Vital Return, by Big Bliss

Vital Return

by Big Bliss

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1.	A Seat at the Table 03:58	lyrics	buy track
I heard the sigh of the tired collective Bellow above me Then it’s muffled in austerity Familiar, another disaster In my generation Body counting as a ceremony Bury, bury it deeper I should work harder Metal bursting from machinery The spirit, the beauty of patience I should drink water Oh the fiction of autonomy Please don’t let it go to waste Please don’t let it go to waste Please don’t ever go away I felt the beat of the passenger pulses Drumming around me Disappearing from our memory Familiar, another event And the victims by proxy The promise of prosperity I’m chasing, or being chased I just have to be smarter Needle the bandit coming after me Get even, climb up the ladder That keeps growing taller Maybe bring it up in therapy Please don’t let it go to waste Please don’t let it go to waste Please don’t ever go away We see that our seat has been taken Our seat at the table The wrong place, the wrong time The wrong reasons Fish in a barrel Existence of evil The bedrock of my memory Shifting, clang in the darkness I learn who I am In the crush of an atrocity Set on us, since we got started Since we began Able-bodied for the company Please don’t let it go to waste Please don’t let it go to waste Please don’t ever look away Please don’t ever go away
2.	Sleep Paralysis 03:46	lyrics	buy track
To be disarmed To be disarmed, arrival Solemn ghost gripping smoke, wherever you are I am disarmed I am disarmed, arrival Am I awake Can I call your name Now I feel a weight I know is real Is that you here Is that you here I wish you’d know the lengths to which I’d go To keep you here To keep you here What’s gone wrong You look tired I taste salt I smell fire You look wrong I’m like steel I can’t move This ordeal Am I coming undone, see your shape in the doorway Am I falling or not, hope I wake before landing I know that you’re gone, leaking light as you’re able An electrical hum, the dint of survival I am disarmed, I am disarmed in your arrival Commanding form The room is cold and my blood is warm Panicked shout, both dry and drowned I am disarmed, I am disarmed My collar tugged, which way’s the ground I’m in your arms, am I in your arms Now I feel a weight I know is real is that you here is that you here I wish you’d know the lengths to which I’d go To keep you here To keep you here What’s gone wrong You look tired It’s my fault My slack jaw What’s gone wrong I’m like steel When is dawn Is this real Am I coming undone, see your shape in the doorway Am I falling or not, will I wake before landing When I do you’ll be gone, we put your things on the table An impossible thought, any trace of survival Am I coming undone, hear you speak in the hallway Am I falling or not, will I wake before landing
3.	Proof of Life 02:57	lyrics	buy track
Consider this proof of life Consider the ransom too high If they release me and I’m saved Soon I will be making similar mistakes But maybe this is just what it costs To find meaning and to never prepare for loss Prepare for loss Consider their demands impossible Consider their intent unknowable What if they release me and I’ve changed Who would you come barreling through to save You’re too late When you measure the cost Is there meaning, is there always meaning in loss This loss
4.	Tether 04:19	lyrics	buy track
Another lie, another new and pained implication I can’t count on you and I am mistaken We are lined up at the side of your altar A ceremony, but with lead in the coffer I wonder why, living in an infinite pattern You consume and we are spinning the platters It’s so foolish to expect for a moment I’ll handle anything, not disappointment Words are anodyne And never remembered Mourn ahead of time And wait for the letter On a final high Or you’ll maybe get better I am on your side At the end of the tether Is it possible, person I am touching is vapor This is helplessness, all of its rancor We are lined up at the side of your altar Wondering why we even bother In a dream of mine bring you to the bank out of water And then I blink and you are pulled under farther Eyes are marble, you don’t seem to remember That you went missing on a night in December Where’s the finish line When is surrender Mourn ahead of time Collected in embers On a final high Or you’ll maybe get better I am on your side Gripping the tether You are material, worn away, drained of its color You are the ledger wet, rinsed of its author You are structure stripped of its copper You keep saying let’s just wait a bit longer Tracing fissure lacing in the foundation Will it collapse, or evacuation? You’ve collapsed, doorway is darker I am witness, terrified Where’s the finish line When is surrender Path without a guide A shot to the center On a final high Notice the tremor When I’m at your side Untying the tether
5.	Solace 03:53	lyrics	buy track
After a season of loss If you could, you would never be seen Wounds are licked raw and you’re hiding You go pale, with a visible pulse I can hear that you’re grinding your teeth Like you’re scanning the room for the fire What chases you in the dark? What phantom, what bloodied claws? You stutter and you start to leave The solace your solitude brings The solace it brings I tell you we’re safe as we are You say that nothing is just as it seems Some invisible violence arriving You go pale, a circular thought You’ve hushed, but who’s listening? You’re the conduit sealed over wire What chases you in the dark What phantom, what bloodied claws? You wince and you struggle to breathe Silence that solace could bring The silence it brings Is it natural, this fear, this wound agitation? Ready and primed at the first indication That the moment has finally arrived When that menace has come to eat you alive It’s waiting there, gleam in its eye Your sorrow, your rage, the glint in the light That heartbroken thief is inside Rigging the walls, you’ll be buried alive Rigging the game Someone is calling your name A sound that reaches your grief Stings like a pin to the heart where it’s creased What chases you in the dark? Cruel in your memory If you go it alone and withdraw Have you found the solace you seek The solace you seek
6.	Tell Me When You're Ready 03:03	lyrics	buy track
Today things will be different I will open up the blinds Make an effort or pretend that I don’t know why I’m so tired I’ll keep walking past the grocer Lost spirit to the divine But I know he’s got my medicine And I know he’s got the time To face it Don’t relay or replace it Cause I have a name for it now I have a name for it now (I have a name for it) I wake up freezing in the kitchen Swung in a cyclical decline In my throat the fume of desire Regret, to resent my material life Why not slip away unconscious Be unfixed by pulling tide It’s a disorder, no it’s habit No it’s condition, I’ll be fine To just face it Please don’t call it a crisis I have a name for it now I have a name for it now Tomorrow things will be different I’ve heard of new innovations Dissolving pills in my mouth I have a name for it now (I have a name for it) I don’t want to say it A disease, and it’s latent In me it’s been waiting But I just need some more time I can’t see the light It is blurred, it is mired I’m nauseous and I’m scared And I know why I’m tired Catch myself on the wall Oblivion in the tiles Dead drunk and alone Warm glow in my spine, warm glow To just face it I may not know desperation Until I name it somehow I have a name for it now One day things will be different I’ll figure out what I’m missing And draw it out of the ground Draw it out of my mouth Draw it out
7.	Off Guard 03:46	lyrics	buy track
This is a provident peace And now here is my answered call All of you gnashing your teeth Underneath a descending wall It’s in the air you breathe And I’m sealing the door No matter alarms that ring You won’t catch me off guard Taught to give, not receive But I always protect my own A slip and you fall off the beam If you’d looked then you could have known It’s on the hands that reach And I’m bracing the door No matter alarms that ring You won’t catch me off guard Panicking the cattle, glimpse of the blade There is no reason to suffer Harness undone, the net giving way The stricken, the worker, the gutter Rung in the grip, in the hand of the state Juice the demand, it’s just a matter of time Til you’re deserted here just like the others Those dogs in the road with the fear in their eyes It’s in the rot in the street And the heat of your glowing home I pity your faith, your belief In the hands that are not your own Only enough for me Stay away from the door No matter the word you preach You won’t catch me off guard Clawing at the sand, under a wave Current too great to recover Quiet cataclysm well underway The givers, offended corrupters Coughing and pale in the struggle to beg For the fruit that you could never have picked from the vine You better turn around and follow the others The dogs in the road with the fear in their eyes Whimper from over the ocean Lash of the earth, a germ weaponized I have readied in myself for the culling I am among the strong that survives A witness, exsanguination Hand caught in machine, look me in the eye I’m the one who rebuilds I will find new way Quiet cataclysm well underway Two steps ahead of the others The bridge from the city fell into the bay The wanting were first to go under I know it has come for me And it’s shaking the door No matter alarms that ring You won’t catch me off guard
8.	Sediment 04:31	lyrics	buy track
A storm comes in, raging from the south Your body stiff, a thunder hits, a shaking house In a sudden fit, you hide behind the couch A temporary haven, but it’s been so long That’s where you found cover Face down like the others An old man in the jungle An agent in the water An ancient fear, born in Vietnam You still possess the fury meant for your clicking gun The war was all, and the war was wrong An American, a syndrome given without a cause I will find you cover Face down like the others An old man in the jungle An agent in the water (I’ve circled the house I’ve locked the doors I found the source And I buried it) Now I know time is sheer Guess I had the wrong idea Sediment moved and cleared Put into the blood revealed You said she’s here, and you said she once Asked for help then followed you for decades on The war was all, and the war was wrong An American in the yawning dusk of the Florida sun Hearts and minds recover But you can lose the struggle A shaking hand pulled under The agent in the water (I’ve turned on the light You can look now You can look up Look at me) Now I know time is sheer Guess I had the wrong idea Sediment moved and cleared Put into the blood revealed (Unclench your hand Stand up with me I’ve circled the house and I’ve locked the doors And I’ve found the source, its matter Not created nor destroyed Not created nor destroyed)
9.	Vessel 05:04	lyrics	buy track
I see you speaking, I’m trying to listen To break away from grip of vicious obsession Still I’m afraid, but I can’t name the reason Maybe the passage of time I am a vessel, have no religion I am the shell housing a rattling engine That’s where the action is, hidden, suspended So from the outside it’s quiet Stoic, paralyzed Juvenile hung from a limb Mind immobilized, hollow grind Locking of pins And I’m sorry I shudder When you’re brushing my skin Let me in, let me in, let me in I am a vessel, drifting position Count things around me, run my finger on edges I am a vessel, losing momentum Who am I standing behind Why is he blocking the light? Motor setting fire All the while, body descends Please don’t panic I’ll handle it, steady the pitch I’m so sorry I’m terrified To be who I am Who I am, who I am, who I am Motor setting fire Feel it as you’re gripping my hand Please don’t panic I’ll smother it, learn to pretend That I am satisfied, cooling in the fog as it lifts Who I am, who I am, who I am
10.	Vital Return 04:10	lyrics	buy track
I have seen indication That I know nothing and know it well Woke up in the clearing where I murdered my ego Startled by the sound of the morning bell Vital return Vital return Vital return Vital return But I remember the decimation I had built a city then burned it down Now I know my grief is somewhere under the wreckage For the first time I will dig it out Vital return Vital return Vital return Vital return Loosening the yoke and developing patience Swallowing the air, letting pressure be felt Exiting delirium, snapped into focus I will listen this time, even with blood in my mouth Vital return Vital return Vital return Vital return Eyes dilated, convalesced, nerves firing charges Learning to speak to something bigger than self Exiting delirium, snapped into focus I have my regrets, for now I’ll see them in hell Vital return Vital return Vital return Vital return

about

"One of the best songs of its ilk I’ve heard this year." - Stereogum on "Sleep Paralysis"

"It’s a hands-down stunner" - The Big Takeover on "A Seat at the Table"

Big Bliss is the Brooklyn-based brainchild of brothers Cory and Tim Race, and friend/collaborator Wallace May. Formed in late 2015, the trio melds harmonic post-punk grooves with art-rock sensibilities all propped up on the pillars and hooks of pop structure. Their sound is at once melancholic, tense, noisy, and ultimately uplifting, laced with lyricism that ruminates on anxiety, grief, addiction, recovery, devotion, and heartache. Framing these themes is the social ennui unique to generations brought up in our technologically ravaged and increasingly fragile world.

Their 2018 debut LP, "At Middle Distance," was released to acclaim from Billboard, The Big Takeover, Aquarium Drunkard and more. Several years of heavy show schedules and relentless touring led to the band being recognized by Oh My Rockness as “NYC’s Hardest Working Band” in 2017, as well as regular appearances at SXSW through 2019.

The band was originally scheduled to begin production on their sophomore album, "Vital Return," in April of 2020 with Jonathan Schenke (Parquet Courts, Liars, The Drums), but that plan was soon delayed indeterminably in parallel with the rest of the world. Once it was moderately safe to convene in a room together again, equipped with heavy PPE and wide open windows in the January air, the band re-demoed the entire slew of album-contending songs. By the summer of 2021, Schenke and the band were recording in full swing. That summer, May decamped to California, and the brothers assembled a rotating lineup to return to regular live performances the following November. The album was wrapped in the first weeks of 2022, followed shortly by fellow Brooklyn musicians Jacob Erteli and Anjoli Simone joining on bass and guitar, respectively.

"Vital Return" captures the band channeling their love for R.E.M., New Order, Yo La Tengo, and C86 in addition to the twilight of classic post-punk acts like the Cure and Echo & the Bunnymen. However, the album decidedly looks ahead; its themes document a fight for sobriety, moving through the loss of the brothers’ father, coping with collective and generational trauma, and finally seeking out the emotional/spiritual tools needed for us all to rebuild in our current moment in time.

credits

released August 18, 2023

**** All lyrics by Tim Race
**** All songs produced by Jonathan Schenke

Performed by: Big Bliss

Written by:
Cory Race (all except 3)
Tim Race
Wallace May (all except 3)
Ana Becker (2, 6, 8, 9, 10)

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Big Bliss Brooklyn, New York

NYC outfit over 20 feet tall and 400 lbs

'VITAL RETURN' out now on Good Eye Records

Stream and buy our first record 'At Middle Distance,' as well as EP's and singles here:

bigblissesr.bandcamp.com/releases ... more

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