Neko Case - The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You Album Lyrics

When you catch the light
You look like your mother
It crushes me some
Just right from the side

When you catch the light
There's a flash of wild creatures
Before the Stone Age of the preachers
And the husbands, and the wives

When you catch the light
The flood changes direction
And darkens the lens
That projects my disguise

As you fight along-side
You'll discover my weakness
I'm not fighting for your freedom
I am fighting to be wild

"Hey, little girl, would you like to be
The king's pet or the king?"
"I'd choose odorless and invisible
But otherwise I would choose the king
Even though it sounds the loneliest
And my brother's hands would poison me."

"Hey, little girl, would you like to be
The king's pet or the king?"
"I'd choose odorless and invisible
But otherwise I would choose the king
Even though it sounds melodious
There's no mother's hands to quiet me."

My brain makes drugs to keep me slow,
A hilarious joke for some dead pharaoh.
But now, not even the masons know
What drug will keep night from coming.

There are so many tools that are made for my hands.
But the tide smashes all my best-laid plans to sand.
And there's always someone to say it's easy for me,
But I revenge myself all over myself.
There's nothing you can say to me.

You never held it at the right angle,
You never held it at the right angle,
Catch a, catch a, catch a, catch a falling star,
But wash your hands of it
Catch a, catch a, catch a, catch a falling star
Because you can't hold it.

Did they poison my food? Is it 'cause I'm a girl?
If I puked up some sonnets, would you call me a miracle?
I'm gonna go where my urge leads no more.
Swallowed, waist-deep, in the gore of the forest
A boreal feast, let it finish me, please.
Cause I revenge myself all over myself.
There's nothing you can do to me.

You never held it at the right angle,
You never held it at the right angle,
Catch a, catch a, catch a, catch a falling star,
But wash your hands of it
Catch a, catch a, catch a, catch a falling star
Because you can't own it.
You never held it at the right angle,
You never held it at the right angle.

You never held it,
You never held it,
You never held it, oh
You never held it,
You never held it,
You never held it, oh
You never held it,
You never held it,
You never held it, oh

I'm a man
That's what you raised me to be
I'm not an identity crisis
This was planned

I'm a man
There's innocence in all mankind
It's what kind of animal I am
It's that simple, oh

I'm a man
And not just casually
I pull the sparks fulltime
The tree house cannot support me

I'm not the runt of the litter
The fat finger bullies were no match for me
So taste them in my teeth
I'm a man

I'm a man's man
Always been
Make no mistake
I've invested in
A woman's heart
It's the watermark
Of which I measure
Everything

I'm a man
That's what you raised me to be
I'm not your identity crisis
This was planned

I'm a man
You'll have to deal with me
My proxy is mine
You'll deal with me directly

And if I'm dipshit drunk on the pink perfume
I am the man in the f*cking moon
'Cause you didn't know what a man was
Until I showed you

Lights unshine
The ghetto-bird shines 4 am,
Welcome to the West
A mosquito to kiss your hands and feet
Welcome to this dirty business

I was surprised
When you called me a lady
'Cause I'm still not so sure that that's what I wanna be
'Cause I remember the 80's
And I remember its puffy sleeves
You say I'm lucky to be here,
Then maybe you can take this over
And I'll gladly wear the pants into the next century
Past the scanners with ease

Past armies of them,
Who once played in a band
And wasted it complaining like a trust fund kid
Paying you to play here while they hate you because of it.
You say I'm "lucky to be here",
But I've been driving for 21 days.

What's that nasty sound?
The E-brake drags the ground
God, if you only knew
What my candied fist could do.
The curtain's closing in from all direction,
Just answer my question.
Perhaps it's best if I continue
Starring me as you, me as you.
Starring me as you, me as you.

And there you are,
At the edge of the world,
Dangling with my heart a' pounding.
Above a gulf of hamstrung promises
You sang like "Auld Lang Syne",
You wanted it so badly that you believed them at the time

Every fashion's flame,
Every jet plane-lie,
Every second helping of that off-ramp fame we die,
A little

You're right, I'm from nowhere
You're right, I'm from nowhere
You're right, I'm from nowhere
You're right.

I dropped my gloves into the stove
Hymns echoed out the grate
I fell in love with those electric lights
That drug me into town so late

To nimble, cunning, clever nights
I railed behind them, deputized
To scrape the lens of Christian eyes,

I'm a Friday night girl
Bracing for Sunday to come

I only ever held one love,
Her name was Mary Anne
She died having a child by her brother
He died because I murdered him.

I shot him through his jelly eye
And I won myself his wicked life,
Now I thread-the-needle waltz through mine,

I'm a Friday night girl
Bracing for Sunday to come.

Emptied onto shifting sheets,
Staring rosary holes in my ceiling,
Waiting for my purpose to deliver,
And reveal itself to me
But all I hear are subway trains
Bang against their bedrock lanes
So I bang a little too...

I'm a Friday night girl
Bracing for Sunday to come
Bracing for Sunday to come.

Hey little kid
That I saw at the bus stop one day
It was nearly midnight in Honolulu
We were waiting for the shadow
To take us to the aero plane
When your mother said, your mother said
Like I couldn't hear her

She said 'Get the f*ck away from me'
Why don't you ever shut up?
Get the f*ck away from me oh, oh

Well I just wanna say that it happened
'Cause one day when you ask yourself
Did it really happen?
You won't believe it
But yes it did
And I'm sorry, and I'm sorry
'Cause it happens every day
They won't believe you
When you tell them
They won't believe you
When you say
My mother she did not love me
My mother, she did not love me

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no

Some days it feel like a cartoon
And people will rush to make excuses for you
You'll hear yourself complain
But don't you ever shut up
Please can have your say
'Cause I still love you
Even if I don't see you again

Used a calling card of a pay phone
From the other coast
Just to tell you how good it was to hear you
In those songs you wrote

You made me think there was something coming
Really something worth waiting for
Blah, blah, blah. They talk about, oh oh

Every dial tone, every truck stop, every heartbreak
I love you more
Looking like you just woke up from making songs,
Shooting satellites that blew up the pay phones...
Singing we'll all be together,
Even when we're not together
With our arms around each other,
With our faith still in each other

I've got calling cards
From 20 years ago.

Baby, come out
I need you in the street
At the place by the old far station
We'll get something to eat
Like we talked about
Baby, come down,
It's been a while now
I got so many things I could tell you
If my stubborn mouth doesn't let me down

And I can't look at you straight on
You're made from something different and I know
Try to slip the marching clock
But centipedes invade my thoughts
Without feeling'
I kneel and I go
You step onto that metal plate
Where it meets the dazzling sound of trains
And I beg those trains to run

'Cause I can't look at you straight on
You're made from something different and I know
My eyes run the sidewalk, it's going home
I swear under my breathe because I'm starving in your gravity
You're made from something different and I know!

You linger just a little long
I see your gun is drawn
With the safety on,
You can't walk me back to my hotel
Like it was home
And I smell those fools you made cordwood of
And petty dreams that leave me sleep in here in your arms
City swan!
Our crook'd necks long
City swan!

I can't look at you straight on
You're made from something different and I know
And it breaks my heart just like the day,
That I looked down and I realized
I'd been sailing so long I'd become the shore

City swans,
Our crook'd necks long
City swans

Cease to know or to tell or to see
Or to be your own
Cease to know or to tell or to see
Or to be your own

Have someone else's will as your own
Have someone else's will as your own
You are beautiful and you are alone
You are beautiful and you are alone

Often the adolescent play
Reward your grace
Often the adolescent play
Reward your grace

Confuse your hunger
Capture the fake
Confuse your hunger
Capture the fake

Banish the faceless
Reward your grace
Banish the faceless
Reward your grace

I pass the light that the young people make
​How joyfully it's wasted
​I feel the weight of the needle's repeat and sigh
​Sang my weight in metric trash
​Trip the light in Saturn's embrace
​You'll give up some local girl while our lights
​Our lights blot out her face
​
​All of you lie about something
​(You know you do, all of you, shame on you, all of you lie)
​You're on a first-name basis
​All of you lie about something
​(You know you do, all of you, shame on you, all of you lie)
​You're on a first-name basis
​
​God damn the time
​God damn the miles
​And take me away from you
​And change your face

​And change the way I love you
​And change the way I love you
​And change the way I loved you
​And change the way I loved you

A chill ran though me
And I grabbed on tight
That was when I left my body for good
And I shook off all the strength I'd earned
I wanted so badly not to be me
I wanted so badly not to be me
I saw my shadow looking lost
Checking it's pockets for some lostt receipts
Where did I leave that fire?
Where did I leave that fire?

Will a stranger find it on a curb idling?
Cold cough and the time zone just short of outer space?
Six o'clock tomorrow a strange voice says to me
I do believe we have a fire lady
You can pick it up if you come down with ID

You can pick it up if you come down with ID

Last night, late, I was watching it snow,
It always goes sideways in the city
It comes right out from the streetlights, you know..,
Pumped out by an engine deep inside the earth's core
It goes sideways in the city

Cover the shapes and erase the date
This could be any evening in any place
The blizzard blows from left to right,
Which is funny cause the piano's playing "Summertime", from 1935
So sounds the alarm of Ragtime
It's Ragtime keeping time

Brave to the waves of its residue,
Its laughter from a marbled room
The white-crowned sounds of possible,
The sound that lures me
It says, "Don't you hurry.
Don't you worry, kid, we'll be seeing you.
We'll see you when you're ready."

Ragtime turning out the sun and moon,
Its gravity is soothing
It winds me in a sleek cocoon
I'll reveal myself when I'm ready,
I'll reveal myself invincible soon.