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Hello Exile

by The Menzingers

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1.
On the lonely end of history / swingin’ and swayin’ to the murder mystery / rhyme and reason fled the crime scene / of new penthouses next to tents in the streets / oh, how do I steer my early 30’s / before I shipwreck before im 40 / oh, ain’t it a shame what we choose to ignore / what kind of monsters did our parents vote for / lately I feel like i’m in puppet vichy, france tryin’ to teach the devil how to dance / to these sing-alongs of siren songs / to ooh’s to ahh’s to big applause / with all of my anger I scream and shout / america, I love you but you’re freaking me out / driving through the bible belt / billboards claiming how jesus felt / oh, how’d his words confuse themselves? / With cranks for christians in powerful positions / i’ve always felt like all their pomp and circumstance is just cover for the devil to dance / america, you’re freaking me out / with all my anger I shout / can’t you recognize truth from clever lies?
2.
Anna 03:29
I’ve memorized every single moment / every fleeting passage of time / the way you’d laugh and dance in the kitchen / after drinking too much cheap red wine / I always rewind, the home movies in my mind / back to the times, first moving in with you / I have so much to tell ya / please come back to philadelphia / this place ain’t the same without you anna / you got a great big new promotion / but now you travel so damn much / it's like our studio apartment is just a place to keep your stuff / and when you’re away, I walk around in a haze / reminiscing the days, first moving in with you / I have so much to tell ya / please come back to philadelphia / this place ain’t the same without you anna / and oh, how the neighborhoods changed / and all our friends keep asking for ya / this place ain’t the same without you anna / but I will wait, for you babe / take as long as you need to take / i’ll be fine on my own / counting down the days until you come home / but I will wait, for you babe / I have so much to tell ya / I have so much to say / take as long as you need to take / I have so much to tell ya / I have so much to say / oh, anna.
3.
Raisin’ hell in wayne county / with a copper on our tail / hoping that he drives on by me / but knowing this town he’ll probably throw us in jail / we’re both so paranoid in our hometown / there’s so much unclaimed baggage at the carousels / and though we’re guilty of nothing / we feel like fugitives running / towards the great white north or a border town in mexico / there’s former you, there’s former me / we’re telling tales of revisionist history / ah, remember the days we couldn’t hardly wait to end? / I was getting fucked up with a high school friend / wondering where all the good times went / we left town the minute we turned 18 / we moved to different corners of the country / now we come back for holidays and funerals / so much has changed but wayne county is still the same / driving down 191, theres an old memory of someone / as a little white cross just popping out from the bend / I was getting fucked up with a high school friend / wondering where all the good times went / don’t let the overwhelming sorrow shred all hopes of tomorrow / don’t let ‘em tell ya how to live your life / ‘cause they may never understand / but its okay because I do / we know all the ups and downs each other have been through.
4.
Last To Know 03:53
Jesus christ be damned / I held the dagger in my hand / I killed another man / pictures carved in stone / see your reflection in your phone / and know we're not alone / cemetery walls / klonopin and alcohol / tonight I won't start a fight / you barely made a sound / we put your mother in the ground / some words are never found / promises were made / on and alter in blood / sacrificial children's voices / echo on and on / we're the last to know / they told us who we are / in spiral ladders to the stars / collect our memories / we'll be back again / each time a little different / it ends where it begins / promises were made / on and alter in blood / sacrificial children's voices / echo on and on / we're the last to know / मनति
5.
My inner monologue is writing / SOS on deserted islands / And there’s no one out there to read the signs / Just distant oceans and great blue skies / But my miserable memory is making me more miserable / my mundane mind is waiting on some kind of miracle / Oh, maybe it’s for the better we both stay strangers forever / Maybe it’s for the best we pretend like we never met / forget everything that we’ve ever known / Maybe it’s for the better we both stay strangers forever / Well I built a raft out of total desperation / And I got kidnapped by a pirate nation / Now somewhere out there I ramble and roar / You wouldn’t recognize me anymore / But if I come into your periphery / please just act like you don’t see me / out here looking for a glimpse of shore / a mirage of the life that we had before.
6.
Hello Exile 04:26
Her language was a perfect phrase / her playful prose followed me for days / down the alleyways of my desires / to their final resting place / in a vacation town where I lived year round / she migrated here with the summer crowds / and we fell in love under impossible smiles / life was perfect if just for a little while / oh, hello exile / and a thousand years may come and go / we may never meet another soul / here on our own island of elba in the poconos / oh, hello exile / and we bathed in the sun / cut our jeans into shorts / outstared every star in the sky / under the cover of nowhere the present was a present / it looked beautiful on you every night / but we knew it would end yeah we knew it all along / it was a future never reconciled / it’s as if letting your shackled heart feel loved was more difficult than total denial / oh, hello exile / and a thousand years may come and go / I may never meet another soul / here on my own island of elba in the poconos / oh, hello exile / now I imagined her memory would fade in the void / she’d only reappear every now and again / i’d smile at the thought of us / go back to my day / but that was purely wishful thinking / oh, hello exile.
7.
Portland 02:44
We're two strings shaking in a minor chord / we're survivors of life but we're prisoners of war / it was recklessness, what we came here for / started on the bed ended up on the floor / we're two strings shaking in a minor chord / allison I love you, but I can't change the past / bring the part of me you love back / you wake up shaking in the middle of the night / a voice from the past back looking for a fight / seize your sorrow, breathe with me / the pause between is all we need / they say it hurts til it doesn't / you said "the future is unwritten, let the past stay in the past / bring the part of me you love back" / cheap champagne and roses / I know one day you'll notice.
8.
May the highways cross their fingers and hope / that we may one day find ourselves home / she sticks her head outside the passenger window / sighs as traffic stops and goes / it’s been two weeks now living in this southern town / we hoped the change would change our restless minds / a little rewind to a simpler time / I swear it’s temporary living in this cheap motel / somewhere in the bible belt / we made love at that marietta motel 6 / you fell asleep on my shoulder of commitment / took it as a sign everything would be fine / sometimes it takes these kind of nights just to realize / how we want to spend the rest of our lives / could a diamond in the rough ever be enough / i’ve been mining for your love / since the day that we met i’ve spent every second in your minefield digging it up / can you strain your memory back to the times / when trouble wasn’t always on our minds / and now the hotel maids were bangin’ down the door / as if they came looking for some answers / when ya gonna leave? / Where ya gonna go? / Will you get your shit together / when are you gonna marry her? / Well maybe you don’t deserve her / maybe the whole thing was doomed from the start / this inquisition is tearing me apart.
9.
Champagne drunk tomorrow is out of luck / when the celebrations come to an end / when the parties over sunday morning wakes up sober / begs for me to start up again / i’m whiskey drunk in the shop rite parking lot / i’m waiting while anna buys milk and eggs / sometimes I wonder why she hasn’t found another / one that her girlfriends would recommend / our worst fights are when we get silent / just a disappointed you shaking your head / when the cards and flowers don’t work I sleep on the couch when i’m a jerk / whats gotta give / ‘cause I know what you’re thinking / that I can’t stop drinking / every time you try and ask me to I just throw a fit and storm out of the room / ‘cause I know what you’re thinking / i’m cheap beer drunk in a bar off passyunk / i’ll be here until the lights come up again / feel free to join me if you’re bored or feeling lonely / I could sure use the company / I miss you so much when I was your drunk lush / you knew me so well I knew you half as well / well love’s a cruel cruel joke when the tools in the shed can’t fix what’s broke / so you leave it broke.
10.
Hurtling toward the earth / set the atmosphere on fire / we'll put another notch in the kuiper / climb down from the trees / to die from a disease / brought back from the dead by the liars / I don't mind, I'll stay behind / transmission in static / the silent monastic / exiled to an island of plastic / waiting on translation / the fool's coronation / a permanent summer vacation / I don't mind, I'll stay behind / set a course for the sun / to bittersweet oblivion / the time has come, the rain has gone / back to hell where we belong / the games we've been playing / the real estate is changing / the mountains and rivers to lake beds / concrete to dust / iron to rusted statues reign over the ocean / I don't mind, I'll stay behind Set a course for the sun / to bittersweet oblivion / the time has come, the rain has gone / back to hell where we belong.
11.
London Drugs 03:18
What’s it gonna take to fix me up / I don’t want your london drugs / every time i’m with you I take too much / I don’t want your london drugs / every once in a while when i’m in denial / I wind up doing something I don’t want to do / what’s it gonna take to fix me up / I don’t want your london drugs / on a rainy night in soho / the wind was whistling all its charms / I think we overstayed our welcome / they’re giving us the look at the argyll arms / you happened to notice my anxious commotion / as my heart bled through my shirt / i’ve been a little heavy handed keepin’ it at work / my anxiety can sleep easy / the show was everything I hoped it would be / now we’re sitting in the back of the theater / binging everything that’s left to drink / ‘cause in a moment it’s over / the high and the thrill / then i’m leaving here so unfulfilled / well if I don’t change now I never will.
12.
Pa turnpike, northbound on a dark night / driving into scranton for a difficult occasion / when you first got your license we were nowhere to be found / I was just a little kid back then but you let me hang around / but we’re older now / farewell youth, i’m afraid I hardly got to know you / I was always hanging out with the older kids / always in a rush, but I was never sure from what / I was always hanging out with the older kids / the grief starts when bumping into friends turned acquaintances / we stumble around the small talk / we break the silence with jameson / but once we were inseparable / we were the only punks in town / we spent every weekend raisin’ hell in the basement of your parents house / but we’re older now / in someones apartment / getting fucked up / to all our favorite records / drinking the cheap stuff / we couldn’t get enough / of growing up / I saw my childhood flash before me in the death of your closed eyes / at your irish wake we celebrate by trying not to cry.

credits

released October 4, 2019

The Menzingers Are:
Eric Keen - Bass
Greg Barnett - Vocals, Guitar
Joe Godino - Drums, Percussion
Tom May - Vocals, Guitar

Recorded in the Spring of 2019 at Studio 4 in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania

Produced and Engineered by Will Yip
Mixed by Will Yip and Vince Ratti
Mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound, Nyc

Cover Art Photo: Lawn Deer, 2009-2012 by Pamela Littky
Back Cover Photo: Western Sky, March 23, Lake Ariel, Pa © Tom May, 2019
Band Photo: Scott Bell & Tom May
Map Photo: Jesus Martinez
Layout by Eric Keen and Jason Link

All Songs Written by the Menzingers
Jagaloon Jive (ascap) Administered by Mothership Music Publishing

Themenzingers.com
@themenzingers

Management: Tim Zahodski for Good Fight Entertainment
Booking, North and South America: Phil Battiato for United Talent Agency
Booking, Uk, Europe, Rest of World: Tom Taaffe for Coda Agency
Legal: Bryan K. Christner
A&r: Brett Gurewitz
Publicity: Christine Morales for Epitaph

The Menzingers Would Like to Thank: Our Family, Friends, and Partners for Their Endless Support and Bottomless Hearts, and for Joining (and Sometimes Carrying) Us on This Incredible Journey, Tim Zahodski, Will Yip, Scott Bell, Dave March, Jesus Martinez, Nick Harris, Tyler Long, Phil Battiato, Tom Taaffe, Brett Gurewitz, Matt Mcgreevy, Felicia Risolo and Everyone at Epitaph Records, Andy Clarke, Danielle Dubois, Kate Hiltz, the Bouncing Souls, Scott Engel, Russo Music, Justin Collier, Bryan K. Christner, Christopher J. Ruggiero, Sarah Maynard, R5 Productions, Joe Ferree, Colin and Leslie Lodwick, Adam Rutkoski, Riverflat Printing and Design, Francis Hunt, Adam Bilboa, Bill Orner, Jack Romano and Roger Harvey.

We Would Also Like to Send Our Greatest Appreciation to the Following: Lucas Mcculley at Rapcohorizon, Ed Udhus at Gomc, Derek Brooks at Ernie Ball, Hugh Gilmartin, Steve Lobmeier & Marco Soccoli at Promark & Evans, Alex Auxier at Orange Amplification, Jason Klein at Fender Guitars, Jaime-harvey-penrod at Jh Audio, Britton Nash at Nash Guitars, Rune Holst Jacobson at Dynaudio, Joel Manan at Marshall Amps, Satellite Amps, 47 Brand and Seymour Duncan.

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