Higher Lonely Power
Written and performed by Fireworks
Engineered by Marc Hudson
Mixed by Andy Nelson
Mastered by Brad Boatright
Additional Vocals by Steven Branstrom, Ali Mosshart, Andy Nelson
String and Orchestral Arrangements by Adam Mercer
Additional Programming by Marc Hudson
Vocal recording on Tracks 7 & 9 by Andy Nelson
Cover photo by Daniel Ribar
1. GOD APPROVED INSURANCE PLAN
Written and Performed by Fireworks
Feedback by Andy Nelson
Gave us all names that were biblical
Ended up feeling ornamental
Do you feel lonely too?
It’s the messiah that turned me on to you
The church in our home but on taxed land
I gave up my free time,
For a god approved insurance plan
I feel doom it’s my phantom limb
Like shafts of light in your room I wish I could lay in
2. I WANT TO START A RELIGION WITH YOU
Written and Performed by Fireworks
Additional vocals by Steven Branstrom & Ali Mosshart
String and Orchestral Arrangements by Adam Mercer
In a dream you swim to me (Marriott, Chicago)
All I see is your mouth moving
We fucking sucked at talking
I force it everyday
In a metaphysical way
Just for once make some time for me
Jesus died at 33
Shapes shift in the night
I love my sad life
I want to start a religion
I’m wandering all around Northern Michigan
The weather feels like I lost you again
On the anniversary of that day
I took a bar of soap into the lake
The first generation way, as a kid I was ashamed
Shapes shift in the night
I love my sad life
I want to start a religion
I did what I was told,
American wife and American home
I want to start a religion
I’m alone without you, but I was alone with you too
I want to start a religion with you
3. GOODNIGHT TOMB
Written and Performed by Fireworks
Additional vocals by Steven Branstrom
Had a feeling that I couldn’t understand
You remind me of him
I can’t look at your hands
Cause they look just like his
Had a feeling I wanted you to understand,
So we drove down after thanksgiving,
But it’s all office buildings where the woods used to be
What’s left of my life
Will just be a memory, not for me
But for somebody
I can be yours
America’s tomb,
Seal me in with you
God damn I’m happy,
Learning to be your nobody
Everything is hard
But with you it’s easy
One day I’ll take you to see
Where they did medical experiments on me
When I needed money
4. MEGACHURCH
Written and performed by Fireworks
Additional vocals by Steven Branstrom & Ali Mosshart
String and Orchestral Arrangements by Adam Mercer
The megachurch is god now
You don’t need Him anymore
Put the mortgage on your house down
Speak in tongues and roll on the floor
The kids will love the coffee shop
We’re the new evangelicals
Dancing drunk on the blood of christ
While the serpent sings through the radio
Glad it wasn’t my child
But my family needs protecting
Because like a crocodile
We shed tears while we break skin
You don’t have to think too much
We know god’s candidate
Religious freedom won’t be touched
We’ll keep the gays from our children
Hurts to know we’re on our own
Sad to know we’re in control
5. FUNERAL PLANT
Written and performed by Fireworks
Additional vocals by Steven Branstrom & Ali Mosshart
String and Orchestral Arrangements by Adam Mercer
We slept in the same room
But in different houses
Hating ourselves since the early 2000’s
Watched the republic collapse
From a TV on wheels in third hour class
Prayed to be like everyone else
They found drugs or Jesus
And I just had myself
Does anyone really feel anything, anymore, anyway?
Decorated crosses off of exit ramps
Hallmark holidays won’t let you forget
Remembering warmer weather
And all the funerals we went to together
What was it about me back then?
If you want I can try to be it again
6. JERKING OFF THE SKY
Written and performed by Fireworks
Additional vocals by Steven Branstrom & Ali Mosshart
String and Orchestral Arrangements by Adam Mercer
Just like that they radicalized these retired minds
Twilight of life in fear, they monetized
When history has it’s run
What will be our version,
Of giving our youngest born to the sun?
Pigs making money selling war on TV
To save themselves from bankruptcy
Fog of war is a bore
Smell your jacket you left in my Jansport
Will CEO’s still want to buy my young blood?
Life in the other world
I’d die if I could see it
Chained to what I want
But still want to walk away
My life in the other world
Would you die to see my
Life in the other world?
7. THE MACHINES KEPT YOU ALIVE
Written and performed by Fireworks
Additional vocals by Andy Nelson
Stare into the sun
And the dust floating
Though the god shaped hole in me
Stare into the sun
It was my baptism in a way
Love the pain too
Love what it does to you
Who knew life could be this good?
8. BLOOD IN THE MILK
Written and performed by Fireworks
Additional vocals by Ali Mosshart
Slept on floors of hotel rooms
Night swam in water thicker than the womb’s
Turned out a museum of grief
But I still find that space in my mind sometimes
I wish I could let you in
That space in my mind sometimes
It might be what they think heaven is
Drove to Ann Arbor that morning
Watched them stick their needle into me
Passed out when the blood left my arm
I thought you had to love the pain sometimes
Just wanted to buy you things
And what it does sometimes
It might be what they think heaven is
Blood in the milk and pesticides on the honey
Woke up afraid to die when we used to think it was funny
The neighbors nativity scene
Killed the grass living underneath
They thought I was wild and free
But I was angry and lonely
Blood in the milk and pesticides on the honey
Woke up afraid to die when we used to think it was funny
3/4ths of the world is all dark, deep, and cold
So they dipped our heads in it
Right after we were born
9. VEINS IN DAVID’S HANDS
Written and performed by Fireworks
They want my soul but not my body
They want my money but won’t bury me
If god can’t stop it with his finger,
Could he at least care about the caliber?
More dead kids in the gun altar
You’re like a dog racing a battery
But hey, there’s nothing special about me
When nerve endings burst in my head
You’ll get your tunnel of light instead
Fly through your tunnel of light instead
There’s no reason to believe in
Different bed sleeping spouses
Parents take pills but own lake houses
And pretend to feel real again
Michael put veins in David’s hands
10. ESTATE SALE
Written and performed by Fireworks
Like Lazarus I rose
But I got bored and just wanted to go home
I never asked to be alive
And I don’t think I owe god anything
I’ve been wading out in this world for so long
Now I’m reborn
Even though I don’t see a horizon anymore
You keep reminding me of the feeling when I see
A picture of my parents together
Where they’re younger than me
I want to know, who’s at my side in the monitor glow?
I want to know, who will be left alone?
11. WOODS II
Written and performed by Fireworks
String and Orchestral Arrangements by Adam Mercer
Mosquitoes pull blood through my clothes
Just like the pavement did to yours
I remember afterwards,
Grown men begged me to give my life to the lord
I watched two die in July
Then one born in the winter time
She took the life from all three
And put it back into me
It’s not my world
It always just felt forced to me
I’ve been everywhere
And I felt nothing there
Never did what young men were supposed to do
Got in the van instead of Pittsburgh for art school
I watched two die in July
Then one born in the winter time
She took the life from all three
And put it back into me
It’s not my world
It always just felt forced to me
I promise I won’t take you with me
I let it win just like my parents did
Trauma sucks chemicals
Human voids that will never be filled
12. HOW DID IT USED TO BE SO EASY?
Written and Performed by Fireworks
Additional vocals by Steven Branstrom
String and Orchestral Arrangements by Adam Mercer
There’s a church up the street
And on the sign up front they say
“Be a fountain not a drain”
I’m just not that way
In the first days of fall
They nail crosses in the lawn
For the fake dead babies to shame us all
You could be happy without me
How did it used to be so easy?
I’m just like that part
We should all be born without
When it goes bad all they do is take it out
You could be happy without me
How did it used to be so easy?
There’s a meadow that’s left for you
But it stings our legs when we walk through
It’s not easy