Spectrum

Album released in 2009
Author

Cillian Mc Hugh

Published

April 20, 2009

Spectrum

Spectrum is a collection of the earliest songs I wrote. The shorter songs were later included on Back to the Drawing Board. The three longer songs (Thoughtcrime, Only in Dreams, and Riding Out) have not been properly released and are only available on Soundcloud (see links below).

Thoughtcrime

cillianmchugh · Thoughtcrime

(i) Dust

“war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength”

Blue overalls and dusty streets
Doublethink and newspeak
His poster’s on the wall
The party will never fall.

Always watching you
Watching every move
Thought police in the ministry of love
Like the powers of above

Telescreen’s always on
Even when you’re gone
Never out of sight
Watches through the night

Control you’re entire life
Even choose your wife
Kids grow up to think like them
And they’ll get you in the end

Always watching you…

Two minutes hate he saw her there
Perfect figure and dark hair
Chastity ribbon around her waist
And the party in her face

He hated her from the start
Saw a coldness in her heart
She was one of them
They’ll get you in the end

Always watching you…

Evening in the city the light is dim
He saw her had she followed him
Hurried home with a quickened pace
He wanted to smash her face

(ii) Truth?

They came face to face
She fell in the corridor he helped her up
She put something into his hand

Could it be true?
On the flat piece of paper when he flattened it out
Were the words “I love you”

They couldn’t meet
People all around and the telescreen notice
Every move and every sound

Victory square
They made their plans on the crowded street
For a moment she held his hand

Many weeks had passed
They’d fallen in love but they knew it could not last

Life was never the same
Hiding off the streets…a dangerous game

“We are the dead
This game we’re playing…we can’t win”

“Six months a year
Five years…Death and life are the same thing”

“Stop talking about death
Don’t you enjoy life? Don’t you like feeling?”

“We’re not dead yet
I’m real, I’m solid I’m alive”

“We are the dead”…”We are the dead”

“YOU ARE THE DEAD”

(iii) You are the Dead

Deep inside the ministry of love
The walls are white the light is bright

Others come and go as the day turns to night
Or is it night to day there’s no way to say

It’s the place of no darkness and the truncheon blows
You’re at their mercy and no one knows

Confess it all and more on top
Anything to make the torture stop

(iv) 2 + 2 = 5

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted all else follows”

(instrumental)

(v) The Inevitable

“Thoughtcrime doesn’t entail death, Thoughtcrime is death”

Strapped into the chair
The rules of this are fair
The rats would eat his face
Unless she could take his place

In time they let him go
How long he did not know
Accepted he was dead
With a bullet in his head

Didn’t know when or where
But the hope was always there
For a victory of his own
To be pure to the bone

At last came the day
As always is the way
Finally it was true
He loved him through and through

Only in Dreams

cillianmchugh · Only in Dreams

Part I

Summer time and the dancing
Music playing and the band sings
Across the lake you see the lights
Colourful glow on a beautiful night

Footsteps along the path glimmer of white
Through the bushes it was love at first sight
Her eyes, her arms, her hair…he was lost
He helped her hide he showed her where

When the boys came down he stood his ground in the middle of the path
He was ready to fight, fight for her that night but it didn’t come to that
They cleared off he went across to find her in the dark
A few brief words he went back to work she was gone only black

Holidays came it was still the same
She filled his thoughts he dreamt her name
Across the street and down the road
Was it really her he had to know

Followed her home and called her name, she turned around
No doubt, it was her, she was found
In they went, met the lads…coffee and chat
He asked her out for Friday night…simple as that

Friday at eight he could not wait in a daze all the week
University Park instead of the bar just talking by the creek
Her past days in a secretive way he loved to hear her speak
Drunk with love swimming with love…he was in a dream

Part II

Plywood nailed across the door, left her sleeping on a friend’s floor
Nowhere else to go…money running low
She wished she’d let him in, explained her past to him
Bell rang in the empty hall. No hope at all.

He found the deserted house. His heart had been ripped out.
He walked the streets alone. He couldn’t stay at home.
He longed to see her there. Fought wild without a care.
Broken promises and lies, betrayal made him wise.

Part III

And the memory fades…faded like a dream
The morning of the raid…like a sword in between
Night and day…searching through the streets
Sorrow and dismay…they would never meet

How was he to know…? His name it was a lie
The white Mercedes rolled…he ran out of time
He told him where to go…guilty of the crime
Inside she died alone…she couldn’t find the light

Riding Out

cillianmchugh · Riding Out

(i) Natural Selection

We grow…Prosperity is unlimited
We grow…Exponentially we’re unlimited

Iron bronze and steel, farming and the wheel
Farms and walls and towns, we settled down
Tools by human hand, we exploit the land
Fishing in empty seas, we’re running out of trees

Chorus:
Avoiding natural selection
Survival of the fittest but it seems we’ve got exemption
We may postpone but we can’t escape the question
The earth has limits and we’re no exception

Roads spread near and far for lorry truck and car
Factories industry and trade, an easy life was made
We can do anything if we try, we even learned to fly
New medicines heal the sick, lives saved by a pin prick

Chorus

(ii) Final Generation

Got a job, a car, a home and family
A happy life it’s trouble free
Famine and wars and deaths on TV
Don’t worry about it; it’s not you or me

It’s far away and out of sight
Not our problem not our fight
Global warming and UV light
Sure we don’t care we’re doing alright

Wasted time waiting in line,
Every day in the way
Mine or yours, yours or mine,
It’s ourselves that we mind

Traffic jams in the street;
We’ve all got cars we’ve all got feet
Block the roads with empty seats,
We all contribute to the heat

Poverty, inflation,
famine devastation
Are we the final generation?

(iii) Riding Out

(instrumental)

(iv) We Never Learn

Is it too late? Have we missed our chance?
Will the world of today burn out or fade away?
The answer and the rainbow and the song

It can’t go on. Time’s running out.
Will we ever listen and will we ever learn?
Warnings in time

Who starts the wars? Who builds the cars?
Who cuts down the trees as they poison the air?
Who owns the land? Whose God is real? And who gets the food?

We need change to save tomorrow
To slow the growth and stop killing our world
The answer and the rainbow and the song

Rain


The sky is grey, it’s raining today
Pearls on the grass
It’s always the same, drops of rain
But the tears keep falling down

Tears in your eyes, misty skies
Vision is blurred
Where is the pain, you can’t explain
Tears in the rain

Why do we cry?
Love or loss?

Drops on the glass trace a path
Of patterns and maps
Trickling down, from your frown
It tickles your cheek

It’s always the same, drops of rain
On the window pane
You wipe your eyes but continue to cry
And the rain falls

Passing Days


The days pass.
But your heart still cries
(But inside, inside it still rains)

Sun


Kids are playin’ on the grass,
The sun is out, the rain has passed.
But the sun can’t warm the void inside
When you’re all alone.

Outside the window, bright and blue,
The empty sky is reflected through.
Through your eyes and into you,
Just the same.

The sun shines.
Burning inside.

A gentle breeze shakes the leaves
As it blows through the trees.
From deep inside you breathe a sigh,
Wondering why.

The sun is bright the sky is clear.
You’re all alone, there’s no one here.
Hurting inside you fight the tears,
And the sun shines.

Stars


I watch the sun go down:
Purple and red through the scattered clouds.
Golden light fills the sky.

Do you remember by the water?
Clouds in the way, sky was grey,
It didn’t matter.

I watch the darkness fall and surround us all.
Warmth and light
Are faded and gone.

Cold bite on a lonely night.
Chill in the air as I sit and stare

Stare at the sky for hours trying to count the stars.
So far away, so long ago
Does it matter?

Standing alone, under the moon’s glow
Empty night and the starlight.
Silver streak shines on your cheek as a star winks out.

Bigness


Look up to see, to see how high
can we ever reach the sky
what’ll i be before i die
and should i wonder why

start with one, another makes two
are the numbers really true
it can’t be done, if we only knew
to count them all: impossible to do

time goes on and on, every day we’re here
adds up to pass the year
when it’s done and gone you can’t go back
to change the past it doesn’t work like that

the universe expands that’s what they say
getting bigger every day
the big bang blew it all away
far and wide past the milky way

24


Verse 1
Reverse the answer, It’s 24
But what is the question? No one cares anymore
God is Forgotten, Who needs heaven’s door
We’ve got money

Chorus
And the more we learn, Learn about the earth
The more we seem to forget
Technologies and good careers, we try to beat our peer
And 24 is all the time we get

Verse 2
The edge of the rainbow goes up to 24
On the other side we’re getting fried, more than ever before
Chainsaws and trucks expose the forest floor
And we let it happen

Broken words


You mean it. You say it’s true.
I believe it. I feel it too.
You said to me, I said to you.

Words pick me up and carry me.
The thrill, the rush, the waves under me.
(Surfing the waves)

But waves break words are lost.
Crashing truths of changing tides,
Washed ashore and left behind.

Words are washed out ripples on the shore.
(Washed out waves)
Broken words can’t carry me anymore.
(Broken, broken words)

You said it then.
Means nothing now.
Meaning lost.
(From your) Broken words.