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Working Weeks

by ¡Ay Carmela!

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    Working Weeks album in a card wallet, with artwork by Akbar Ali.

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  • Working Weeks CD with DISCOUNT ENTRY to album launch!
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    Discount £4 entry to our London album launch at DIY Space for London on 28th July, along with a copy of Working Weeks on CD, which you can pick up at the event.

    Event details: www.facebook.com/events/224124267969069/

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1.
Make It Up 03:40
Don't stop moving cause if you stop moving You might have time to think And if you have time to think you might start to question All the things you do to fill your time We meet at the end of the working day In a bar that's far too self aware Can't you see the absurdity Of two kids like us playing like we're grown up Make it up as we go along Tell yourself you're doing everything you ought to do Try a different outfit on Act like you know just what you're talking about Why do we do this to ourselves, get up when we're sleeping Smile without joy, say things we don't believe in You echo their words with drunk conviction But your eyes tell me something different And on the night bus back the city changed appearance It felt like something else could happen What if we stay on past our stop, go in the opposite direction And walk and walk and walk until it's light? Make it up as we go along Tell yourself you're doing everything you ought to do Try a different outfit on Cause no one really knows what they're on about
2.
Summer comes round with a sigh, a long awaited apology Too little, too late You're tired of crying, sick of hiding, your body's worn and dull But it's good to be outside And the streets look exactly as when you left them, why the mild surprise? It's the same town with a little less colour now Winter held you at knife point, now it's hard to recall What made you feel so small And you're fine until they play the song she'd put on repeat To wake you But now there's a lump in your throat and your vision's blurred with tears The cashier looks at you blankly as you quickly take your change And stumble onto the street where the sunlight stings your face How could everybody carry on as if the whole world hadn't just undergone A transformation, a change of heart, a loss of meaning, an empty start So you make your excuses, push your way past the people To some empty side road Well there's no need to feel stupid, don't beat yourself up You're doing fine Still it's hard when nothing makes any sense, what did you expect? You can read the signs, still you draw a blank And now there's a lump in your throat and your vision's blurred with tears The cashier looks at you blankly as you quickly take your change And stumble onto the street where the sunlight stings your face How could everybody carry on as if the whole world hadn't just undergone A transformation, a change of heart, a loss of meaning, an empty start
3.
The Ordinary 02:16
Once the sight of you was met with fear Your word was the last one Your friends had your back, your enemies stood no chance Your girlfriends had no say they did it your way You used to fight the law, now you battle it out with the bureaucrats Oh the agony of an ordinary existence You say you remember when men were men, winners were winners and you always won but now your Outdated notions have all switched places Cause the kids started playing a different game, where your name no longer means a thing and now your Face goes unrecognised You have to stand in line, like every other nobody Oh the agony of anonymity Your money lived in loopholes but now you're getting fucked like the rest of us Oh the agony of an ordinary life Serves you right
4.
Birds 03:24
Come on autumn come on rain Bring my love in summer's wake Are his eyes full of foreign skies? Do his lips still bear my name? The things that money makes you do Sends love packing across the waves Trickles down, does it? Does it hell And when the day ends is there anything left for me? Or am I still left wanting? In this dead town I wait Where people turn bird and migrate Further, for longer Lining someone else's nest And when he returns Will there be too big a distance? After all the talk of unity and plenty This land's let us down And I am still left wanting Come on autumn come on rain Bring my love in summer's wake Bring him weary, bring him strong If we thought we had a choice we thought wrong
5.
I think I've lost my appetite That or I've just had enough Of all the clapping and cheering, and drinking and dancing To songs that I don't really like I can see you're trying your best to cheer me And it doesn't go unnoticed, still You say it's never too late to try Oh but it feels too late to change It's not how I imagined it Penning an angry outburst, my first pay check in the post All those years ago If my younger self could see me now she'd scream with disappointment But she isn't here It's just you and me And this god awful crowd Oh, it's so easy to get swept up without questions And oh, when we got to where we wanted to be we forgot what we came for What did you come in for? I think I've lost my appetite That or I've just had too much Of all the congratulations for doing the same thing As everybody else in the room I know you want to make me feel special But I don't think that it's deserved We let life get in the way, what an ugly phrase I'll never say it again
6.
Brother 03:12
I was introduced to my brother as a whisper on the street And a glance in my parents' direction He was no more than a look in my mother's eye to me He was no more than my father's sigh to me The rumours at the school gate say that I'm growing up to look just like him Will she go the same way? Will she bring another heart break? They don't let me out of their sight They won't tell me why The rumours at the school gate, the whisper on the street A glance in my parents' direction My mother's eye, my father's sigh that's how I I was introduced to my brother
7.
Dog Tired 02:02
I'm feeling Worn out dog tired Legs dead brain fried Don't say you're sorry when you're not Your smooth talk won't work You drive I walk I know you're laughing your way home Imagine you're in my position I know your mind can't bridge so big a gap But you don't know what's growing underneath your nose Cause you're too busy patting your own back I've got a Hot head cold glare Steady hand ready gaze You're in the line of my fire This treadmill living Is doing my head in And I'm not alone in my thinking Imagine you're in my position I know your mind can't bridge so big a gap But you don't know what's growing underneath your nose Cause you're too busy patting your own back One for one and none for all dog eat dog you can have it back I know I've got something of my own But there are things you just can't see don't need your creed We'll bury your ideas along with you
8.
You and I went walking to the edge of town Sat on the new bridge The sky was full of cranes, the city spread out like a puzzle Impossible to fix They're building houses that no one can afford you said "I can't stay here much longer" These rooftops look like headstones, every home a tomb We all build our own So we cling to the habitual, half hearted rituals While someone sells the ground from under our feet Work ourselves to death for a little box to sleep in Is this what we call living? They're bulldozing places we once knew I'm losing all my bearings The memories we harboured have all been cast adrift So what now? We settle for less Settle for less So as the sky changed colour, and all the lights came on We made our way back home Tomorrow we'll go driving, your suitcase in the back And an open map They can keep their Lifeless models We'll make something real While they settle for less
9.
Separate 03:27
Start by peeling your skin from mine Loosen your arm from my side Slip out of the bed unnoticed Don't wait to say goodbye I find traces of you in the kitchen A plate left on the side Sometimes we pass in the doorway You come as I go We barely say hello This is a new kind of pain Crept up on me slow Stay on later and later after work Come home when you know I won't be there We move in different circles Misaligned I just want you to look me in the eye And talk it out But I don't know what to say The words catch in my throat And you've already turned to go This is a new kind of pain Crept up on me slow I don't know what happened or when We used to be so close
10.
Mad As Annie 02:41
Seagulls circling, dark wind whirling Annie on the shoreline, every sigh a hurricane Hair flaming, sand grazing, salt wind shout Black cloud, sea frown, blind town, don't listen Are you as mad as Annie You won't believe what she's claiming to have seen But I don't believe in that kind of thing Annie's crazy, she won't come in Screaming like Cassandra, lips spell disaster Close all the windows, bar the doors Black cloud, sea frown, blind town, don't listen Are you as mad as Annie You won't believe what she's claiming to have heard Thunder in the word of god And the devil in the water Are you mad like me You won't believe it till you see it and then it's too late
11.
Bathed in morning light Somebody found you asleep in the flower bed at 7am A shake of your shoulder, "are you alright?" But it's a weekday and no one has time They'll say you've got yourself to blame Doing everything you can to lose your head But why stay sober when you've so little to wake up for? And what little you have gets taken away But you've got time Don't let them trick you otherwise A body needs time Time to heal Not minutes not hours not working weeks Not twenty four hour clocks Not calendar months or financial years They can all go to pieces They can all go in the bin You take all the time you need All the time you need

about

MUSIC VIDEO FOR 'CRYING IN PUBLIC':
www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5USMHksTqI

credits

released July 28, 2016

All songs written and performed by ¡Ay Carmela!
Recorded and produced by Danny Gibbins at Subvert Studio in Tolworth and at Dovetown in Uxbridge
Artwork by Akbar Ali
Released on Dovetown (UK)

¡Ay Carmela! are:
Carmela Pietrangelo - vocals and guitar
Laura Ankles - bass guitar and backing vocals
Jaca Freer - drums and percussion

Also featuring:
Danny Gibbins - keyboard

Thanks to our parents and siblings, the Doveton family and Dovetown crew, Cowley Thrillhouse-mates, Danny Gibbins, Lee at Subvert Studio, Marcela and Marcelo, and all the queer punks who have let us stay in their beds and on their floors. (And the capitalist wage system for inspiring most of the lyrics.)

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¡Ay Carmela! Bristol, UK

Bristol & Swansea based indie / alternative trio.

Songs about memory, love, and housing.

90s rock influences, but with jazzier elements in the bass, and intricate drum grooves.

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