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NORTHERN EXIT

TENEMENT STARS

Left home at sixteen with a bag and has written about that morning for thirty years

style

  • hi-NRG synth-pop
  • eighties sequenced bassline
  • soaring falsetto male vocal
  • bright arpeggios
  • driving disco drums
  • euphoric melancholy
  • scottish accent
  • urgent and defiant
  • scottish accent
  • ecstatic

the numbers

bpm
136
key
G major
energy
0.70
dance
0.97
valence
0.63
vocal at
3.1s
length
3:56
language
En

lyrics

(a sash window rattles up)
(och, look at that sky!)

Four flights up on Kelvin Street
The washing line's a constellation
Your granny's ghost taps out the beat
On radiators — pure elation
(clang, clang, that's her!)

We cannae afford the islands
We cannae afford the moon
(no' yet, no' yet)
But the close lights up at midnight
Like a July afternoon

Under tenement stars! (tenement stars!)
Under tenement stars!
We dance where the wallpaper peels
Under tenement stars! (haud on tae me!)
Under tenement stars!
Heaven's just how the ceiling feels
(whoa-oh! whoa-oh!)

You brought chips up wrapped in thunder
We split them on the windowsill
The whole scheme glittered under
A sky that never got its fill
(gonnae never stop? never!)

Under tenement stars! (tenement stars!)
Under tenement stars!
We dance where the wallpaper peels
Under tenement stars! (haud on tae me!)
Under tenement stars!

They keep saying, son, move on
There's bigger lights down south
(bigger? bigger than this?)
But every star worth wishing on
Is hanging over oor wee house

Under tenement stars! (tenement STARS!)
Under tenement stars!
We dance where the wallpaper peels
Under tenement stars!
Under tenement stars!
Heaven's just how the ceiling feels

(the washing line sways)
(night, hen. night, stars)