Hamburg 156

55/156 [easy money]
http://luxlisbon.com/hamburg156

37/156 [preaching to the choir]
http://luxlisbon.com/hamburg156

34/156 [nostalgic at birth]
http://luxlisbon.com/hamburg156

I was nostalgic at birth
I wasn’t made for this world
I was born in the wrong time and space, son
I feel like meat in the room calling in via zoom
(From a colony up on the moon)

When you say :-

“Can I have your attention
This in an intervention"

And though it's said with affection
The Court is in session
and makes the direction to...

"Do it, do it, do it now
Get it get it get it - into your head somehow
All of those days are gone - you're getting nowt but older
So you better get to it to it to it
Spin your head around
Flip reverse and face the way your going now
Before tomorrow comes and just bends you over"

Every little thing hurts with your head in reverse
You're gonna miss your turn and boy I don't know what's worse
Never being born?
Or being nostalgic at birth?

----

Music - Stuart Rook/Luke Gaul
Lyrics - Stuart Rook

Vocals - Stuart Rook
Guitars, Bass, Synth, Programming - Luke Gaul
Drums - Chris Barber
BVs - Ruth Royall

Mixed by Luke Gaul

35/156 [there will be no miracles here (reprise)]

http://luxlisbon.com/hamburg156

When you’re Judy Garland, not 50 nor sober
Then I’m River Phoenix, 23 and cold
Shooting your bluebirds - down over Dover
To prove They’ll be no miracles cos we were born to lose

You can click your heels but you wont start a fire
Cos there’s no place colder than home baby when
I trample your matchstick temple of desire
Just to prove they’ll be no miracles that love is just a ruse

I won’t be there when you need me I’ll be in my head
Sifting through my platitudes - cos I’ve no genius to declare

So maybe one day I’ll gaze past your rainbow
To fathom your faith in that yellow brick road
But until then baby - it’s blasphemy to see
Anything beyond the scythe that is my waning moon

There will be no miracles here
I’ll be losing you

There will be no miracles here
I’ll be losing you

Music - Stuart Rook/Luke Gaul
Lyrics - Dickon Collinson/Stuart Rook

Vocals - Stuart Rook
Guitar - Luke Gaul
Piano - James Graham
Strings - Elliot Kempton

31/156 [who you riding with?]

I said :
"Excuse me baby - what do you see?
is it just a sentimental fool?
You’ve been sitting (believe me) too close to the TV
and that s**t will make you cruel"

she said :
"Why this compulsion to inflict
your bone-crushing banality?"

I said :
"I propose a bender cos I’ve reach the end of my personality"

And now it’s getting harder and harder just to get my engine started
so I bring my supercharger in my bags pre-packed for my departure

"Just tell me who you're riding with"

She said :
"Are you lonely when you're alone?"

I said :
"No, I got some place to play - where there's no repercussions for overconsumption
- and everything else can wait"

She said :
"well, what's your hot take on psychology?"

I said :
"Happiness it ain't too good for the economy, so never dream past seventeen, you're gonna be badly misunderstood"

And now it’s getting harder and harder
just to get my engine started
so I bring my supercharger
and I'll get under the hood (you know that I would)
to try to start her up
I beg your pardon
you know I used to be such a charmer
but now I'm painted fifty shades darker
just a superyacht rusting in harbour

"Tell me who you're riding with tonight?"

And now it’s getting harder and harder
just to get my engine started
so I bring my supercharger
and I'll get under the hood (you know that I would)
to try to start her up
I beg your pardon
you know I used to be such a charmer
but now I'm painted fifty shades darker
just a superyacht rusting in harbour

"Tell me who you're riding with tonight?"
credits
released April 7, 2021
Music - Stuart Rook/Luke Gaul
Lyrics - Stuart Rook

28/156 [drunk on dopamine]

30/156 [luna can I kiss you?]

http://luxlisbon.com/hamburg156

23/156 [yesterday is heavy]
http://luxlisbon.com/hamburg156

22/156 [we don't belong here]

http://luxlisbon.com/hamburg156

I sing myself some sacred song
Hanging by a gossamer thread
With my engines on
And a tail pipe hose that I done up all wrong
Cos I don’t wanna die tonight
But I gotta find someone

Who’s a pioneer in love
Not a lover in default
To man who never made any money from his art

Who’s a pioneer in love
Not a lover in default
To man who never made any money from his art

a pioneer in love
Not a lover in default
To man who never made any money from his art

Cos I don’t belong here baby
And I know know know
That you don’t belong either
Do you reckon we could make it?

No you don’t
No you don’t
No you don’t belong
With your clothes and your shoes and you hair all wrong
And your language that’s dead
And your body all gone
No you don’t
No you don’t
No you don’t belong

So let’s get out of here

So jump in the back
And let’s take a drive
But baby we’re not gonna talk we’re just gonna ride
I’m gonna ride you so fast that you go outta your mind
Until the sunlight breaks into a lullaby

I’m just a pioneer in love
Not a lover in default
To man who never made any money from his art

a pioneer in love
Not a lover in default
To man who never made any money from his art

And you don’t belong here baby
No no no no no
No we don’t belong here
But I think that we could make it

No you don’t
No you don’t
No you don’t belong
With your clothes and your shoes and you hair all wrong
And your language that’s dead
And your body all gone
No you don’t
No you don’t
No you don’t belong

So let’s get out of here

Music - Stuart Rook, Luke Gaul, Harry Still
Lyrics - Stuart Rook

Stuart Rook - Vocals, Piano
Luke Gaul - Guitars, Bass, Synth Bass
Harry Still - Drums

BVS - Marta Garrett and Ruth Royal

Recorded by John Martindale at Blank Studios
Mixed by Luke Gaul

20/156 [there will be no miracles here]

19/156 [beautiful as hell]

http://luxlisbon.com/hamburg156

Help me out, can't we pretend?
Just say that this is not the end?
Who wouldn't want to start all over again?

Feel I'm on fire from within
So cover me in all your skin
Oh my god, this is really happening

And it's beautiful as hell

The car slows as it approaches heaven
The stars start to threaten to let me through
Closer to you

When will I get mine yeah get my share?
In your body of a billionaire?
With your mouth loose on your cigarette you said
"One day I'll love you to death"

And it was beautiful as hell

The car slows as it approaches heaven
The stars start to threaten to let me through
Closer to you
Closer to you
Closer to you
credits
released February 25, 2021
Music - Stuart Rook/Luke Gaul
Lyrics - Stuart Rook

Stuart Rook - Vocals, Piano
Luke Gaul - Guitars, Bass, Synth, BVs, Drums

Recorded by John Martindale at Blank Studios. Newcastle
Mixed by Luke Gaul

16/156 [I love it when you hurt me]

http://luxlisbon.com/hamburg156

Mercy! I love it when you hurt me
And tell me I deserve it
Oh your twisted fantasy
I’m just a spaceman
I’m dying everyday man
But your reckless serenade can
Keep me weightless in my dreams
Where no-one hears my screams

No tiptoeing
Hijakced my mind like a jumbo jet
Blackmailed Boeing
You took the cash, shot the pilot for pleasure
Fu**ed me over
Forced to watch as you led my friends home, I
Even drove ya
To the door

Mercy! I love it when you hurt me
And tell me I deserve it
Oh your twisted fantasy
I’m just a spaceman
I’m dying everyday man
But your reckless serenade can
Keep me weightless in my dreams
Where nothing’s what it seems

Overflowing
With regret, yeah you can lead me on
This self loathing
Is a choice, it gets me off, I’ll suffer
At your leisure
In A&E, yeah paralytic on a
Single measure
Of your war

Music - Stuart Rook, Luke Gaul, Harry Still
Lyrics - Stuart Rook, Dickon Collinson

Stuart Rook - Vocals
Luke Gaul - Guitar, Bass, Organ, Wurlizter, Programming

Drums - Chris Barber
BVs - Charlotte Austen, Ruth Royal, Marta Garrett

17/156 [the face that I deserve]

15/156 [burn the ships]

Help I'm feeling sick
Got whiskey on my lips
But baby I say "oh to hell with it"

"Yeah, let's burn all the ships, cos theres something I can't fix"

And maybe I don't want to.

Maybe I don't want to.
Maybe I'm in love with feeling blue.
credits

Music - Stuart Rook/Luke Gaul
Lyrics - Stuart Rook

Stuart Rook - Vocals
Luke Gaul - Guitar, Electric Piano, Vocal harmonies.

14/156 [lola loves to lose]

Do you prefer Lola or Lo?
She said, “hell I don’t know,
Lately it’s hard, I find, to answer to either"
Mind I’m still sober, for shame.
Help me forget my name.
Four turbo shandies
And a shot to start over again.

So full disclosure, I over strode her.
I threw it up, she threw me over her shoulder
Like some kind of cave man
Said “Jesus saves man
Let's interwine and fry our minds.
Get misbehaving.”

I said “Lo”, of nothing, apropos,
“I think I’m falling like a dark arpeggio.”
And she froze as a tear caught the light from the Windmill in Soho.

“You don’t get to choose just don’t let it use you.”
She said
“I let it diffuse and, you’ve read the reviews,
‘Lola loves to lose’”

Chasing last orders
So much for the last tube home
“This place open till three does beer, Donner and chips, £2:50”
“No need to ask me twice, it’s your throw of the dice”
As head lamps and stomach cramps and some creep’s PVC fantasy rolled by.
Then she lied to my face, she said “actually it’s getting late.”
To which I replied “I’ve not been up this early in centuries”

“They don’t get to choose
Don’t let them defuse you”
I said
“Let’s make it our muse and screw the reviews.
I’m with Lola and Lola loves to lose”
credits
released February 7, 2021
Music - Stuart Rook and Luke Gaul
Lyrics - Dickon Collinson and Stuart Rook

Vocals - Stuart Rook
Backing Vocals - Dickon Collinson and Charlotte Austen
Guitar, Bass, Programming - Luke Gaul
Drums - Chris Barber

13/156 [speaking in tongues]

Bible Belter, Arizona, Just a child possessed
In 88 I went on Oprah in my Sunday best.

Just to scream a verse about a generation of sinners
and something about adulterous s*x
Recite "whomsoever, therefore, whatever"
and I forget the rest

Oh, they got me speaking in tongues
Oh, yeah they got me when I was young
Speaking this language I know nothing about
But every word it felt just like a punch in the mouth
Oh, now the damage is done

They got me speaking in tongues

In redemptive isolation - I was taught how to spell
Daddy said my generation, was going straight to hell
So I ran off with my baby yeah, she was a punk rocker
We got married yeah to have me some fun
Daddy disowned me but something told me,
That the damage was done.

Oh, they got me speaking in tongues
Oh, yeah they got me when I was young
Speaking this language I know nothing about
But every word it felt just like a punch in the mouth
Oh, now the damage is done

They got me speaking in tongues

Credits

released February 7, 2021
Music - Stuart Rook/Luke Gaul
Lyrics - Stuart Rook

Stuart Rook - Vocals
Luke Gaul - Guitars, Bass, Programming

12/156 [the death of generation x]

Daddy, Daddy, quick come see
There's a younger me, tearing up MTV
Now I'm hitting triple sweet sixteen
But I looked so great back then

When money money, came easily
I'd ride the rollercoaster endlessly
But though the new stuff's straight to DVD
I wouldn’t take those days again

So farewell the future
You know, you never made much sense
But when the past got too unreal
We could invent you to lament
The death of Generation X

We could invent you to lament
The death of Generation X

You find it funny? - well that depends
D'ya wanna know a secret? All my friends
Don't wanna know the truth, just hear me pretend
Everything was better back then

Dearly beloved - here to lament
The passing yeah of generation X
The sweetest, softest sentiment
I could find is "go kill yourself"

So farewell the future
You know, you never made much sense
But when the past got too unreal
We could invent you to lament
The death of Generation X

We could invent you to lament
The death of Generation X

credits
released January 30, 2021
Music - Stuart Rook/Luke Gaul
Lyrics - Stuart Rook

Vocals, Piano - Stuart Rook
Guitar, Bass, Programming - Luke Gaul
Drums - Nate Barnes

10/156 [mercy! mercy!]

I ain’t ever been a lover but I’ll never understand
How you crushed the universe with your red right hand
Maybe I was praying in the belly of the beast
But God he made the man then the man made me

A canary down the coalmine singing the sunshine
Maybe I’ve been dancing in dark too long boy
To get a reaction to my satisfaction
Got me a Kalishnikov - now watch the stars align

“Baby stick em up – oh do you feel lucky punk?”
Cos my little friend says that this party is over
He’s gonna make the light behind your eyes cry
Mercy! Mercy!

Music - Stuart Rook/Luke Gaul
Lyrics - Stuart Rook

Stuart Rook - Vocals, Piano
Luke Gaul - Guitars, Bass, Drums, Backing Vocals
Charlotte Austen - Vocals

Recorded by John Martindale at Blank Studios
Mixed by Luke Gaul

11/156 [swimming in your heavy seas]

Last night you asked did I ever dream?
Or have a wasted heart no love could redeem?
You took your velvet rope and stretched me on the rack

Did I ever bawl? Did I ever scream?
Or want something divine to intervene?
Yeah, I think I saw stars, as it all turned black.

I said please, be gentle
Cos my mind just goes missing every time I kiss you and I'm on my knees
Such sweet, sweet surrender and I'll never be forgiven
Now that I've been swimming in your heavy seas

So yeah I wanna crawl, yeah I wanna dance
I wanna swim with you in the south of France - and hold you in a Rainstorms infinite abyss

Yeah I just wanna play, I just wanna tease
Wanna dive right down into your heavy seas
To the bottom of a love where nothing else exists

So please, be gentle
Cos my mind just goes missing ever time I kiss you and I'm on my knees
Such sweet, sweet surrender and I'll never be forgiven
Now that I've been swimming in your heavy seas

released January 30, 2021
Music - Stuart Rook/Luke Gaul
Lyrics - Stuart Rook

Stuart Rook - vocals
Luke Gaul - guitars, bass, drums, keys, g***k
Charlotte Austen - backing vocals

Mixed by Luke Gaul

8/156 [late to the party]

Now we both know we can tell
Come to me oh my china belle
To a place that I know well
Room 202 at the Novotel

On the edge of the the town �
Where I’ll be doubling down
On the bet, I’ll be found
With my head where it isn’t allowed

"Come back in the morning"
I guess I could if the time allows
"Don’t heed their wicked warning"
Guaranteed to be tightly wound

I was running behind
Now your hands on my thigh so
So I guess that I’m making good time

I’m late to the party
With a story to tell
Of my own crucifixion
And it’s going down well
Yeah I got me the vaccine
Where it’s hotter than hell.
Is this my resurrection?
Oh my lord I wish you well

Under the digital Serengeti spell
Come to me oh my young gazelle
By the tongue honey you can tell me
Wie gets du? Comment suis j’appelle?

I’m on the edge
I’m gonna count up ten and then back down
Cos when it's over I’ll be found
With a head, full of words that I cannot pronounce

"Come back in the morning"
I guess I could if the time allows
"Don’t heed their wicked warning"
Guaranteed to be tightly wound

Baby when we collide
Then they’ll say it’s contrived
But in truth - it’s the best way to arrive

I’m late to the party
With a story to tell
Of my own crucifixion
And it’s going down well
Yeah I got me the vaccine
Where it’s hotter than hell.
Is this my resurrection?
Oh my lord I wish you well

but I’m just late to the party

Music - Stuart Rook/Luke Gaul
Lyrics - Stuart Rook

Vocals - Stuart Rook
Guitars, Bass, Drums, Keys - Luke Gaul
Backing Vocals - Charlotte Austen
Strings - Elliot Kempton

Mixed by Luke Gaul

9/156 [the flying hour]

"The past is gone, and you canst not that recall, the future is not, and may never be at all, but the present is, so improve the flying hour".

6/156 [cult classic]

5/156 [gas me up]

I wish I had the drugs the help me sleep and just forget

They day you left
The day before
And the day we even met

Cos once you were the holy smoke now you might as well be dead

Need you to gas me up
Gimme the good stuff

Wish I still had the wonder of your redemption so serene
But since you cast asunder there’s no direction I believe in
And it only gets harder drowning out the things you said
Keeps me stuck in reverse or worse stuck in my head

So won’t you gas me up
Gimme the good stuff?
Cos I need just enough just of you love to be rough,
but the rest to gas me up

To gas me up
To gas me up
So c'mon gas me up
credits
released January 15, 2021
Music - Stuart Rook and Luke Gaul
Lyrics - Stuart Rook

Vocals - Stuart Rook
Additional Vocals - Charlotte Austen
Guitars, Bass, Electric Piano, Programming - Luke Gaul

4​/​156 [from the tower of babel]

I try to scream, but it’s hardly poetry
Just a language I don’t speak
Because all that I do is dream
(yeah, In the minor key)
When I get down on my knees, to satisfy the beast.
I used to make you sing but now you barely speak
Oh, now you barely speak
So go shout it from the Tower of Babel!

“Words unspoken – will choke you and watch you die”

The slowest su***de.

Now I can’t breath
Some days I can barely see, past the static of your fantasies.
Where you hardly ever dream
(No more in the major key)
So I’m asking won't you please?
Switch off all of your machines?
To remember when we used to sing the stars to sleep,
yeah sing stars to sleep.
When you'd call out from the Tower of Babel!

“Words unspoken – they eat us up from inside”

Yeah a dumb man’s parasite

credits
released January 13, 2021

Music - Stuart Rook/Luke Gaul
Lyrics - Stuart Rook

Vocals - Stuart Rook
Acoustic Guitar, Piano - Luke Gaul
Strings - Elliot Kempton

Recorded by John Martindale at Blank Studios, Newcastle
Mixed by Luke Gaul

3/156 [cognitive dissonance]

2/156 [sucker punch]

1/156
https://hamburg156.bandcamp.com/

[should the stars start falling]

Begin at the death of all hallowed things
And work your way backward, darling
Yeah To my desperate grin
Else I can’t justify this skin

Within this sunken Hollywood I sing
Of j***y angels scoring original sin
Without your eyes to steel me I can’t let go
Of their barbed wire halos
I lie prone, beneath the yew tree unsown

And should the stars start falling from the sky
And god comes crawling from the fire
When sin comes calling for the price we’ll pay for tonight
When you’re coming down will you dream of me darling?
Cos when I’m coming down I’ll be dreaming of you
I guess that’s all I can do

Oh no no don’t
Swallow the truth that they’re extolling
Beneath the headstone
Oh wildflowers grow
From the memoirs of bones
Yeah they unfold to drag home

And should the stars start falling from the sky
And god comes crawling from the fire
When sin comes calling for the price
We’ll pay for tonight
When you’re coming down will you dream of me darling?
Cos when I’m coming down I’ll be dreaming of you
I guess that’s all I can do

Music - Stuart Rook/Luke Gaul
Lyrics - Stuart Rook/Dickon Collinson

Vocals - Stuart Rook
Backing Vocals - Charlotte Austen, Ada Francis
Piano - Stuart Rook
Guitars - Luke Gaul
Bass - Luke Gaul
Drums - Luke Gaul

Released January 5, 2021