Get all 8 Empty Atlas releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Belong, I Can't Make You Love Me, Half Magic, Matador, Kairos, Short Fiction, Hestia, and Anniversary.
1. |
Thousand
02:22
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I come in cautious, like a counterfeit guest,
my mothball sport coat to your fetching dress,
in a house we own but I have no claim to yet
Rip up the carpet and repaint the doors.
We’ve plenty pain without these old eyesores.
I know you’re tired, but we need those wooden floors.
And it’s a shame your mother couldn’t see us now,
when we’ve made charts and graphs to prove we mapped it out.
Plug in the TV, let the snowflakes fall.
Wait one more hour. Give your dad a call.
Say we just got in, and we’re much too tired to talk.
We’ve lived alarmingly since the outset,
explored the attic space like Jacques Marquette.
I’d gladly walk the cable wire without a safety net.
And it’s a shame there’s nothing left to find
that hasn’t been exposed and posed a thousand times.
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2. |
Boxing
04:08
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I weighed the boxes that were stacked on top of me,
and I decided that they're empty company.
Whole house is folded like a bad facsimile
of all the life that it once held.
On second thought, I guess it's not worth mentioning.
I turned my head and missed a quarter of a century
to frameless arguments and weak-wall jealousy
that I've been dying to dispel.
And I may never mend these fences I forced down
While I was boxing, burying the weaknesses in me.
Always boxing, never put an end to anything.
I set a fire to my faults when I was young.
It's burning brighter with each bitter song I've sung.
I'm to the point where I find flaws in everyone,
and I omit my own mistakes.
Prone to wander in my wild duplicity,
prone to punish anyone with faith in me,
until I cage the beast that I've been acting,
correct the mess it's made.
And I may never mend these fences I forced down
While I was boxing, burying the weaknesses in me.
Always boxing, never put an end to anything.
I’ve been dead more than I’ve been awake.
I’ve been a sinner more than I’ve been a saint.
I’ve been dead more than I’ve been awake.
I’ve been a sinner more than I’ve been a saint,
but that is going to change.
But not while I’m still boxing. I’m always boxing.
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3. |
House Fire
03:15
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It started in the rafters,
and after, it went every which way.
You’re always burning those hollow hallways.
I tracked you down, your guilty crown.
Flames keep falling from your mouth.
Still you know I’d love to put you out if I could.
You’re burning like a house fire,
turning blackest night as bright as day,
keeping all the neighborhood awake.
What’s it going to take for me to save you, house fire?
House fire.
I’m silencing the subtle way of speaking,
like you don’t know just what I mean.
You’re always turning a deaf ear toward me.
It’s only getting worse for you, these impulse moves
and vacant actions you excuse.
You know I’d put you out if I could.
And this is the part you see that everything I’ve done was for your good.
You’re burning like a house fire,
turning blackest night as bright as day,
keeping all the neighborhood awake.
What’s it going to take for me to save you?
Maybe in another place, maybe in another time.
No, there’s only right here, right now. No point in pulling that line.
Princess of ash heaps, queen of the pyre,
whether you think that it’s holy,
know that a fire’s still a fire’s still a fire’s still a fire
And you’re burning.
House fire, turning blackest night as bright as day,
keeping all the neighborhood awake.
What’s it going to take for me to save you?
You’re burning like a house fire,
turning blackest night as bright as day,
keeping all the neighborhood awake.
What’s it going to take for me to save you, house fire?
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4. |
Cold Shoulder
05:17
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I want to find your weakness and put it to good use,
wield words that can swivel your neck, sweet enough to make you swoon.
Hey, I see you’re without company. It don’t have to stay that way.
I want to make you love me from the second that I say,
“Be my soft shoulder. Be my kind eyes.
Kindly look me over. There must be something that you like.”
My eyes are too tired to play this game all night.
You put a finger to my lips, and I don’t feel right.
I got too much to say in too little time,
so I won’t follow you home just ‘cause you ask nice.
This love only thrives for a season.
It’s a quick, hedonistic exchange.
I need more than a warm bed in winter,
getting cold and coarse when conditions change.
I need my soft shoulder. Be my kind eyes.
Kindly look me over. There must be something that you like
inside my soft shoulder, in my kind eyes.
Kindly look me over. There must be something that you like.
Feed my cold shoulder. Just turn my blind eye.
Unkindly overlook me, like I’m deserving of your spite.
‘Cause it’s a flash in the pan when I want to feel Pompeii,
cutting clean across my country every time you speak my name.
Be my soft shoulder. Be my kind eyes.
Kindly look me over. There must be something that you like
inside my soft shoulder, in my kind eyes.
Kindly look me over. There must be something that you like.
I can’t keep carrying on like this, but I’ll go on.
Hestia, I can’t find you. Is this home?
Hestia, I’m beside myself for you.
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5. |
All Right
03:38
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You were lying, just now,
when you said you got lost in the hall and you got turned around.
‘Cause you know this place.
It’s exactly the same, but the furniture shifted away, away.
I’m all right if you’re doing all right.
Since you left here, for some time,
I’ve been pestering God to join your path with mine.
Keeping one eye open. Well, here’s hoping you
can learn to cope with the mess you put yourself through.
Do you know I’m all right if you’re doing all right?
Out of sight doesn’t mean you’re out of mind.
Is it wrong how long the lies you’re leaning on have held you up?
Is it right that I should stay awake all night to fill your cup?
You’ve had more than enough.
But I’m all right if you’re doing all right.
Out of sight doesn’t mean you’re out of mind.
Sister, I’ve been here praying for you.
Do you notice? Do you?
Sister, I keep on praying for you.
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6. |
Amen
03:07
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I tend to juxtapose the Great I Am with the great that I’m not,
like You’re beholden to me or I deserve something
more than what I’ve got.
But I’m having church in a parked car, reopening old scars,
counting all the ways in which You got me this far, Lord.
And I shouldn’t ask for more.
Yet here I am, “amen” in my throat.
This little light of mine is struggling to glow.
And I never meant to hide it, oh no, but I sure did.
Since I was a kid, playing soldiers in the woods behind my house,
all the greed and hate and jealousy that left my little mouth.
I hoped for saving grace from outer space, but never wondered how.
And I don’t think I understood.
It’s not a simple little prayer or a turning of the heart.
It’s a constant cry for help because my world is in the dark.
Yet You care for me, confusingly. Forgive me and restart
in my attempt at being good.
Yet here I am, “amen” in my throat.
This little light of mine is struggling to glow.
And I never meant to hide it, oh no, but I sure did.
And here I am, “amen” in my throat.
This little light of mine is struggling to glow.
I’m going to need Your help to light it, oh no,
‘cause I’ve been drowning for too long.
Here I am, “amen” in my throat.
This little light of mine is struggling to glow.
I’m going to need Your help to light it, oh no,
‘cause I’ve been drowning for too long.
And I can’t do this on my own, but I don’t have to.
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7. |
Elements
03:15
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Fire, walk with me. Tell me all the secrets that you hide inside your heat.
Water, come my way. Dip me in the ocean. Let the salt burn on my face.
I’ve had doubts with the earth beneath my feet.
It takes too much of the air inside of me.
I want to get sent back to the elements.
Find my origin. Make me new again. Make me.
Old friend, I know you. You’re sizing me up so I’m easier to chew.
I get lost, I get found, and I get found out, too.
So be fair now. Admit I’m just like you.
I’ve had doubts with the earth beneath my feet.
It takes too much of the air inside of me.
I want to get sent back to the elements.
Find my origin. Make me new again.
Oh, whether I’m a fire in the ocean or the earth in a cold wind,
I’m the same elements. I’m the same elements.
I want to get sent back to the elements.
Find my origin. Make me new again.
I want to get sent back to the elements.
Find my origin. Make me new again. Make me new.
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8. |
Palindrome
02:31
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Palindrome. Can’t go outside, and you can’t stay home.
You’re all reversed. Take your seat and face forward.
Still square one. Open your mouth and bite your tongue.
Do you feel strange? Nothing changes, nothing’s changed or will change.
Back and forth, it’s all the same. Palindrome.
My racecar, my level plane. Palindrome.
It’s all a wash. Caution can’t win back what you lost.
And it’s nice to be alone. No one to question where you really came from.
Back and forth, it’s all the same. Palindrome.
My racecar, my level plane. Palindrome.
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9. |
Plurals
03:08
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You find strength in numbers, circumference in circles of friends.
What happens when all of your audience thins?
Which part will go numb first? The sidewalk gets colder at 2 a.m.,
and you can’t remember who you came here with.
But the plurals you know. Plurals you know.
Conflict begins when you’re finally alone.
Forgive me for asking, but when’s the last time you went home?
Padlock’s rusted shut, and your lawn’s overgrown.
Were you out with old friends? Have they asked how you’ve been?
Did you make new ones yet? Are you perfectly set?
God forbid that you spend any time in your head.
You just box your regrets up in plurals.
The plurals you know.
I was a stranger still holding an extra key.
But I picked the lock, and I found that the house was empty.
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10. |
Masterpiece
03:02
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All the words come quickly now. Hold my head, I’m spilling out.
And I’m raising the scaffolding, floating up to the ceiling,
and I’m painting a masterpiece to be ignored for centuries.
Feel divine and then divide when the brilliance does subside.
Close my eyes and I swing right, like I’m locked in a bar fight.
I spit venom most nights and never seem to know why.
I’m only a moment, but I am a masterpiece in waiting. Don’t you want it?
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Empty Atlas Jackson, Mississippi
new single BELONG out now
feel-something indie rock from
mississippi
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