The Wonder Years - No Closer To Heaven Album Lyrics

---

Brothers &

We're no saviours if we can't save our brothers
We're no saviours if we can't save our brothers
We're no saviours if we can't save our brothers
We're no saviours, we're no saviours

---

Cardinals

Cardinal crashed into my window. I think he might die.
I'll plan him a funeral. I'll read his last rites.
Because I know what he saw in that reflection of light.
On the glass was a better life.

Staring at a hole in your chest that's been dug there for decades.
American broken promises.
Caught between the lies you've been fed and a war with your bloodstream.
I should have been there when you needed a friend.

I was off on my own again, selfish and stupid.

So if you call me back or let me in,
I swear I'll never let you down again.
I know the devil you've been fighting with.
I swear I'll never let you down again.

I had that nightmare again - you're seven and helpless,
Angry as hell and you balled up your fists.
But I laughed at your swings and I beat you half-conscious.
I know that I failed you. Woke up in a sweat.

I want those years back.

So if you call me back or let me in,
I swear I'll never let you down again.
I know the devil you've been fighting with.
I swear I'll never let you down again.

We're no saviors if we can't save our brothers
We're no saviors if we can't save our brothers

So if you call me back or let me in,
(We're no saviors)
I swear I'll never let you down again.
(If we can't save our brothers)
I know the devil you've been fighting with.
(We're no saviors)
I swear I'll never let you down again.
(If we can't save our brothers)

So if you call me back or let me in,
(We're no saviors)
I swear I'll never let you down again.
(If we can't save our brothers)
I know the devil you've been fighting with.
(We're no saviors)
I swear I'll never let you down again.
(If we can't save our brothers)

---

A Song For Patsy Cline

My airbag light's been on for weeks
And I keep having dreams
Where I go through the windshield but I don't fix it.
Patsy Cline came and sang to me.
She told everybody
That she knew she would die soon before she did.

I hear you cry on "Faded Love".
The air in August here's heavy with salt and smoke and stings my lungs.

My airbag light's been on for weeks
And I can feel it mock me.
It's bittersweet, like laughter through crooked teeth.
I wanna move so far from everything
That they can hear my heart beat
And then break as I lay dying in the street.

They'll think the ice cracked at the lake.
They'll think a tire blew out and a car crashed on the interstate.

It's hard to watch you walk away.
These aren't the vultures that were circling just yesterday.
It's hard to watch you walk away.
(It's hard to watch you walk away.)
They're picking at bones, at what's left of your misery.

Whoa-oh, whoa-oh
Whoa-oh, whoa-oh

So when my vocal chords rip,
So when my knees give in,
So when I bury all of this,
Who's gonna give a shit
If I'm breathing?

It's hard to watch you walk away.
These aren't the vultures that were circling just yesterday.
It's hard to watch you walk away.
(It's hard to watch you walk away.)
They're picking at bones, at what's left of your misery.

Whoa-oh, whoa-oh
My airbag light's been on for weeks.
Whoa-oh, whoa-oh
My airbag light's been on for weeks.

---

I Don't Like Who I Was Then

Tossed around like sea glass and you rounded out my edges.
I'll feel better when the headaches go away.
I got a scar across my forehead, turning purple in the cold
From a night at Shore Memorial.
I was 16 and afraid.
Turned away, like I'm working baby face
Out of Mid-South in the 80's.
I kept a blade hidden in my wrist tape.

I think I'm growing into someone you could trust.
I want to shoulder the weight until my back breaks,
I want to run until my lungs give up.
If I could manage not to f*ck this up.
If I could manage not to f*ck this up.
I think enough is enough.

Hidden in the tall grass in the naked light of day,
I put my past-self in the ground.
I've been dancing on the grave.
I'm not the person that I was then,
I'm tearing him away.
I was bitter. I was careless.
I was 19 and afraid

But you deserved more from me.
I don't know why I would say those things.
But you deserved more from me and I'm trying every day.

I think I'm growing into someone you could trust.
I want to shoulder the weight until my back breaks,
I want to run until my lungs give up.
If I could manage not to f*ck this up.
If I could manage not to f*ck this up.
I think enough is enough.

You left me walking in circles.
You were a shot in the dark.
You were the baby teeth I buried.
You were the sounds of distant cars.

You left me walking in circles.
You were a shot in the dark.
You were the banner that says "No One"
That I tattooed across my heart.

You left me walking in circles.
You were a shot in the dark.
You're scattered like ashes across every song that I write.
You're where the light pollution starts.

I think I'm growing into someone you could trust.
I want to shoulder the weight until my back breaks,
I want to run until my lungs give up.
If I could manage not to f*ck this up.
If I could manage not to f*ck this up.
Enough is enough.

---

Cigarettes & Saints

Twice a week I pass by the church that held your funeral
and the pastor's words come pouring down like rain.
How he called you a sinner but said now you walk with Jesus,
so the drugs that took your life aren't gonna cause you any pain.

I don't think he even knew your name.
I refused to kneel or pray. I won't remember you that way
but I lit you a candle in every cathedral across Europe.
I hope you know you're still my patron saint.

I tried to forgive but I can't forget the cigar in his fist.
I know that they were heartsick but I need someone to blame
and I know how they blame me. I know what you'd say.
You'd tell me it was your fault. I should put all my arrows away.

I'm sure there ain't a heaven,
but that don't mean I don't like to picture you there.
I bet you're bumming cigarettes off saints.
I'm sure you're still singing
but I'll bet that you're still just a bit out of key.
With that crooked smile pushing words across your teeth.

You were heat lightning.
You were a storm that never rolled in.
You were the northern lights in a southern town, a caustic fleeting thing.
I'll bury your memories in the garden;
I'll watch them grow with the flowers in the spring.
I'll keep you with me.

These wolves in their suits and ties
saying "kid you can trust me."�
Charming southern drawl, sunken eyes.
Buying good will in hotel lobbies.
They got fistfuls of pills to make sure you don't hurt no more.
You don't gotta feel anything.
Got their fangs in our veins.
Got their voice in our heads.
Got our arms in their grips.
No, we can't shake free.
This god damn machine; hungry and heartless.
My whole generation got lost in the margin.
We put our faith in you. You turned a profit.
Now we're drowning here under your waves.
Drowning held under your waves.
Drowning here. Drowning here.
You can't have my friends. You can't have my brothers.
You can't have my friends. You can't have my brothers.
You can't have my friends. You can't have my brothers.
You can't have me. No, you can't have me.

---

The Bluest Things On Earth

We sat quiet on the hill,
Out just north of Wing's Field,
Waiting on the runway lights.
We were wrapped in winter coats.
And I said I'd drive you home.
You'd been pulling at your flask all night.

I wrapped my arms around the moment like I'm clutching a memory;
You alive in your madness, in love with the night.

The glow of the furnace.
The ambulance lights.
The bluest things on Earth don't know shit about the blues.
You used to be vibrant.
You used to burn bright.

Put out the light
In your clouded eyes.
Kept you inside
Through the summertime.
You put up a fight
Pressing flowers at night in a book that you loved.
The pieces they can't take of us.

I found you shaking at a lake,
A hospital bracelet still tight to your wrist.
We talked to fill the empty space.
Dance on the ice until it breaks.
They flooded a town so this park could exist.
You see us walking on the streets in your dreams.

The pills that they fed you.
Your half-awake eyes.
The bluest things on Earth don't know shit about the blues.
You used to burn.

Put out the light
In your clouded eyes.
Kept you inside
Through the summertime.
You put up a fight
Pressing flowers at night in a book that you loved.
The pieces they can't take of us.

Put out the light
In your clouded eyes.
Kept you inside
Through the summertime.
You put up a fight
Pressing flowers at night in a book that you loved.
There's pieces they can't take of us.
There's pieces they can't take of us.

---

A Song For Ernest Hemingway

The sky goes from concrete to charcoal.
I'm laying on my back on the roof.
I'm gonna shoot these clouds full of holes.
I need some f*cking light to pour through
Because December's got me up against the ropes.
And I don't know how to get loose.
I can't get feeling back in my toes.
I'm walking in circles with you
Like we're lost Canadian geese.
I should be south of here already.

I'll be your dead bird.
You'll be my bloodhound.
You're just doing what you're told;
Pick my body off the ground.
I'll be your dead bird.

I'm staring at Hemingway's shotgun.
I picture him drinking alone.
He's forgetting things that he wouldn't have before.
His eyesight's starting to go.
And I heard all about how his plane went down after Christmas in the Congo.
He read about his own death in the paper.
I bet it was freeing to know.
When you destroy anything worth chasing,
There's nowhere left to go.

I'll be your dead bird.
You'll be my bloodhound.
You're just doing what you're told;
Pick my body off the ground.
I'll be your dead bird.
Hanging from your mouth.
You're doing what you're told;
Gonna make your master proud.
It's good to know
I didn't die for nothing.

December's got me backed into a corner again.
My ears are back.
My teeth are showing.
I'm combing through the wreckage trying to find where I've been.
I still get phantom pains,
But from a safer distance.

I'll be your dead bird.
You'll be my bloodhound.
You're just doing what you're told;
Pick my body off the ground.
I'll be your dead bird.
Hanging from your mouth.
You're doing like you're told;
Gonna make your master proud.
It's good to know
I didn't die for nothing.

December's got me backed into a corner again.
My ears are back.
(I didn't die for nothing.)
My teeth are showing.
I'm combing through the wreckage trying to find where I've been.
I still get phantom pains,
I didn't die for nothing.

---

Thanks For The Ride

I washed chain grease and blood off of my hands in the ocean;
I let the salt water rinse the dirt away.
I stood calm in a room I hadn't been in in a decade.
I felt dizzy, used to stand here everyday.

Wait out the storm in a harbor town.
Pretend I'll see you in fall.
Wait out the storm in a harbor town.
Whoa.

Hey Hannah, don't go.
We could have given you such a beautiful home.
I won't call.
Know you're waiting right outside.
Thanks for the ride.

I watched lines of container ships drift in just off of Long Beach.
I thought long about where you would be today.
We'd lose touch after college came and went.
I'd hear you got married to some boy from California;
Have a baby on the way.

Wait out the storm in a harbor town.
Pretend I'll see you in fall.
Wait out the storm in a harbor town.
Whoa.

Hey Hannah, don't go.
We could have given you such a beautiful home.
I won't call.
Know you're waiting right outside.
Thanks for the ride.

Hey Hannah, don't go.
We could have given you such a beautiful home.
I won't call.
Know you're waiting right outside.

I'm letting balloons drift off - tiny gifts to a lonely god.
Darlin' please wake up.
I'm letting balloons drift off - tiny gifts to a lonely god.
If you see her tell her I'm not giving up.
(See her tell her I'm not giving up.)

Hey Hannah, don't go.
We could have given you such a beautiful home.
I won't call.
Know you're waiting right outside.

Hey Hannah, don't go.
We could have given you such a beautiful home.
I won't call.
Know you're waiting right outside.
(Thanks for the ride.)

Hey Hannah, don't go.
We could have given you such a beautiful home.
I won't call.
Know you're waiting right outside.
Thanks for the ride.

---

Stained Glass Ceilings

Like a burning monk,
You're my light flare out in the dark.
You're my constant call to arms.
Took the blindfold off,
They'd left chalk outlines where the future was.
It's a god damned war of attrition.
It's a death by a thousand cuts.
And if these motherf*ckers made it to Heaven,
They'd burn the bridge when they got across.

They're getting their anchors.
They're gathering rope.
You're pushing to Heaven all alone.
They're grabbing your ankles.
They won't let you go.
The ebb and the distant flow.
They're cutting your wings off.
Built your ceilings out of stained glass.

You're caught like gravel in my skinned knee.
The wound will close eventually.
You'll stay as a reminder of
How f*cked this world can be.
Held your funeral on a Tuesday.
Holy water's November-cold.
The kid that pulled the trigger
Knew tomorrow couldn't promise him hope.

All these bastards are gathering rope.
You're pushing to heaven all alone.
They're grabbing your ankles.
They won't let you go.
The ebb and the distant flow.
They're cutting your wings off.
Built your ceilings out of stained glass.
They were cutting your wings off.
I was staring at my idle hands.

Maybe I could have done something.
Maybe I could have made a difference.

John Wayne with a God complex
Tells me to buy a gun like shooting a teenage kid
Is gonna solve any problems,
Like it's an arms race,
Like death don't mean nothing.
To know the heavy price of living poor
Walled in by red lines
Backed into a corner.
Not knowing, growing up,
What it's like to belong here
In America.

[Jason Aalon Butler:]
If everyone's built the same,
Then how come building's so f*cking hard for you?
It's something we're all born into.
Nothing's left up to grey.
It's black or white and sometimes black and blue.
It's something we're all born into.
Whoa.
Now I know what's in a name; not just my father's.
Three-fifths a man makes half of me.
Why should I bother?
Merchants of misery stacking the deck.
F*ck your John Waynes.
F*ck your God complex.
I've got everything in front of me, but can't reach far enough
To reach these fever dreams they call American.
I am the ghetto's chosen one.
The privileged bastard son.

They're getting their anchors.
They're gathering rope.
You're pushing to Heaven all alone.
They're getting their anchors.
They're gathering rope.
You're pushing to Heaven all alone.

---

I Wanted So Badly To Be Brave

I cut open my palm and held it out to you.
You did the same with your old army surplus blade.
My blood's never as warm as I'd expect it.
You grabbed my hand adorned in wildflower warpaint.

You made yellows out of Marigolds.
You made purple out of Camellias.

We charged headfirst into the woods with bows and arrows drawn.
Crudely fashioned--sticks and rubber bands and spray paint.
We swore ourselves protectors from all the evil in the world.
You weren't born my brother but you're gonna die that way.

You ran alone
(You ran alone)
In the falling snow
Barefoot down White's Road.
I watched your bruises grow,
(Your bruises grow)
Strangely beautiful,
Purple and yellow.
You said, "Don't.
Don't take me home. Don't take me home. Don't take me home."

Your father came in angry like a thunderstorm.
He tossed you room from room and I watched color draining from your face.
Fault lines started forming underneath all of your floorboards.
We sat terrified, waiting on an earthquake.

I watched you put on a brave face.
I wanted so badly to be brave.

You ran alone
(You ran alone)
In the falling snow
Barefoot down White's Road.
I watched your bruises grow,
(Your bruises grow)
Strangely beautiful,
Purple and yellow.
You said, "Don't.
Don't take me home. Don't take me home. Don't take me home."

Whoa oh oh
Whoa oh oh oh
Whoa oh oh
Whoa oh oh oh

They kicked you out to teach you what a man is.
I don't think I'll ever know what that means.
They'll put a gun into your hand and call you weak until you're violent.
Don't believe it.
They're hateful because they're empty.
We got a chance to break the cycle.
We could be the heroes that we always said we'd be.
But don't take me home. Don't take me home. Don't take me...

Don't take me home. Don't take me home. Don't take me
Home, home.

Don't take me home. Don't take me home. Don't take me
Home, home.

Don't take me home. Don't take me home. Don't take me..

---

You In January

Goddamn, you look holy hit from behind with light.
You're a painting of a saint
And I'm nervous stumbling over my lines
When I tell you I love you
And we stare at Catalina.
A city lost to the sea,
Carried out by the tide.

You were the one thing I got right.

Goddamn, you look holy
Bathed in the January light
On the floor of our new bedroom
On the carpet with the window opened wide.
And when you tell me you love me,
I can actually see it.
Your breath frozen in the air,
Newborn droplets of ice.

You were the one thing I got right.

I'm measuring heartbeats in miles away.
You held me together. I used to burst and decay.
We got off the airplane, a couple of runaways.
I was hoping you'd stay.
Could you stay?

You were the obvious one.
From a taxicab in Chelsea
Out past Salvation Mountain.
You were the obvious one.
From a walk along the highline
Out to Wicker Park in August.
You were the obvious one.
From your upper-east side dorm room
To the southwest Marin Headlands
With you smiling in the sand.
Goddamn, I hate leaving.

Another early flight.
I ran the dishwasher this morning.
I wanted there to be clean plates for you tonight.
I've grown used to your perfume.
It hangs in the morning light.
Wake me up before you leave for work
And kiss me goodbye.

You were the one thing I got right.

I'm measuring heartbeats in miles away.
You held me together. I used to burst and decay.
We got off the airplane, a couple of runaways.
I was hoping you'd stay.
Could you stay?

I'm measuring heartbeats in miles away.
You held me together. I used to burst and decay.
We got off the airplane, a couple of runaways.
I'm glad that you stayed.

---

Palm Reader

I bought flowers from a drifter.
Cut my hand on a thorn,
Straight across the fate line.
I'm no palm reader,
But I doubt that's the sign that I was looking for.
Rainy night in California.
Told me he fought in the war.
And I'm so desperate to do the right thing.
I'm not sure what that even is anymore.

He found a bus stop to weather the storm.

I'm gonna stand up straight.
I'm gonna clear my throat and speak out unafraid.
Mom, I want you to know
I'm letting everything you taught me guide me home.

Faded light from the projector
Spitting summer out on a screen.
The pool we swam in caved in years ago.
We filled it up with furniture and concrete.
I saw right from wrong then.
The lines were simple and clean.
Now all the people I was taught would be heroes
Are acting like cowards, killers, and thieves.
I'm loosing track of who the good guys are supposed to be.

I'm gonna stand up straight.
I'm gonna clear my throat and speak out unafraid.
Dad, I want you to know
I'm letting everything you taught me guide me home.

Coming undone at the seams.
Stress fractures and muted dreams.
Oh, please.
Undone at the seams.
Stress fractures and muted dreams.
Oh, please.
Undone at the seams.
Stress fractures and muted dreams.
Oh...

I'm gonna stand up straight.
I'm gonna clear my throat and speak out unafraid.
Mom, I want you to know
I'm letting everything you taught me guide me home.

Stand up straight.
I'm gonna clear my throat and speak out unafraid.
Dad, I want you to know
I'm letting everything you taught me guide me home.

---

No Closer To Heaven

I'm digging up the bones of the failures I've buried.
I'm pulling down my white flags
In varying stages of sun-bleached and grey.
I'm gonna sew them all together.
I'm gonna fashion the bones into a frame.
Tie the flags on with string.
Stretched across until they're wings.
I'm no closer to Heaven.

I clipped a bird with my car on the freeway.
He won't see a burial and all week long I kept thinking of death,
How me and Hemingway share forehead scars.
I won't meet the same fate that he did.
In a world that I can't fix,
With a hammer in my grip,
I'm no closer to Heaven.

It feels like the day before something important.
It feels like the first snow of the season that sticks.
It's how I'll always feel like a failure
In the back of my head
No matter where I've been.

The future feels bright
Like the glow of a city
Out across the Great Plains,
Where the closer I get, the further I feel away.
I could stay here in the darkness.
Feels like I'm wandering in circles for days.
I may never reach the gates.
I'll keep walking anyway.
I'm no closer to Heaven.

---

Slow Dancing With San Andreas

(Target Bonus Track)

The heat coming off of the highway
makes the mountains out in the distance
look like they're shuddering;
look like they lost themselves in a moment
they hate remembering.
I know the feeling.

I want you to know (I want you to know)
I don't feel so alone (I don't feel so alone)

I'm slow dancing with San Andreas,
scared to death I won't walk these streets again.
If we fail are we collateral damage?
Did any of this make a difference?

These snow drifts haunt the Dakotas
like they're ghosts crawling on the freeway
Looking for a resting place.
Looking for roadside memorials, crosses and roses, a makeshift grave
A place they could fade away.

I want you to know (I want you to know)
I don't feel so alone (I don't feel so alone)

I'm slow dancing with San Andreas,
scared to death I won't walk these streets again.
If we fail are we collateral damage?
Did any of this make a difference?

I'm drowning in shallow water.
I'm singing through the lump in my throat again.
If I'm given a voice but I don't say a thing,
is that blood on my hands?

My grandfather drove a city bus
so maybe all this wandering in circles
comes from somewhere in my blood.
My grandfather drove a city bus
so maybe all this restlessness,
this discontent, this constant search for progress is in my blood

I'm slow dancing with San Andreas,
scared to death I won't walk these streets again.
If we fail are we collateral damage?
Did any of this make a difference?

I'm drowning in shallow water.
I'm singing through the lump in my throat again.
If I'm given a voice but I don't say a thing,
is that blood on my hands?