needle made its big debut
And everybody forgot what it outgrew

He wonders where the workers are who once filled every floor
The elevators operate, but don't much anymore
Anymore, anymore

Teardrop windows crying in the sky
How the years have quickly passed him by
Gleaming white against the deepest baby blue
He is lonely just like me and you

'Cause there's too many vacancies
He's been feeling, oh so empty
And when the sun sets over the sound
He just goes to sleep
There's too many vacancies
He's been feeling, oh so empty
And when the maids they turn out the lights
He just goes to sleep

[Chorus]
It's bigger than love
Brighter than all the stars combined
It's dwarfing the sun
Burning within my heart and mind

(Zelda)
I live with my memories
The bustle and fervor of New York
We're on 59th Street
We quarreled and broke the bathroom door
Cause you were just drinking
Drinking til you could hardly see
Of how much I loved you
I couldn't bring myself to leave

[Chorus]

(Scott)
Our summers in Paris
The Seine overflowing with champagne
And I knew you stepped out
But you knew that I had done the same
We had a child there
We couldn't raise her on our own
So our house got crowded
I never felt so all alone

[Chorus x2]

(Zelda)
Stranded in Asheville
Failing to fix a broken head
You're in California
Doing the work of lesser men

(Scott)
But what of our daughter
What of the love we once shared?
(Zelda)
It's living inside us
Battered but not beyond repair

(Scott)
Our fate decreed
A singularity
A solemn tune
I play at night and dance around the room

[Chorus x4]

Lily is a blinding light devouring the dark
Lily is a 5 alarm fire that rages inside my heart

And all I want to do is tell her that my love is true
Tell her that my love is true

Lily is a big brass band who fills the air with song
Lily is a destination and she's where my arms belong

'Cause whenever she is there with me
I know where I'm supposed to be
I know where I want to be

'Cause I just flip when I kiss her lips
And all my senses reel

Lily's the Pacific Ocean and I'm standing at her shores
And Lily she is never-ending
There's so much left in store

So all I want to do is tell her that my love is true
Tell her that my love is true

It's always summer in this Southern state
Where I'm behind the moon floating in space
But I'm not in hiding, just trying not to be found
So when I hear my name, I never turn around

Here in the valley, they live in their cars
As they dream of fields under oceans of stars
And I'm disappearing into that grid
Where I'll live out in the open but perfectly hid

It's always summer in this Southern state
And it's a comfortable life in a beautiful place
But something's rattling somewhere inside
And it sounds like it's broken but in a place I can't find

And it only gets louder with time

Duncan, where have you gone?
It's been so, so long
Has London broken your heart?
It happen to the best of us

Duncan, the most regal blood flows through you
And someone for you to love whom you will find in due time
Do you feel like you don't really know yourself?
'Cause the people you meet, they just see someone else?
And that your biggest dream is to be
Just a stranger you'd pass on the street?

Duncan, send us a sign that you're all, all right
Have you sunken further below the coldest depth you've ever known?
They raised you the best that they possibly could
And still you felt unknown and always misunderstood
And now your biggest dream is to be
Just a stranger you'd pass on the street

Duncan, where have you gone?

Oh, woe, why do you stay
And make me feel this awful way?
You filled my heart with your solemn tune
And an endless burning blueish hue

It's been a basement of a year
And all I want is for you to disappear

But oh, woe, you caught my eye
I thought that I'd give you a try
But you're nothing like the way you look
In all those famous songs and books

And now I see how you snuff the light
And kill the ones who hold you inside

And I can feel you grow in me
Like a forest of green
And it's so confounding trying to cut you down
Trying to find a place to begin


Oh, woe, please hear this plea
To walk away and leave me be
I've weathered more than I can take
Of your ever-present lonely ache

It's been a basement of a year
And all I want's for you to disappear
It's been a basement of a year
And all I want's for you to disappear

All I want's for you to disappear

You call a truce and then you start a fight
You change your signals like a traffic light
'Cause you're a hard, a hard one to know
Around your heart, you've tied a fishing line
And you cast it out there just to see who bites
'Cause you're a hard, a hard one to know

I toss and turn, but I just can't get to sleep
When I start thinking 'bout what you do to me
You're like a flower garden buried in snow
You're a hard one to know

You give your love out like an auctioneer
Your moves are jumpy and your words aren't clear
'Cause you're a hard, a hard one to know
First you smother, then you disengage
Your tears of joy dissolve to tears of rage
'Cause you're a hard, a hard one to know

I toss and turn, but I just can't get to sleep
When I start thinking 'bout what you do to me
You drag your feet as you swing to and fro
You're a hard one to know

And I try to love you, but you won't let me be
You say it's ending before it can begin
You tell me to stay and then you tell me to go
You're a hard one to know

Lady Adelaide
Shows no emotion
Colder than a wave
In the Arctic Ocean

She waited all her years
For those three words
That never reached her ears
They just went unheard

Porcelain and frail
Slender shoulders
A breeze of gusty gale
Could knock her over

She knew a handsome man
Who she gave her body
But he did not take her hand
And her heart broke softly, oh

Now she's a bird with broken wing
She likes the ideas of things
More than what they are bound to bring
Lady Adelaide, 'elaide

And with her beauty in slow fade
She is so fearful they will say
That she is a bed that's been unmade
Lady Adelaide, 'elaide, 'elaide, 'elaide


Now she's a bird with broken wing
She likes the ideas of things
More than what they are bound to bring
Lady Adelaide, 'elaide

And with her beauty in slow fade
She is so fearful they will say
That she is a bed that's been unmade
Lady Adelaide, 'elaide, 'elaide, 'elaide


Lady Adelaide
Shows no emotions
Colder than a wave
In the Arctic Ocean

She waited all her years
For those three words
That never reached her ears
They just went unheard

Broken yolk in western sky
My stomach turned, my mouth went dry
And I knew I'd never know fear before
I pressed my palms into the seat
And with one last look at you next to me
I kicked open the sliding door

And I threw myself out on the road
Torn flesh and broken bones
And in the shoulder's patchy grass
I faded into your past

I know it was a cowardly thing to do
And that an explanation is not an excuse
I just need you to understand
My love is like some kind of greed
Of equal portions 'want' and 'need'
And I cannot divorce the two

I could not sleep at all
With all the rumble strip close calls
And in the gravel and scattered trash
I faded into your past

When you think twice you arrive at the same conclusion
And it's bad advice only if you use it

And then you disappeared from view
And you became somebody new
Near the exit's overpass
I faded into your past

I'm building a fire to keep you warm long after I retire
'Cause this body is bound to expire tonight

The embers will grow and remind you what you already know
That the night is only a temporary absence of light

In the morning you'll wake with the ashes of a memory
And the sun on your face and I will not seem so far away

Arise, you're alive