Get all 13 Royal Holland releases available on Bandcamp and save 90%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Royal & Vär vs. the Sky Kingdom, Moonlight Twins EP, Matrioshka 4, Eternal Return - The Grave (Single), Eternal Return - The Maze (Single), Royal & Vär in West Virginia, Eternal Return - Digital Release, Live In-Studio Album Demos, and 5 more.
1. |
Devil's Night
03:57
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And tonight, we’ll be alright
And tonight, we’ll be alright
Forget the sagas you are writing
and the magic that you are striving to believe
and just be
Forget the grayness you are figthing
and the demons that are hiding in your dreams
and just be
We’re all wishing for a better life, but everyone’s life is what it is
Everyone’s life is always just beginning, but we keep wishing for the end.
But tonight, we’ll be alright
And tonight, we’ll be alright
Forget the illness you are hiding
and the sadness you are striving to conceive
and just be
Forget the madness that is thriving
and believing you're just something to perceive
and just be
We’re all wishing for a better life, but everyone’s life is what it is
Everyone’s life is always just beginning, so stop your wishing for the end.
And tonight we'll be alright
And tonight we'll be alright
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2. |
Statues
05:25
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It seems to me like we struggle to be
We are like statues brought to life by the thunder and a scream
Of a mother who is down to her last dollar on this earth
Crouched over fires until she sees that her life ain’t what it’s worth
Days follow days, follow nights and again
We hide the truth in their wake
Nights swell with hopes that the days burn away
Leaving behind what we then take
But I’ll try everything to hold onto anything
That keeps me warm when I’m stoic and frozen
I’ll keep chiseling away at everything
Until I can see the perfect form
So, why do we stand devoted to our courtyard demise
We’ll fade away as the time erodes the cosmos from our eyes
When we could follow titans on a road to hell and back
We’d torch the devils in hopes to steal back all the courage that we lack
Days follow days, follow nights and again
We hide the truth in their wake
Nights swell with hopes that the days burn away
Leaving behind what we then take
But I’ll try everything to hold onto anything
That keeps me warm when I’m stoic and frozen
I’ll keep chiseling away at everything
Until I can see the perfect form
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3. |
The Maze
05:38
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The secrets are all told by rustling leaves, but no one knows just who they’re telling
We do believe the words will hold a key, but no one knows the door that it will open
But, if you would just say those words to me, I would give back all the phrases that I’ve stolen
It’s simple but it’s so hard to explain how easily we get lost out in the open
You’ll see what you want to see
You’ll hear what you want to hear
The walls are slowly closing in, or else we’re walking through them
As if they’re even there
The room are all full of swollen air, but no one shows a desire to force them open
The doors are all closed with anxious care, and our fear grows the storms hidden behind them
But if I could just peek in on you there I would give back all the glimpses that I’ve stolen
And then the doors would all open up to me, and we would see all the things that are worth knowing
You’ll see what you want to see
You’ll hear what you want to hear
The walls are slowly closing in, or else we’re walking through them
As if they’re even there
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4. |
Shore
03:30
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Here it comes another swell
Dragging me down into the drink
I’m not sure but knowing my heart it will sink
I hope that I land gently, gently
Here it comes another drink
Dragging me down into deep sleep
I’m not sure but knowing my heart it will weep
Please let me down gently, gently now.
There is a sea deep inside of me
I don’t know what it’s for
I cross the waves most every night
In hopes just to find a shore
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5. |
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I've been sleeping all day, trying to dream up some kind of way that my arms could grow around you like a tree.
Steady and strong, as the years tack worries on, you could lay them all on me as my limbs creak in the breeze.
The leaves would fall like silver in your hair.
I've been thinking all day, how those tears rolled down your face like twin rivers that could only bear you away.
But, no matter how hard I try, I'm just a tree on the riverside. Watching as you drift away from me.
I've been dreaming all day, that the rainy season came. The banks of both those rivers began to rise. I felt the water on my skin and then those rivers fell again, but this is what keeps me here on these banks for all these years, just wishing for the day you finally pull me in.
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6. |
The Grave
04:16
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I’m just hanging out, watching as the time slips off the clock.
Wondering if it’s going to stop.
Days keep floating by, full of minutes that are never quite on time,
That stack themselves into a life.
But is it long enough?
So, Vega save me now, ‘cause I’m not sure that I remember how,
And I’m folded in half.
So, lay your body down and make your sacred vow to cover me.
I think that’s all I really need.
But is it strong enough?
I was busy staring in the void.
Someone said you were looking for me.
I’m just scraping by day after day,
seeing if there’s anything worth to save.
Falling from the cradle to the grave,
Death’s just there waiting anxiously for me.
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7. |
Flamingo
05:08
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Wingspan the size of a ghostly corpse.
Swoop overhead.
Flamingo
You’ll not be tamed by our mockery.
Beast of the wild.
Flamingo
Oh how we nullify the greatness you comprise,
By caricature.
Flamingo
Fly over me, wail out your decree.
Never let me be.
Flamingo
We pile on all of this, so we can keep forgetting,
That we’re frail and ill equipped for these lives we’re barely living.
So, never let me be, remind me of the killing;
That beast inside of me that flies free if I’m willing.
And I’m willing.
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8. |
Holy Moses
03:49
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It was a pretty cool day for the middle of August.
Crowd making way like a sea we were parting.
As you pulled me through you still wouldn’t answer why.
Your sad sad mind, it kept on darting, my darling,
To and Fro
I haven’t figured it out, but I think that I’m learning.
Passing thoughts through the air like a bush we were burning.
You pointed at me and gently tugged my tie.
You said it was not for me to question why.
Your smokey ghost eyes, they kept on darting, my darling,
To and Fro
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9. |
Polaroid Blues
02:01
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Capturing light to calm the nerves
Dusk's fingers, less than she deserves
Slinking around her lines and curves
I see something developing
A haze that covers everything
There goes my baby, nothing to lose
Except for maybe her Polaroid blues
And on and on
Machine to capture images
Dream rife with tinted visages
Of beauty transformed by the lens
I see something developing
A haze that changes everything
There goes my baby, nothing to lose
Except for maybe her Polaroid blues
And on and on
She's looking pretty good to me
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10. |
These Mundane Lives
03:37
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My tears are engineers they're working overtime
They're making metal gears and forcing them in line
They're making catalogs of parts that fit the parts that don't fit anything
My tears are soldiers fighting on a foreign soil
They've taken casualties, they've seen enough of war
They're reading letters from their girls back home and smoking cigarettes
My tears are sailors and they sail away from me
They're sailing out to see it's where they long to be
Yet somedays I can still hear them gather on the deck and sing
Oh, blessed morning, oh, blessed evening come
We'll sail the stormy gale and sleep when the day is done
The ocean's majesty is evident with every tugging of the tide, but
Our greatness is hiding within our mundane lives.
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11. |
Demimonde
03:29
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You were Standing in the kitchen by the sink
Light was streaming through your hair just like a breeze
But you didn't notice me there
You lifted up your hand toward your face
And brushed away the bangs draping your brow
You seemed as if you were falling through the room
Shes not falling
Shes only teaching me how to fall.
Your ghost escaped and caught me looking on
It passed through me and whispered to my ear
"You're not supposed to hear this"
I looked at you again but you had changed
Your face was firm and your eyes had turned dark
I got lost in them one last time
She's not falling
She's only teaching me how to fall.
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12. |
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I long to be free
Of this lowly station
The base frequency
Of miscalculated obligation
I'm pounding against
All the corners i find myself in
But the program is bound
To the body in which it sits
This mantra believe
You're the product of your own visions
But this message receive
You can't output more than you're given
I'm pounding against
All the corners I find myself in
But the program is bound
To the body in which it sits
This body is a binding contract with me.
This body is compiling lines terminally.
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13. |
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As I'm folding up the corners of the evening
I make sure to never let fall any crumb
Of the joy or of the misery I'm holding
It's important
What's important?
Each single one
I'm not ready, I'm not ready for this
What prepares you for the things you think you've already missed?
The years are steady but every night I'm remiss
Once it's ending I just wish it'd start all over again
As I'm kneeling on the precipice of morning
Getting ready to plunge into another day
And the sun is slowly heating up its warning
It's not easy
What's not easy?
Living each day
I'm not ready, I'm not ready for this
What prepares you for the things you think you've already missed?
The years are steady but every night I'm remiss
Once it's ending I just wish it'd start all over again
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14. |
Golem Effect
05:18
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Why can't I be the sun
Shining through your window panes
Making it too bright to sleep
And warming your fragile skin
Or a smaller star in the sky
That you never wished upon
Unless you could really mean it
But you never really can
Because your voices are all hidden
In the sky and in the ocean
And I hear the songs they're singing
But I never can quite sing them.
So I reach as high as I can
And I hold my breath for hours
But I’m cramping in my side
Treading water in the salty sea
I could be a cloudy day
The kind that seem so far away
Then maybe you could just forget
Or maybe you'd want me to stay
I could be the sky for you
Every different kind of gray
Cloudy shapes your fingers trace
And a loveless cold embrace
Because your voices are all hidden
In the sky and in the ocean
And I hear the songs they're singing
But I never can quite sing them.
So I reach as high as I can
And I hold my breath for hours
I reach as high as I can
And hold my breath for hours
But I end up breaking my neck
And drowning in the salty sea
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15. |
Embassy
04:56
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Some days it seems I could take these shoes off and walk straight into the sky
Unlace my darling inhibitions and my anxious fear of dying
I'd look back on this broken shell and laugh at how I used to care
About the way it looked to others, about what they thought was there
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Royal Holland Dayton, Ohio
Dreamy Synth Folk Rock songs about loss and love.
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