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.

W A V E

by The Narrows

/
  • Streaming + Download

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

      name your price

     

1.
2.
Been working on a CD Rom. Been hanging out with punks in Washington. I feel like I know you. I feel like I’ve known you for life. You got a job with Rockstar Games. I see it in your bones and in your veins. I feel like I know you. I feel like I’ve known you for life. I’m a blonde to make a Bishop kick. A blonde to make a Bishop kicked stained glass. I feel like I know you. I feel like I’ve known you for life. The Whitney want to show your work. You make this little pack rat go berserk. I feel like I know you. I feel like I’ve known you for life. We danced through a blanket of light on the subway home. We walked past a million cracks in the city walls. Inside every one was a universe playing out infinite versions. So why are we staying the same? The stars were aligned that evening. Our hearts beating parallel and hiding behind that feeling? A moment. A precious tell that something would happen that we couldn’t hope to contain. Infinite versions. So why are we staying the same?
3.
When we left the East Coast we had dreams as big as waves. All the things New York tears apart, California saves. Got the house on Venice Beach. Met Beck and PTA. Taxi ride to Paramount – two-picture deal, they say. But Beck said The Church had a grip on the life that he longed to be running from. Celebrity Centre could fade into dust. What the hell are we running from? Down Pacific Coast Highway with Steely Dan on loud. Everything looks perfect but that single darkened cloud. “Honey, that’s the phone ringing. Can you see who it is?” Breathing down the line were men we’re told do not exist. The neighbours are rats and they killed all the cats. The ceiling is coming in. I know The Church. I’m au fait with their work. The ceiling is coming in. There’s men hid in cars. There are demons in bars. Who the hell are we running from? The letter says ‘go’. Where that means, I don’t know. What the hell are we running from? Hollywood begged me to come! What the hell have we done? What we gonna do? They’re being told what to say by the CIA! What we gonna do? Tom Cruise has put in a word on behalf of The Church! What we gonna do? We gotta get outta here, baby.
4.
Hey baby. I don’t mean to be freaking you out, but who’s that man outside, looking in at us looking back out? Was MKULTRA right? The Episcopalian priest has filled my head with ghosts of Houdini and Warhol and Poe and I can’t see a way out now. Hey baby. Have you noticed the ceiling again? It’s caving in and I’ve had a bottle of whiskey with friends. I’m not sure that we’ve got it right but I’m too scared to say. I don’t feel so good. The floorboards are wasting away and all I see is you looking over, above and beyond. You’re everything. This 27-page document (long) says everything we know we don’t know. Father Frank Morales. The Winchester House. Men at 10,000 windows. Creeping past the Pastor as quiet as a mouse. Something isn’t right. I see the bones of you. Back in Venice Beach, in the alley, the screams coming out of nowhere. Rising out of your lungs like a headful of steam, mixing with the air of nowhere. Operation Chaos. The Bowery Hotel. I bought a gun from somewhere. I said “I want my fucking art back for myself!” Falling into nowhere. 8. 9. 10. Gone.
5.
I can’t carry on. So I just pick up the phone and I think about calling you. I can’t take the pain. Pour myself another champagne. It doesn’t help. I think about you. The priest said I had more time. The East Village is cold at night. I fade like a ghost and nobody knows about all the grief inside me. A moment of truth. I can see through the roof. Oh no. All that we’ve said swims around inside of my head. Then the wave just swallows me whole. The Tylenol (and Benadryl) drip into my soul and make me ill. The priest was a mole? He said that I had more time. The East Village is cold at night. I fade like a ghost and nobody knows about all the grief inside me. A moment of truth. I can see through the roof. Oh no. I see everything that we’ve ever done. The letters we wrote. The loyalty oaths on Venice Beach. A box of Nat Sherman’s by the side of your bed. The Fugazi gig. The first time we kissed. The meetings for Alice Underground. The fact that together we could conquer it all. I fade like a ghost and nobody knows about all the grief inside me. A moment of truth. I can see through the roof. Oh no. Oh no.
6.
I am gone. I am gone. She’s the only thing I ever wanted. And then the wave hit me.
7.

about

First of all, we want to thank you for taking the time to listen to our album W A V E.


It is the thing we are most proud of in the decade we have been making music together.


We tried to make a piece of work that was both specific and universal.


At it's most specific, the album is about two artists - Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake. Their story - and the album's story - is one of overpowering love, terrifying isolation and a beautiful abyss that neither could resist. They are real people. Theresa was a filmmaker and iconoclast in the New York of the late 90's. Jeremy was a highly renowned visual artist. They fell deeply in love and became inseparable. They moved to California, where the warm embrace of the sun and the limitless possibilities gave way to a crushing, delusional paranoia that consumed them both and drove them back to New York. On July 10th 2007, Theresa Duncan committed suicide in her East Village apartment. A week later, Jeremy Blake walked into the sea and never returned. 


At it's most universal, the album is about an all-consuming love that can not be put into words and the overwhelming wave that threatens to pull you under when your world starts to unravel. 


It has taken us more than two years to make this album. This may be because we seemed to be making something in anticipation for a future that hadn't yet come to pass. We were calling to ourselves and we didn't know it. 


On 1st January 2020, Phil's son passed away, aged 22 months, after a battle with a genetic condition called Rett Syndrome. On 12th March, Adam's father Pete unexpectedly died.


It was in these moments that the album truly made sense. The all-consuming love and the wave that threatens to pull you under. 


We hope this album touches upon that sadness, but also upon the life-affirming joy that comes with having loved someone in a way which cannot be described. 


Thank you for listening. We hope you enjoy it. 


For Jude and Pete xx

credits

released April 14, 2020

Performed by The Narrows

Produced and engineered by Adam Hynes

Artwork by Tom Langfield

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

The Narrows Manchester, UK

We are The Narrows. We have played T in The Park, FOM Fest and Eurocultured. We've headlined the O2 Academy2 in London and The Ruby Lounge in Manchester. We have supported PVT, S.C.U.M and Gallops. Our music has been played on BBC 6Music and supported by Zane Lowe and Tom Robinson. ... more

contact / help

Contact The Narrows

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like The Narrows, you may also like: