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  1. All Seeing All The Time
  2. Backstroke
  3. Switch It On, Switch It Off
  4. Who Bites Down
  5. Shield From Bedlam
  6. Agitated
  7. Never To Be Real
  8. Whippet
  9. Morning Ritual
  10. This Could Be Anything
  11. Are You Looking For Something
  12. Sorcerer’s Eyes
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©2023 Chartreuse



Our debut album ‘Morning Ritual’


These songs are both old & new, with ‘Morning Ritual’ being the oldest song on the record, we felt it more than deserved to name the project. We've always held it back, knowing it would be best served rosy cheeked on an album next to 11 other newborn brothers and sisters. It’s the end of us taking care of these songs and they are finally being released out into the world, that is both cripplingly exciting & terrifying.

This is the first long form piece of work any of us have created & we have been creating music from our desert island for so long, in the form of make shift studios, sheds & bedrooms, it’s finally finished, raw & ready to be listened to.

Please enjoy & cherish these songs.

All Seeing All The Time

Track 1



“This song is about the multitude of information we have available to us whenever we want it.”


Wheher that's factual or fake. The idea arose when i started to worry about Rory's news intake, he was checking it at all hours of the day and waking up to look at it, there was a lot going on in the world at the time and still is.

The lyrics are quite self explanatory, there's no hidden meanings in there. This song took many forms and we tried a lot of ideas to make it work, originally being led by a synth line and my vocals which just didn't quite work, Mike then took on vocal duties, we took the synth out, replaced it with guitar and the rest followed, we cracked it.

When we play this song live it feels like we're holding on for dear life, it's so jam packed and intricate that it starts and ends before we quite know what's happened, which makes it one of my favorites to play live. I don't know what I imagine when I hear this song, there's a definite urgency to it but it also leaves me feeling hopeful & like we're on the right track


Lyrics

I see it, I believe it's boiling under your feet
I see the sheet they're pulling on you
Match stick eyes don't miss a thing, don't miss a thing

All seeing all the time all believing all the while
All seeing all the time all believing
All seeing all the time all believing all the while
All seeing all the time all believing

It always exists, mass sadness
When you're out there
Spouting In, moments of madness
Match stick eyes don't miss a thing, don't miss a thing
All seeing all the time all believing all the while
All seeing all the time all believing
All seeing all the time all believing all the while
All seeing all the time all believing (ahhh)

I see it, I believe it's, boiling under your feet

Backstroke

Track 2






When writing this song I thought about the place I grew up in It’s a large town on the edge of a city, surrounded by old industry, dirty canals and pubs that too hairy to drink in. It’s a very strange stagnant place that is very stuck in it's ways.


In our old studio 2022

Lyrics 

It’s fogging up
Wrong ingredients to the sacred broth
That feeds the hungry house that figured out
It’s mighty lousy
It’s filth it’s trash it’s hungry house well
Pacing through the nice new plastic
Slidey shiny right and rosey
The hungry mouse lives
And burns and toils on
Get rich quick in different keystrokes

The life of boredom the words of warning
The life of boredom the words of warning
The narrow boat called the backstroke
Starts its engines and lets it choke

Bring the fifth right from my mind
In equal parts and equal times

It’s fogging up
Wrong ingredients
To the sacred broth
That feeds the hungry house
It’s figured out it’s mighty lousy
It’s filth it’s trash it’s hungry house well
Pacing through the nicenew plastic
Slidy shiny right and rosey
The hungry mouse lives
And burns and toils on
get right quick in different keystrokes

The life of boredom the words of warning
The life of boredom the words of warning
The narrow boat called the backstroke
Starts its engines and lets it choke

Bring the fifth right from my mind
In equal parts and equal times
Bring the fifth right from my mind
In equal parts and equal times

The life of boredom the words of warning
The life of boredom the words of warning
The narrow boat called the backstroke
Starts its engines and lets it choke

The life of boredom the words of warning
The life of boredom the words of warning
The narrow boat called the backstroke
Starts its engines and lets it smoke

Bring the fifth right from my mind
In equal parts and equal times

Bring the fifth right from my mind
In equal parts and equal times
Bring the fifth right from my mind
In equal parts and equal times
Bring the fifth right from my mind
In equal parts and equal times
Bring the fifth right from my mind
In equal parts and equal times

Switch It On, Switch It Off

Track 3



“I wish I could control the switch in my head
from overthinking and negativity.”


Through the verses, ‘Switch It On Switch It Off’ darts between memories, fantasies, daydreams and landscapes–snapshots from a busy mind. You have to observe and take them in quickly before they pass. There are several themes within the song; cruelty, connection, desperation and reality and how hard that can be to grasp.



Lyrics

Searching for answers
back and forth between our mattresses
all we got right now is
what ever comes up it comes back down with
solid information
stone cold knowledge

Two magpies rip my tree apart
They spot a poor wood pigeon with a stupid look
Surround him like a pack of dogs
I've seen this done at a bar but not in my garden

(I cant)
Switch it on Switch it off
(I just cant)
Switch it on switch it off
(I cant seem to)
Switch it on switch it off
’til I've had enough of it
(I cant)
Switch it on Switch it off
(I cant seem to)
Switch it on switch it off
(I cant seem to)
Switch it on switch it off
’til I've had enough of it

Moving letters of everything thats come to pass
My porch is full of return to senders that have got sent back
I'm a big man with big hands
gripping on to the last words i have
its solid information stone cold knowledge

(I cant)
Switch it on Switch it off
(Just cant)
switch it on switch it off
(I cant seem to)
switch it on switch it off
’til I've had enough of it
Switch it on Switch it off
(I can't seem to)
Switch it on switch it off
(I just cant)
Switch it on switch it off
’til I've had enough of it
Here i am riding on a busy train
A soft shove turns my i’s into j’s
I cringe at a mans news paper choice
I laugh at a child reading from his tiny book
and as the time gets nearer
I measure myself in the mirror

I cant
I cant
I cant seem to
(I cant)
I cant just
(I cant)
I cant
I cant
(I cant)

Switch it on Switch it off
(I can't seem to)
Switch it on switch it off
(I just cant)
Switch it on switch it off
’til I've had enough of it
Switch it on Switch it off
(I can't seem to)
Switch it on switch it off
Switch it on switch it off
’til I've had enough of it




Rory with the parachute at the video shoot.

Who Bites Down

Track 4





This song came out of neccessity and became the light at the end of the tunnel. I was going through a bout of bad mental health for a few months which ended up just bubbling over. I had convinced myself I wasn't a good person, that I wasn't good enough to be in the band and that I didn't have anything worthy to bring to the table.




“I'd pretty much withdrawn & wasn't talking about it, until the rest of the band pulled me out the mud and started a conversation where i was able to freely talk about any worries I was having.”



The song was the start of a journey for me learning more about myself and I'm forever grateful to the rest of the band & feel incredibly lucky to be in their company.

The instrumentation started off as a bit of an experiment, we chose a key & went separately into the studio to record. We weren't allowed to listen to what eachother had done and just played whatever we wanted. We did this twice each on different instruments. Unmuted all the tracks to a wall of noise, Mike somehow managed to find loops that worked as verses and choruses.

Mike and I then worked on the lyrics, piecing streams of consciousness together to make sense of what I was going through.



Mike & Hattie in Netherlands 2022


Lyrics

All the seasons, come in teething
Gently weaving
Tell me who bites down
It's the murder of the day
Grateful saying what I say
Tell me who's let down, tell me who's let down

Looping, spinning wheel
Wind it up to begin
I'm a fraction of the turning
I'm a beginning I am turning
I'll keep on digging, I am not forgiving, I'm chewed up just listen
You want answers I get it, look around us the room is spinning

The room spins round
Though they won't believe it, we break
no new ground, i'll just keep on giving
who's let down, who's let down, tell me whos let down

Looping, spinning wheel
Wind it up to begin
I'm a fraction of the turning
I'm a beginning, I am turning
I'll keep on digging I am not forgiving I'm chewed up
just listen
You want answers I get it, my friend it's doing laps around us
Cut the bastard, it's laughing at you
Look around us the room is spinning, look around us the room is spinning
Look around us the room is spinning

I'll be back in a minute I'm only stepping out

Tell me who bites down
While the room spins round
Tell me who's let down, tell me who's let down
Who bites down
While the room spins round
Tell me whos let down
Tell me whos let down

Shield From Bedlam

Track 5




I wrote this song about someone i went to school with and sat next to in a few subjects, tragically they died in a motorbike incident a few years ago.

Her family lived close to my house & after it happened I’d always see her parents or her brother seemingly every time I’d leave the house.

Selfishly the whole thing made me feel the weight of mortality, they were too young to leave this world. It felt good to write something and honor her in someway.




Mike in Munich 2022

Lyrics

Parting ways always feels so strange
When finality is confirmed
But I will paint you as a dove
Carrying a gem
Blocking the sun

Then my cup
It overflow with Venus in my veins
Your making me choke
Loving you still
You were too close
You’re making us choke up
Making us choke

Hide at night then hide in heaven
Shield from bedlam you seasoned veteran
Hide at night then hide in heaven
Shield from bedlam you seasoned veteran

Sentimental displacer
Super reporter
No more war in the suburbs
Just a sadness that fills my garden
Fills my garden

Everybody knows you
You live by the bridge
All the things you said
I don’t remember
A single damn thing
I was just a kid
We were just kids
But you might remember me, you might remember me

Hide at night then hide in heaven
Shield from bedlam you seasoned veteran
Hide at night then hide in heaven
Shield from bedlam you seasoned veteran

Sentimental displacer
Super reporter
No more war in the suburbs
Just a sadness that fills my garden
Sentimental displacer
Super reporter
No more war in the suburbs
Just a sadness that fills my garden

Hide at night then hide in heaven
Shield from bedlam you seasoned veteran
Hide at night then hide in heaven
Shield from bedlam you seasoned veteran