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So Long, Babylon! (2020)

by Blake Starkey

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1.
6th of October 04:30
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Lying in my room Quite late one night Another memory Made me lose my sight While something very strange Made me walk outside So I walked outside And I died inside I had nothing to lose But I lost it all And when she told me Then I started to ball It was really no good and I knew it would be But at the time I could just hardly believe The leaves are turning Over and over On the darkest night The 6th of October The leaves are turning Over and over With every year I’ve grown a bit colder The leaves are turning Over and over On the darkest night The 6th of October The leaves are turning Over and over On the darkest night The 6th of October It’s the time of the year When the flower dies It’s the kind of night When the ghost will rise Searching for the girl With the dancing eyes Who could stay all day But leave next night It’s the time of your life When all else dies But I surely tried Yes, I surely tried I had nothing to lose But I started to fall But in the madness I regained it all The leaves are turning Over and over On the darkest night The 6th of October The leaves are turning Over and over With every year I’ve grown a bit colder The leaves are turning Over and over On the darkest night The 6th of October The leaves are turning Over and over On the darkest night The 6th of October Sometimes I hear a voice Going around my head And it comes to me At night in my bed I could be going crazy It’s what they said But I linger on I surely did I’m haunted by your face Everywhere I look And my soul cries out For what she took I was searching for the girl With the dancing eyes Who could steal my heart And fatigue my mind The leaves are turning Over and over On the darkest night The 6th of October The leaves are turning Over and over With every year I’ve grown a bit colder The leaves are turning Over and over On the darkest night The 6th of October The leaves are turning Over and over On the darkest night The 6th of October
2.
Come Undone 02:42
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It’s not over And it never began But in my heart It was so real Till the very end Despite the soil Falling over my head Still I cling And still I’m seeing red There’s another part to play Save it for another day When you’ve come undone I know it’s over But where else can I go? Your arms wrapped around me But your love never really showed Despite the waves Crashing over my head And feeling alone As I sleep in an empty bed There’s another part to play Save it for another day When you’ve come undone It’s finally over Hence the screeching end But in my heart It never really began Despite the soil Falling over my head A lovely necromancer Brought me back from the dead There’s another part to play Save it for another day When you’ve come undone
3.
So Long, Babylon! 04:06
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In Babylon she cries in red She pushes on although She is dead And the wine falls From the fountains for us In Babylon, there’s never enough So Long Babylon! Looks like I’ll be moving on How sweet her sorrows go The leaves they fall The winds they blow Babylon she screams for more Outside of every shelter’s door Babylon she spreads her thighs To the riff raff And the smoky skies So Long Babylon! Looks like I’ll be moving on So Long Babylon! Looks like I’ll be moving on How sweet her sorrows go The leaves they fall The winds they blow Juvenile faces Mixed in the mud How sweet our sorrows How far we have come And Babylon’s wept today Has only begun Tomorrow she’s on her feet To only run And mark well The faces in the street The priest and passerby And everyone you meet And we will love Before we die The tears we can show In the place Where she died In Babylon she dies instead She wails and weeps The sky is red And the water Flows from mountains us In Babylon there’s never enough So Long Babylon! Looks like I’ll be moving on How sweet her sorrows go The leaves they fall The winds they blow
4.
Love Lit Eyes 04:13
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Drawn to her flame And my heart was ablaze I was caught in a daze A love like a fire And her heart I desired We were so damn inspired She’s got a crush And it isn’t me Yes, she’s got them love lit eyes She lives her life in a fairytale But it’s as if she were blind She wears a ring on a finger And luscious flowers in her hair Her face is lit like a sunset In a sky of polluted air Drawn to her spell And I lived through her hell And I always tend to dwell On things to let go Though I’m taking it slow I just want her to know I gave her my heart And though we fall apart Running through Labryinth’s maze She’s got a crush And it isn’t me Yes, she’s got them love lit eyes She lives her life in a fairytale But it’s as if she were blind She wears a ring on a finger And luscious flowers in her hair Her face is lit like a sunset In a sky of polluted air Round and round and around we go And round and round and round we go Round and round and around we go And round and round and round we go Again! She’s got a crush And it isn’t me Yes, she’s got them love lit eyes She lives her life in a fairytale But it’s as if she were blind She wears a ring on a finger And luscious flowers in her hair Her face is lit like a sunset In a sky of polluted air
5.
Fall from the Sky 03:20
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Vibrant lights and roused clamor The lights reveal extreme glamour An electric concrete fantasy Where the billboards keep on warning me The dead all come out to play In this metropolitan decay The angels have all gone insane I know I’ll never be the same So let it ride for just a while As the stars fall from the sky The sun holds no regrets In the cemetery of Los Angeles The natives sway under arrest Weary but they surely do their best Now we’ve sold our souls To all of these ghouls While we're just waiting for the longest show The angels have all gone insane I know I’ll never be the same So let it ride for just a while As the stars fall from the sky To begin here at the edge Where the hell am I again?
6.
Holder of the Hearts 03:38
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I stayed up all night Red eyed until the morning's first light What did I see? A gypsy teller standing in the corridor I waited for you I knew all my dreams have surely come true What will they be? She laid before me Some of the scattered bones There beneath the stack of cards Great holder of the hearts Take my hand now Fear not Your heart is gold I left at twilight Teary eyed My tender heart Had been revealed What would I do? Forget my sorrows And dream of another day I saw her again She reached inside me And showed love To my brittle heart What could this be? I’m so smitten I think I may be Falling for her There beneath the stack of cards Great holder of the hearts Take my hand now Fear not Your heart is gold I laid down for the night My mind at ease I was feeling so loved How could this be? Not long ago I would’ve never believed
7.
November Nights (Gram Parsons cover) 04:04
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You say that you're restless, you say that you know me too well You've seen all my best and you've heard all the stories I tell You think you've been taken for granted, you're probably right Stil I remember a November Night When the dawn on your doorway shone white with frost And the soft love that always began with the touch of your hand And recall the mornings that tossed your hair in the wind Time's made it meaningless, I'm insecure, you can tell But why am I leaving unless time had only meant well? There's nothing left now to excite you, no reason to try Still I remember a candlelit sky And the summer surrounding the ground where you and I lay And though we were always alone with our secrets known We both were aware and afraid our closeness might end My love's like a dancer, she weaves through the dangers complete Her well rehearsed answers with rational reasons for feet And if it decreases or ceases to always seem right I'll just remember a November Night When the dawn on your doorway shone white with frost And the soft love that always began with the touch of your hand And recall the mornings that tossed your hair in the wind

about

Prism Reviews by Gregory Walker

There’s something charming about the sound of Blake Starkey. Like a cheerier Cure, with the same layers of sound—echoey keyboards, wall of sound guitars, clear, tenor vocals, and pounding drums. He created the album all by himself, which gave him the creative control to make it sound how he wanted. This album actually came after another album he was writing and recording and then scratched because he wasn’t happy with how it was turning out, he describes in his Bandcamp liner notes. If you think something’s not gonna work, creatively, then it probably won’t. But this is a successful grouping of seven songs, that soar and dip, both musically and lyrically. One, of a Gram Parson’s cover, that he satisfyingly fits to his own style of shoegaze dream pop.

Most of the songs deal in feeling and mood, ephemeral love and fantasy metaphors. “It’s the time of year when the flower dies,” he sings on the song, “6th of October.” “It’s the kind of night when the ghost will rise / Searching for the girl with the dancing eyes / Who could stay all day but leave next night.” Whether it’s the same girl or not, a love interest appears and disappears a number of times on the album, and he captures the longing and the heartbreak well.

The songs are twice as long as I expected them to be, though it might actually have been a strength of the songs, since I found myself wanting to hear where he’d go melodically, guitar-wise yet another time. It’s probably better for live settings to have longer songs as well, that you can rock out to and fill a couple hour set with. The most fully realized theme song on the record comes from the title track, “So Long, Babylon!” “In Babylon she cries in red / She pushes on although she is dead / And the wine falls from the fountains for us / In Babylon, there’s never enough.” “So long Babylon, looks like I’ll be moving on.”

Babylon could be a city where he lived, or a person that he knew, or just a state of mind. It is a bittersweet song taken from the Biblical city that wreaked such havoc on God’s people. “How sweet her songs go / The leaves they fall, the winds they blow.” It seems like we all must deal with the Babylons in our lives, be they political or spiritual, personal or universal, and it is a strength to leave something that has so much destructive sway over us.

We all long to be the heroes of our own stories and in a powerful song, “Holder of the Hearts,” Blake visits a gypsy decked out with cards and scattered bones who tells his fortune. “There beneath the stack of cards / Great holder of the hearts / Take my hand now / Fear not for your heart is gold.” The elements of fantasy story telling add a great deal to the record, do the important work of showing rather than telling, that moves the hearts of listeners to respond more deeply.

The album is a good length, especially since the songs are a bit longer. You get to know Blake’s unique sound, unique sense of story telling. It is satisfying to hear him close out the record with Gram Parson’s because it puts him somewhere in the world of music, somewhere that is surprising given his sound. And makes me wonder what other artists influenced his record. He explicitly said in the liner notes that this is NOT an album about 2020 or the pandemic, and it is a relief, as a reviewer, to take a break from thinking about comparisons. And a relief as a person, to enter a world completely of somebody’s making, apart from our own which is so turned upside down, so slowed down, like living in molasses, perhaps, by everything that’s going on. Give it a listen and see who you think he sounds like. It’s certainly a unique record.

credits

released February 20, 2020

Garrett Long - The Watermelon Room in Baltimore, MD - Mastering
Blake Starkey - Mixing, Songwriting and Engineering

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Blake Starkey Long Beach, California

Los Angeles based musician, producer and visual and performing artist.

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