“As I was making this album there was sort of a slow loosening of pressure on myself,” Jacklin says. “There’ve been some big life changes for me over the last few years, and I just found it too tiring to try to cover things up with a lot of metaphors and word trickery. I just wanted to lay it all out there and trust that, especially at such a tense moment in time, other people might want to hear a little vulnerability.”

Throughout Crushing, that sense of confidence manifests in one of the most essential elements of the album: the captivating strength of Jacklin’s lyrics. Not only proof of her ingenuity and artistic generosity, Jacklin’s uncompromising specificity and infinitely unpredictable turns of phrase ultimately spring from a certain self-possession in the songwriting process.

Despite its complexity, Crushing unfolds with an ease that echoes Jacklin’s newfound self-reliance as an artist. Originally from the Blue Mountains, she grew up on her parents’ Billy Bragg and Doris Day records and sang in musicals as a child, then started writing her own songs in her early 20s. “With the first album I was so nervous and didn’t quite see myself as a musician yet, but after touring for two years, I’ve come to feel like I deserve to be in that space,” she says.

Elsewhere on Crushing, Jacklin brings her exacting reflection to songs on loss. With its transportive harmonies and slow-burning guitar solo, “Don’t Know How to Keep Loving You” ponders the heartache in fading affection (“I want your mother to stay friends with mine/I want this feeling to pass in time”). Meanwhile, on “Turn Me Down”—an idiosyncratically arranged track embedded with hypnotic guitar tones—Jacklin gives an exquisitely painful glimpse at unrequited devotion (“He took my hand, said I see a bright future/I’m just not sure that you’re in it”). “That song destroyed me in the studio,” says Jacklin of “Turn Me Down,” whose middle section contains a particularly devastating vocal performance. “I remember lying on the floor in a total state between what felt like endless takes, and if you listen it kind of sounds like I’m losing my mind.” And on “When the Family Flies In,” Jacklin shares her first ever piano-driven piece, a beautifully muted elegy for the same friend to whom she dedicated Don’t Let the Kids Win. “There are really no words to do justice to what it feels like to lose a friend,” says Jacklin. “It felt a bit cheap to even try to write a song about it, but this one came out on tour and it finally felt okay to record.

From there, Crushing shifts into the slow-building urgency of “Head Alone,” a pointed and electrifying anthem of refusal (sample lyric: “I don’t want to be touched all the time/I raised my body up to be mine”).“As a woman, in my case as a touring musician, the way you’re touched is different from your male bandmates—by strangers and by those close to you,” notes Jacklin. On the full-tilt, harmony-spiked “Pressure to Party,” she pushes toward another form of emotional freedom. “When you come out of a relationship, there’s so much pressure to act a certain way,”says Jacklin. “First it’s like, ‘Oh, you’ve gotta take some time for yourself’…but then if you take too much time it’s, ‘You’ve gotta get back out there!’ That song is just my three-minute scream, saying I’m going to do what I need to do, when I need to do it.”Crushing also shows Jacklin’s autonomy on songs like “Convention,” an eye-rolling dismissal of unsolicited advice, presented in elegantly sardonic lyrics (“I can tell you won’t sleep well, if you don’t teach me how to do it right”).

On the album-opening lead single “Body,” Jacklin proves the power of that approach, turning out a mesmerizing vocal performance even as she slips into the slightest murmur. A starkly composed portrait of a breakup, the song bears an often-bracing intimacy, a sense that you’re right in the room with Jacklin as she lays her heart out. And as “Body”wanders and drifts, Jacklin establishes Crushing as an album that exists entirely on its own time, a work that’s willfully unhurried.

Produced by Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett, The Drones) and recorded at The Grove Studios (a bushland hideaway built by INXS’ Garry Gary Beers), Crushing sets Jacklin’s understated defiance against a raw yet luminous sonic backdrop. “In all the songs, you can hear every sound from every instrument; you can hear my throat and hear me breathing,” she says. “It was really important to me that you can hear everything for the whole record, without any studio tricks getting in the way.”

“I used to be so worried about seeming demanding that I’d put up with anything, which I think is common—you want to be chill and cool, but it ends up taking so much of your emotional energy,” says Jacklin. “Now I’ve gotten used to calling out things I’m not okay with, instead of just burying my feelings to make it easier on everyone. I’ve realized that in order to keep the peace, you have to speak up for yourself and say what you really want.”

The follow-up to her 2016 debut Don’t Let the Kids Win, Crushing finds Jacklin continually acknowledging what’s expected of her, then gracefully rejecting those expectations. As a result, the album invites self-examination and a possible shift in the listener’s way of getting around the world—an effect that has everything to do with Jacklin’s openness about her own experience.

“This album came from spending two years touring and being in a relationship, and feeling like I never had any space of my own,” says the Melbourne-based artist. “For a long time I felt like my head was full of fear and my body was just this functional thing that carried me from point A to B, and writing these songs was like rejoining the two.”

The second full-length album from Australian singer/songwriter Julia Jacklin, Crushing embodies every possible meaning of its title word. It’s an album formed from sheer intensity of feeling, an in-the-moment narrative of heartbreak and infatuation. And with her storytelling centered on bodies and crossed boundaries and smothering closeness, Crushing reveals how our physical experience of the world shapes and sometimes distorts our inner lives.

“As I was making this album there was sort of a slow loosening of pressure on myself,” Jacklin says. “There’ve been some big life changes for me over the last few years, and I just found it too tiring to try to cover things up with a lot of metaphors and word trickery. I just wanted to lay it all out there and trust that, especially at such a tense moment in time, other people might want to hear a little vulnerability.”

Throughout Crushing, that sense of confidence manifests in one of the most essential elements of the album: the captivating strength of Jacklin’s lyrics. Not only proof of her ingenuity and artistic generosity, Jacklin’s uncompromising specificity and infinitely unpredictable turns of phrase ultimately spring from a certain self-possession in the songwriting process.

Despite its complexity, Crushing unfolds with an ease that echoes Jacklin’s newfound self-reliance as an artist. Originally from the Blue Mountains, she grew up on her parents’ Billy Bragg and Doris Day records and sang in musicals as a child, then started writing her own songs in her early 20s. “With the first album I was so nervous and didn’t quite see myself as a musician yet, but after touring for two years, I’ve come to feel like I deserve to be in that space,” she says.

Elsewhere on Crushing, Jacklin brings her exacting reflection to songs on loss. With its transportive harmonies and slow-burning guitar solo, “Don’t Know How to Keep Loving You” ponders the heartache in fading affection (“I want your mother to stay friends with mine/I want this feeling to pass in time”). Meanwhile, on “Turn Me Down”—an idiosyncratically arranged track embedded with hypnotic guitar tones—Jacklin gives an exquisitely painful glimpse at unrequited devotion (“He took my hand, said I see a bright future/I’m just not sure that you’re in it”). “That song destroyed me in the studio,” says Jacklin of “Turn Me Down,” whose middle section contains a particularly devastating vocal performance. “I remember lying on the floor in a total state between what felt like endless takes, and if you listen it kind of sounds like I’m losing my mind.” And on “When the Family Flies In,” Jacklin shares her first ever piano-driven piece, a beautifully muted elegy for the same friend to whom she dedicated Don’t Let the Kids Win. “There are really no words to do justice to what it feels like to lose a friend,” says Jacklin. “It felt a bit cheap to even try to write a song about it, but this one came out on tour and it finally felt okay to record.

From there, Crushing shifts into the slow-building urgency of “Head Alone,” a pointed and electrifying anthem of refusal (sample lyric: “I don’t want to be touched all the time/I raised my body up to be mine”).“As a woman, in my case as a touring musician, the way you’re touched is different from your male bandmates—by strangers and by those close to you,” notes Jacklin. On the full-tilt, harmony-spiked “Pressure to Party,” she pushes toward another form of emotional freedom. “When you come out of a relationship, there’s so much pressure to act a certain way,”says Jacklin. “First it’s like, ‘Oh, you’ve gotta take some time for yourself’…but then if you take too much time it’s, ‘You’ve gotta get back out there!’ That song is just my three-minute scream, saying I’m going to do what I need to do, when I need to do it.”Crushing also shows Jacklin’s autonomy on songs like “Convention,” an eye-rolling dismissal of unsolicited advice, presented in elegantly sardonic lyrics (“I can tell you won’t sleep well, if you don’t teach me how to do it right”).

On the album-opening lead single “Body,” Jacklin proves the power of that approach, turning out a mesmerizing vocal performance even as she slips into the slightest murmur. A starkly composed portrait of a breakup, the song bears an often-bracing intimacy, a sense that you’re right in the room with Jacklin as she lays her heart out. And as “Body”wanders and drifts, Jacklin establishes Crushing as an album that exists entirely on its own time, a work that’s willfully unhurried.

Produced by Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett, The Drones) and recorded at The Grove Studios (a bushland hideaway built by INXS’ Garry Gary Beers), Crushing sets Jacklin’s understated defiance against a raw yet luminous sonic backdrop. “In all the songs, you can hear every sound from every instrument; you can hear my throat and hear me breathing,” she says. “It was really important to me that you can hear everything for the whole record, without any studio tricks getting in the way.”

“I used to be so worried about seeming demanding that I’d put up with anything, which I think is common—you want to be chill and cool, but it ends up taking so much of your emotional energy,” says Jacklin. “Now I’ve gotten used to calling out things I’m not okay with, instead of just burying my feelings to make it easier on everyone. I’ve realized that in order to keep the peace, you have to speak up for yourself and say what you really want.”

The follow-up to her 2016 debut Don’t Let the Kids Win, Crushing finds Jacklin continually acknowledging what’s expected of her, then gracefully rejecting those expectations. As a result, the album invites self-examination and a possible shift in the listener’s way of getting around the world—an effect that has everything to do with Jacklin’s openness about her own experience.

“This album came from spending two years touring and being in a relationship, and feeling like I never had any space of my own,” says the Melbourne-based artist. “For a long time I felt like my head was full of fear and my body was just this functional thing that carried me from point A to B, and writing these songs was like rejoining the two.”

The second full-length album from Australian singer/songwriter Julia Jacklin, Crushing embodies every possible meaning of its title word. It’s an album formed from sheer intensity of feeling, an in-the-moment narrative of heartbreak and infatuation. And with her storytelling centered on bodies and crossed boundaries and smothering closeness, Crushing reveals how our physical experience of the world shapes and sometimes distorts our inner lives.

Crushing

01. Body the police met the plane

they let you finish your meal

I know you’d like to believe it baby

but you’re more kid than criminal just a boy who could not

get through a domestic flight

without lighting up in the restroom

got caught, cloud of smoke, thumb still on the light you looked so proud

couldn’t wait to call a friend

we had to fly back home

never got the money back for that weekend right there on the Sydney tarmac I

threw my luggage down

I said I’m gonna leave you

I’m not a good woman when you’re around that’s when the sound came in

I could finally see

I felt the changing of the seasons

all of my senses rushing back to me go your own way

watch me turn my own head

eyes on the driver, hands in my lap

heading to the city, to get my body back I remembered early days

when you took my camera

turned to me, 23, naked on your bed looking straight at ya do you still have that photograph

would you use it to hurt me? well I guess it’s just my life

and it’s just my body I guess it’s just my life

and it’s just my body x4

02. Head, Alone give me a full length mirror

so I can see the whole picture

my head, alone, gives nothing away

guess I could stand on a chair

put it back by the table before you get there

my head, alone doesn’t know how to say I don’t want to be touched all the time

I raised my body up to be mine he said give me another drink

you know it’s easy to talk when you don’t have to think

my head, alone, won’t do it that way

come on give me the room tonight

you know I’ve told you before that you hold me too tight

and my head, alone just wants to say I don’t want to be touched all the time

I raised my body up to be mine

yeah I don’t want to be touched all the time

I raised my body up to be mine I have your back

more than I have mine

I want you to feel good

all of the time so I’ll say it till he understands

you can love somebody without using your hands yeah I’ll say it till he understands

you can love somebody without using your hands

03. Pressure to Party pressure to party, gonna stay in

nothing good can come from me drinking

I would run shoes off, straight back to you

I know where you live

I used to live there too pressure to feel fine after the fact

out on the dance floor with my body back

meeting a stranger, touching his face

I don’t want anyone to ever take your place pressure to go strike out on your own

pressure to learn from being alone

pressure to not leave it for too long

before you find another heart where you belong pressure to come up with conversation

that makes the family fine with my isolation

I know I’ve locked myself in my room

but I’ll open up the door and try to love again soon Try to love again soon

Try to love again soon

Try to love again soon pressure to act, the right way around him

we’re both in a crowd, with people surrounding us

what do I do? don’t know how it works pressure to not, let the inside of my mind

spill onto the floor for our friends to find it

oh what do I do? cause god how it hurts pressure to come up with reasons why

sometimes it might look to you like I’m not even trying

I know I’ve locked myself in my room

but I’ll open up the door and try to love again soon try to love again soon

try to love again soon

try to love again soon

04. Don’t Know How To Keep Loving You I wanna want you, I want to stay here like this

I want to feel it all, every time that we kiss

I want your mother to stay friends with mine

I want this feeling to pass in time but you know my body now, and I know yours

we’ve put so many things, between these walls

and every gift you buy me, I know what’s inside

what do I do now, there’s nothing left to find? don’t know how to keep loving you

now that I know you so well x 4 what if I cleaned up, what if I worked on my skin

I could scrub until I am red; hot, weak and thin

too tired to run away, what do I do now

there’s nothing left to say? don’t know how to keep loving you

now that I know you so well x 4 Into the darkness, or is it the light?

should I be waking up or finding a place to sleep tonight?

who will I be, now that you’re no longer next to me? don’t know how to keep loving you

now that I know you so well x 7 I just want to keep loving you

05. When The Family Flies In I was sitting, in my corolla

talking to you while my friends drank inside

there was a silence, weak telephone reception

doesn’t compliment a dark state of mind you know it’s bad when the family flies in

working bees back to the hive

you know it’s bad when the family flies in

just to stand by your side oh the last thing, that I sent to you

was an irrelevant music video

I’ll always wonder, if you ever watched it

thought you had longer to go you know it’s bad when the family flies in

working bees back to the hive

you know it’s bad when the family flies in

just to stand by your side well goodbye, well goodbye

06. Convention do we really wanna give him the microphone?

you know that he’ll keep talking long after everyone’s gone home

we’ll have to pay, to keep the lights on

and that bill will arrive just when all our savings have gone can I say something, can I give advice?

just hit the main switch so we can sleep well tonight my social standing got me six rows from the front

and my dinner companion was a little drunk

says he buys the paper but he reads between the lines

“I can show you how I do it, why don’t you come back to mine?” oh please say something I’m dying for your advice

I can tell you won’t sleep well, if you don’t teach me how to do it right call me a ride, I can’t walk home

can’t stand the pain from these shoes I’ve now outgrown

07. Good Guy tell me I’m the love of your life, just for a night

even if you don’t feel it

tell me I’m the love of your life, just for a night

even if you don’t mean it I don’t care for the truth when I’m lonely, I don’t care if you lie

I don’t care if in the morning you get up not say goodbye

I don’t care for the truth when I’m lonely, I don’t care if you lie come on breathe in breathe out

you’re still a good guy tell me I’m the love of your life, just for a night

even if you don’t feel it

tell me I’m everything that you could find

and you don’t wanna waste it I don’t care for the truth when I’m lonely, I don’t care if you lie

I don’t care if in the morning you get up not say goodbye

I don’t care for the truth when I’m lonely, I don’t care if you lie come on breathe in breathe out

you’re still a good guy tell me I’m the love of your life, just for a night

even if you don’t feel it

08. You Were Right started listening to your favourite band

the night I stopped listening to you

you were always trying to force my hand

but now I’m listening because I want to you were right, I liked it

you were wrong, I was a good friend started eating at your favourite place

the night I stopped eating with you

you were always trying to force my taste

but now I’m eating there cause I want to you were right, I liked it

you were wrong, I was a good friend to you twin hotel room, no bed to make

what can I do to change myself for your sake? I don’t want you here, you make me

feel so small I’m gonna disappear started feeling like myself again

the day I stopped saying your name

we can try and start it up again

but it’s never gonna feel the same you were right, I liked it

you were wrong, I was a good friend to you

09. Turn Me Down learner driver, going 80k’s

trying to get to Melbourne, it’s probably gonna take two days

lover beside you, gripping the door

oh you know why he is nervous, you have crashed before it’s a lot to ask of you, to believe in me

when I can’t even promise I’d do things differently

next time pulled off the highway, found a place to sit

he took my hand said I see a bright future

I’m just not sure that you’re in it it’s a lot to ask of me, to believe in you

when I don’t know if you’ll ever love me the way I want you to so please just, turn me down

oh please just, turn me down

why won’t you, turn me down

oh please just, turn me down why won’t you, turn me down

oh please just, turn me down

why won’t you, turn me down

why won’t you, turn me down? Don’t look at me, look at the centre line

maybe I’ll see you in a supermarket sometime

10. Comfort you’ll be okay, you’ll be alright

you’ll get well soon, sleep through the night

you’ll go outside, enjoy the sun

soon you’ll feel fine, to see everyone he’s gonna thrive, he’ll be just fine

hurt for a while, cured with time

don’t know how he’s doing, but that’s what you get you can’t be the one to hold him

when you were the one who left he’s got good friends, they’ll pull him in

take him out dancing, help to begin again

don’t know how he’s doing, but that’s what you get you can’t be the one to hold him

when you were the one who left Are you thinking of me too?

I was so happy all those years with you I’ll be okay, I’ll be alright

I’ll get well soon, sleep through the night

don’t know how you’re doing, but that’s what I get I can’t be the one to hold you

when I was the one who left

Don’t Let The Kids Win

01. Pool Party I was shorter than my dad’s dining table

You were taller than my bedroom door frame

Hit me hard when I found height don’t make a man no

You grew smaller to me that Saturday when,

You came crashing crawling down through the back brush

Eyes were bloodshot and your leaden voice thin

Said, “I won’t blame you now, but I caught your cold somehow”

Then you jumped right in Oh I want to give you all of my love

But I watched you sink as they swam above

You are the land and I am the dove

My heart is heavy when you’re high

So for me why won’t you try Said you’re sorry you were drinking through the day then

Only stopped to let your lungs take the hit

Said “I won’t blame you now, but you lost my love somehow”

Then you jumped right in Oh I want to give you all of my love

But I watched you sink as they swam above

You are the land and I am the dove

My heart is heavy when you’re high

So for me why won’t you try

02. Leadlight I was once a sunday kneeler

When I saw the leadlight

Fall from the pane

I didn’t know that the grass

Was not only greener

Upkeep is cheaper

When you embrace the rain So I jumped down and lay with my leadlight

And under your spotlight, I lay with the shards

And I didn’t know that ground

Was not only harder

Oh but colder when you are not around I love you my darling I do

But I can’t let possession make a fool of you

I love you my darling I do

But I can’t promise I’ll be here to see this whole love through So I ran with dreams to reach the skyline

And straight up that incline I ran towards the blue

And I didn’t know that the sky

Is not only wider

Oh but clearer when I’m standing next to you I love you my darling I do

But I can’t let possession make a fool of you

I love you my darling I do

But I can’t promise I’ll be here to see this whole love through Oh I believe in trust you see

But don’t you go and put your trust in me

I cost more than you earn

So tell me boy why didn’t you ever learn I love you my darling I do

But I can’t let possession make a fool of you

I love you my darling I do

But I can’t promise I’ll be here to see this whole love through

03. Coming of Age I gotta find myself a girl

Who makes me wanna take on the world

I gotta find myself a girl

Who makes my straight toes curl See I had a life in my head

I’d be pushing up that hill

Until those toes bled

Now I gotta learn this new stage Didn’t see it coming, my coming of age

Didn’t see it coming, my coming of age

Didnt see it coming I, must have shucked that rage

Didnt see it coming my, coming of age Yeah now I’m alright, I’m doing fine

But I’ll be pushing up that hill

Until I get what’s mine

Yeah now I’m gonna learn this new stage Didn’t see it coming, my coming of age

Didn’t see it coming, my coming of age

Didn’t see it coming I, must have shucked that rage

Didn’t see it coming my, coming of age

04. Elizabeth So shaky so fine

Standing up there baby oh you look so divine

So harsh that bright stage light

Showing the first four rows that you don’t wanna play tonight

But you know I want you to

You know I need you to

And I’ll be there for you darling

Even if it all falls through So steady so calm

Standing up there darling with the front row in the heal of your palm

So good that bright stage light

Showing the back four rows that you got it made here tonight

But you know I want you to

You know I need you to

And I’ll be there for you darling when it all starts to come true You stepped down off our home ground said good friend I’m done

So I left the game as they yelled my name said, girl you’re my number one So shaky so fine

Standing up there baby oh you look so divine

05. Motherland These new lines on my face

Spell out girl pick up your pace

If you want to stay true

To what your younger self would do

And this kink in my walk

Makes me focus when I talk

If I can’t trust my feet

Then it’s my tongue I choose to keep And I walk slow so I can read

Let my head fall my hips lead

Why’d you write the words so small

Did you fool me, are they words at all?

Or are you pulling down the veil

Keeping grounded as you set my sail?

By the time I pull it off

All my innocence is lost

But oh I’m good, I think I’m good

Will I be great, will I be great?

Is it money I wanna make or is it sweet love

For his sake? And this new parts I now need

To help me focus, help me feed

They are beyond my modest earnings

Oh the girls they keep turning up the heat as if it’s cold

But I’m hot, too hot to hold

I’ll burn a hole right through the hull

When will I Ever see the land

Will I ever see the land?

Oh water can’t revive me

I need dirt in my hand

Will I ever see the land

Will I ever see the land?

Oh the ground will give me something

I know that it can See I have charm and I have sight

And I always try and do whats right

But I have faults you know it’s true

Especially when it comes to treating you well

I will work when all my thoughts are mine again

See I was sure at the start, turns out I tried to hard

But oh I’m good, I think I’m good

Will I be great, will I be great

Is it money I wanna make or is it sweet love.

For his sake? CHORUS

06. Small Talk Zach Braff you look just like my dad

Back when I thought I had the best one

Oh what a life it could have been

Me in the cradle you on the screen But you’re too young to be

A Father to me

You’re too young to be

A Father to me Catherine Denevue

You look just like my mother used to

When she loved me, oh when she loved me

Oh what a life just you and I

Learning to walk whilst you read your lines But you’re too old to be

A Mother to me

You’re too old to be

A mother to me Surely you’re not saying

The TV lied

I truly believe

That they would love me back in real life Hey kid at the bar you

Know who you are I’ve been

Staring you down as I play this out of tune guitar

Oh just think what we could be

I swear I’ll dress cooler if you just go home with me But you’re too young to be

A lover to me

I’m getting older and I forget sometime you see

Surely you’re not saying

The TV lied

I truly believe that I will have it all in my life So don’t you waste my time

Don’t you waste my time

On small talk and cheap wine

07. LA Dream Why’d you go to the grocery store

On the day you planned to leave

Left me here with all this food

My body does not need And now I’m lying listless like a dog after a feed

Thinking about the life that you’ll now lead Why’d you go and push in

When you saw my face in the line

Said if I just focus I could get laid anytime But now I’m lying broken like a dog after a fight

Guess I was not made for your life

Guess I was not made for your life There on central station

Uou forced my lips to scream

Loving you ain’t easy babe

It’s just an LA dream

And I’ll be lying happy knowing

We still spent the time Guess you were not meant to be mine

Guess you were not meant to be mine

08. Sweet Step I was dancing for a while

See I was trying to perfect a style

Out on that dance floor oh boy did I sweat

Shaking to get noticed has not worked for me yet

But I’ll keep trying I was swinging my blonde hair round

See I was trying to get my feet off the ground

And I rose steady to the roof of my room

I may not be a great dancer but I might be a good one soon But I’ll keep trying

Dancing for yourself aint bad when you’re dying to find

That sweet step that will help to free your mind

09. Same Airport, Different Man Same airport, different man

I’m starting to think that I don’t know quite who I am

Same airport, different man

He’s circling the carpark waiting for me to land Same airport, different dress

This one is blue and it is longer than the rest

Same airport different dress,

Last one was short and red and too tight for my growing chest Same airport, different life

At 16 lost my first love to a one way flight

Same airport, different life

Sat down by the carousel looking old enough to make a wife now Same airport, different ride home

Last time I went to my mothers, this time to my own

Same airport, different ride home

Riding shot gun to my baby, next time I’ll get the train alone Same airport, different man

He looks happy, he looks happy

Same airport, different man

10. Hay Plain Driving home the road makes me feel smaller

My fear forces my hand into the shoulder

And I feel you darling on my own

Every mile brings you a little closer I’m driving into the Hay Plain

I won’t survive the night if you don’t stay in your lane

I’m heading away from that wide sunset

Wondering if my new man

Misses me yet Baby you don’t have to drive me round no more

I went and got myself a car so I can pay you back for

All the times you took me back home

Every mile brings you a little closer I’m driving into the Hay Plain

I won’t survive the night if you don’t stay in your lane

I’m heading away from that wide sunset

Wondering if my new man

Is in love with me yet Besides that truck driver on the Western Distributer

Who caught me changing, sorry babe he saw everything

I’ve been keeping my skin for when you fly in

And you want me, physically

Besides that night in Adelaide in the back of a cab

When a good man said he’d give me what I’ve never had

I’ve been keeping my eye for when you come online

And you need me, emotionally I’m driving into the Hay Plain

I won’t survive the night if you don’t stay in your lane

I’m heading away from that wide sunset

Wondering if my new man

Misses me yet

11. Don’t Let The Kids Win Don’t let the kids win

Just let them lose

They’re not gonna learn anything

If that’s the way you choose to play

Don’t let the kids win

Just let them fall

You don’t want them growing up thinking

Three year olds are good at playing basketball Don’t let your grandmother die

While you’re away

A cheap trip to Thailand’s not gonna make up

For never getting to say goodbye

And don’t let your brother

Stop thinking you’re cool

I know he’s got a girlfriend now

And he’s taller

But that don’t mean

He’s stopped looking up to you I’ve got a feeling,

That this won’t ever change

We’re gonna keep on getting older

It’s gonna keep on feeling strange Don’t let your friends turn cold

While you burn to green

When they walk off the stage embrace them

And say that’s the best shit I’ve ever seen

And don’t let your sister

Walk down the isle

Without pulling her close saying I love you and it’s okay

If I don’t see you for a while I’ve got a feeling,

That this won’t ever change

We’re gonna keep on getting older

It’s gonna keep on feeling strange Don’t let the time go by

Without sitting your mother down

And asking what, life was like for her before you came

To be around and tell her it’s okay

If she puts herself first

Us kids will be alright if we’re not the centre of her universe I’ve got a feeling

That this won’t ever change

We’re gonna keep on getting older

It’s gonna keep on feeling strange and

After a late one, I don’t know anything

Except the more I keep on talking

The less breath I got left to sing

Eastwick / Cold Caller

01. Eastwick It might make for good TV

The grieving process for all to see

But I don’t want my father ashes

Scattered over strangers couches

And it might make for a fun night in if I

Wore a dress and slept with him

But I really hate showing my legs

Even when the Sydney summer begs me Come on now your roots are showing

Unlike hands your hair keeps growing

Come on love you could keep on dyeing

I think the truth is more age defying

And in the day when it turned dark

We were just two shelves apart when we realised

It’s not right, You are not in a garden you are, in a store

A single stemmed rose, reaching out for more Did it come as a great shock

When your third love said hey you’re not

Gonna get his heart to beat by

Laying offerings at his feet

And in the day when it turned dark

We were two cages apart when we realised

It’s not right, You are not in the wild you are, in a pen

A forgotten sow wondering when, you can run