“joyous and celebratory”
— DAC Music Review
Album ‘Fake Muse’
Lyrics by Derek Wylie
Music by Brian Coulton / Derek Wylie
All rights reserved. Ⓟ2019 Brian Coulton / Derek Wylie. ©2019 Brian Coulton / Derek Wylie.
The copyright of this Music, Lyrics and Artwork are owned by Brian Coulton / Derek Wylie. All rights reserved.
Unauthorised copying, reproduction, hiring, lending, public performance or broadcasting prohibited.
Lyrically, the songs on 'Fake Muse' are emotive narratives exploring personal concerns, as well as the shocks & experiences of everyday life:
'The Embrace' is about reflecting on mistakes and accepting that love is strength. 'Eden' is about beginning again, informed by the flight of migrants seeking a better way of life. 'Dreams of Home' is about recurring dreams and how they distort to make sense of the past. 'Rise Up' was inspired by the birth of 'Extinction Rebellion' and the climate change protests. 'No Visa' celebrates the success of those who challenged Trump's outrageous US travel ban. 'YouSeeMe' is a parody about the use of scary face recognition software in security cameras. 'Magnetic' celebrates the value of friendship. 'Fake' is about the duplicity of social media and how it entangles us in a devil's bargain. 'Great Planet' is a parody of Trump’s decision to exit the Paris climate accord and employs the imagery of the meeting between Trump & Macron - Macron's powerful handshake and his turn around of the campaign slogan to "make our planet great again". 'Sixteen-Ten' is about the impact of us lot on the planet and the Anthropocene era.
The Embrace
1. I'm just a fallen angel sinking in the dust, of my own disappointment and the loss of those I love - I can hear a voice calling asking me to atone for a sensitive disposition, a resistant heart alone - He was always self regrading absorbed by his fears, to deaf to hear the warning, to blind to see the tears - And looking from distance he fooled the world with charm with a smile like the taste of honey and a gaze that could make you cry.
Chorus
But love, oh love, love has it's own healing - and love, oh love, love has it's own grace
Yes love, my love, love has it's own healing - and love, my love, love has it's own grace.
2. At the door the voice is knocking asking me to come in, though I hoped that I was leaving once again to begin - In the end we failed each other our deep respect was lost, replaced by bitter seething not mindful of the cost - And the stains of love do linger they pool in your embrace, then they try again to enter the realm that lies beneath - Well my mind is full of sorrow for the things I didn’t do, for being unattentive not being there for you.
[Long Version]
3. And it’s foolish to think of penance as a way to cure the soul, a half-way house to heaven, a plea to the unknown - These days I pray in silence to a being I can’t know and for providence to show me the way back home - That’s when I hear the mocking laughing in my head, do you think yourself so special that we’re so easily led - But he wasn’t for reflection when the answer finally came, your deluded self’s absolved for all that you will blame.
4. Again the voice beckons searching for a way, to break through his resistance to touch his soul again - Remember those who loved you, remember their faith and how you left that promise lying in the dirt - He was shocked into being as the silence made him feel and inside his heart longed for comfort and embrace - Now I can hear their calling, now I can feel their love, I'm just a fallen angel sinking in the dust.
Eden
1. Meet me at the place where we used to walk, down by the dunes along the shore - Nestle in the reeds, stow away, cast off to our secret place - Listen as the wind rustles overhead, carry our song across the waves - Hold me in your arms whisper my name, tell me our love will never change.
Chorus
Dream of the promise of Eden, safe from the cares of the world - Dream of distant places, we can begin again - Let’s break the bonds that hold us, pull away from our roots - Let’s find the garden of Eden, where love can be….
2. Watch as the ships slide over the edge, sailing hearts seeking hope - Watch as the sun fires the sea red, a burning past is left behind - Tonight we will rest high in the stars, a constellation shining bright - I'll hold you in my arms whisper your name, tell you our love will never change.
3. Meet me at the place where we used to walk, down by the dunes along the shore - Hold me in your arms whisper my name, tell me our love will never change...
Dreams of Home
1. Young again on a winters night - Snow falling, feather light - Langauge thick and full of song - Laugther loud echos on and on
Chorus
At heart I know where I’m from - These roots they can’t be forgotten - Our dreams replay our DNA - Remind us who we are.
2. Subconcious slides to the other side - Visceral, feels so alive - A reflected glimpse of where we go - When souls depart, flying home. Flying high at the speed of light - Search the past, put wrongs to right - We’ll meet again, trespass forgot - Just old friends, we’ll laugh a lot.
Chorus
At heart I know where I’m from - These roots they can’t be forgotten - Our dreams replay our DNA - Remind us who we are.
Outro
Dreams of home...[Repeat]
No Visa
My heart is racing, my head is exploding - My soul is bursting, to see you all again, Been apart too long, missed family and friends - But now the time has come, to hold you all again.
Chorus
Tonight, tonight, I know you’ll be waiting - Tonight, tonight, I’ll see the power - Tonight, tonight, we’ll be together - Tonight, tonight we’ll be on fire.
Stopped at the line, they wouldn’t let me in - They said I was an alien from the land of Sin - I showed the man my visa, he said that don’t work here son - They’ve all been recinded by the chosen one.
Well…my post went viral as I told the world - Of this gross injustice and the politics of fear - The roar was seismic, their order shouted down - Don’t persecute the innocent...stop this clampdown.
YouSeeMe
1.I’m walking down the street - Blink, blink, swivel, zoom - I’ve got the strangest feeling - That I’m not alone - They’ve got this new surveillance - Blink, blink, swivel, zoom - It’s got all this matrix falling numbers stuff - It recognises who you are.
Chorus
And...who,who,who is you - And...who,who,who is me - We're all becoming paranoid - That you see me see you - That you see me see you.
2. People are going a bit loopy - Trying not to be seen - They’re all adopting alias’s - We’ve even lost the queen - There’s a man wearing a lama’s head - There’s a girl sporting a beard - There’s a family of innocent dreamers - Being hounded by Beauregard trumpets.
Bridge
It takes me back you know - To the time -when I was a child - They filled our heads with fear to stop us from turning wild - Like there was this great big eye in the sky - looking down on me - It would see and judge what you did and show it all to Society….
3. I’m walking down the street - Blink, blink, swivel, zoom - I’ve got the strangest feeling - That I’m not alone - Blink, blink, swivel, zoom - Youseemeseeyou…[Repeat]
Magnetic
1. Some high, some low - You never know how life goes - Some days good, some days bad - Make a little happy, make a little sad - But when I stop and think of you - My heart jumps, the sun does shine - You lift my soul, make me smile - Forget my trouble for a while.
Chorus
Give me all your loving - that’s all I ever need - Give me all your loving - that’s all I ever need - Keep giving all your loving - that’s all I ever need - Give me all your loving - that’s all I ever need
2. Friends come, friends go - Sometimes hard to keep them close - Time spent as family, fades to distant memory - But you are there when times get tough - Always close, by my side - There are no secrets, are no lies - We feel as one, we harmonise.
3. Sunrise, sunset - The world turns in orbit - Go to work, come back home - Round and round and round we go - And like an atom of tiny parts - We all revolve in unison - Our friendship poetic, our bond is magnetic.
Fake
1. When I was young I used to think - That when we reached the 21st century - That everything would be so sweet - We’d all live in global harmony - Now I’m here stupid rules the world - You can’t believe how stupid it can be - Heading back, veering right - Become cruel, mean and greedy.
Chorus
Welcome to the world at F.A.K.E - Hear the truth, you want to hear, you know that they’ll agree - Make-it-up, invent and lie, they don’t care just stay logged-in - They’ll keep your fears alive in the fake-dumb 21stCentury
2. Now we all live a lie - Imagined lives of false confection - Wear a mask to hide what’s true - Fabricate your own persona - Infected by the cyber curse - Damned to live, lives of illusion - Do we shun reality - Choose to live in perfect delusion.
3. The data gods feast on high - Greed corrupts...always - Faith and trust compromised - All of us betrayed - Big brother logged inside our heads - Thoughts held to ransom - Zombie bots mesmerised - Trapped inside their web.
Great Planet
1. Here's Don on the lawn, in-front of his big White House - It’s a sunny day, a funny day and Don’s got things to say to us - It’s only weather folks, sometimes it’s hot, sometimes it’s cold - We’ll need global warming when we’re freezing in winter time - I’m a stable genius and I know this climate thing’s a hoax - So, hasta la vista Paris...we’re out of here.
2. Here’s Mac the wonder kid, looking handsome, looking cool - Mac’s got a big handshake and he’s got things to say to Don - We know that each year our planet gets hotter than the last - And only a fool would think we’re not to blame - Give me your scientist, your brilliant thinker seeking freedom - Au revoir Don...we’ll make our planet great again.
Outro
Make Our Planet Great Again...[Repeat]
SixteenTen
1. First there was darkness - Then there was light - From the birth of star - A blue diamond is forged.
Goldilocks sits in the right chair - Waiting for life to take a hold there - Casting her dice, she travels through time - Miracles occur, all life begins.
2. All is natural selection - As new species take turns - An ape stands and walks tall - And changes the rules of the game.
Goldilocks sits in the right chair - Waiting for life to take a hold there - Casting her dice, she travels through time - Miracles occur, all life begins.
3. Like a meteor - Gaia is struck - By a new force - That changes the world - In the blink of an eye - The change is cosmic - Evolution gives way - To intelligent design - The earth is trashed - As we poison our world - Cause Mass extinction - As our climate is changed..
Bridge
The Anthropocene has arrived - The age of man has arrived - The Anthropocene has arrived - The age of man has arrived
Can we live in balance - Overcome our need - Can we live in balance - Overcome our greed...
Album 'Feast'
Lyrics by Derek Wylie
Music by Brian Coulton / Derek Wylie
All rights reserved. Ⓟ2019 Brian Coulton / Derek Wylie. ©2019 Brian Coulton / Derek Wylie
The copyright of this Music, Lyrics and Artwork are owned by Brian Coulton / Derek Wylie. All rights reserved.
Unauthorised copying, reproduction, hiring, lending, public performance or broadcasting prohibited.
The songs on 'Feast' explore personal experiences and concerns:
'It's Over' is about regret, when something special has carelessly finished, 'Reception Fading' concerns a parents decline through illness, 'Kingdom Of Mourne' celebrates the hope of peace after conflict, 'Time's Up' reflects on opportunity lost, 'Trying Too Hard' is about saying the wrong thing, 'Flag Of Hate' recounts the tragedy of the racial killings in Charleston, 'Eclipse' celebrates the curiosity of monogamy, 'Chain Reaction' is about the fall-out after an affair, 'Barcelona Boy' is about the cruelty of children in war, 'Brightness' celebrates the comfort of long relationships, 'Colour Shift' is about a siblings depression.
It's Over
1. Someone asked me last night if I was feeling blue - Someone asked me last night if I still thought of you - Well I didn't want to say, I didn't want to look a fool - And after all this time I really can't face the truth... We'd made a good life filled with dreams and prayers - Filled with desire and our secret thoughts - And I don't know why you gave up on me - And I don't know why you gave up on me.
Chorus
And I can't hide any more from you - And I can't lie any more to you...
2. I saw you last night with someone new - Punched hard my heart broke in two - It's really over nothing more I can do - But it's too hard to face it should be me with you.
Chorus
And I can't hide any more from you - And I can't lie any more to you...
3. At the station a train awaits - Another life lies beyond the ticket gate - I look around hope to see your face - But just an empty platform just an empty space.
Chorus
And I can't hide any more from you - And I can't lie any more to you...
Reception Fading
1. Gone, lost in the fog - No laser beam guiding you back home again - Gone, as you slip away - Sliding down the quay of your lost memory - Search, searching to recall - The journey home to all the people you once knew and you once loved.
Chorus
Stepping through the looking glass to the other side - Neither here, neither there in a frightening world - Looking thro' the family album for faces lost - Just strangers who have been erased and time's forgot
2. Gone, going back in time - Heading back to childhood, back to places long forgot - Lost in shadows - Neurons scattered, disconnected - Memories fractured, unconnected.
Chorus
3. Hard to watch you fade - Fade away, day by day, lost in space and time - Cruel...self destruct - The black hole in your mind, sucking all the light away - Try to keep you close - Turn the dial, stay in tune, reception fading all the time.
Chorus
Kingdom Of Mourne
1. In the Kingdom of Mourne, we climbed mountains at night - A chance to escape the sectarian rite - Moonlight cracks darkness, Shannagh silvers below - Then on to Ben Crom to pitch for the night
Chorus
The trouble is over, a chance for peace - Smiles upon faces, of people who're free
It's good to be... back home again - Back home again - Back home again...
2.Back in the Mournes, a lifetime has passed - Lost memory returns of climbing mountains at night - Life has returned here, the future is bright - Don't look back to the past, climb up to the light
Chorus
The trouble is over, a chance for peace - Smiles upon faces, of people who're free
It's good to be... back home again - Back home again - Back home again...
Time's Up
1.Time plays its trick, it's deceit we learn too late - Gives too much when we're young, robs us when we're old - The years slip by, the future closes in - We're surprised when it's gone and wonder what we've done.
Chorus
Then one day, we wake and remember - How we danced when we were young - How there was time to chase dreams - How we danced when we were young - How there was time.
2. There is no present, there is no future - Just the past happening over & over, again & again - Well that's what Eugene says, was he right that time isn't real - It's a virtual scaffold, an abstract we lose forever.
3. Dreams get forgotten by grown up reality - Like droids we tow the line, we said we'd never cross - Don't forget life's promise, don't retreat to conformity - Remember time is ourselves, reflected endlessly.
Trying Too Hard
1. I never should have said the things I said, in the way I did - A moment of madness, Greek tragedy sadness, I lost the plot -And you...you looked at me as if I was someone else - Not quite believing, deceived and reeling...you turned away lost.
Chorus
Oh...I know it's true - It's the everyday things that matter - Like easy fun and laughter - It's the simple stuff we take for granted - Those little things that always happen
2. The awkward silence and vacant stares are hard to penetrate - What's the way back, too hard to pay back when you feel such a fool - Trying, trying too hard to make it alright - That always backfires, seems to light fires, the ones we thought were out.
3. A surprise moment of shared humour breaks a smile - Tentative probing, soft words are spoken,it's been a while - And you...you look at me with a curious eye - I look back, desperate to take back all the things I said.
Flag of Hate
1. The devil went to church, bowed his head and knelt to pray - The souls at Emanuel smiled and welcomed him with open arms. He sat with silent hate, he spoke with an evil stare - Then the devil stood and aimed his gift and shot down a dozen black souls.
Chorus
Down in Charlestown, nine candles burn - They'll burn forever, so we don't forget - That the stain of hatred, is in a past to be forgot - That our future will be colour blind.
2. Concealed behind a flag of hate, the devil craved a colour war - He wanted to turn the clock back, to segregate...to subjugate - God's country hides its racist heart, pretends it's not black & white - But race still taints the King's dream and corrupts equality.
3. Abel's strange fruit still hangs and Mississippi burns again - The gun has replaced the rope, become our modern day lynching - Again a nation searches its young soul, too many guns, but no controls - The price for gun liberty is gun horror...is it time to find another way.
Eclipse
1. The moon danced with the sun today - Casting magic across the world - Twilight painted the fading sky - A miracle above our heads
Chorus
Oh sweet Carina, I saw you dance today - You twirled, you swayed, you spun, you took my heart away - How lucky can I be, as I look up to see - Eclipsed by the moon, the sun...smiled today.
2. A ring of diamond bursts into view - Soon the sun and moon dance face to face - For a moment the world stands still - Spellbound by the wonder in space.
It's not always been easy - We've had our doubts along the way - But when we dance together - I know we're here to stay
3. Nightfall and the moon hangs low - Dripping blood red in a starlit bowl - All's quiet now, as we move slow - A dance for two in the moonlit glow.
Chain Reaction
1. Don't feel too bad, things change over time - It's not your fault, do the maths it always rhymes - It's time to shut up shop, bolt the door no entry - You got to be grown up, deal with the situation.
Chorus
We never see the chain reaction, when love explodes inside our heads - It runs away until meltdown, until we're lying in our beds - And why is balance never enough, why do we always tip the scales - Just like a chain reaction...we're heading for meltdown
2. Our terms have changed, what was then, is not now - We can't go on doing what we used to do - It's time to give it up regardless of the cost - This pleasure has to stop, you've got to suck it up
Just like a chain reaction... we're heading for meltdown
Just like a chain reaction... we're heading for meltdown
3. Don't feel too bad, things change over time - It's not your fault, do the maths it always rhymes - It's time to shut up shop, bolt the door, no entry - You got to be grown up, deal with the situation.
Barcelona Boy
1.The Barcelona Boy was in the news today - Shot by a sniper, his mother by his side - Like many children he doesn't stand a chance - As Earth's coordinates spin their careless dance - Bullets ricochet as he escapes, terrified in the hands of fate - Some children live in fear - That tomorrow may not come.
2.They say it's complicated and hard to understand - Why holy warring tribes fight over holy land - They match each other's crimes to wash bloody hands - It is the children who don't stand a chance - Legitimate targets, there are no limits - All wars are bloody and all the bloody same.
Chorus
Let's build an ark and ghost them all way - Let's find a place, that brings them peace each day
Let's build an ark and ghost them all away - Let's find a place, that brings them peace each day...
3. Peshawar breaks our hearts and makes us all despair - Too many children lost to hatred and revenge - History fails to teach the lessons of the past - Hate brings more hate, death brings more death - Old testament justice, mindless violence - An eye for an eye, a child for a child.
4. Hand tied leaders chant platitudes by rote - They ignore atrocity where vested interests lie - Their endless peace treaties and deadend roadmaps - Just fuel the bitterness of those they should protect - Today's war child, tomorrow's fighter - An endless cycle of cruel insanity.
Brightness
1. There's a look in your eye - That takes my breath away - There's a moment when you smile - That makes me glad to say.
Chorus
If after all this time our light begins to fade...
It's the brightness underneath, that keeps on shining through - It's the brightness underneath, that I'll always see in you.
2. When storm clouds come - And words are misunderstood - And sometimes we forget - To say the things we should.
3. As the years pass by - We should remember why - When we first met - How we felt, each day was bright.
Colour Shift
1.It's hard to watch you when you're feeling dread - To watch you battle the demons in your head - But when you wake, lost in the storm - Take my hand...we'll find a way back home - Take my hand...we'll find a way back home.
2. You say you can't care when the colours shift - And what's the point when everything looks black - But when the darkness falls and day is night - Take my hand...we'll try to find the light - Take my hand...we'll try to find the light.
Bridge
Your tears fix a frozen smile - A lost ghost who's haunting for a while - Lying lost and hidden in a dead still shroud - I won't let you see what this does to me - How I feel so useless, completely - And how I want more than anything - to set you free.
3. And when... the cruel thief returns - To rob your soul, to steal your life away - When you feel broken and can't face the day
Take my hand...we'll try to find a way - Take my hand...we'll try to find a way - Take my hand...we'll try to find a way.
All song lyrics written by Derek Wylie
Ⓟ2023 Brian Coulton / Derek Wylie. ©2023 Brian Coulton / Derek Wylie.
The copyright of this Music, Lyrics and Artwork are owned by Brian Coulton / Derek Wylie. All rights reserved.
Unauthorised copying, reproduction, hiring, lending, public performance or broadcasting prohibited.