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Better Whenever

by Elway

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1.
I was dreaming of outpost towns halfway up 34 I was driving like someone else, like someone you loved before I took half a lifetime to sleep it off But I always wound up back where I began I awoke to your ghost in the threshold So I ran and I ran and I ran And you were mine, we fell asleep above the timberline Just give it time, I’ve got another hopeless song to write When I finally get this right, it’s all yours Sometimes I think I just might call you So I can tell you how I’ve been Sometimes I picture you a siren Smiling as you invite me in I can’t remember where I’ve been I can’t remember where I’m going I can’t remember how it starts But the story ends with me still rowing
2.
I spring awake and the flames lick at my heels I fall and freeze in sentiments I’ve grappled with for years Like how I’ll give up everything for what I love to do And how it all means nothing if it isn’t all for you, old friend I slam my fucking head into the wall again Before you go, promise you’ll commit my bones To the salty sand and stone on the gulf of mexico And when the tide rises to baptize the shore Let the wind take me home via Albuquerque low. We sat and smoked on a speeding midnight train I arrived and mourned the fact that she would come and go again Hung up on the cities that we both wanted to leave Speaking slow and somber like we liked the taste of air between our teeth We watched the sun come up and faced reality Crack your windows on sleepless summer nights You will hear me on the passing ocean breeze As it softly carries me
3.
Who put these lines across my face? I thought i meant it when I said I’d age with grace Laid out my years across your floor My legs are tired I’m not running anymore When I get down I need you here Cause there’s a demon, there’s a desert, there’s a fear When I lay down to sleep alone I am extinguished, I am expired, I am old But I’ll get better whenever So grab your bike, a car, a train, or plane And just get back to me Or I can drive or pay for flights Meet me anywhere tonight I’ll bring beers or books or songs I’ll sing and you could sing along Or sit and smoke or laugh or cry Pull the hair back from your eyes Have another drink with me We’ll toast to our obscurity You’ll lean in and I’ll calm down I’ll hemorrhage my neuroses out If you would let me stick around I’ll follow you all the way down And I’ll tell you like you never knew How good it feels to breath and speak And hear and see and live and love with you I’ll get better whenever
4.
We dressed up for the funeral in our nicest borrowed clothes. I put on dress shoes that I stole and ran out. And we made way through the roundabouts of a gray suburban town The snow was scattered on the ground and I thought Before you left did you say all you wanted to? Before you died did you do all you meant to do? Could you look it in the eyes when it came for you? Tell me how it ends. Cause you lived like a tightrope walker While I was on a phone call somewhere else When you fell I couldn’t catch you I was getting drunk all by myself And the hardest part was to show up here at all As I listened to your eulogy from that priest you didn’t know I half wrote letters to your nonexistent ghost Hey Jazmine are you listening? I know I never return calls But if you’re there at all just tell me Was it just the dope that failed you Or did everything just let you down? Is there a way I could have saved you If I was there would you still be around? The hardest things just can’t be known at all I don’t know the whole truth But I know a piece was buried with you
5.
The night hangs blue on the black sea And the wind whips through your hair I’ve been gone for a lifetime And I followed your cries here And those cries sent me wandering And I brought what of the world that I could carry back for you Just you and I on the shoreline And the stars that shimmer on and on I’m lost without you near me Show me to the moon I don’t think that I’d survive without you anyway Show me to the moon so I can keep my ills at bay Or fade into her light and wander on eternally Show me to the moon I always swore I was trying And I ruined perfect moments like the times where we would stay Awake all night between bed sheets And I loved you like the spring and I was reaching for the sun You replied with a smile And an unrequiting stare that sent me off through lonely weather I’ll return in the summer Fall out the door before I hear you say that I’m not welcome Then, as if by song, I will reappear on some quiet winter dawn And you’ll be tired, so tired of singing along
6.
Wrote out our history in chalk on the sidewalk For miles it lined these gray city blocks And down came the rain again to wash it all away Are we so sadly fated? Sweater and coat hung from my shoulders i dug through the snow to read your reply Now I've been sleeping sober and I feel twenty years older Where did all of our time go? Is it one of her regrets The nights we spent drinking vodka and smoking cigarettes? Can I ever get it back The feeling that I have found everything that I lack? I want to love you out loud And chisel out a future in the sidewalk you turned down But it seems my winter storms drag on forever So how can I blame her for keeping warm?
7.
Clouds forming - rivet and taper the edge of the blue sky You're worried - the storm’s coming means all your best years have gone by Every romance is fleeting, your hairline’s receding And you’re up and leaving again And this is killing you, my friend Old stories – lose all their charm when all your friends stop laughing It’s boring – listening to you self destruct all in passing If you stopped for a minute, the web you’ve been spinning Would surely grab you from behind I guess we’ll hear the second half next time Leo said, this was bound to end We tried to make you understand Save your soul and come back home You’ve got to give up while you can Give it up, it’ll tear your heart right out You’ll wind up back in the place you started out Sweeping up the gutters outside of the embassy Eyes glued at night to the screen of your old TV Watching everyone you love just leave Put your hands together if you’re fucked and you know it Don’t bother to live if you’re too scared to blow it Don’t try to tell me a thing cause I won’t hear No one belongs here like I belong here
8.
If I am mad, it is mercy To be alive not starting blankly And stern as a soldier while, as you get older Your callousness drags you right up to your hideous end All alone in the web you spin If you’re alive, it’s a wonder That the current hasn’t pulled you under And dragged you down 900 feet From the air that you breath just to exhale the bullshit that you seem to speak And brag about all the pain you wreak Invertebrate, too weak to crawl out of the mud So insolent, you fill your mouth with other’s blood Bloody water seeps into the sand on the third coast And pools around the feet of a tall, broad shouldered man The town’s reflection’s like a crumpled up paystub He’s making little plans, little plans, little plans Hang my reservations out to dry, cause I’ve got enemies to make before I die
9.
We wipe the chaff from our hands And the sweat off of our brows We mourn the old setting sun And our empty bank accounts For all the damages we’ve done in the service of a dream They say, baby, you’ll pay dearly Oh how these roads make us old And the sunrise makes us quake We live for scant scraps of hope Laid along the interstate Of all the places we’ll go, we’ll wind up memory and debris And I’ll say, kid, you’re coming with me I’ll close my eyes and pretend to pray that the rain never ends But when the oceans dry up, I’ll know enough is enough And I’ll sing softly I guess I’ll see you around We’ll take the last thing we know And we’ll let it run our lives Serenade the devil with those songs We’ve sang too many times That just blow by and leave us numb with the thrill of our defeat I’ll keep the habit if it kills me Holy ghost Let us live until we’re forgotten Hold me close To the floors of masterless oceans Holy ghost To the souls of motherless orphans Hold me close Til our histories lay still in their coffins
10.
Delano 03:58
I’ll spend my summers on the motorways and crossroads Always half-exhausted and always fully lost in Salivary sirens, weekend spouses, or gold prospects Draped in dimestore romance and batshit expectations I’ll spend some time in Colorado or Chicago Always be unsure if I’m ever really there though I’ll move bi-monthly to another basement bedroom Grind down my shoe soles ‘til I’ve run out of towns to run to These passing trucks can be my swan song And you’ll insist I’ve done it so wrong But living though my losses makes the world so much less daunting I’ve got nothing left to fear but fear itself Fear is an empty glass in an empty bar Opposite the girl you’ll never have She asks if I ever feel like I’ll disappear Well, I’ve been battling my irrelevance for years So have another drink with me We’ll toast to our obscurity Stagger, Medicate, Repeat ‘Til our youth blinks out forever

about

Elway's frontman Tim called to talk about this new record and told us, "I don't want any hoopla or bullshit when this record comes out, we'd rather just let the songs speak for themselves." Well, you're in luck, Tim! Here at Red Scare we have neither the resources or the know-how to provide much hoopla, but he sure was right about the songs. Gone are the "party punk" tunes, and instead there's more riffy, 90's alt-rock like Sunny Day Real Estate or Seaweed. It still bears their trademark Rocky Mountain punk-twang and introspective tone, but there's no doubt that Elway has matured and progressed on "Better Whenever".

credits

released July 24, 2015

Recorded in January 2015 at Dead Pigeon Studios, Fort Collins
Produced, Engineered, and Mixed by Jason Larson
Mastered by Collin Jordan at The Boiler Room, Chicago

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Elway Fort Collins, Colorado

Elway started back in 2007 as a drunken mess called 10-4 Eleanor. They released a few records under the old moniker before changing their name in 2010 after signing with Red Scare Industries. 3 LPs, 2 EPs, 500+ shows in 23 countries later, they are still a drunken mess. ... more

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