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.

Emergency Contacts

by Tracy Manuel

supported by
von-horst
von-horst thumbnail
von-horst Another collection of beautiful melodies and hard-hitting lyrics make this a highlight of 2020.

Love the new sound and here’s hoping for a CD release at some point!
/
  • Streaming + Download

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

      $5 USD  or more

     

1.
Baby Teeth 05:02
I used the last of my powers trying to sing you to sleep now there isn’t a thing left for you and there sure as hell isn’t a thing left for me we were only apart by three hours might as well have been weeks caught in some fraying invisible spiderweb tying your phone still on speaker to me and I sat with your breathing so recently seething it was mercy to me I can only halfheartedly blame you to do what you did drank red 'till you blacked out and blew up, look back now — oh, isn't it funny what gutted me then? you know, it's alright if you're angry if that's the closest that you feel to okay, if you need it to burn through the memories that hurt you then darling, I don't wanna stand in your way but I'm not gonna thank who you've had to survive for how you've climbed through the ranks and still made good on your life and if when you held me you only held me in spite of being built up and torn down again and again at least hundreds of thousands of times then I think that's alright if we'd walked through the same halls, who you think I'd have been then? courageous or wasted or ragey or jealous at who's walking 'round with your baby teeth in them? but these days, nothing's forgiven remember me there in your kitchen in a calorie deficit, wasting away again, afraid that we would or would not make amends again but I won't pretend again we'd last a weekend again and time cannot mend again it's just taken a friend again now my nerves have been julienned but I know my medicine and I wanna see you lay into them wanna do right by you, stand by you, then again you did fine giving them lip bruise on your ribcage, scab on your wrist motrin tab melting inside of your fist scream down the hallways, don't settle for this but back then, you'd already learned not to wince at all of the teachings you took on the chin charades of protecting some maimed innocence and I hate what they did to you look what I did so this one's for you, dear it's all I can do here in this world a soft, blue sphere of old bitemarks and new tears and pity flows through here and I choke on it too, dear but didn't we meet here where you cut your teeth, dear? where you cut your teeth down to the pink left at the bars rattled in drinks thrown at the stars strung up like beads slid down your arm buried like seeds in somebody's heart turning your cheek clenching your jaw brace for the swing and lean into the fall take what you need it's just dark before dawn if you're starting to bleed it's just dark before dawn there's nothing to see dark before dawn don't look back for me it's just dark before dawn you know you should be free it's just dark before dawn don’t bite hands that feed but when they're done, take the arm
2.
so much could kill me, baby so few are willing lately see my old bruises wear thin you pressed record to my skin oh, take your pick take me home or take me sick that pinprick deep in my skull still has me spitting up pulp it’s how the dark shines through me what did you think that you’d see? and have you had enough of it? if this is home then home is sick I'm wondering what I had was ever like relief I needed light so bad but I couldn't take the heat heard you looked pretty chewed up when you put those last few nudes up but like the rest, now I know you can't be healed and still whole oh, this is it if you take me home then you take me sick so, I guess this is it if you take me home then you take me sick
3.
Antibodies 05:18
I'm a different kind of matter and the universe will shatter if you touch me and all my chemical offenses bleed through past and present tenses they come rushing as those scarlet letter platelets bubble up to where my face is catch me blushing ‘cause you could look right through me like I'm chardonnay and woozy and it could crush me yeah, it could crush me I thought I was only waiting for the vaccine afraid of showing symptoms even I couldn’t see but something in me knows you, something in you knows me you’ve come and gone, we’ve got each other’s antibodies now I'm inside out and backwards and you’ll catalyze disaster if you touch me it all goes viral in an instant and you learn to keep your distance you can trust me something we can both agree on skip the fever for the freon and we’ll feel nothing I let the water boil in my skull hold my tongue against a 9-volt I feel nothing I feel nothing I thought I was only waiting for the vaccine afraid of showing symptoms even I couldn’t see but something in me knows you, something in you knows me you’ve come and gone, we’ve got each other’s antibodies
4.
Closeness 04:02
I had a dream, you and I our particles were recombined woke up thinking that you had died refreshed your feeds for signs of life and you don’t know this do you? when you’re out there on your own but if something happened to you who would know to let me know? it’s probably fine this is how it goes sometimes I guess we always have survived but darling, even so they say we’re only pieces of stars that once exploded as we’re hurled through the ether of our perilous devotions all we know of home is what our muscle, blood, and bone is it’s so easy to confuse our common chemicals for closeness and I don’t know what I would do with half the fight inside of you go finish dinner, start a coup burn all night, back home by noon and you don’t know this do you? it’s just so hard not to care but if something happened to you would you even want me there? it’s probably best if I don’t hear you say the rest and I don’t know what happens next or if it happens to us both they say we’re only pieces of stars that once exploded as we’re hurled through the ether of our perilous devotions all we know of home is what our muscle, blood, and bone is it’s so easy to confuse our common chemicals for closeness so if we can’t be friends let’s be emergency contacts emergency contacts if we can’t be friends let’s be emergency contacts emergency contacts
5.
now I've seen the news it’s written all over you and you’re so amused at starting a war by noon and I'm a fool to do what you tell me to when I pledge allegiance to another red flag to another red flag to another red flag your violent past and present are overcast you know I won’t last but thanks for the laughing gas fading fast but oh, darling since you asked I'll pledge allegiance to another red flag to another red flag to another red flag do you need a lover? or do you need a patriot? someone there to hold your purse or someone there to hold your gun? watch you stuff the body bags and fix your hair for the parade I don’t know what you thought we had I watched you throw it all away I just want to believe so bad in all the things you make me say oh, but hey I'm still better off this way you know I won’t make it out on my own for a day I'm amazed just by how much it takes when I pledge allegiance to another red flag to another red flag to another red flag
6.
see through me tonight with the eyes of a storm I'll leave on my light you’ll darken my door I'll open my heart to be quartered and canned now I'm in your arms and you’re out of my hands this moment of weakness has dragged on for days into weeks I keep going to pieces wondering if it’s only me and I know it’s just a feeling flooding the back of my brain but you’re glowing on the ceiling and I can’t make myself turn away
7.
you part the red and plastic sea of solo cups on couple’s night and you say, “my body is a temple” and I said, “to miller lite” I poured mine out in a potted plant and you asked if I was fine I said “I guess it’s not my scene” and you said, “god, I hope you’re right” “because as far as I can tell all these people won’t be long they’re secretly afraid that hell was real all along and they’re all scared to die because they don’t know how it feels and then they’ll waste their afterlives wondering why they’ve never healed” then you disappeared to probably find some bathroom drugs to do beside the vinyl shower curtain printed “live, laugh, love” and you know I hate to hear that bathtub ring around your lungs but you tell me not to worry, yeah, you tell me loosen up you say, “as far as I can tell we’re only barely substance so don’t be afraid of hell it’s just the town that you grew up in I'm not scared to die I'll just go back to being nothing I don’t need no afterlife I think I've had enough of this one” “so hush, now, now — run along, the night is thick with hearts to break and bones to pick but still somehow I just want out my misery and you want me to let you in?” I said, “look around at all you trembling mortal hypocrites just trying to disengage the fastest if we leave right now we’ll drive past flowers on the guardrails and ribbons on the overpasses flowers on the guardrails and ribbons on the overpasses flowers on the guardrails sometimes I can barely stand it” the stars are soda water bubbles splashed across a nylon dress too dim to read the tattoo polygraphed across your chest but I guess I still had reason to believe you when you said “it’s gonna be alright” and when I tried to shake my head you told me, “I can’t even tell if life’s too short or long I know loving me is hell I know loving you is wrong but try not to waste tonight on only wondering what’s in store ‘cause when we reach the afterlife you know we’ve seen it all before”
8.
Organs 03:29
9.
sometimes I don’t know how the hell we’ve managed to hold ourselves together in our ways as I wrap my unbroken flesh in bandage you were always pressing for a vein sometimes I will break before you bend me some days I can’t tell you what I want but even when my heart is heaving empty I still melt like a pill within your palm sometimes you are held up by your anger like ribbon through the hollows of your bones and sometimes I am captain oleander as I claim all that’s ever poisoned me my own sometimes you’re here to walk me through the fire sometimes I'm here to pull you back to earth but even when we get what we desire I'm still the one afraid of being burned sometimes we tear each other, we don’t mind it we’ll heal the wounds we’ve made the day before ‘cause we both know pain’s an ocean and an island and dying’s gentler still than being born so when I feel the fibers in us mending I pray they come back stronger than the last ‘cause I don’t want to be your muscle memory knowing that I'm just beyond your grasp
10.
I'm a different kind of matter and the universe will shatter if you touch me all my chemical offenses bleed through past and present tenses they come rushing those scarlet letter platelets bubble up to where my face is catch me blushing and you could look right through me like I'm chardonnay and woozy it could crush me but maybe what I needed wasn’t in the vaccine maybe I was showing symptoms I couldn’t see maybe I was always s’posed to turn out to be your anti, anti, anti, antI antibody now I'm inside out and backwards and you’ll catalyze disaster if you touch me it all goes viral in an instant and you learn to keep your distance you can trust me something we can both agree on skip the fever for the freon and we’ll feel nothing let the water boil in my skull hold my tongue against a 9-volt I feel nothing maybe what I needed wasn’t in the vaccine maybe I was showing symptoms I couldn’t see maybe I was always s’posed to turn out to be your anti, anti, anti, antI antibody

credits

released October 13, 2020

all songs written, recorded and produced by tracy manuel
mastered by robots (aren’t we all)

tracy manuel
guitars, vocals, fake bass, fake synths, real + fake drums

luigi polcari — ghosthoodiemusic.com
cello (baby teeth, guardrails), acoustic bass (red flag), electric bass (antibodies)

keith cary
pedal steel (antibodies), steel samples (subcutaneous), salad bowl (subcutaneous), fiddle samples (organs)

dj kyle
keytar (red flag)

greg manuel
supercollider programming, bespoke drones (organs)

m’gilvry allen — mgilvryallen.com
fiddle (antibodes V2019)

gabe saron
mandolin (antibodies V2019)

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Tracy Manuel Davis, California

SiNgEr-sOnGwRiTeR

contact / help

Contact Tracy Manuel

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

Tracy Manuel recommends:

If you like Tracy Manuel, you may also like: