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Shapes

by Sam Moss

/
  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Black vinyl pressed by the Burlington Record Plant.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Shapes via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    edition of 300 

      $20 USD

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Nice little CD in a wallet.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Shapes via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    edition of 200 

      $15 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $7 USD  or more

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 10 Sam Moss releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Shapes, Three Oldies, Neon, Fable, Pitkin County Morning EP, No Kingdom, The Tempest May Howl, Neighbors, and 2 more. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      $36 USD or more (25% OFF)

     

1.
You were unprepared For the way the world came down on you With a dull heavy blow That youthful glow was knocked out of you The unwilling masses stood in the shadows You beckoned and none came Sleeves pulled to wrists And other weak tricks for hiding Nothing like this Could put words on your lips for trying Denying your name Just part of the game for playing It’s only life And you’re holding the knife for making Cutting shapes out of the dark Making doors out of nothing
2.
Opening 03:04
The rarest of openings In the kindest of places Words spoke between Adornments and praises When victory comes It doesn’t offer much But hey the eye of the beholder And all of that stuff Your laughter is like diamonds Preciously shining A sly mouthed mumbler With New York City timing How good to see the sparkling And the ticking of your heart How good to know you The darkest alleys My walls of confusion Two idiot kids Drunk on collusion Simples renditions Hazy apparitions Screaming to the dark Beyond our own recognition It cuts with a violence Through the heavy August silence Lungs fully winded Still young in their mileage How good to see the glowing And the weakness it upends How good to know you The rarest of places Where all is delivered A little bit blurry A little familiar
3.
Ballad in Fm 02:59
You look just like him Or close enough anyway The curl of your grin The fading away When you broke your body How did you keep such a beautiful voice When you said goodbye Like honey and gravel, the road that you traveled Worn in the knees Your shoulders are slumping You now claim to believe In a higher god or something But when you weren’t afraid To what sky did you turn When you opened your mouth For soft incantations, offers of patience You gave it all out And still you are giving Through the window a shout And a new kind of living
4.
It is morning, you are near me Standing close, speaking clearly Light rushes in, the morning light Through blinds in little fragments The winter coming swift again Asks nothing, simply wanders in Making small, cutting trim Darkening the dark And in the vacant dusk I whisper, wonder, wait for what Is waiting there invisibly That beckons time to tick Our days will not be long enough To say I had known your touch Enough as to be satisfied Or wonder what is next
5.
Time has not been kind to me As it has been to you Yet the beauty shifts inside of me It doesn’t leave, it just moves I’m not one for proclamations But we are desperate ones Desire outlines all of us To go wandering after the dusk Give every gift, give even blood And say, ‘hey hey honey, is this enough?’ With all the time that has been spent Some might say I’ve a poisoned mind That when I show my crooked teeth I am smiling, left behind Yet when you push me back into The home I humbly made We show a kind of loveliness That for each other we have saved I’m not one to intuit the endings I’ve heard eventually come Yet words spoken on dark days and Sundays Say there may never be even one I’m not one for recitations So let me say this once Desire outlines all of us To go wandering after the dusk Give every gift, give even blood And say, ‘hey hey honey, is this enough?’
6.
Fever Dream 02:58
I don’t believe in myself or you At least that’s what I said at the end of the day Before the sky gave birth to the moon Cut the hurt in half, left something clean I don’t believe in the moon or the sun At least that’s what I thought at the setting of each one Before I figure a reason to run Won’t you, won’t you Shake me out Pull me down From this fever dream I don’t believe in the kindness of strangers Wasting air on the forming of words Is it the silence that keeps me from danger? I’ve no need to be heard Been looking for a new occupation Away from my mind Beyond all of this self-preservation Is there an offering I could find?
7.
Ways 02:26
The mounted mirror Spoke to what the cold had done The raw cold of expectation The sting of lost creation As if newness could be goodness Every time without a slip As if the words he gave you Didn’t bind you, make you trip The error in our ways The callousing of hands The turning of days Clear away The fogging of the glass Say, did it happen often That in that clearing was a blossom? If only dark would grant the access To the turning of the wheel Toward the hopeful evolution Away from the reverence you feel
8.
Above all the din Of these reckless Sunday people You spoke loudly in my ear In a melody so gentle Was a timbre I had known And not so well forgotten The space it made, less house than home With warmth and crackling of the autumn Brought back to the picture Like blinking, waking up I turn from you to cry Someone please wish me good luck
9.
Talkers 03:37
I was not patient, I was not slow It was an accident, I didn’t know I was not here as I thought I’d be Yet I was alive, however unlikely Listening to the talkers All snarling and wise I was not nothing, I was not air I breathed a deep breath free from care I was an angle beside the void And in the absence I was employed Listening to the shouters All echoey and soft I was not simple, I was not smart It was an accident, my aching heart I wasn’t angered, somehow I wasn’t mean The earth was burning, a rumbling scream Listening to the dreamers All asking for nothing much
10.
Hymnal 05:23
Some people die and you wish they wouldn’t Some people don’t but you never think about them I am alive at the time of this moment Looking for a mantra or a hymnal Busted trees bend in stormy weather Passing by the window, heading to the ether I catch a little air, try to feel a little cleaner Try to catch a mantra or a hymnal You come to me as if I have something to offer I’ll speak it slow, speak it sweetly, speak it softer Angling for an answer, a trick to turn, or something faster Angling for a mantra or a hymnal If seeing is believing I am doubtful of belief I trust nothing I am seeing, step away and I retreat But if you could give an offering that could give itself as simple Maybe I could find a mantra or a hymnal Trash lines the earth and we look for other places When I feel your honest touch, it renders me quite graceless I am crumbling at the towers as the universe around us dwindles Looking for a mantra or a hymnal

credits

released October 23, 2020

Sam Moss - Vocals, Guitars, Violin
with
Stephen Ambra - Cello
Michael Siegel - Bass
Benjamin Burns - Drums

Engineered by Michael Siegel at Warrior Camp in Somerville, MA
Mixed by Dave Snyder at Guilford Sound in Guilford, VT
Mastered by Dan Coutant at Sun Room Audio

Cover drawing by Will Moss
Text by Sam Moss

All songs written by Sam Moss
© 2020 Sleep Walk Songs (ASCAP)

© & ℗ 2020 Sam Moss
All rights reserved

Tremendous thanks to Nine Athens Music and the Somerville Arts Council for their generous support.

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Sam Moss Staunton, Virginia

"Marvelous, resonating, magnetic stillness." - Boston Globe

I also carve spoons

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