Once in a while you come across a musician that tunes into your brainwaves completely. I did today with Radical Face (Ben Cooper), a bearded guy who writes melodic, haunting, touching and goose-bumping pop tunes that you want to frame and put on your wall (and wish that you wrote them). As usual the lyrics draws me in (isn’t a good song lyric the most beautiful thing ever?). Thanks for the inspiration Ben and thanks Daniel for the tip.
Here are a few links you should check out.
Radical Face blog
Radical Face on Myspace (“Welcome Home” and “Wrapped in Piano Strings”) are my favorites
Radical Face Welcome Home Music Video (brilliant imagery)
Wrapped in Piano Strings – Radical Face (Ben Cooper)
I saw your father in the hall
His ghost is living in the walls
I heard him crying while you slept
I heard him breaking things after you left
I watched you crawl into my bed
With curses spilling from your head
You said “We’re just the walking dead”
So I pulled the trigger and we floated off
Into the air
Into the air
Into the air
Into the air
Up in the air
We’re in the air
Up in the air
Up in the air
I used to worry about the time
That I lost my teeth along the line
So I carved the apple from my eye
And gave it to you before I went away
Blood ran into the kitchen sink
Your hand and lives are running pink
I sat and watched you as your ring
Slipped off and rolled across the kitchen floor
They cut your eyes wide open
And pour into your precious head
My reach don’t go that far dear
But please oh please don’t let them in
I sank into the sea
Wrapped in piano strings
Few words could open me
But you knew them all
Now I just sleep beneath your floor
My ghost just tries to keep you warm
I’ve seen the end, I’ve lost the war
One day you’re 20 years just like the rain
I hear the engines
They’re roaring in our mouths
The smell of creatures
Are falling tooth and nail to get out
I see the airplanes
They’re pouring from your chest
They fill the air
And burn and bury just like the rest
Welcome Home – Radical Face (Ben Cooper)
Sleep don’t visit, so I choke on sun
And the days blur into one
And the backs of my eyes hum with things I’ve never done
Sheets are swaying from an old clothesline
Like a row of captured ghosts over old dead grass
Was never much but we made the most
Welcome home
Ships are launching from my chest
Some have names but most do not
If you find one, please let me know what piece I’ve lost
Heal the scars from off my back
I don’t need them anymore
You can throw them out or keep them in your mason jars
I’ve come home
All my nightmares escaped my head
Bar the door, please don’t let them in
You were never supposed to leave
Now my head’s splitting at the seams
And I don’t know if I can
Here, beneath my lungs, I feel your thumbs press into my skin again