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Threadbare

by Boreal Sons

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1.
Bloom 03:42
2.
Sparks 03:28
Beneath our falling feet floorboards like choirs of cedars creaking, fingers on paint-chipped keys, we let our voices speak speechlessly. We watched the mountain lake breathing itself away each morning, a cinder singing smoke, we let our bodies breathe breathlessly. With your hand in mine and standing still as your shirtcuff skimmed the windowsill,   Sweeping flecks of dust into the air For the beam of sun to hold them there, You said, “let us be the dust we are sparks of sunlight coughing in the dark.”
3.
How could I have known the sparrow from the stone? Both fall to the ground and feel the Earth breathe in to pull them down, so let the Earth breathe in to pull me down. Restless as the leaves on foggy autumn streets,   I rattle in the wind   and wait for dust and dirt to break me in, so let the soil teach me to begin. I can feel the weight of all that sky so I steady my hands, but these fingerprints still won’t show me who I am In the railyard, the trains lay down their arms to chime a siren song of steel rasping steel to a halt but I can’t seem to will this heart to stop I can feel the weight of all that sky so I study my hands, but these fingerprints still won’t show me who I am And this body of recycled clay doesn’t know the hour or the day and I’ve been quietly awake without knowing that I’m alive at all.
4.
Refrain 04:30
You wear your scars like they’re purple hearts a victim’s award. You wear your scars like they’re who you are, your birthmarks. Find another flaw to blame, another day to stay the same but your refrain, your refrain, your refrain   is “I can change, I can change, I can change” You wear your scars like they’re purple hearts A victim’s award. You wear your scars like they’re who you are, your birthmarks. Another story to explain, another heart to hold your pain and your refrain, your refrain, your refrain is “I can change, I can change, I can change.” That night the frost clothed all the trees Your arms slipped numbly from their sleeves Your fingers fumbled through his hair, and I froze at the bottom of the stairs.
5.
The Falconer 04:59
How does she not notice, The way the sun alights Upon her shoulders branches With talons clasping tight? How does she not wonder Why the breeze breathes in Why the wind corrals around her In flocks of beating wings? Merlin, swoop down Kestrel, bring her back somehow Oh, her heart, a nest of tangles Oh, my heart, are you still able to fly, to fly? How does she not notice The clouds bank in their flight To turn soft eyes upon her As she stumbles through the pines? How does she not wonder Why the thunder calls her name Why the lightning shrieks a signal— A beacon beckoning her home again? Merlin, swoop down Kestrel, bring her back somehow
6.
Sawdust 04:40
Oh, I know these trillion cells won’t last for long, I am only sawdust pollen in your palms And I am still a fool to question this design But when my hands stop shaking, then I’ll call you mine. I try to stand with planted feet On continents that hide from me How can I feel what I can’t reach? You stretch your hand towards me. But when my tongue is tired of jousting with the wind, I’ll stop these syllables cascading from my lips And I am still afraid to wake my sleeping mind But though my hands are shaking, still I’ll call you mine I am just these elements Helplessly askew again I need you to sweep me up Remind me of myself Remind me of my name Filter every atom through your fingers Bind them back together, make me whole   Feet in fetter, hands in tether no more                                               Bone and sinew, you have in you new life
7.
Ingrid 02:35
Darling, I don’t have the cool to call you kid or light your long cigarettes, and I won’t meet you on some rain-slicked road to kiss you in a cloud of smoke I don’t have the words to make you blush or make you swoon, or the touch to catch you close and hold you fast in my arms Darling, who are you expecting me to be? I’m no mystery. I don’t have the charm to keep you just by keeping you guessing.
8.
Coward 05:01
You’ve seen how I disappear When I think no one’s watching me. You can see it in my eyes that I am gone. When you think you know me well, How softly I retreat inside myself Like a waning moon, a sleeping ember. Around me the muffled conversations drone I find myself alone, I find myself alone, Holding my deepest doubts In my quiet mouth In my coward mouth. You’ve seen how I disappear To leave you with this broken souvenir: Just a skeleton of who you think I am So here we sit with silence on our lips, With ink marks on our tongues and fingertips How we’ve tried to know and let ourselves be known Around us the muffled conversations drone I find myself alone, we find ourselves alone, Holding our deepest doubts In our quiet mouths In our coward mouths. I’ve felt my darkness forgetting the nothing that darkness is, the nothing that darkness is and I’ve heard my shadows confessing all their absences, all their absences.
9.
Tremble 04:15
O, my father, wrapped in a quilt and the frost of your breath, shivering under dark sky. I held you up with my trembling hand on your shoulder and felt helpless as you held your side. With the flash of the sunrise, I burned your pain into my eyes, and even when I blinked, I could still see you flickering in patches of violet and blue: an image of you hollow and human, writhing on a hospital bed, an image of you hunched and human, a snarl of thorns wound around your head. and the pain in your eyes, it was mine, it was mine. and the pain in your eyes, it is mine, it is mine.
10.
Secret keeper, I have been keeping you close to me in the gaps between my ribs, the dent above my lips. Close as a moth in my sleeve, eat through the wool that hides me leave me here tattered and ragged, threadbare and naked. So will you see all of me and take me for what I am? wounds that forget to heal, skin that forgets to feel. Know me like a moth in my sleeve, eat through the wool that hides me leave me here tattered and ragged, threadbare and naked.
11.
We were hiding long before we knew it and locked ourselves inside boxes bound in ribbon all of velvet tombs all washed in white What can put to rest the weightless humming of the old ghosts in our ears? We were hiding long before we knew it and locked ourselves inside boxes bound in ribbon all of velvet tombs all washed in white Have you felt that quiet question burrowing beneath your skin? Here we tore ourselves out by the root, never learned to water into bloom. My feet carried me away too soon, never learned to water into bloom. I try to keep what’s easiest to lose, never learned to water into bloom Like a heart my face was beating red And like a face the heart can just pretend Have you felt that quiet question burrowing beneath your skin? What can put to rest the weightless humming of the old ghosts I let in? I knew I was hollow, I was poor I knew I was free, I was yours.

about

Boreal Sons are:
Evan Acheson – vocals, piano, keyboards.
Reagan Cole McLean – bass, additional vocals.
Logan Gabert – guitars, additional vocals.
Zach Schultz – drums, percussion, additional vocals.

Additional Musicians:
Jonathan Anderson – pedal steel, background vocals.
Julia Wakal – trumpet, flugelhorn.
Hannah Epperson – violin.

All songs written and performed by Boreal Sons
/ Produced by Jonathan Anderson. /
/ Recorded and Mixed by Jonathan Anderson at Buena Vista Audio. /
/ Additional Engineering by Zach Schultz. /
/ Mastered by Roger Siebel at SAE Mastering. /

Album photography by Carmyn Joy Effa

We would like to thank the following people:

For offering your time and creativity—
Julia Wakal, Hannah Epperson, and Carmyn Joy Effa.

For allowing us to invade your homes, drink your coffee,
and eat your waffles—
the Chan Family, and the Anderson Family.

For providing support, encouragement,
and opportunities for our artistic development—
our families, our friends, Hope for Life, Frank Lynch,
John Onyschuck, Liam Nolan, the Feniak Family, Pam Baxter,
and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

Special thanks to Jonathan Anderson for your creative mentorship,
technical cunning, and sagely advice in and out of the studio.
You are a man of great talent and character,
and we have grown very fond of you, sir.

credits

released October 1, 2013

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Boreal Sons Calgary, Alberta

Cinematic and intimate with a distinct lyrical poetry, Boreal Sons drift between Sublime Art-Rock and Experimental Pop, as rippling backgrounds of scuzzy bass, intricate percussion, and whirring electronics ebb and flow in alluring instrumental arrangements - the voice of Evan Acheson a common thread running throughout, tying everything together. ... more

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