Same Way Home

Tracklist

In release order.

1. 01

   Play It Back

   Vinyl crackle, an organ hook, and an old memory returning.

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   Verse 1

   Cheap perfume in a Corsa Windows won't behave First kiss with the stereo doing all the work cos we were too afraid to be brave School disco and the same ten songs got played until they bled PE teacher near the punch Swearing she was checking stock instead Six mates in a bathroom getting every single ad-lib right Knowing all the words was currency on a Friday night And then Twenty years later Any ordinary week Your body picks a fight your common sense can't beat Trolley's gone Dignity's gone Don't care Seventeen just walked back in with all her hair And her terrible perfume And her beautiful lack of fear Half your life ago Still here

   Pre-Chorus

   One song That's all it takes One song And the years Give way

   Chorus

   Play it back and she walks in like she never aged a day Play it back same song same rush same beautiful mistake Play it back The song remembered you Before you remembered you Play it back

   Verse 2

   He's on a work call Hold music just attacked Tune from ninety-seven and his six-pack just came back Muted on Teams doing something with his chair That would get him fired on camera but he genuinely does not care She's at a barbecue Someone's kid just pressed a song And her whole chest opened up to nineteen-ninety-four where nothing's wrong Her husband says you good babe Yeah Fine She's fine She's just barefoot on a rooftop from a different point in time With a girl whose name got married But whose laugh Whose laugh she'd know in any crowd Any room Any sound One song and you're gone

   Pre-Chorus

   One song And you're somewhere else One song And you're someone Else

   Chorus

   Play it back and the rooftop's still alive inside the bass Play it back and the laugh she lost is looking at her face Play it back The song remembered her Before she remembered her Play it back

   Verse 3

   Shoulders just decided something HR hasn't cleared Knees filing paperwork your twenties volunteered Wooden spoon Kitchen philharmonic Dog requesting transfer to a household less harmonic Van man at the red light giving you a slow clap from three lanes ago And you take a bow Because honestly When the right song hits the right bones Nothing in this world is wrong

   Spoken

   Here's the thing though And I've been thinking about this Actually no I haven't been thinking about it It just hit me In a car park On a Wednesday At like eleven in the morning A song came on that I hadn't heard in God Fifteen years? And I just I just sat there Engine off And every version of me I thought I'd grown out of Just Showed up The one who danced like rent was free And the one who texted back too fast And the one who left the party five minutes before everything changed And I thought they'd gone I really thought they'd gone But they hadn't They were just waiting This whole time Queued up like a playlist I forgot I made For the right song To let them back in And it did One song And they all came back

   Breakdown

   One song That's all it ever took

   Final Chorus

   Play it back Every version of yourself just walked back in Play it back The dancer and the crier and the kitchen violin Play it back From the Corsa to the rooftop to the hold-music sin Play it back The song remembers everything your life forgot to keep Play it back Every laugh and every cry and every dancefloor in your sleep Play it back Especially the ones you think are gone They're not gone The song's got them Play it back Play it back Play it back

   Outro

   One song and you're gone One song and you're found Anyway The trolley's still in aisle four And someone's definitely staring Worth it though

   134 BPM

2. 02

   Boots on a Bassline

   Bouncy two-step built around a low bassline.

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   Verse 1

   Red dust on the dashboard, moonlight on the chrome Southbound with the windows low, the blacktop hums me home I came from rainy alleyways where the speakers shook the walls Now the stars look twice as big when the crooked hi-hat falls

   Pre-Chorus

   Got a cowboy boot on the kick drum, heel on the snare Little bit of London swing in the Texas air

   Chorus

   Boots on a bassline, step in time Two-step in the dust with a London state of mind Pedal steel crying while the sub goes low If the room wants country, let the garage roll Boots on a bassline, hands up high Shuffle through the sunrise underneath this Texas sky From the old lock-off nights to the Lone Star glow Wind it up and let the garage roll

   Verse 2

   Neon by the roadside, gravel in the light Whole bar turning sideways to the rhythm of the night They thought I talked too fast till the chorus hit the floor Now they're grinning like they've known that little shuffle all before

   Pre-Chorus

   Got a cowboy boot on the kick drum, heel on the snare Little bit of London swing in the Texas air

   Chorus

   Boots on a bassline, step in time Two-step in the dust with a London state of mind Pedal steel crying while the sub goes low If the room wants country, let the garage roll Boots on a bassline, hands up high Shuffle through the sunrise underneath this Texas sky From the old lock-off nights to the Lone Star glow Wind it up and let the garage roll

   Bridge

   Long way from the station to the county line But a good hook travels fine

   Final Chorus

   Boots on a bassline, step in time Two-step in the dust with a London state of mind Pedal steel crying while the sub goes low Wind it up and let the garage roll

   134 BPM

3. 03

   He Plays It Loud

   A partner watches someone who cannot stop putting another record on.

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   Verse 1

   He came downstairs this morning already humming something That nobody else in this house can hear at six AM There's a song that's been on his headphones since before the kids were born And I can hear it leaking through the cushion of his chair across the room He doesn't think I notice I notice everything

   Pre-Chorus

   He's got his garridge I've got my own thing And both of those things Live in this kitchen

   Chorus

   He plays it loud And I love what it does to him He plays it loud And that's how I know that he's home I don't always get the song But I always get the man He plays it loud And that's enough He plays it loud

   Verse 2

   Sunday morning and the same album just came on for the eighteenth year running And our oldest just rolled his eyes the same way I do Which is the same way he secretly loves it too There's a face he makes when the bassline drops in the second chorus That I have watched him make since we were twenty-three The first time I saw it I thought he was having an aneurysm Now I just know it means we're in for a good Sunday

   Pre-Chorus

   He's got his bassline I've got mine And both of those basslines Carry the line

   Chorus

   He plays it loud And I love what it does to him He plays it loud And that's how I know that he's home I don't always get the song But I always get the man He plays it loud And that's enough He plays it loud

   Bridge

   Here's what I worked out about love Years in You don't have to share someone's obsession To know what it costs them You don't have to love what they love You just have to love that they love it That much For that long Without it dimming Some people lose the things they were obsessed with at fifteen Some people just turn the speakers down a notch as the years pass He never did And honestly That's most of why I married him A man who is still in love with something Will never ever run out of room To love you too

   Final Chorus

   He plays it loud And I love what it does to him He plays it loud South London bedroom to a Texas kitchen He plays it loud Twenty-five years and the same song still lands He plays it loud And the music doesn't age And neither does the man He plays it loud He plays it loud

   Outro

   And alright Fine If you really want to know I do know all the words to Fill Me In I have known them since two thousand I'd never tell him Don't you tell him either He'd be absolutely insufferable about it

   131 BPM

4. 04

   Same Way Home

   Pedal steel and a chopped garage riff over two-step drums.

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   Verse 1

   First time I heard Sunship on a borrowed CD Brixton bus going nowhere on a Tuesday at three Bassline through a pair of headphones held together with tape Walked the long way back from school just to let the song play Didn't know what I was hearing Just knew It knew me

   Pre-Chorus

   Some songs find you Like they had your address The whole time

   Chorus

   And it's the same way home Different street same feeling Same way home Whatever brings you back to where the heart is dealing A bassline a pedal steel A station you can't quite tune Both of them know the same way home Same way home

   Verse 2

   First time I heard pedal steel on a porch in the heat Three guys and a dog and a crowd of about fifteen feet Old fella tuning up like he'd been doing it for years And the steel slid into something that made my eyes wet for no clear reason I didn't know what I was hearing But the song Knew me

   Pre-Chorus

   Some songs find you Twenty years late Still on time

   Chorus

   And it's the same way home Different street same feeling Same way home Whatever brings you back to where the heart is dealing A bassline a pedal steel A station you can't quite tune Both of them know the same way home Same way home

   Bridge

   Here's what I worked out Garage and country Both of them are working-week music Music for people who clocked off And needed a place That wasn't the office and wasn't the kitchen A bassline does that A pedal steel does that They're the same instrument Wearing different boots

   Final Chorus

   And it's the same way home South London to the Hill Country Same way home The bass and the steel both saying come on in honey Whatever sound your shoulder finds Whatever song picks up the slack Both of them know the same way home Both of them know the way back Same way home Same way home

   Outro

   Took me forty years And four thousand miles To work out Every song I love is the same song Just different boots

   131 BPM

5. 05

   Same Heart Different Knees

   Kitchen disco at forty-one; the bassline still works.

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   Verse 1

   Tuesday night kitchen disco and I'm forty-one going on twelve Same playlist same body but the body's renegotiating with itself Pulled something doing a move I've been doing since two thousand and three And my back filed a complaint with HR which is also me Kids upstairs just shouted DAD turn it down Which is the most ironically devastating thing that has ever happened in this town I built this house I pay the mortgage I will play this song as loud as I want But also yes I'll turn it down Because that knee is making a noise That a knee should not be making

   Pre-Chorus

   The bassline is the same The bones Are not

   Chorus

   Same heart different knees Nineteen-year-old soul in a forty-two-year-old body that disagrees Same heart different knees And the bass still gets me every single time The maths is wrong The maths has never worked The maths is wrong And the bass is right Same heart different knees

   Verse 2

   Friday night out at a proper night for the first time in I don't know how long Bouncer looked at me like I'd come to collect a son who'd snuck out The twenty-twos in the queue were absolutely lovely about it Which somehow is worse than if they'd just laughed and kept it moving Got the wristband got the drink got to the floor and the same drop hit The same drop That hit me when I was nineteen Hit me in exactly the same place And I lost the ability to be embarrassed about anything anymore Because the music doesn't care that you are forty-one The music is just the music And it found me again Like it never lost the address

   Pre-Chorus

   The bassline is the same The bones Are not

   Chorus

   Same heart different knees Nineteen-year-old soul in a forty-two-year-old body that disagrees Same heart different knees And the bass still gets me every single time The maths is wrong The maths has never worked The maths is wrong And the bass is right Same heart different knees

   Bridge

   Here's what nobody told me about turning forty-two The body is the lie The heart is not The body wants to be tired The heart still wants to fight And the bass doesn't care how old you are The bass is just the bass You think you're going to age out of loving this music You don't You age into it You become the person who knows exactly why the bridge of that song works Because you are now older than the bridge of that song And it still gets you The maths is wrong Not the music Not the music

   Final Chorus

   Same heart different knees Nineteen-year-old soul in a forty-two-year-old body that disagrees Same heart different knees And the bass still gets me every single time And the kids are in bed And the wife's gone to sleep And I'm in this kitchen With the volume on three Because I'm forty-one Not stupid Same heart different knees Same heart different knees

   Outro

   Right Going to bed Hot water bottle on the lower back Same playlist Volume on three Compromise Honestly The compromise is my whole personality now Ask my wife She'll tell you

   134 BPM

6. 06

   Big Sky Thinking

   Spoken passages, a sung chorus, and a wide night sky.

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   Verse 1

   First night I stood outside in Texas and I couldn't find the ceiling Just sky going on forever like someone had taken the lid off London and shown me what was underneath the grey I just stood there Neck tipped back Drink getting warm in my hand And thought I have never in my life seen this many stars

   Chorus

   Big sky thinking Room to breathe where there was none before Every small thing I was holding onto Doesn't seem to matter anymore Big sky thinking Stars I never knew were there Calling me outside to stare And finally there is room up there For everything

   Verse 2

   Back home the sky is something you walk under Head down, umbrella up Horizon's just the next building Out here the sunset takes forty-five minutes Just pinks and golds rolling out like they've got nowhere else to be And people sit on their porches and actually watch it Like it's a show And maybe it is Maybe it always was And I just never had a seat

   Chorus

   Big sky thinking Room to breathe where there was none before Every small thing I was holding onto Doesn't seem to matter anymore Big sky thinking Galaxy on display where the street lights used to be And I found the thing I didn't know I'd lost Somewhere underneath the Milky Way

   Final Chorus

   Big sky thinking Room to breathe where there was none before From a city full of ceilings To a sky that has no floor Big sky thinking And I'm never going back To a life without the stars Big sky thinking

   125 BPM

7. 07

   Through The Static

   A radio under the duvet and a bassline breaking through.

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   Verse 1

   Thirteen and the radio borrowed from the kitchen Hidden underneath the duvet so my mum wouldn't know I'd nicked it Tuning the dial in the dark with the volume down to almost nothing Static and a voice and a static and a voice and then A bassline came through clean Like it had been waiting on that frequency For somebody exactly like me To find it

   Pre-Chorus

   And I sat up In the dark And I didn't breathe Until the chorus came

   Chorus

   Through the static Through the static It came through the static when I was thirteen And it never left Through the static Through the static Found the frequency the high street didn't know was there And it changed me Through the static

   Verse 2

   Recorded the next show on a tape with my finger on the pause Trying to catch every drop and miss every advert Played it back the next morning under the same duvet Like a secret nobody else in school had even been told existed Took me three months to find out the DJ's name Took me three years to find out he was eighteen Took me three decades to admit He was probably making it up as he went along And it was perfect anyway

   Chorus

   Through the static Through the static It came through the static when I was thirteen And it never left Through the static Through the static Found the frequency the high street didn't know was there And it changed me Through the static

   Bridge

   Here's what pirate radio actually was It wasn't an alternative It was the actual real thing The radio they sold you was the lie The static was the truth And once you knew which frequency to find You couldn't go back to anything else The signal was illegal The feeling was the only legal thing in the building Some of those DJs went on to be famous Most of them didn't But every one of them Was telling the truth On a frequency Nobody had given them permission to use That's what made it real That's what made it last

   Final Chorus

   Through the static Through the static It came through the static when I was thirteen And it never left Through the static Through the static Twenty years and four thousand miles and the signal still finds me Through the static Through the static The high street still doesn't know Through the static Through the static

   Outro

   Still got the tape Still got the player Don't have a single one of those frequencies anymore But I know exactly where they used to be On a dial That doesn't exist On a radio That's in a loft Above a kitchen That somebody else lives in now But the songs Still here Came through the static Stayed

   134 BPM

8. 08

   Frontage Road Dub

   Dark dub for a service road after midnight.

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   Intro

   Boots to the bass to the line This one for the frontage road massive B and B sound Get up get up get down Wind it from London town Texas bound

   Verse 1

   Rolling down the service road with the windows getting heavy Bass inside the speakers and the signal's never steady Dark out on the blacktop and the frequency is mine Pressure in the sub and every mile pulls me blind

   MC Break

   Get up get up and ride Boots and bass Frontage side Roll it back Let it slide London to the Lone Star Worldwide

   Chorus

   Frontage road dub Pressure in the bass and the night won't budge Roll it back and let the frequency flood Dub it out on the frontage road Frontage road dub Windows down and the signal's getting rough Every mile deeper and the beat won't stop Dub it out on the frontage road

   Verse 2

   Truck stop on the left side flickering in the dark Someone left a rhythm out here underneath the stars Chopped it up and wound it back and let the reverb ride Sounds like every record that I loved at seventeen alive

   MC Break

   B and B Boots and bass South London to the Texas space Get up get up get down Whole town feel the underground

   Chorus

   Frontage road dub Pressure in the bass and the night won't budge Roll it back and let the frequency flood Dub it out on the frontage road Frontage road dub Windows down and the signal's getting rough Every mile deeper and the beat won't stop Dub it out on the frontage road

   Bridge

   This one go out to the late night drivers Service road survivors Bass face providers Boots and Bassline Frontage Road Records We don't stop

   Outro

   Frontage road dub Dub it out Dub it out Frontage road dub

   134 BPM

9. 09

   South Circular Fade

   Late garage for the road home.

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   Verse 1

   Rain on the flyover, half one on the clock Your last text still glowing like the night forgot to stop Tried to leave it tidy, tried to walk it clean But your name comes back harder in the sodium steam

   Pre-Chorus

   Southbound, low light Heart went left at the red light

   Chorus

   In the South Circular fade Streetlights blur but the feeling won't break Every turn says move on, every mile says wait I'm walking where the wet road carries yesterday In the South Circular fade Tried to leave your voice at the edge of the lane But the bass comes back and the night won't shake I'm gone, not gone, in the South Circular fade

   Verse 2

   Late bus, cold glass, high street almost sleeping Everybody heading somewhere, I'm the only one repeating All the little promises we dropped along the way Come back like blue lights running through the rain

   Pre-Chorus

   Southbound, low light Heart went left at the red light

   Chorus

   In the South Circular fade Streetlights blur but the feeling won't break Every turn says move on, every mile says wait I'm walking where the wet road carries yesterday In the South Circular fade Tried to leave your voice at the edge of the lane But the bass comes back and the night won't shake I'm gone, not gone, in the South Circular fade

   Bridge

   No crowd, no call Just my steps against the wall If leaving was as easy As the words we gave away Why's your voice still in the weather Every time it starts to rain

   Final Chorus

   In the South Circular fade Streetlights blur but the feeling won't break Every turn says move on, every mile says wait I'm walking where the wet road carries yesterday In the South Circular fade I'm gone, not gone, in the South Circular fade

   134 BPM

10. 10

    Heel Turn

    A slow 90 BPM track with boot-scuff percussion.

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    Verse 1

    You liked me easier, softer round the edges, half in doubt Liked me smaller in the story you were telling to yourself Then you lied with that calm face and I heard the floorboards learn Now the DJ cuts the snare in and watch me heel turn

    Pre-Chorus

    One more look That's your burn Beat drops in Watch me turn

    Chorus

    Watch me heel turn Left you in the smoke when the bass returned Good boots, bad man, lesson learned Watch me heel turn Mirror caught me looking too good to hurt You can keep your apology Watch me heel turn

    Verse 2

    Friends of yours go quiet when I pass them by the bar Like they want the after story, like they missed the best part Best part's on the dance floor where the whole room sees it first How a girl gets her name back when the beat does the work

    Pre-Chorus

    One more look That's your burn Beat drops in Watch me turn

    Bridge

    Funny how the bass hits different When you're not the reason I got dressed Funny how the room gets bigger When I stop making myself less

    Final Chorus

    Watch me heel turn Left you in the smoke when the bass returned Good boots, bad man, lesson learned Watch me heel turn Mirror caught me looking too good to hurt You can keep your apology Watch me heel turn

    90 BPM

11. 11

    The Long Way Round

    Fingerpicked nylon-string guitar over quiet two-step.

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    Verse 1

    The exit was a mile back and I let it go Song's at three minutes thirty and I want the whole show Wife's gonna ask me what took so long I'll say there was traffic Which is half a lie And half a song

    Pre-Chorus

    The guitar's still going The bassline's still going Why would I stop

    Chorus

    The long way round The long way round Forty extra minutes for the right song to wind right down The long way round I missed the turn Past the gas station and the church and the field where the cows just learn Nobody's waiting Nothing's wrong Just me and the bass and a nylon string song The long way round

    Verse 2

    Could've been home twenty minutes ago But the guitar did this thing in the second chorus that I didn't want to let go You know what I mean You've done it too Driven past your own street so the outro could come true Not once Not twice Every Tuesday for fifteen years I am late By exactly the length of one outro And nobody knows where the time goes

    Pre-Chorus

    The guitar's still going The bassline's still going Why would I stop

    Chorus

    The long way round The long way round Forty extra minutes for the right song to wind right down The long way round I missed the turn Past the gas station and the church and the field where the cows just learn Nobody's waiting Nothing's wrong Just me and the bass and a nylon string song The long way round

    Bridge

    There's a thing my dad used to do He'd sit in the car after we got home Engine off Door closed Whatever song was on It just had to finish Mum thought he was on the phone He wasn't He was just letting the song land And I never asked him about it Because I thought it was weird And now I do it three times a week And my wife thinks I'm on a phone call I am not I am letting the song land Just like he did Whether he knew he was teaching me Or not

    Final Chorus

    The long way round The long way round Forty extra minutes for the right song to wind right down The long way round For my dad For my wife For the guitar that asked me to take the long way home tonight Nobody's waiting Nothing's wrong Just me and the bass and a nylon string song The long way round The long way round

    Outro

    Right Going in She's gonna ask I'm gonna tell her There was traffic

    131 BPM

12. 12

    Ready Ready Texas

    An MC-led closer with two decks on the courthouse steps.

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    Intro

    Bo bo bo Boots and Bassline Are you ready ready Texas I said are you ready ready Texas Let's go

    MC Section 1

    B to the double-O T S on the case Bassline pressure and the two-step pace Come like a selecta with the records spinning Come like a Texan with the barbecue winning Come like the sunshine at a quarter to five Come like Georgetown on a Saturday night alive Doing it again and again Get up get up get down tell your friend Doing it again and again B and B from the start to the end She said play that back I said which part She said all of it right from the start

    Hook

    Ready ready Texas Boots and Bass come through Ready ready Texas Tell me what you wanna do

    MC Section 2

    A way to blend and a way to switch Garage in the bass and a country flick Pedal on the steel and the steel gets real Two-step on the dance floor watch the cowboy reel I said boots on the kick and the bass on the snare Little bit of London in the Texas air She got the hat I got the headphones on She got the moves I got the dubplate song Drop it rewind it pull it back again Frontage Road massive are you ready then Drop it rewind it one more time around Boots and Bassline with the underground sound

    Hook

    Ready ready Texas Boots and Bass come through Ready ready Texas Tell me what you wanna do

    MC Section 3

    Now when I say boots you lot say bass Boots (bass) boots (bass) Yeah yeah yeah that's the pace I came from the concrete I came from the rain I came from the speakers shaking window panes Now I'm on the porch and the sky is wide And the same little shuffle got the whole state vibed Come like Boots with the Bassline rough Come like Texas when the sun comes up Come like the fiddle on the garridge beat Come like the bass when it shakes the street Doing it again and again Get up get up get down tell your friend Doing it again and again Saturday night it don't wanna end

    Bridge

    Real talk I brought two decks to the most beautiful square in Texas And they said what is that And I said that's the two-step And they said play it again And I said Are you ready ready Texas

    Final Hook

    Ready ready Texas Boots and Bass come through Ready ready Texas Tell me what you wanna do Ready ready Texas Ready ready Texas

    Outro

    Boots and Bassline Frontage Road Records Georgetown Texas Are you ready ready Texas We don't stop We never stop

    134 BPM