The Walls, by Holly Henderson (2024)

1.

Sober up I’m leaving early Wait for me, Fading into time I wonder if I made you surlyThere’s the sun, burning into night With a head full of soil and wonderIn a field of liesWhat if I’m alone in your company?Will I live for nothing? Every week for months Can I leave your wandering eyes?I know you said you’d never leave meBut I’m not convinced You’ve stolen my thoughts tonight You know I said I love you dearlyCradle me I don’t want to dieWith a head full of soil and wonderIn a field of liesWhat if I’m alone in your company?Will I live for nothing? Every week for months Can I leave your wandering eyes?Flowering through frost and spring You’re serious this timeYou bloom with love In spite of costYour heart is spilling over Well we can find a way,With my help We can find a way,With my help With a head full of soil and wonderIn a field of liesWhat if I’m alone in your company?Will I live for nothing? Every week for months Can I leave your head full of soil and wonderIn a field of lies?What if I’m alone in your company?Will I live for nothing? Every week for months Can I leave your wandering eyes?

2.

Who’s breaking your heart now Wendy?You smile and the sun begins to riseDon’t let it fade completelyA little bit of patience for the sparkle in your eyesI know you’ve been low just latelyI think a little seat in the sun will make it rightWhen all that time is passing byYou look out the window and you watch the fading lightAnd it got cold real quickThe scent of the trees and passing footsteps on the brickYou’re not a loser girl you just don’t fitYou’ve got that somethingYou’re breaking my heart now Wendy,It’s a good day walking by your sideYou’re like a silver liningDon’t you get sad when it’s a lonely night

3.

I weaponised all my feelings to lock them upAnd to hurtBut your reaction was that of a weary birdWith no flightWe got alongNever really thoughtAbout the cost of living for nightsNever waking upIt’s enough, it’s enough, it’s enoughWe got distracted by the planes that would pass us byWhat a soundHope they don’t crash in the sea and leave carnage behindWhat’s wrong with us?An intrusive thoughtCaught early enoughWon’t materialise into a verbAs long as you close,Your eyesIt’s enough, it’s enoughOohWe got alongNever really thoughtAbout the cost of living for nightsNever waking upIt’s enough, it’s enough, it’s enough

4.

There’s a trial to takeWe’re crawling like leaves and wandering lakesA purple mist and soberReach your arms and eyes for dawnsleep ’til OctoberFearing daylightIt’s a race for tidesSweeping your knees like a raven featherIf it means we flyI’ll try again when you recoverIt’s a race for tidesSweeping your knees like a raven featherIf it means we flyI’ll try again when you recoverHey soulWhere’s your hat today?I’m feeling a little burnedA lucky strike got my feetand I’m dragging a shadow as big as my housespilling my life on the groundKeep closed like a book my loveBut when will you come back?Why come backTo meI slept all the way to an ice age and woke with frost on my teethCraving a little green my god where have the trees gone?It’s a race for tidesSweeping your knees like a raven featherIf it means we flyI’ll try again when you recover

5.

You’re giving up too soonWe’re living on a long fallen empire If you keep being silent enough You’ll fool me tooGot the free will to lie in the dark You’re living on fading photographs And I can see you’re silent for nothing I wouldn’t mind becauseYou’re losing so much from crying You’re losing so much from cryingCurl up and leave it inside While we’re sleeping how far can you run?even moonlight couldn’t reach youBurning feet on the ice as you cross over One step more and we lose God,You’re losing so much from crying You’re losing so much from cryingCurl up and leave it inside You’re losing so much from crying You’re losing so much from cryingCurl up and leave it inside

6.

Keep a piece of timeAnd carve your namein a gold mineI haven’t held on for longYou know you’re not mineOohEver held your namein my brainPooling and decayingCurling at the sidesWhen you never came backJust like the tidesI look over the pier at the desertSomething is missingOoh

7.

And when we leave, I notice the skies aren’t quite what they were last night We did a little bit of wasting time, but mainly figuring out what we want I’ve never seen the moon hang on for so long When we step out of your high place I lick my wounds, I seek your light like a head case It gets too hard when I’m dark and derailing We’ve got needs but we fight the need to love I can’t help thinking, some of the words could be left out to burn in the garden I’m just a little less stern than I was when left to my own devices To lead my own feelings astray, with your guidance I tried it once, I never liked it Keep holding on, for it’s already gone When we step out of your high place I lick my wounds, seek your light like a head case It gets too hard when I’m dark and derailing We’ve got needs but we fight the need to love When we step out of your high place I lick my wounds, seek your light like a head case It gets too hard when I’m dark and derailing We’ve got needs but we fight the need to loveAnd when we leave I notice the skies aren’t quite what they were, last night

8.

See if I can make sense of this mess we madeWhether it’s the fire that we started when we last cameTry to make sense of it allAnd we’ll come, celebrate, and leave our flags where we stoodAnd we’ll know when we’ve departed that stains will remain in the dustI buried my head in the sandAnd dug all the way down to where the sun won’t landI lay there quietly waiting,For an eagle to snap me up and fade into the far awayI’ll be there in the morningI see your sleepy eyesAnd I do my little dance where we all pretend we’ll be back after sunriseBut I won’tCause I careAnd I’m perfectly awareThat it’s overI’m going away for a whileThere’s a cold snap to happen,It’s just for me,But he’ll be with you shortlyBut now he’s by the seaA different placeThat I can’t standI see the drawn out shapes in the desert sandThe drawn out shapes in the desert sandBut I won’tCause I careAnd I’m perfectly awareThat it’s overOver

9.

A walk in seaYou’re beyond life,Who isn’t marred?We’ll make it aroundYou’ve seen my mindYou’ve seen my mindYou’ve seen my mindYou’ve seen my mindYou’ve seen my mindYou’re not far behindWhat weary starsDon’t you keep it upYour shining stuffIs not enoughYou’ve seen my mindYou’ve seen my mindYou’ve seen my mindYou’ve seen my mindYou’ve seen my mindYou’ve seen my mindOooh,Leave it all here Weary starsKeep it upYour shining stuffIs not enoughYou’ve seen my mindYou’ve seen my mindYou’ve seen my mindYou’ve seen my mindYou’ve seen my mind

10.

Had a little altercation with myselfLoaded up the gun then put it awayWith a little more persuasion I succumbed to a cakeWaited 'til next November, and I cavedI saw my own reflection and ran awayYou know you get to the point where you don’t know your own face?People come and go until they’re gone,and when they’re gonewho you got, my love?Suppose I'll get myself together todayGet a more convincing smile for the strangers that I meetI hope they don’t see the crazy that I’ve got underneathCause I’ve a habit of falling over when I speak...Ahh,Who you got? Who you got? Who you got, my love?People come and go until they’re gone,and when they’re gonewho you got, my love?Had a little altercation with myselfFollowed all the rules and still lost the gameI never wanted to look back and wonder how I could’ve changed

11.

Leave it all week in mindNeedless to say you fooled me onceCome back and see just what you’ve doneI hope only you won’tCome back haunt meSuperficiallyPoint the gunDo it onceHold me softlyMake your ghostSpinning for hours at nightClimbing the walls while you sit and watchYou have all the powerLock all the doors and soakCome back haunt meSuperficiallyPoint the gunDo it onceHold me softlyMake your ghost

12.

Once was enoughEvery little thing you did is coming back, is coming back to youAnd it’s all aroundIt always comes in spadesIt works in many waysLike a bloody waterfallI kept a warm heartI kept it for you and it’s blownA perfect picture overthrownI wouldn’t know, I just wouldn’t knowI’ll just break like a willowBrittle seeds on your cold pillowMaybe we can just be friendsAnd never do it again

This album sits within a sense of place. As a songwriter, I can only speak of my own thoughts of home and belonging. I suppose this record is a wandering eye over the fleeting moments from the last few years, of when I felt at home, and when I didn’t. When I felt like the walls were tumbling, when they kept me safe, and when they became my prison. I learned the only way of breaking these patterns, was to let people step over the threshold.

Due to the intimacy of the songs, I wanted to preserve the organic nature of the words and the arrangements. The heart of every song was recorded live, from the front room of a farmhouse in Sevenoaks - everyone facing each other, hearing each other, and working together. The sounds you hear are preserved in the moment that they happened. Only tentative and selective moments were never changed in post.

The other-worldly elements, synths, sounds, etc, were still captured live. Three to four of us, tinkering with analogue synths, percussion, voices, iPads, etc, while the songs played. Rowan’s sensitivity as an engineer and producer, preserved every magical moment in his safe hands, while every person in the band shines throughout, regardless of trying to make this happen during the times of Covid, nothing was missing.

released February 10, 2023

Holly Henderson: Songwriting, vocals, guitar, keys/piano, synths, production

Jamie Chellar: Bass, vocals
Katy Chellar: Backing vocals
Luke Phillips: Drums, vocals, sound wizardry/production/synths
Harry Morley: Keys/piano, vocals, synths
Poggy: Flute
Pierre Flasse: Trombone
Andy Gladwell: Synths

Rowan: Production, engineering, mixing, barefoot wizardry
Mark Marler: Mastering
Joey Bullet:album artwork

(c) 2023 Ivy RecRods
(p) 2022 Ivy RecRods