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The Dreampath of Desire

by Quarantine Beach

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1.
The Dreampath of Desire 04:22
lyrics
I read about it in the book of Psalms Only the righteous can avoid destruction at The hands of wicked men, oh lord Blessed is he who doesn’t walk in line Avoid the sinners to ensure salvation and You’ll be delivered by the word I’ve been told a thousand times Bread is flesh and blood is wine But I can’t take it any more I’ve been walking on the dream path of desire Which you dismiss as fantasy I’ve been walking on the dream path of desire Seems real enough to me Real enough to me Nothing is precious on the holy road Possessions meaningless without exceptions There’s nothing that can’t be left behind Directions seem to point the only way But if you want take the path less obvious There is a turn inside the mind I’ve been lulled a thousand times By roses sweet and eglantine But now my senses are inured I’ve been walking on the dream path of desire Far from consciousness and envy I’ve been walking on the dream path of desire Seems real enough to me Real enough to me Forget the citizens who’ve got no style They’re going to tell you that defeat is glorious And you should always take it with a smile Out on the path I’m seeing more and more of us I’ve been walking on the dream path of desire I’ve been walking on the dream path of desire I’ve been walking on the dream path of desire Desire, desire, oh desire
2.
You Would Have Hated This Song 04:07
lyrics
You would have hated this song And who could say you were wrong In any question of taste You had impeccable judgement You were the one I would turn to To separate the true and impure Still got that tape that you made Although it hasn’t been played Since the cup-final morning When I wrote off the Polo Side A was Marvin Gaye and Pere Ubu Side B was ESG and The Cure I’ve been searching for buried treasure Without a map, without a compass or clue Compelled to keep grasping with desperate gestures For anything that even vaguely remains of you So I search for you in dreams, I try to reminisce Hoping to catch the faintest glimpse of teenage bliss But when I think I find a trace, on a note that’s half-erased It says you can’t keep hiding in memory’s cracks You’ve got to go back, you’ve got to go back I think you know who you are And though you’re so far away In time and space you’re still out there And I feel we’re connected You were the one I would run to When I had nowhere to go We grew up feeling like orphans In identical homes Where education was torture And defeat was expected You were the one I could talk to When I was tired of being alone I’ve been reading through ghostly fictions In haunted rooms, empty tombs, unmarked graves Constrained by the terrible interdiction That I can’t choose which past to lose and which past to save So I search for you in dreams, I try to reminisce Hoping to catch the faintest glimpse of teenage bliss But when I think I find a trace, on a note that’s half-erased It says you can’t keep hiding in memory’s cracks You’ve got to go back, you’ve got to go back
3.
As If I Didn't Know 03:54
lyrics
Must something about the look upon my face That gives the unmistakable impression Of a misbegotten soul in need of comfort and control To guide from the depths of their depression But if everyone’s insightful, and everybody’s kind Then why do their words ring so hollow? The secrets they confide are insignificant beside The knowledge I was born with, and the lessons of life People are always trying to tell me what this world is about As if I didn’t know As if I didn’t know People always seem to ask me what I’m sad about As if I’d let it show As if I’d let it show Out of the hail of unsolicited advice And strangulating empathy of strangers I’m happy in the end to be surrounded by friends My little blue devils and blue angels And the bottle is half-empty but it ought to be enough Now’s really not the time to be pessimistic ‘Cause if every one I take sinks like a pebble in the lake I’ll reach an understand that’s deeper than love People are always trying to tell me what this world is about As if I didn’t know As if I didn’t know People always seem to ask me what I’m sad about As if I’d let it show As if I’d ever want to show it To anyone but you Who is no longer there To anyone but you Who never seemed to care People are always trying to tell me what this world is about As if I didn’t know As if I didn’t know People always seem to ask me what I’m sad about As if I’d let it show As if I’d ever want to show it
4.
I'm Gonna Do Just What You What Me To 06:40
lyrics
I’m sitting waiting for an answer I’m hoping for the chance to win you back at any game Humility is not my forté But I’ve been naughty, hang my head in shame I’m going to do just what you want me to I’m going to do just what you want me to I saw myself as beyond scruples The petty details that compete to leave you so constrained But now I’m penitent as Peter Just a cheater, who’s going to take the blame I’m going to do just what you want me to I’m going to do just what you want me to It started as a dream, then became real Fantasy became flesh I just followed instinct and you can’t help instinct - At least that’s what I told myself To justify my lustful obsession And thrust myself through the pass Of a fruitless transgression And if you don’t believe me when I say I’ve counted the cost and I’m ready to pay Take it all, I’ve nothing to hide And I’ll suffer any punishment that you think is justified And the crueller the better I’ll wear the scarlet letter To deter any fools like me Who figure in their innocence that love can be free I’m going to do just what you want me to I’m going to do just what you want me to But what I really want you to do, is get taken over by a feeling that comes out of nowhere and that you can’t control. Then I want you to enjoy being out of control, I want you to get set on fire and then I want you to burst into flames. Then when you wake up all woozy in the ashes, I want you to be consumed by something else, by something else – by a guilt that tears through your days. And though I don’t want to see you in pain, I want you do this, because I don’t really want you to forgive me. I want you to know how I feel I want you to know how I feel I want you to know how I feel I want you to know how I feel

about

This four-track EP – the first EP from Quarantine Beach – makes space for the band to fully express their idiosyncratic style, ranging across genres, tempos and textures, while showcasing the band’s sophisticated lyricism in songs that vibrate with emotion, humour and melancholy.

The EP’s first track, also titled “The Dreampath of Desire”, starts with an approximate quotation from Psalm 1, Verse 1 – “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked” – which makes it a suitable opening gesture for a record that can be taken as a manifesto for a band that’s righteously, riotously out of step with most of their contemporaries. In “The Dreampath…”, arpeggiated guitars in the McGuinn-Marr-Squire lineage give way to psychedelic bossa nova, before a descending melody, decorated with a vocoder-enhanced Art Garfunkel harmony, announces the chorus. It’s the most lyrically obscure and least catchy song on the record. In other words, the perfect opener.

Track 2, “You Would Have Hated This Song”, is an exercise in memory, an attempt to restore the presence of a childhood friend – one who had once initiated the narrator into the work of the luminous artists mentioned in the lyrics: Marvin Gaye and Pere Ubu, ESG and The Cure. Written during a lockdown, when the future was uncertain (and the end was always near), You Would Have Hated This Song describes a psychic journey into the past, one which led not to the desired consolation, but instead to a warning: you shouldn't really be here.

All of which makes the connection with Track 3, “As If I Didn’t Know”, a ballad that works like a séance in that it attempts to resuscitate a lost soul, someone who, we are led to understand, could see through everyone except herself.

The loneliness of the voice in “As If I Didn’t Know” is shared by the narrator of Track 4, “I’m Gonna Do Just What You Want Me To”. This person has a significant other, knows that they’ve done them wrong, but doesn’t know whether to apologise, defend their corner, or take a third way that would involve somehow transcending the whole mess. With its shifting dynamics, which drift in and out of minor, major, augmented and diminished chords, even fuguing into a different time signature about half-way through, “I’m Gonna Do…” gives the EP a suitably epic, polymorphous conclusion.

credits

released October 19, 2023

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Quarantine Beach Rotterdam, Netherlands

Quarantine Beach is an Anglo-Dutch-Greek-German band making polymorphous pop and new-mint new wave in their adopted hometown of Rotterdam. The guitars sound like that because of a Boss Chorus Ensemble pedal.

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