Feel The Sound

The fifth album by Imperial Teen, Feel the Sound, succeeds completely at its goal, plainly stated in the collection’s title. Like the sharpest pop music, Feel the Sound gets you to keep coming back for more, but unlike so much music today, it rewards you for doing so, giving you the experience of a fulfilled and yet still yearning, lively potential, one that will be further realized when the songs are performed live. From the exhilarating, propulsive “Runaway,” which features the entire band on lead vocals (how many other groups can make that claim?), to the expansive final statement of “Overtaken,” Roddy Bottum, Lynn Perko Truell, Will Schwartz, and Jone Stebbins feel the sound themselves and, in turn, make the listener feel it in ways immediate and pleasurable but also lasting and haunting.

ELO-like symphonic pop has become a touchstone for everyone from Justice to Cut Copy in recent years, but Feel the Sound makes it manifest through live instrumentation that possesses a Krautrock level of intuitive synchronicity and a desert island jukebox’s sense of fun. So many bands lose momentum and focus over time, but a little past its sweet sixteenth year of existence, Imperial Teen somehow grows both younger and wiser, connecting four characterful lives through creative friendship and deep trust, and forging a communal power that continues to grow stronger. Feel the sound of a one-of-a-kind group that’s never sounded more like itself.

LP includes a coupon for a full download.

RUNAWAY

No need to talk it out
Around the walkabout
It takes your breath away
Takes it so far away

Nowhere we have to be
One for the company
Oh look, a runaway
A Roman holiday

We could trade places A B C
Cover the bases 1 2 3
I could be you and you’d be me
Go in, go out, go in, go out – yeah

Set the alarm for Fri, Sat, Sun
Beating the countdown, jump the gun
Paradise lost and look who won
Go in, go out, go in, go out – yeah

The bastard of the brood
Living in solitude
They threw it all away
And took a holiday

You ask so pretty please
To get ahead of me
Oh yes, oh probably
So much for subtlety
We could trade places A B C
Cover the bases 1 2 3
I could be you and you’d be me
Go in, go out, go in, go out – yeah

Set the alarm for Fri, Sat, Sun
Beating the countdown, jump the gun
Paradise lost and look who won
Go in, go out, go in, go out – yeah

If I had it my way, my way again
It would come in a spray
Make tomorrow today, today again
Make tomorrow today

If I had it my way, my way again
It would come in a spray
Make tomorrow today, today again
Make tomorrow today

We could trade places A B C
Cover the bases 1 2 3
I could be you and you’d be me
Go in, go out, go in, go out – yeah

Set the alarm for Fri, Sat, Sun
Beating the countdown, jump the gun
Paradise lost and look who won
Go in, go out, go in, go out – yeah

NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY

Foot on the ground
Sky falling down
Stifle the sound
Volume unbound

Scent of my cell
Toll of the bell
It’s not a crisis
So much to tell

Turn it around
The seed in the ground
Vowel or a noun
Addicted to sound

Battle of will
It’s only a drill
I don’t have to save myself
For the books on the shelf

No matter what you say
No matter what you say
No matter what you say
No matter what you say
With a foot on the ground
I can turn it around
Warming up to the sound
And I’m not coming down
A temper not to tame
A finish left unframed
Wood that’s stripped of stain
Leveling the plain

Don’t want them to know
Choke the weeds that grow
Catcher in the throe
The scent will stop the flow

No matter what you say
No matter what you say
No matter what you say
No matter what you say
With a foot on the ground
I can turn it around
Warming up to the sound
And I’m not coming down

LAST TO KNOW

Pumped up pecs and sticky skin
Floors unswept and walls are thin
Were you the last to know?
Were you the last to go?

Steroids in the cabinet
A trophy wife with benefits
Were you the last to know?
Were you the last to go?
Seat belt trumps the booster seat
Bigger than you used to be
Were you the last to know?
Were you the last to go?

The baby pacified
The sailor crucified
The kissing glorified
The mother horrified
Were you the last to know?
Were you the last to go?

You set the trap and locked your phone
Then we became a palindrome
Were you the last to know?
Were you the last to go?

A festival of paper shreds
A bed for two is not a bed
Were you the last to know?
Were you the last to go?

The baby pacified
The sailor crucified
The kissing glorified
The mother horrified
Were you the last to know?
Were you the last to go?

Applaud a pessimist
You putting up a fist
Employ a nihilist
While teaching you to kiss
Were you the last to know?
Were you the last to go?

Based on what I found out, it’s a lie
Based on what we both know, it’s goodbye
Money money money money sigh

The music’s stopped and I can’t sing
But I can get through anything
Were you the last to know?
Were you the last to go?

OVER HIS HEAD

In a cage it stays the same
It doesn’t bite, it takes the blame
It doesn’t know what’s happening
It never knows what’s happening

Throw a blanket on the cage
When it’s night, it’s hard to gauge
It doesn’t know what’s happening
It never knows what’s happening

Eyes are closed, the smell of fear
What is seen is all you hear
Couldn’t see what’s beckoning
Couldn’t hear the reckoning
In a corner set a trap
Getting caught the lines were tapped
Couldn’t see what’s beckoning
Suddenly a reckoning

He’s in over his head

Put a mirror in the cage
It’s just another game we play
It doesn’t know what’s happening
It never knows what’s happening

Bite the hand that feeds the bark
Affidavit after dark
It doesn’t know what’s happening
It never knew what’s happening

He’s in over his head

One to spare and one to save
The taking back of what you gave
One to stare and one to gaze
The best of times, the worst of days
In the range but out of phase
The best of days will come again

HANGING ABOUT

Hanging about and you’ll stay no doubt
With your tongue hung out
With your sung not shout
In the folds of the sheet, in the flat of the pleat
The milk of the teat or the pants of the seat if you will

Shocked and enthused by your yesterday’s news
And your role as a muse
In a robe that you dis’d on a whim
Of a sketch of your hair in a bun
Your stature undone and unbuckled of knuckles and limbs

Moved and abused by the craft of a stitch
A son of a bitch or a bastard that’s bred just to kill
It aghast in the sail of a mast
That’s forcing a fast
On the strike of a hunger to fill

Stretching to last with your arm in a cast
A half-finished task and a bucket that’s filled to the brim
Of a cup that’s been drained its remains
The half that’s poured out is the song that we shout, let’s begin…

The sun is melting the butter
It melts into the ground
The paper sticking together
It doesn’t make a sound

Hanging about and you’ll stay no doubt
With your tongue hung out
With your sung not shout
In the folds of the sheet, in the flat of the pleat
The milk of the teat or the pants of the seat if you will

ALL THE SAME

You’re so safe, you’re in my mind
Full for only half the time

What if we never meet again?
I could breathe in my seat again
You will find you never had enough
Peace of mind to ever like it rough

I don’t explain, you ought to know
I can wait if you’re too slow
Now I’m playing innocent
Saying what was always meant

To you…

Look at you, on the scene again
Bought it new, feeling better than
Secondhand, second string and you’re
With the band, wear your ring and then

You can’t explain, we’ll never know
I can’t wait so take it slow
Now I’m playing innocent
Saying what was always meant

To you…

You’re so safe, you’re in my mind
Full for only half the time

What’s been lost and what’s been done
We’ve had our fights and had our fun
A brand-new suit to put upon
A pin, a tie, a vagabond

With you…

You’re so safe, you’re in my mind
Full for only half the time

To you…

Saying what was always meant to you

DON’T KNOW HOW YOU DO IT

Is it all in my head?
Is it something that I said?
Are these feathers meant for down?
Are these letters meant for noun?

Book the time, set the tone
Something borrowed, something sewn
And I don’t know how you do it
And I don’t know how you do it

Take it in all around
No more water, no more town
No more picking up the pieces
Tucking in along the creases

Throw ’em out, let ’em in
Never knowing where they’ve been
And I don’t know how you do it
And I don’t know how you do it

Another sight unseen
To straighten not to clean
Nostalgic not serene
I don’t know how you do it

The letter never came
The pilot missed the plane
I don’t know how you do it
I don’t know how you do it

Following the dots connecting
Faces to the names protecting
To hold but not to seize
To press but not to please

Intercepting not directing
Pastimes we were once regretting
I don’t know how you do it
I don’t know how you do it

OUT FROM INSIDE

Do you wanna drive? Do I have a say?
The one that breaks down’s the one that got away
Nowhere to hide, tan it with the blade
Hike it up high, cut it to a fade

At first was so right, now just ok
That’s what you get when you pay your own way
Put up a fight, watch what you say
Dress up for the night and down for the day

And it’s all right
Down from up high and out from inside
And it’s so bright
Back to the front and out to the side

And it’s all right
Lifting me up, pushing you down
In the sunlight
Watching you swim, watching you drown

Hold your head high, done for the day
Save your goodbye, take off your face
Taking the bait, tangled and frayed
Comb it out straight, put it in a braid
And it’s all right
Down from up high and out from inside
And it’s so bright
Back to the front and out to the side

And it’s all right
Lifting me up, pushing you down
In the sunlight
Watching you swim, watching you drown

The glass will fit the ceiling
To wear it out will break it in
Rip out the page you’re stealing
The plagiarist will always win
The glass will fit the ceiling
We’ll pass it to the next of kin

And it’s all right
Lifting me up, pushing you down
In the sunlight
Watching you swim, watching you drown

And it’s all right
Down from up high and out from inside
And it’s so bright
Back to the front and out to the side

THE HIBERNATES

The war machine was waxed and cleaned
But the wolves they trained were slow
No matter the shine and no matter the gleam
The wheels just spun in the snow

The best marine had been blessed by the queen
With a badge for best in show
But the bronze turned green as he lost his steam
While the ebb trickled down to a flow

The trees weren’t green but the frost turned to stream
As the carbon melts the snow
The ash fell free as the blackbird screams
At the hibernates below

You’re breaking up, you’re broken
What’s said remains unspoken
To have a vice is always nice
A parcel or a token

The ice had thawed by the grace of god
And we asked, please sir, for more
No, he said, see I’m better off dead
And we’ve been through this before

So we took to land, did it all by hand
As we carved through the melt of the snow
The mold that grew knew what to do
For the hibernates below

You’re breaking up, you’re broken
What’s said remains unspoken
To have a vice is always nice
A parcel or a token

IT’S YOU

Gettin’ to you seems impossible
Who, who is the busiest one of us all?
Too many songs we sang are left unsung
Another dream unwritten, the record’s done

All the cities and all we’re looking for
Tomorrow there will be so, so, so many more
And you know that I call you my best friend
It’s gonna be me and you ’til the very end

An invitation
Within without
An education
Worn inside out

1, 2, 3 it means so much to me
Wouldn’t trade it for less or anything
Now a different beat on a different drum
Me for you and for me you’re the only one

An invitation
Within without
An education
Worn inside out

Left the room, a sound’s not heard
You’re gone without goodbye
Neighbors knocking, car’s not stopping
Now your tears are dry

A matted photo, you grow older
Still you’re just the same

It’s you, it’s you
Not one but two
It’s you, it’s you
We’re back from where we came

Make a plan, a list of things to do
I can’t remember, was it me or was it you?
All the things I think I left unsaid
Say them again and again because you’re my friend

An invitation
Within without
An education
Worn inside out

OVERTAKEN

It’s overtaking, it’s overtaking us
The fall we’re taking
It lies awake in us

It’s overtaking, it’s overtaking us
The brood is waking
The brood is waking up

Come with me again
I can see the end

It’s overtaking, it’s overtaking us

Come with me again
I can see the end

Pressed and set in place in
Glass but not a basin
We can survive

Nipped and clipped and placed in
Sinks so not to waste in
Flowers they will thrive

It’s overtaking, it’s overtaking us