Concrete Heartbeat

by pink pills

Concrete Heartbeat Cover Art
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    Purchase a limited edition Pink Pills "Your Future is Unwritten" t-shirt along with a digital copy of Concrete Heartbeat in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire. T-shirts are available in all sizes (S, M, L, XL). Please state at checkout which size you require.

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    you can pay whatever you want to download the album in its entirety - if you can't afford to pay a single penny then that's fine with me, but if you can make a donation I would be eternally grateful!

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credits

released 01 March 2010
all songs written, performed, recorded and produced by ryan j. gallagher at home in edinburgh, scotland between november 2009 - february 2010.

i would like to thank the artists Egon Schiele (r.i.p) and Cai Guo-Qiang; both of whose work appears in bastardised form on the concrete heartbeat front cover.

music and lyrics licenced under creative commons; see creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/uk/ for more info.

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Track Name: 100 Young Hearts
the newspaper reads like a list of all the bad things that i've been dreaming. gunshots and mortar blasts; i can't hear them, but i feel them. every single one. did you know 100 young hearts stopped beating yesterday, all at the same time? and can you see the red lights, and hear the sirens ring? as history sings "did you know 100 young hearts stopped beating today?"
Track Name: 1000 Letters
1000 letters sent to a place with no address. every single word a hopeful projection, of dreams and fears and sorry's and confessions - 1000 different versions of all our imperfections.
a mother apologises to the son she gave away;
a father does the same for not being there the day
his daughter was born, and for not being around to be
all of the things a father's meant to be.

the same 1000 letters sent every single day, from 1000 different people who can all feel the weight - of every single choice that they've ever had to make; of every single step... and every mistake. the same 1000 letters sent every single day, from 1000 busy places that are different but the same - the city walls are contrasting, unlike the emotions they contain.
we all keep on spinning,
we all keep revolving...

...at a million miles an hour, sometimes out of control, towards a gate through which we have no choice but to go... towards the unknown, towards a story yet untold; the answers lie in letters than remain unopened; jammed in to the cracks of an ancient city wall rest the jumbled words that could provide some solace for us all; cause inside each letter there's a message for us all... it reads "you are not alone, in this almighty battle."
Track Name: The Preacher
there's a preacher in the street and he's shouting at me
he says that hell will descend because we don't share his beliefs
there's fire in his eyes and he's gritting his teeth
as he awaits the world slipping away from under his feet

but somewhere else in the city someone screams,
and the preacher doesn't hear because he's only hearing hymns
about ghosts and angels, and saviour and sin
repent, and heaven, and magical things
mythical things.

there's a preacher in the street and he's shouting at me
he says i'm going to hell because i don't see what he sees
but i don't have a blindfold, so i can see his mistakes
he's lost in all the promises, the shame and self hate

and a tear drops down from his face,
because he doesn't think he'll make it on judgement day
so he's handing out his pamphlets, he preaches and he prays
to make it to the gates, where he thinks he'll find a place
where there's no one left to 'save'.
Track Name: Four Flashes
how come the good guys always get cut down in their stride? and in the movies they survive? oh how they rarely show the reality of what i see with my own eyes; like how four flashes was all it took that night. four flashes to take a life. and i never did get the chance to say goodbye, cause it was before my time. even still, it's keeping me up tonight. these pictures are more than black & white.
Track Name: Jerry's Story
there's a picture, above the bar
depicting a scene that happened forty years ago.
of a man and his friend, known as a local hero.

and everybody knew him, because he was always here
earning his status by drinking his own weight in beer;
but no one ever asked him who he went home to...

"i'm sorry my friends, i'm sorry i have to go." were the
words he never spoke, the words he never knew.

"reality is too much for me to hold"
was a secret that he never spoke, a confession he never told.


...and there's a man at the end of the bar; patiently and silently he sits there
and he stares and he stares at that picture.
i catch his eye, and he looks away, before he turns round to stare at the picture again
"that was me, that was me." he quietly says.

"when i was your age, i was a local hero"
he said, "but when my friends all left, i didn't know where to go.
this bar was my only home; i just didn't know what to do
when they left me. alone."

"when i was your age, i held the world in my hands
but my hands grew tired and i had to put it down;
so young man remember that the sun always comes up,
and the music always stops;

and time waits for no-one

so don't get left behind."
Track Name: Hymn For The Anonymous
a narrow hallway was all you had, except for the ghosts behind your back;
the things you'd seen, and all those screams - so loud they blocked the way to go.
two tortured souls desensitized to violence of the harshest kind, alas!
the crime was bad, just like your past - the victims now are tainted with your scars - but hollowness was all that was left when the judge asked you to repent...

you see the future through eyes of broken glass, unlike the others
who see happiness and promises; but no one cries for the anonymous or the lost
and you were both,
you were both.
Track Name: Cassandra
i seen this woman standing yesterday, in amongst a storm on princess street; and as rogue waves were crashing down from everywhere, she remained still, motionless. She was the eye at the centre of it all; as in a darkened doorway she played the saddest song
on this beat up old accordian.
on this crying old accordian.
she was staring in to space like she knew what was coming; that's when said to me: "run, run while you can!"

keep on running; run while you can. keep on running; run while you can. keep on running; run while you can. keep on running; and never look back.
Track Name: Ghost Ships
between these buildings it is a maze
filled with individuals who race
like ghost ships through the seven seas
without a purpose and without a cause
they have direction but inside are lost

so stand by - close your eyes - don't watch
i stand by - i close my eyes - i can't watch

they'll say: "you'll be safer if you believe"

but you'll be safer, safer with me.

between these buildings wolves will prey
on all the individuals who race
they'll start at the end of the line and then they'll come;
so don't look back, just run, just run...
because for your dreams and your soul they have come
Track Name: The Beat And The Bottle
in solitude you look content but lost; you're staring up towards
the castle and you've forgot the reason why you're here and when you came..
seems like only yesterday, seems like only yesterday
that you would come here with your son, and teach him how to rule the world
the vision is a distant song... but the beat goes on and on

the waiting world was yours, and the wind was behind you
but tides they change, and cracks will form everywhere we walk;
the next minute is unknown, you can never see tomorrow
now a bottle is your only home, the bottle is all you know -
the bottle can take you home. the bottle will lead you home.
the bottle can guide you home.

and so the beat goes on and on.