Pointy (2024) - The Daniel James Songbook

Home

The Writer's Thoughts

This is my latest album. I took a leaf from Oasis' book and turned up the volume so high it almost sounds overproduced, especially compared to Flight. Song in Six Parts is the third (and maybe final?) entry in the 'Song' series and is my first truly long song. I'm decently happy with it. It'll probably be a while now until new music is released under the Daniel James name.

Cooldown

An oversized bucket hat
and a cigarette holder
Orange-tinted Rayban shooters
and a monotone voice

Tell this Hunter S. Thompson
the party ended yesterday
You'll look back on these years
and sigh again and again

Never knowing what love is
Only drinking and smoking
A bottle of Schnapps down
in a few hours or so

Some day it'll catch up to you
when you're nearly dead
The party ended yesterday
You're no servant of the town, Figaro

Full speed, max heat living
ends with a shotgun to your head
A boring life's worth living
A cooldown in your bed
Full speed, max heat living
ends with a night lost forever
A boring life's worth living
A cooldown together

Good stories mean bad lives
I should've listened to you
Long nights in the park
would've been my end

Months spent in isolation
can mess up anyone's head
Years of self-abuse
can do much worse

All this will be over one day
At least I'm still alive
(at least I'm still alive)

All this will be over one day
At least I'm still alive
At least I'm still alive

Full speed, max heat living
ends with an untimely death
A boring life's worth living
A cooldown in my bed
Full speed, max heat living
ends with regret that'll never end
A boring life's worth living
A cooldown to never end

Locked In, Melting

My face is melting in the mirror
I took too much this time
This place is filling up with water
I took too much again

Round and around and around
Rainbow spirals round
Round and around and around
Rainbow spirals round

Locked in a room, locked in a room with myself
Locked in a room, face to face with myself
Locked in a room, locked in a room with myself
Locked in a room, face to face with myself

Submit and think nothing else
Total submission
Turn on, tune in, drop out
It gets better without

Reverberation has no doubt
Roller coaster, take my breath away
I look like a total maniac
It's sunrise again

Locked in a room, locked in a room with myself
Locked in a room, face to face with myself
Locked in a room, locked in a room with myself
Locked in a room, face to face with myself

Walked down the store today
Yesterday it closed
They claim that they sell everything
I recognise nothing

Walk through town high on life
Avoiding knowing glares
It's clear you're on something
It's clear that I don't care

Locked in a room, locked in a room last night
Locked in a room, what an awful fright
Locked in a room, locked in a room last night
Locked in a room, what an awful sight

Locked in a room, locked in a room last night
Locked in a room, what an awful fright
Locked in a room, locked in a room last night
Locked in a room, what an awful sight

Any Other Town

Sit back and let the days pass in your broken chair
And reunite with old friends in hell

Something about this place doesn't seem right
Maybe it's the decaying streets
Or maybe I'm just tired
Sing the theme to a film you watched
Yesterday just to keep warm
Grab a drink or two in the square
What else is there to do?

Something about this place doesn't seem right
Maybe it's just my memory
Or were things better in the past?

Your home town's always your best town
Your home town's always the best
Your home town's always the best town
Your home town's always the best

Your home town's always your worst town
Your home town's only the worst
Your home town is worse than any other town
Your home town's always the worst

In all the years that I've seen you
You've never looked worse
Your only asset is a strange old man
That complains on the Internet

Something about this place doesn't seem right
Maybe it's just the council
Or maybe I'm just insane

At least it won't be long until I leave you forever
And maybe I'll come and visit you
When you're frozen over

Something about this place doesn't seem right
But maybe one day you'll repair yourself
Fat chance

Your home town's always your best town
Your home town's always the best
Your home town's always your best town
Your home town's always the best

Your home town's always your worst town
Your home town's always the worst

[Guitar solo]

Your home town's always your worst town
Your home town's always the worst
Your home town's worse than any other town
Your home town's always the worst

Your home town's always the best town
Your home town's always the best
Your home town's always the best town
Your home town's always the best

Your home town's always the worst town
Your home town's always the worst
Your home town's worse than any other town
Your home town's always the worst

Magical Thinking

Prophetic vision
I'm unaware
The words invent themselves
To lose meaning

Lost in space and time
Ever moving
I think and it happens
But why me?

Magical thinking
Plentiful feeling
Drones on

Confined to a body
With electric sense
Outside the mind
Towards the future

Determinism stuck
Beyond my reach
Made of stone
Yet soft like jelly

Magical thinking
Plentiful feeling
Drones on

Marked in progression
Needles pierce
The balloon of sanity
Hot air rushes out

Raise the roof
And break the ceiling
We're all here to die
So let's start living

Magical thinking
Plentiful feeling
Drones on

In the town between the mountains
lies a butcher on the ground
where he lived for all his life waiting
for a ladder to appear
and take him up to the towers in the skies
where the lizard people live
and breathe and dance together at night
just waiting for the sun to rise
just living their lives
while the butcher lies

Magical thinking
Plentiful feeling
Drones on

Wonderful thinking
Beautiful feeling
Lives on

Bridge

[Instrumental]

Song in Six Parts

[Part I - Reality/Humanity]

Reality is hiding in the shadows
Reality is darkness in the light
Humanity is bursting at the stitches
Humanity shivers at the sight
Something tells me nothing is sacred
Something's still shouting my name
Nothing is perfect in the aftermath
Of a night spent thinking I'm insane

Wrapped round a pole in the thunder
A warrior emerges from the gale
His clothes were battered and his face was torn
But he's alive to tell the tale
Cause the brain doesn't give up so simply
When the mind's still begging to live
Despite the pain of a tear in the page
God was willing to forgive

God was willing to save him
Reality was willing to submit
His plans weren't exactly secret
But his plans were strange to see
And how can I express my feelings
Outside the measure of a song
Reality is sneaking behind us
The road to tranquility is far too long

And suddenly the distance between us
Doesn't make any sense
The ocean of tears is rising
Reality is too intense
Last night I ran into the doorway
Of my stone cold stare
I crashed into the mirror
And it shattered in my hands

Real life is nothing short
Of a constant nightmare
Living won't get easier
I just don't care

[Part II - The Dream/Awakening]

I had the weirdest dream
I was dead
I saw you in heaven
Looking down at hell

Hell seemed too familiar
I was still alive
I flew up to heaven
To meet you there

I finally got my wings
But I died
I finally escaped reality
But I died

I woke up in my bed
No idea where my mind was led
Nothing satiating my head
Only dread

I know who you are
The warrior who lived
Just this once
Everyone lives

[Part III - Reality Loves/Hurts]

It's not fair
I know it's not fair
Life's not fair
And nothing gets better

But you'll get better
Your life is a blessing
It's a blessing to see you alive
You survived

I can't imagine the horrors
Circling your mind
Why did this happen?
And what can we do?

Reality hurts, but reality loves
Reality loves but reality hurts
It's one thing after another
It's everything after you

Same old, same old
Same old vicious mind
I lost my head in Zurich
And told myself it's fine

Sell my soul to the advertising board
Of the Northern line
Misery sold to the masses
Mornington Crescent

[Part IV - Peace/Chaos]

I can't even talk to myself at night
Without itching
I can't even place a thought in my mind
Without keeping myself awake

But it stops sometimes
And it's good that it stops sometimes
Because one day
It might just stop forever

Oh well
Oh well
The peace in the east
Meets the chaos in the west

Mythical creatures grow from trees
And tangle their bodies together
The fox and the dragon take one last breath
And dive underwater

Oh well
Oh well
The chaos in the east
Meets the peace in the west

Oh well
Oh well
The chaos in the east
Meets the chaos in the west

[Part V - You're Alive]

I know you're alive
I love you because you're alive
And we'll keep living
We materialised

[Part VI - The Future]

And so we exit from this song
By the way we came in
Because reality won at last
But reality won't stop us dreaming

Of a better life in the future
With a house and a beautiful husband
A stable income and a comfy job
A life that may be worth it to live

Or maybe I'll still find a way
To keep anxiety in my reach
Maybe it's a terminal illness
Maybe it's withdrawal kicking in

I don't know who I am
I keep talking as if I exist
All I really am is an idea
Maybe I'll materialise one day

Nothing

Someday that time will come
When all that is me is done
And then I will finally rest
Nothing in my head
The time I existed here
In a moment will disappear
And my body will surrender
My body, returned to sender

Nothing that I do will ever matter in the end
All that matters for me now is my heart
Nothing that I do will ever matter in the end
All that matters for me now is your heart

I won't be here to care
So what's the point in my despair?
An eternal dreamless sleep
With no memories to keep
Sew life's tapestry well
For when you're gone, you can't tell
If the fabric is made to last
Or if your memory has already passed

Nothing that I do will ever matter in the end
All that matters for me now is your heart
Nothing that I do will ever matter in the end
All that matters for me now is your heart

When you're next to me
I can feel your humanity
Lie next to me
For eternity
If I never do anything
Worthwhile again
Living would've still still been worth it just for you

Nothing that I do will ever matter in the end
All that matters for us now is our love
Every single thing you do matters right now
All that really matters is our love

I can kiss you, and I swear that I'll die happy
Death's embrace can't keep us from each other's hearts

Nothing death can do to us matters in the end
All that matters for us now is our love
Nothing death can do to us matters in the end
All that matters for us now is our love

Even when the time has come I won't be scared
Because I know your love is with me
Even when the time has come I won't be scared
Because I know your love is with me