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News From Nowhere

by Tom Emlyn

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  • Cassette + Digital Album

    Beautiful blue cassette with a variant label, extremely limited to 10 copies in total

    Includes unlimited streaming of News From Nowhere via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Cheap and cheerful CDR of the 'News From Nowhere' album. Limited, numbered run. When they're gone, they're gone!
    With thanks to Richard Rose & R.E.P.E.A.T. records for all the help and advice

    Includes unlimited streaming of News From Nowhere via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    edition of 30  5 remaining

      £10 GBP or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 13 Tom Emlyn releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Hall of Mirrors, Kafka, Stained Glass Eyes (Elliott Smith tribute), Three Covers, Scaredycat Vol. 1 Bsides, Return Journey Revisited: Scaredycat Vol.1, Scrounger EP, I've Seen You In Town, and 5 more. , and , .

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1.
Ymerodraeth 03:14
(instrumental)
2.
Think Twice 03:49
think twice, please don't you take my advice skies grey since you went away it would be funny, if it wasn't true please don't, please don't look at me that way the edge is all you're aiming for again & again & again & again & again Never walking down Llangyfelach road never growing old you froze, froze despite your clothes who knows, from your head down to your toes cut off your face to spite your nose so, think twice, please don't you take my advice skies grey since you went away again & again & again & again & again Never walking down golden broken road never growing old
3.
Blind boy caught the sun for a moment in the dawn huge wings in the blackness then they're gone Three chords and a lie is all you want to hear three chords and a lie is all I have to say and if the audience disappears say it anyway, anyway take off your black glasses So I can see your eyes, your eyes in a Belgian archway with the sun in your eyes three chords and a lie is all you want to hear three chords and a lie is all I have to say and if the audience disappears say it anyway, oh Caught the sun, caught the sun for a moment in the dawn.
4.
Colourless 04:00
I used to sing but the song has gone away I used to sing but the song has gone away good morning sir, what can I get you to drink I've been here all day with my hands in the kitchen sink red eyes, sunrise but it is colourless climbing over your garden wall I look at the moon and I feel very small sometimes I feel I'm being squeezed in a vice not much to say, but I'll give you my voice blue eyes, day dies but it is colourless
5.
you can read in this light but you're going to hurt your eyes outside, voices on the pavement frozen in amazement at themselves you are a beautiful fake, but there's something I can't shake and it's all too much to take on beaujolais day you can suffer for your art and you can tear yourself apart but how long's it going to take you? You could have gone to Ibitha but there was nobody there to meet you and now you can't afford to go Can you?? The condom machine is not what it seems and you don't know where you've been on beaujolais day You are a beautiful fake but there's something I can't shake and it's all too much to take on beaujolais day on beaujolais day on beaujolais day on beaujolais day
6.
Throwaway 04:07
Throw me away with the tea bags and the bones and the faded receipts banana peel, paper plates and coffee grounds apple cores and cans Easy come, easy go Easy come, easy go The thing you threw hasn't reach the ground once in a while I hear an old ringtone from a distant phone glued to the street the pictures all come back to me it's just a throwaway Easy come, easy go Easy come, easy go I don't wanna know who you are now while the sea fills up with plastic dead leaves on a welcome mat standing at the terminal but she was on another plane It's just a throwaway, it's just a throwaway
7.
Town has changed since you've been away buildings drowned in clay I can't recognise the place shadows on your face Behind the splintered stage of the Palace Theatre the cold limelight plays Fast asleep beneath the street Beneath centuries of sleet Beneath a billion heavy feet Fast asleep beneath the street Someone came up from the sea by the cheap hotels asked me for a light in a language I couldn't speak You know a pier is just a bridge That goes nowhere Always out of reach Click track ghost, the dead railway na na na na na na na na na So, town has changed since you've been away Landmarks drowned in clay Cluttering up the place Taking up my space You know, a pier is just a bridge That goes nowhere Always out of reach Fast asleep beneath the street Beneath centuries of sleet The eternal slag heap Fast asleep beneath the street
8.
Tommy Cooper 03:34
there is more than one kind of death and this is one more kind of death don't start, I don't want to hear another one of your vignettes dying like Tommy Cooper lying in the gutter but I'm not looking at the stars, just looking at myself All you do is take, take, take, take all you do is ache, ache, ache, ache all you do is take, take, take, take all you do is fake, fake, fake, fake You take, you take I had a job but I fucked it up don't wanna pull a pint, don't wanna stack a shelf Don't wanna talk to you, just wanna be by myself annex my territory, tear up my dream diary I've never felt so low just wanna play my solo All I do is take, take, take, take oh, I don't wanna break, break, break up But all I do is take, take, take, take Oh, all I do is fake, fake, fake, fake
9.
Cover Band 03:40
I was playing my guitar in an empty bar when I thought I heard your voice I froze alone out loud like a cat on bonfire night like winter rain I was watching you in the Tav the pool balls crashed together I was deaf and I was blind inside the fireplace red coals for eyes and I could be in a cover band fall in love on a one night stand learn to play with my left hand or I could be in a cover band Now there's no-one there on the beach a microphone stand swaying in the wind the crashing cymbals and screaming amps the sea, the gulls and I could be in a cover band fall in love on a one night stand learn to play with my left hand or I could be in a cover band
10.
Empire 04:46
You can only dream when you're asleep though you may see things when you're awake disregard them all or you will weep and your visions will fill a thousand lakes And if I seem to contradict myself just remember that nothing is ever true Your picture is up on somebody's shelf the face is the same, but is it really you? The way things could be, the way things should be the way they really are in a place where nothing changes oh sweetheart, whatever made you think you could change? I can see the fingers of her empire caressing the Mumbles and the hills the trees are all black, the houses all abandoned the factory girls smoke and construct escape plans and now she returns from whatever she's seen with so many strange whispers on her skin the road is washed out by forecast rain and the wind at the window is all that remains the way things could be, the way things should be the way they really are in a place where nothing changes oh sweetheart, whatever made you think you could change? In a place where nothing changes oh sweetheart, whatever made you think you could stay the same? The way things could be, the way things should be the way they really are
11.
Passerby 05:28
I'll be here in ribbons on the cutting-room floor while you're walking through the editor's door let me stand in the frame with you let me stand next to you I've been waiting so long in the arena with my wristwatch on You might glimpse my arm or the back of my head standing on the bus or waiting to pay I can learn the lines, but this is not who I am Passerby where do you go at night? Passerby do you see me here waiting, waiting for you for you so call, call, call crawl the city guard this messenger's come far down the Kingsway with orange headlights in his eyes a burned-out shadow at the back of the stage while you're talking with your hands, I'll be standing in the background while you're waiting for Godot I'll be waiting for you. Passerby who do you see at night? Passerby Don't leave me behind, I don't know who I am Don't leave me behind, I don't know who I am

about

This album has been years in the making. It was originally recorded before lockdown at Tom Rees' studio in Cardiff, I suppose between 2019-2020, although it's hard to remember at this point, it seems so long ago.
It was recorded for my old band News From Nowhere, so the album is named in tribute to that defunct project and the continuing spirit that it represented. I've made it a solo album, not to take all the credit for myself, but because this is the only way it can be released now and I feel that it's a strong piece of work. The other members contributed massively to the record and it would be very different without their amazing playing.
We were a Swansea band, and this is very much a Swansea album. It's full of references to the town, and tries to capture the nature of the place - melancholic, mad, bacchanalian, rainy, surreal.
It's a bittersweet love letter.
I've carried these songs around for years.
Hope you enjoy!

"So good - straight into my top 10 songs of the year...when did Tom Verlaine join Belle And Sebastian? Cause that's what that sounds like, I utterly loved that" - Adam Walton BBC Radio Wales

"Heart-stoppingly beautiful and original tracks...expressive and evocative voice, soaring melodies and powerful poetic lyrics, all of which promise great things from his debut album" - R.E.P.E.A.T. fanzine

"Serenade is a song of love and longing, with Emlyn showing vulnerable emotional flesh. It's not navel gazing misery, though; "I'd like to serenade you, because you are the bomb" is sweetly humorous.' - God Is In The TV zine

credits

released May 30, 2022

Produced, engineered and mixed by Tom Rees at Rat Trap Studios, Cardiff
Stem mastered by Charlie Francis
Album art by Rhiannon Rees
Thanks to Pypi Slysh for the help with editing
'Empire' engineered by Randell Denning at BBC studios, Swansea

Tom Emlyn - Guitars, vox, keys, found sounds
Will Evans - Bass, backing vox
Alec Evans - Guitars
Billy Stillman - Drums
Rhys Underdown - Keys on 'Colourless', 'Throwaway' and 'Under the Street', sax on 'Passerby'

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Tom Emlyn Swansea, UK

"peripatetic musical genius" - Adam Walton, BBC Radio Wales

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