We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

There Will Be Singing

by Neil Singh

supported by
slimmoon
slimmoon thumbnail
/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £7 GBP  or more

     

1.
Stains 05:47
lyrics
here's how it starts: one hand draws a line that cuts off the other then calls it the crime and makes it eat dirt till monsters emerge from the dark and out in the courtyard they spell out your name in the blood of your father cos he was the same you vertically transmit disease you're up to your eyes you're down on your knees can you hear me? what is all this noise? this is not me lonely, lost, unenjoyed i am covered in stains pack up your rainbows it's time for the troops they'll ditch you with nothing but fifty to shoot red and white stripes a crazed barber wipes his hands on a rag make a flag. stand. salute one for the master and one for the maid and one for the boy who is covered in stains i tried to play straight but i'm tired of the wait what good's a dream if it just suffocates? can you hear me? everything's destroyed you have made me terror will fill the void... all these years you watched as my canvas was crushed now i'm back with your blood on my brush all these demons i couldn’t shake off made me shake you off all these years i built myself a cocoon can you fix a worm broken in two? there are butterflies covered in glue there are things that i have to do... can you hear me now?
2.
Sometimes A Lie 04:37
lyrics
london. summer. 1810 i loved to smell his apron strings i was cleaning up his brushes in his attic studio when he said: “you can have one thing” i took his name how else could i have pulled it off? i admit it's strange but so were the times i got used to the bindings and i cut around a bowl they said: “handsome james you've got your uncle's hair” The silent labour of the knife the theatre of mask and gown it suited me completely my hands could talk for me i was the first, by fifty years – unknown i was sent down to the cape to serve as colony inspector the boys said: “general barry, the lake will clean itself why don't you join us hunting local birds?” the hardest part was not the cuts but to hand each child back safely screaming at night i lay awake with my hands between by thighs i'd given birth to hundreds, but none were mine of course, some people rightly guessed of those who guessed, a few did see of those who saw the evidence, none did betray sometimes a lie becomes the only way
3.
Artemisia's Ashes 04:29
lyrics
a bullet to the back is an aphrodisiac when life is a memento mori origami made from scraps her paper birds twist in the draft a tasteless gas, a horror story artemisia swore to never smile again artemisia’s ashes washed in acid rain artemisia said she’d like to see the sea artemisia’s ashes make a bitter tea a beetle on its back will pray for boots and loud cracks we punish ourselves when we outlive our dream she suffered on her own so i powdered up her bones with root of belladonna atropine i know i know too much artemisia swore to never smile again artemisia’s ashes bless the hurricane artemisia said she’d like to see the sea artemisia’s ashes make a bitter tea artemisia will never smile again artemisia’s ashes make a stubborn stain artemisia’s ashes thrown into the sea artemisia’s ashes... i know i know too much
4.
The Eye 03:53
lyrics
the eye is your protector the time and motion cop the warning on your windshield your life in dash and dot it hangs there like a blood moon as the red line's overrun you are not sure if it's towards or away you run the algorithm loves you so divides the world in two the decent and the deviant mistakes will be pursued maybe you were naïve the punch-clock shows you lied it screens your metadata to protect the ones inside the history you can't delete it reads your brain's black box your hippocampus clamped in steel in clouds of entonox when you're gasping flapping a black glove on your face you'll reach for help and ring the bell but that's when it looks away
5.
Cutaway Queen 03:40
lyrics
isn't it romantic? letters on a hill mirrors on the ceiling marbled window sills did i give away enough now? this is no a silent movie but you won't say a word pool party producers a freeze-frame when it hurts did i give away enough now? did i give away too much, cutaway queen? are you a mannequin? how do you stay so thin? how much can you fit in? are you a mannequin? even just your outline in chalk-marks on the road pulls the paparazzi a bleeding centrefold did i give away enough now? did i give away too much? did you give away enough now? did you give away too much, cutaway queen? i don't think that you could cope with another happy ending
6.
The Crease 05:03
lyrics
here's the crease the dotted line we draw on maps it splits the sea into resorts and drowning rats if you do it will pull you underneath if you don't you will dream of coral reefs and fish that come and go so freely here's the crease the ditch we dig around our kin we police those without and those within if you dare try to cross it we will know if you don't your hands will stink of indigo from dyeing our denim daydreams we may be selling you democracy but there are snakes in the box and there is blood on the breeze we may be living our wildest dreams but there is sometimes a catch and there is always another crease regardless of how hard you press a hollow piece of the wall inside our heads if you try we'll push you back down the slope if you don't you'll spend your days making rope that we'll sell back to you as nooses we'll keep on feeding you our apple pie till there's a song on your lips and white stars in your eyes we may be living our wildest dreams but there is sometimes a catch and there is always a crease don't blame me i pray for you before i sleep my screen repeats a zoetrope of man and beast the hound's released a small price for security my hands are clean my palms are white but i can't hide the colour of the crease
7.
Fairytale On Fire 05:20
lyrics
this is what she must have felt like like a wendy house on fire fire is no cure for a question question if you're not to blame this is what she must have felt like like an armband swept to sea see her in your screaming dreams dreams that pound against the glass this is what she must have felt like like a snow globe in a storm storms inside her new toy tea-cups tea-cups shiver at the thought this is what she must have felt like like a doll whose eyes won’t shut shut the doors that will never be opened opened books that promise too much
8.
Empire's Parade 04:47
lyrics
seven years after monroe jackson's act allowed him to throw five nations – the cherokee, chickasaw, seminole, muscogee, and choctaw – into reservations written in the sands is the only clue there are holes in your hand but the chosen ones will choose who owns this land? the truth died with you every day’s a footstep that you have to take i have seen the light but it seems so far away i’m crying for a vision i’m dying to be saved from empire's parade pumping oil along the route you marched a thousand miles by foot at gunpoint your history has been erased by greats whose august portraits grace our classrooms did you ever find an answer? did you ever want to know? will you ever want to know? every day’s a footstep in empire’s parade two hundred years after monroe you serve us wearing dicky bows in casinos
9.
Doomsday Bunker Waltz 02:42
lyrics
there's a white stork in the morning and it brings me a baby a baby with a warning of boom boom boom
10.
Katrina 05:20
lyrics
aren’t you the girl with the sickle cell breath? haven’t you heard of an entropy death? kiosks blown over by the unwritten news a lynch mob drowned out by the swamp delta blues a passerby testifies a trail to the woods dropped by the white stork and raised by the wolves aren’t you the girl, the girl who was named before you were born but after the hurricane? aren’t you the girl who ran around the stands? in the school photograph, you’re at both ends did you find the butterfly covered in glue in your janitor tabard and concrete shoes? extrapolate postbellum disparities then pass me my urn for communion tea aren’t you the girl, the girl who was named before you were born but after the hurricane? witness: the oil spill fuels incarcer-rates witness: a poppy in a field meant for rape a founding father's letter reclaimed from the fire a ribboned dream snagged on guantanamo's wire we sleep like babes though we're covered in stains as they find your blood in the senator's drains aren’t you the girl, the girl who was named before you were born but after the hurricane? every footprint that you left was filled and every whisper is a force nine wind we say that we're sorry, but don't reparate we just keep an eye on you...

about

The title, "There Will Be Singing", comes from the poem "Motto" by Bertold Brecht, written in the 1930s as fascism was on the rise. It feels like we are approaching a similar juncture, and we need music bold enough to confront that reality. There is a huge and growing interest in books, films, and music which takes on these themes with intelligence, which makes Singh's songs essential at this moment in history.

The stand-out feature of Singh's work is his lyrics: with enough poetic grace to deliver political gut-punches so beautifully that you still want to hear them, again and again. Raised in an Indian family in the North East of England, Neil Singh now works as a doctor and lecturer in Brighton, UK. This unusual life story gives his work a refreshing gravitas and maturity enough to carry the weighty themes deftly. This lyrical focus is combined with musical ingenuity, taking the best of indie, folk, and rock and combining these to make something smart that you can sing along to.

The album is essentially a DIY project: with all songs written, arranged and produced by Neil Singh, and recorded with borrowed equipment around his day job. Singh provides all the vocals and plays acoustic and electric guitar, but he is backed by a full band (comprising cello, piano/keyboard, electric/double bass, and drums) that gives this album a dark, haunting mood with a textured, gothic feel. 

FFO Phoebe Bridgers, Radiohead, Weyes Blood, Counting Crows, Tracy Chapman, Decemberists, Sharon Van Etten, and Hozier.

credits

released July 19, 2020

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Neil Singh image

Neil Singh Brighton, UK

Where is the music as dark as the times we are living in? With themes that cover Black Lives Matter, the refugee crisis, pornography, and terrorism, Neil Singh's debut album is a musical critique of empire in the modern day.

contact / help

Contact Neil Singh

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Neil Singh, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featuring Riley Pinkerton (aka The Rat Queen) from the theatrical NYC rockers, Castle Rat.
listen now