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Call It Sleep

by Amy Annelle & the Places

/
1.
Fifteen men On a deadman's ship aground Take your leave And a switchblade in case you need To cut the throat of any ghost you meet And keep you safe from Sailors like me In a port town for now On a dock working cargo Oh, but you won't be long Your address is spread far and wide Through ghost and almost-ghost towns All the towns you Found your way into The stars have all done their part Now they're tired of us watching Lined up as ever always Where to now What to put your bare hands to Oh, but we won't belong Our address is spread far and wide Through border and empty mine towns All the towns you Found your way into The stars have all done their part Now they're tired of us watching Lined up as ever always Could not be easier than now No one left to let down They lost you to dead reckoning
2.
The grace is gone And along with it the goodwill We've inventoried what's ours And locked it up Blue lights flashing pictures quickly And oh boy did they get you cheaply You're lonely cause you're never alone And in lines and rows we head home I want to be the scenery The birds the clouds and the trees I want to be the scenery The birds, the clouds and the trees And in lines and rows we head home There was a pretty blue lake I found And in this early light I could not see bottom All around it birds are waking And warming up their singing voices Their voices form a warning chorus And in lines and rows we head home Back to the beds we made of shit and stone And oh how safe and sound For now, for now, for now...
3.
Who put your eye out Who cut the lights And sent you to stumbling I found out the easy way The more that you think it The less you should say Now I see How you're like me And how you hate Those faces you make Brother of mine How you lied all this time Choking on what You didn't ask for Found this picture Of you falling Mouth half-open And they're laughing Are you fooling Who's the fool Now you now now you Now you know What I wouldn't do for your you Now I see How you're like me And how you hate Those faces you make Brother of mine How you lied all this time Choking on what You didn't ask for Found this picture Of you falling Mouth half-open And we're laughing Are you fooling Who's the fool Now you now you Now you know What I wouldn't do for you
4.
Travel Light 06:16
Lost your fight Now travel light by my side Loose the chains The gates are swinging out wide Is it easier now Is this how you wanted Curtains that won't open Answer to no one I grew spare and silent It fouls the air So I close my mouth And I've lived off your cast-offs Carry your debt in my name There's a word for what you've done There's a name for what you've become Curtains that won't open Answer to no one
5.
Clean Starts 03:00
If you took every hostile atmosphere And pumped it full of air Until the deadly gases disappear Would a heart start beating Somewhere i know it's starting now And though there's no way to really know It's growing arms And it's growing legs And soon it's starting thinking Clean starts or starting over It just can't happen here I'll never know what you want All the space is already taken And all that's broken off Comes back to circle you Get clean, start breathing again Those broken-off things Are sickening
6.
Let yourself go So far nobody knows That's what you get For coming out wet In this kind of weather I won't hold my breath I know what's not coming next Don't bring back to life What you beat in the fight Be glad it's dead A gold photo-stream And we're back in a new dream I know that's it's you there Canyons and blues skies Your ruined new life A gold photo-stream And we're back in the very same dream And I dream a lot Love what I got A ruined new life I let you do it Cause I thought you needed it More than I needed you not to I let you do it Cause I thought you needed More than I needed you not to
7.
Program Ten 08:46
sitting by the canyon with my hands in my pockets and my head holding high to the sky listen to the rhythm of the canyon as it calls and can you hear the canyon call inside? I still have my life something's wrong inside it's just that Sunday morning song flashing in my eyes for all to see Sunday morning song take me on to sleep and I'll be free I still have my life something's wrong inside it's just that Sunday morning song flashing in my eyes for all to see Sunday morning song take me on to sleep and I'll be free
8.
Already no, too much Enough dust to choke all Oklahoma And blot the sun Give up, gave too much Lay the ghost go effortlessly with it Oh I fight 'til the death And you're next Crash-land Escape Pick up sounds That never got to tape fFght til the death I'll see you in the next life fFght til the death I'll see you in the next life Fight til the death With a dull blade It could take all night

about

all songs © Amy Annelle/High Plains Sigh Music (BMI) except "Program Ten" by Bill Holt/The Dreamies ©1973, used with permission
recorded to 1" tape by Jason Powers and Adam Selzer at Type Foundry in Portland Oregon.
mixed to 1/4" tape by Larry Crane at Jackpot!, Portland, Oregon
mastered by Tardon at Mr. Toad, San Francisco, California
cover portrait by Zak Riles
gatefold photo "High Desert Fire" by Amy Annelle

"'Call It Sleep' is a narcotic, attenuated record, one that caresses you with ardent entreaties and then clobbers you with a terrifyingly offhand remark...a fraying tapestry of vibraphone, creaky violin, brushed drums, woozy piano and trumpet. Feedback, found sounds, random blurts of shortwave static, and Annelle's imagist shards converge in a way that's pretty and portentous in equal measure. The band evokes the deconstructed postrock of the Dirty Three: Just as the songs seem close to disintegrating, they reconstruct themselves somehow, conjuring form and meaning from the fragments of Annelle's beautiful, bewildering visions."--Sound Patrol

"Annelle has a voice that does not match her gaunt build; it's full, gracious, and breathy, and captivates like the best of lullaby sirens. Impressed critics compare the lush, hauntingly atmospheric chamber music she makes to Cat Power's Chan Marshall, Nick Drake and Elliott Smith...like former 4AD label honcho and This Mortal Coil mastermind Ivo Watts-Russell, she knows both her music and literature, and can translate the warmth and glow of life she finds in the best of both. This LP is just plain dreamy and beautiful."--Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover Top 50

"it is not unreasonable to take Annelle's voice as catalyst and translator, as a light down the album's tunnel of nightmare and habitual escape, deep cravings and dulled aches. As on the greatest of Drake and in Reed's quieter moments, the music says what the lyrics can't."--Bandoppler

"The more you listen, the more you realize you've entered a mansion of shadows, hard to completely grasp but nonetheless spectacular. The mood is dark and lonely, but not without tenderness; the lyrics at first seem obtuse and poetic yet in places are as direct and harsh as they come; the songs evade genre categorization, feeling overall like sparse folk married to soft dream-pop, yet at times there's allusions to country & western, after-hours jazz, and even Hawaiian folk music. Elliptical yet emotionally overpowering"--Erasing Clouds (May, 2004)

credits

released January 1, 2004

Amy Annelle: electric guitar, Gibson L-00 and tenor guitar, vocals, shortwave radio, cassette tapes, moog
Jude Webre: upright & bowed bass, electric bass
Paul Brainard: pedal steel
Ryan Stowe: electric guitar, acoustic guitar, baritone guitar, shortwave radio
Zak Riles: bass, acoustic guitar
Jordan Hudson: vibraphones
Michael Schorr: drums except as noted
Johnny Schier: drums on "'Til the Death"
Timothy Horner: violin
Eric Mast: synthesizers on "Program Ten"
Rachel Blumberg: piano on "Dead Reckoning"
Joe Haege: piano and vocals on "'Til the Death"

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about

Amy Annelle Austin, Texas

A prolific writer and interpreter of songs, Amy Annelle maps out the farther reaches of American music, while conjuring visions of our restless musical past. Over the course of ten albums & thousands of miles logged on the road, Annelle has cultivated a rarified voice and repertoire that "blooms with open-hearted, lustful vulnerability and a harrowing naturalistic solitude”(Crawdaddy). ... more

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