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Nobody can explain the shame
And I can't make it go away
If I can't save from myself
How could it be you
Thought I really knew it all
And only someone else could fall
Now I'm not so self-assured
I've lost every clue
It's a flame that won't burn
On a wheel that won't turn
It's a thought I won't let go
Maybe we'll never ever know
How could it be that we've come so far
Only to fall so far behind
All the words I thought were wise
Are just not quite
This is not where I wanted to be
These are not the people I want to see
All the things I thought were right
Are just not quite
You are hoarding currency
I dream only melodies
If I tell you I am spent
what would you do
So tell me, who needs each other more
If we're stuck on each side of door
If I'm the one saving you
How could it be true
I don't want to know
If it hurts me more than it hurts me now
Just let me scream with my head in the sand
I don't need no lubrication
Just to fake the celebrations
Just feed me another spoon of hope
Merry Christmas Baby
Happy New Year darling
Here's to surviving.
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In a crumbled bridesmaid dress
I tried once again and you knew best
I just want to scream
When everyone has gone home
I dropped it all over your floor
I found the address and not the door
Is this how it is
For never and ever more
The heart's beating 5 minutes late
The bells will toll and I'm still waiting
I don't where I end and where you begin
So bring on the new year
Wind me up once again
Make me a shell that can mend
To repeat
To dance, to fall and fade away
Sing the blues
Smash the glass and break the curse
How could the numbers be any worse
Let me be
To hit my head to dull the pain
To screw it up the whole year end to end
To wake up dazed and confused
Like never before and nobody's news
I wish I could smile
When everyone comes back home
To jump from the first floor
And to do so for no reason at all
I don't understand and I won't
Forever more
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It feels so depressed
Got on my Sunday best
Have you kept the will
Or have I lost my way
A great big forest with no trees
A photo and no memories
They tell me it is fine today
It's not from my window pane
I won't be leaving home for Christmas
Fill the stockings with dreams
We can share in brighter days
You can a wear a smile and keep your distance
Let's make a wish and split the difference
Hey, I want to believe again
Everything that could go wrong
The sadness from my favourite song
Put into a dish unknown
That keeps for so long
So long
The year's been so long
There's nothing to keep or to give away
The year's been so long
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I rest my empty case
Can I declare that I don't have a clue
I'm tired of arguing when it's not as much at all
about me and you
It's time to take stock
Head for home and to dry out the dock
I'm all battered and bruised, we've got nothing to lose when it's always
The same every day
But it's not about the past
And it's not about today
Can we not look back at all
What will the new year bring
Just let me be a leaf in the wind
Our light's burning bright and still
I'm a little scared
I have nothing left to give
Carve it up, it all comes with
What will be will be
And I don't care
For dumb luck anymore
A spring in these swollen feet
A pocket square of tears
But this time it could be different
Wrap me, put on a bow and give me away
And so I close with tattered notes
There's no one left to persuade
When deep down they all know
The chairs in the room are about to change
And it's not about the past
And it's not about today
Can we not look back at all
What will the new year bring
Just let me be a leaf in the wind
Our light's burning bright and still
I'm a little scared
The lumberjacks have all gone home
The stepped on my Xmas gnome
They took away the pieces
And I don't care
For dumb luck anymore
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It's a jolly time of year for most
Except for those with affection for a ghost
It’s a memory like a children’s book
I know every picture, all the words, and every feeling shown
There is no warmth in too much sun oh how I wish it would
Erase all the emptiness into a smile
I think of you every December
All the berries and the melons that we used to pick
You played me all your Soft Boys and I knew you were it
Warm spiced rum and cool summer nights
A broken-down van and a promise that everything would work out right
I wish you could have taken everything
'Cos I can't replace the rest
That faded colour photo is the only tattoo on my heart
Merry Xmas you were the best
There is no warmth in too much sun oh how I wish it would
Erase all the emptiness into a smile
I think of you every December
I blow on the embers
I wanted forever now
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Without notice you were gone
Maybe not too soon but a little too much
To swallow when you’re crawling on the ground
And I’m looking for clues that you left behind
All the ships have sailed from shore
I don’t know where they’re going but it can’t be
Glascow or Gainsville if there’s no water there
And I don’t know how to swim without you
So did you ever meet
To laugh about what you are to me
Can I sing you both back home Tom & George
It’ll never be the same
It’s all black and white teenage screams
You kept your eye on the ball and your hands on the wheel
And you stayed there, you stayed true
When everyone else was losing their way
Without you…
I’m a lover and a fighter
‘Cos I sing your words that way
All the women have become little girls again
When I remind them of those days
And I hang onto the prizes of the past
As I pay the price for the future
In loneliness…
It’ll never be the same without you….
Your ancient letters of hope
Are now my personal poems of hurt
I’ll keep them in a box safe like new
There’s nothing left to replace you
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It's meant to be so long ago
I've got the missing piece stitched to my coat
The sound in the mall just gets me down
I see no reflection in the window panes
I hear a voice and I can quiver
Dare me to fear and fall and I deliver
It's never going to be the same without you
I've kept the flowers hung and dry
Paint the sky a different hue
It's never going be the same without you
I plod to the letterbox in hope
I'm saving all my smiles for a better day
The lights across the bay just get me down
On a piece of bread and these stale smokes
A photograph and I can quiver
Dare me to fear and fall and I deliver
A tearless cry
As we dance beneath the stars of why
We strip down to the truth
And there's no good-byes
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I want a holiday to Mars, pack your bags I know it’s far
Into deep dark space, release the rats and stop the race
I just want to lift my feet
Don’t need no light, I want some sleep
Deadlines into time
Water into wine
I want a holiday to Mars so light my fat cigar
I wanna go down and drown in your cool sea of nothing
Sweet f.a. will be so nice
Just you and me and Jesus Christ
No internet or telephone
I want to be alone
I want a holiday to Mars, I wanna go so slow
And tan in a sandstorm of some frozen love
All my smiles are worse for wear
Every bone in disrepair
My satellite has crashed and burned
Will we ever learn
To hell with your jingle bells
Down with your Christmas sale
No to the modern world
And all the shit within it
To hell with your jingle bells
And down with your Christmas sale
Au diable vos cloches de Noel
Ce foutu rituel
Non à ce monde moderne
Et toute la merde qui gravite
Au diable vos cloches de Noel
Ce foutu rituel
Stop
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In July you were the apple of my eye
I had a sweet tooth just for you,
Effervescent, there was nothing I could do
About love
And singing birds and butterflies
High above
Heart proof, sweet tooth
Now December seems so long
I feel a pain, the taste is so gone
Book my shrink and call my dentist
Tooth ache, heart break
How much more of this year can I take
Close the door cos’ I can’t feel it anymore
Leave the aspirin when you depart
There’s an empty suitcase, I don’t know where to start
About love
The feelings all decayed they will not
Wash away
I wasn’t fool-proof, sweet tooth
Now December seems so long
I feel a pain, the taste is so gone
Book my shrink and call my dentist
Tooth ache, heart break
How much more of this year can I take
Fix my sweet tooth ache
I know that it can’t be saved
Numb my swollen face
And give me a brand new smile
Drill my pain away
Make it a cloudless day
Pull my heart right out
Cos’ it’s nearly Christmas
And this won’t happen again
Tooth ache, heart break
Nothing to save
How much more of this year can I take
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I don't want your presents, I just want your presence
I don't need your video call I need to feel your face
Over and over again
Please come home let's not
Be alone, all alone
On Christmas Day
The day's are getting longer but who cares about the weather
I can't wait another day, it's now and forever
Has Canada made you cold
Is there something that I
Do not know, will I be alone
On Christmas Day
I think we lost our connection
I can't see you, you don't hear me
I want real affection
Please don't go posting anything you're always late anyway
Over and over again
Please come home let's not
Be alone, all alone
On Christmas Day
Has Canada made you cold...
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We kick things off with some jangle, naturally, because surely if ever there was a holiday guitar sound it would have to be the Rickenbacker 12 string. Joe Algeri’s The JAC (and the Christmas Crew) project crank up the Byrds influences to launch their anti-materialist “I Don’t Want Your Presents” and even give a shout out to Canada. Honestly the song is not so much anti-holiday as anti-consumerist but given that it attacks a key element of the holy trinity of modern Christmas (e.g. Santa, presents, and that historical dude having a birthday) it goes into the ‘anti’ lock-up. It’s just one of a load of great Christmas-critical tunes on their Just Not Quite … A Christmas Album (Vol. 2).
Dennis Pilon, Poprock Record ~ Songs with a hook
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Really, between Herb Eimerman and Joe Algieri we may have the standard bearers for power pop in 2022. This sounds nothing like pop punk, or indie pop but Joe does sound like the essence of genre on this terrific second volume compilation of the last 10 years of festive! If power pop is your thing or even if it isn’t, if you just like guitars and melodies, this one will blow you away – A-
ROCKNYC.LIVE
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Following the world-wide success of "I See Things Differently" The JAC is back with a Vol.2 of festive offerings.
The fun and frivolity of Vol.1 is replaced by something more sombre. It's really a Christmas album in name only, here are 10 tracks about longing and reflection at the end or at any time of the year.
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released December 2, 2022
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All songs written and produced by Joe Algeri
Cover photo of Mota Vu Drive In, 27 September 1985. Courtesy of the Horsham Historical Society and Rob Lowe.
Artwork by Joe Kapiteyn at Red Room.
EGO-017
