All songs by Leslie Feist for the album Multitudes 2023
In Lightning
When in lightning flashes flash
And thunder loves me back
And in lightning
I can keep my energy intact
And when the lightning is like the sun
I feel what love could be
Truly illuminated the future does
Lay landing lights for me
And in lightning
Flashes flash to show our natural age
And the lightning lights me up
To be as God as I say
Then to lightning I belong
Like electricity
And if I’m frightened it’s just because
Of the power vested in me
And in lightning I’m the thunder
Thundering in my heart
And in lightning I can see
Just as well in thе dark
The lightning asks if I know the way
In the intеrmittent bright
And if I say yes or many yeses
It cracks
FOREVER BEFORE
I’ve never begun a forever before
Been using up life like I knew I had more
One breath at a time
The only one there
Another day to be alone in
Another lake to throw a stone in
I’m soft in the heart
Where hard edges align
I try to be a good friend
Most of the time
Too much of a good thing
When even freedom wears thin
So what’s gotta end
For forever to begin?
Fear, fearless
Oh fear, fearlessness
I’ve never begun right from the start
I was thinking that love
Was a commiserate heart
I’d begin by backing in
Just so I could back out
Another way to be alone is
Be the lake you throw the stone in
Fear, fearless
Oh fear, fearless
Oh fear, fearless
Oh fear, fearlessness
I’ve never begun a forever before
Until I didn’t want anything else anymore
All the time in the world
You can’t begin to prepare
For forever before
She’s sleeping right over there
Love Who We Are Meant To
Make it up as I go
That’s all I can do when
Haven’t got a clue when
I’ll see you again
And when that day comes
And all I shouldn’t say runs
Out before I stop it
Cause I felt it as I thought it
We will struggle with the truth
That sometimes we don’t get to
Love who we are meant to
Love who we are meant to
Drafting as I drift
I cannot write nor reckon it
So will I let it wreck me
Or wreck my dream of family?
Even denial is romantic
And that’s romance’s disadvantage
That sometimes we don’t get to
Love who we are meant to
Well maybe that you’re a real man
Is what is in the way
Cause the idea of the man I love
He’s always loved me
In his lonely way
What I can feel from my ideal, Love
Is also love
In a lonely way
Hiding Out in the Open
Everybody’s got their shit
But who’s got the guts to sit with it?
Everybody’s on their own
So that way we’re never alone
But the mirror in another’s eyes
That’ll get you every time
There are a thousand different ways to hide
Hiding out in the open
Maybe I’m gonna let you down
Nothing’s gonna make us new
What’s done is not gonna undo
Hiding out in the open
Maybe he’s gonna let me down
Love is not a thing you try to do
It wants to be the thing compelling you
What we should probably say
Let’s put off for a few more days
And anyway, I’ll pretend not to hear
Until you whisper it in my ear
Ooh, hot voice on my neck
Would change the context
I want you warm as a loaf of bread
Thousand ways to be fed
Hiding out in the open
Maybe I’m gonna let you down
Nothing’s gonna make us new
What’s done is not gonna undo
Hiding out in the open
Maybe he’s gonna let me down
Love is not a thing you try to do
It wants to be the thing compelling you
To be you
Love is not a thing you try to do
It wants to be the thing compelling you
To be you
The Redwing
Came along the winter
And killed off all my language
The shadows got long on the walk
Across the ice on the lake
The future of December
Is memories of last summer
And I stoke it like a wood stove
I’m always wanting more
The endless weight of my life
Can be lifted up like wings
The underneath of my life
An effortlessness in it sings
I live up to what I sing to
As if I’m telling the truth
I imagine who is listеning
And it’s not all of you that I mean
“La la la la” in the morning
When thе blinds are opened
That’s when I see the redwing
And the redwing sees me too
The endless weight of our lives
Can be lifted up like wings
The underneath of our lives
An effortlessness in it sings
California winter
It brought me back my language
And then once I’d spoken the truth
That’s when the redwing landed
And she sang “La la la la la la”
I Took All of My Rings Off
I took all of my rings off
I took all of my rings off
Out of my ears, off of my fingers, and out of my dreams
I opened the window to let in the wind
And get rid of what might’ve been
But then I put them out in the dirt
Like I was planting a tree
Letting the gold, letting the silver leave
Out of the seeds, quickly the evergreen
While surreal it’s true
The gods laid down the whole of Earth in silence
Symmetry became the moving lines we call a circle
The world’s a ring, the stars are rings
The moon’s a ring, the light got in
Lifted the whole Earth to singing
Lifted the whole Earth to singing
Then I put all of my rings back on
I put my rings back on
Then I put all of my rings back on
I put my rings back on
And sang to the birds who lived in the tree
They know all about me
Of Womankind
Blow my mind
Show the wind
How to pass time
Higher mind, be of womankind
Be of higher mind, be of womankind
What you had before you could leave behind
What you had before you could leave behind
Be of higher mind, be of womankind
Be of higher mind, be of womankind
I knew it but it took a while
I tried to try and fix the past
A task you cannot hope to do
And I commiserate with you
Who made the parallel mistakes
That add up to our greying braids
Climb above the mountainside
Protest song’s sung in our eyes
We’ll lift up like a flock of birds
Cycle through to murmuration
And power grows God only knows
We’ll deconstruct construction noise
A cherry lip and uniform
The hubris that the humans wore
The body is a corporation
I believe we’re all the fool tonight
Higher mind, be of womankind
Be of higher mind, be of womankind
What you had before you could leave behind
What you had before you could leave behind
Be of higher mind, be of womankind
Be of higher mind, be of womankind
A tarot card for all the world
Unlikely to apologize
Just overthrow the cup of words
That the body politic deserves
Just look what’s happening to her
Just look what’s happening to her
Become the Earth
We aim for the air
One wing, then the other gets us there
Above the dirt until we one day, unfazed
We become the earth
Become the earth
Become the earth
Belonging in longing
Could last as long as love is
Longer than measurement
Until we all become the earth
Become the earth
Become the earth
Become the earth
Periwinkle, cobalt, magnolia tree
Flee ’til you’re free, and stay loving me
Some people have gone and the people who stayed
Will eventually go in a matter of days
Dust into dust as material must
Ash into ash into plexi and trash
Skilled eye, landmark in Styrofoam, time
Carried remainders on overgrown vines
Periwinkle, cobalt, magnolia tree
Flee ’til you’re free, and stay loving me
Some people have gone and the people who stayed
Will eventually go in a matter of days
Become the earth
Periwinkle, cobalt, magnolia tree
Flee ’til you’re free, and stay loving me
Some people have gone and the people who stayed
Will eventually go in a matter of days
Become the earth
Dust into dust as material must
Ash into ash into plexi and trash
Skilled eye, landmark in Styrofoam, time
Carried remainders on overgrown vines
Become the earth
Periwinkle, cobalt, magnolia tree
Flee ’til you’re free, and stay loving me
Some people have gone and the people who stayed
Will eventually go in a matter of days
Periwinkle, cobalt, magnolia tree
Flee ’til you’re free, and stay loving me
Some people have gone and the people who stayed
Will eventually go in a matter of days
Borrow Trouble
[Verse 1]
To sleeping innocent minds
It happens at the break of day
Before your wits are gathered
Even before you are awake
Your thoughts will find a clock to wind
And put dissent into your ear
Even before your eyes are open
The plot has thickened ’round your fears
[Chorus]
We borrow trouble
Seems we all know how
It’s an expression from the old days
But even more true now
We borrow trouble
We even borrow timе
Like you don’t have enough of your own
Now you want somе of my–
Trouble!
[Post-Chorus]
I’ll take all of it that you’ve got to give
I’ll take all of it that you’ve got to give
I’ll take all of it that you’ve got to give
I’ll take all of it that you’ve got to give
I’ll take all of it that you’ve got to give
I’ll take all of it that you’ve got to give
I’ll take all of it that you’ve got to give
I’ll take all of it that you’ve got to give
[Verse 2]
I dropped like a stone
Like a bag of dead weight
So good at picturing the life that I was gonna be left out of
Rather than the one I’d made
Well these arguing words
They gather heavy on my mind
Knitting thoughts like they’re my destiny
Like they’re the measurement of time
(Huh!)
[Instrumental Break]
[Chorus]
I borrowed trouble
I lived on borrowed time
It’s a poor skill to get so good at
Making wrong what is all right
We all borrow trouble
It seems we all know how
It’s an expression from the old days
But even more true now
[Post-Chorus]
Trouble!
(I’ll take all of it that you’ve got to give)
(I’ll take all of it that you’ve got to give)
Trouble!
(I’ll take all of it that you’ve got to give)
(I’ll take all of it that you’ve got to give)
Trouble!
(I’ll take all of it that you’ve got to give)
(I’ll take all of it that you’ve got to give)
Trouble!
(I’ll take all of it that you’ve got to give)
(I’ll take all of it that you’ve got to give)
Martyr Moves Lyrics
How can I know what to do?
What’s harder than finding my place in the truth
Is to keep it a secret once I do
‘Cause it might hurt someone more than I would want to
To sit in a dream while it dims
Will the loneliness crush me more alone or with him?
And what do I think I might prove
If I make
These martyr moves?
Three months
Nine months
Three years
Six years
Twelve years
Twenty years
Forty years
Eighty years
My hope is a flickering flame
Which I’ve found it increasingly hard to explain
But I’ll try
In the family forge, I got burned
Taught a story in so many words
That it’s bеst to prepare for the worst
And to makе
These martyr moves
And to make
These martyr moves
Calling All the Gods
Dark in all directions, calling all the gods
Dark in all directions, calling all the gods
Dark in all directions, calling all the gods
Dark in all directions, calling all the gods
Dark in all directions, calling all the gods
The Earth sustains all different kinds of people
Many are cheats and thieves
Tell me grandpa, where did this stranger come from?
Dark in all directions, calling all the gods
Dark in all directions, calling all the gods
Dark in all directions, calling all the gods
Dark in all directions, calling all the gods
Dark in all directions, calling all the gods
The Earth sustains all different kinds of people
Many are good and true
I’ll nеver know where this strangеr came from
Where this stranger came from
Dark in all directions, calling all the gods
Dark in all directions, calling all the gods
Dark in all directions, calling all the gods
Dark in all directions, calling all the gods
Dark in all directions, calling all the gods
Dark in all directions, calling all the gods
The swords he commanded
The swords he commanded
The swords he commanded
The swords he commanded
Calling all the gods
Dark in all directions, calling all the gods
The swords he commanded
Calling all the gods
Dark in all directions, calling all the gods
The swords he commanded
Calling all the gods
Dark in all directions
And one day our deep humiliation will be known
Song for Sad Friends
Don’t be sad, my friends
That’s the last thing I’d say
Don’t be sad, my friends
That’s the last thing you’ll hear me say
If you’re sad, my friends
Why would I take that away?
Well, we could pretend
That it’s not as bad as they say
And though there is good and evil
Locked in that eternal embrace
Well, things are bad, my friends
And you feel exactly the way
That proves the mettle of your heart
That won’t be undermined
By the overwhelming times
Holding out but not holding in
And it’s from herе
We can really begin
