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Belong Here

by This Glass Embrace

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1.
I tried to hold it all together The future you deserved I gripped the soil with my fingers Dug furrows in the earth I knelt and watched the pillars crumble I was there when the walls fell I hope you know that I thought of you I hope you remember me well And for this year, and all the years to come For all I did, and all I left undone For how we tried, as if trying was enough Forgive me for the weakness in your blood As January closes like a tomb As long as I am able, I will carry you I tried to shelter you in silence I was the tightly fitted door I was the cloth over the windows To keep you safe, to keep you warm I placed my words like they could bolster I nailed sentences like boards But when the barricades were broken I knew what they were truly worth And for this year, and all the years to come For all I did, and all I left undone For how we tried, as if trying was enough Forgive me for the weakness in your blood As January closes like a tomb As long as I am able, I will carry you When they stain the sky, we will be watching When the roots give way, we will be watching When the waves have dried, we'll wave our goodbyes When the creatures die, we'll read their last rites When they stain the sky, we will be watching When the roots give way, we will be watching When the fires have died down to embers When all that's left to do is to remember We will remember And for this year, and all the years to come For all I did, and all I left undone For how we tried, as if trying was enough Forgive me for the weakness in your blood As January closes like a tomb The first chapter of a story read too soon As long as I am able, I will carry you
2.
Put down the newsprint pages They have nothing good to say The world you loved is dying Prepare your speeches for the wake Awake to find another human dead with lifted hands "Let's order a coffin." It's dangerous to walk out your front door When you don't look like you belong "Try harder to fit in." Keep your head down and hide your face When "all made in God's image" Means "all of those who look the same" Pledge your allegiance like it's a prayer What does it mean to love a country But refuse to love the ones who live there? Read the Bible to your daughter Sing the hymnal to your son Teach them to hide the ways they're different Teach them the narrowness of love Awake to find a vacant house, your neighbors disappeared "They didn't belong here." When those who speak a different tongue Or use a different name for God are finally gone Whose turn will it be then? Keep your head down and hide your face When "all made in God's image" Means "all of those who look the same" Pledge your allegiance like it's a prayer What does it mean to love a country But refuse to love the ones who live there? "My hands are in the sky. Please do not shoot, don't end my life. I cannot breathe again. Remember what you promised." Keep your head down and hide your face When "all made in God's image" Means "all of those who look the same" Pledge your allegiance like it's a prayer What does it mean to love a country But refuse to love the ones who live there?
3.
Stay 04:37
You've darkened your hair It's longer than I remembered But your eyes haven't changed They still contain our forever And cautiously, as our fingers meet We move carefully Still, and slow Here at the edge of the unknown Stay the night Tell your roommates not to wait up Tell your work you’ll be in late I would trade my life Every moment before this one Sink the past into this lake Tie it down with concrete weights If you would stay The wind took the shore Its fingers brushing your body I wanted the same I wanted all of you, always And I can breathe when you're here with me I can finally breathe Don't let go This is the sway before the fall Stay the night Tell your roommates not to wait up Tell your work you’ll be in late I would trade my life Every moment before this one Sink the past into this lake Tie it down with concrete weights If you would stay I want your fears and your mistakes The things you love, the things you hate I want to hold, between my hands, All that you are, all that you’ve been To share your joy, to share your pain The silence and the words you say I want to hold you in my arms The heights and depths of who you are Stay the night Tell your roommates not to wait up Tell your work you’ll be in late I would trade my life Every moment before this one Sink the past into this lake Tie it down with concrete weights If you would stay
4.
Echo Screen 04:17
When I felt my foot break the ice I’d been walking so softly I’d been testing my steps, staying inside the lines All these years I was carefully calm I would swallow my wrongs I was choking on all that I couldn't become And now I see It meant less than nothing Call it what you want I’m done staying quiet I’m done playing along And if you didn't love me before Just wait for tomorrow Just brace for the storm The whispers swell to a roar In my bones is this aching for home Some place I can't remember Where I could feel safe, or at least not alone Instead I had sunk into the ground Soil filling my mouth But I clawed my way back, and I’m coughing it out So don't you leave I’m not finished speaking Call it what you want I’m done staying quiet I’m done playing along And if you didn't love me before Just wait for tomorrow Just brace for the storm The whispers swell to a roar
5.
Horizon-eyed With distant cold Are you here with me? Are you somewhere I can follow? Don't lose your way Your way back home If there's a whispered somewhere If there's an ocean wide and cold Just take me with you when you go And I will be enough for you If there's enough in me to be Just take me with you when you leave Flakes of ash Drifting down like snow On the windshield glass There’s a fire somewhere close Your hands on mine Are all of hope Or meaning that I've ever known If there's a whispered somewhere If there's an ocean wide and cold Just take me with you when you go And I will be enough for you If there's enough in me to be Just take me with you when you leave Your hands on mine (your sleeping warmth) Are all of hope (your breathing close) Or meaning that (I love you more) I've ever known (than you’ve ever known) If there's a whispered somewhere If there's an ocean wide and cold Just take me with you when you go And I will be enough for you If there's enough in me to be Just take me with you when you leave
6.
There is a hollow in our home An echo where you used to be I drift from room to room as if To catch your footsteps next to me The silence piles up in drifts The quiet soaks into our shoes If I could shovel free a path If I could find a passage through My hands are heavy with the weight Of trying not to reach for you I think in circles and in shapes Infinities and bounded loops Out past our driveway I could see The very edges of the earth The water flowed over the rim Carried away all we had learned I didn't know that it was time I know that no one ever does I wasn't ready to let go I know that neither of us was So stack the memories like stones And build a wall against the dark And I will stay here, where you were Here in the place that once was ours There is a hollow in our home An echo where you used to be
7.
Elegy 05:17
Let go There are some things you cannot hold And know What you have lost will find a home And they will sing again, who have not sung in years And yearn again for something more than this There are places where the mountains bruise the sky Where the wind moves through the forests like a tide If you remember me, let it be in this light There are chords no other hands have ever played Somewhere the echoes still spread outward through the waves If you remember me, remember how we sang Let go There is a shelter in your soul A home What we remember, we still own And you will hold this love, a quiet memory These years remain to carry when you leave There are places where the mountains bruise the sky Where the wind moves through the forests like a tide If you remember me, let it be in this light There are chords no other hands have ever played Somewhere the echoes still spread outward through the waves If you remember me, remember how we sang
8.
Wallflower 04:45
I am fusing with the background I promise I was never here I was never sweating fiercely Never stumbling and weird I am facing up to conflict I am confident and sure I'm not hiding in the bathroom I'm reacting like I should Why do you love me? Why does anyone? I always mumble or I talk too loud I’m quiet or I can’t calm down I can’t believe you want me around I'm always listening to bands that you don’t like Or writing songs you’re not too impressed by The things I love are only mine Most of the time Am I missing some instructions? Some kind of manual for this? Intro to Small Talk With a Stranger The Rudiments of Blending In If I could pull myself together Quell the shaking in my hands I'd try acting like a person Or pretending that I can I always mumble or I talk too loud I’m quiet or I can’t calm down I can’t believe you want me around I'm always listening to bands that you don’t like Or writing songs you’re not too impressed by The things I love are only mine Most of the time I am nervous, I am nerveless I am fragile, I am frightened I am careful beyond caution I am altogether frail I will rise to the occasion Hobble through these conversations I will operate correctly I will try to be okay Just please don’t lose faith I will bend but never break Don't give up on me I always mumble or I talk too loud I’m quiet or I can’t calm down I can’t believe you want me around I'm always listening to bands that you don’t like Or writing songs you’re not too impressed by The things I love are only mine Most of the time
9.
The truth is rolled up in the hollows of our bones We are the same The truth is printed inside out beneath our skin Spelled out in veins So when they come to take you I will take your place So when they come to take you I will take your place Of course I am afraid, but fear will never be my name Our lives are wasted if all we build are barricades If we destroy ourselves to make ourselves feel safe Our love is worthless if love has driven us to hate Tell me a story where the heroes turned their guns On unarmed kids Show me where Jesus said that money matters more Than caring for the sick As long as those we kill are someone else's kin As long as those we kill are someone else's kin Of course I am afraid, but fear will never be my name Our lives are wasted if all we build are barricades If we destroy ourselves to make ourselves feel safe Our love is worthless if love has driven us to hate We will tear a father from his family Grind up the destitute in our machinery Let the strangers die outside our boundaries In the name of some imagined safety Of course I am afraid, but fear will never be my name Our lives are wasted if all we build are barricades If we destroy ourselves to make ourselves feel safe Our love is worthless if love has driven us to hate
10.
When the mountain gave way And buried our home Sealed all we had carried Under forest and stone You were younger than I was When I first knew the weight I had hoped you had longer Before you felt your heart break When you sleep, if you happen to dream Dream of water and daylight Dream of shadows and trees And I will be right here when you awake Always, always, I promise To the very last day When the clouds ate the sun For the very last time I watched you squint at the brightness As it faded from sight I will try to remember How the world used to be I will tell you the stories When you ask them of me When you sleep, if you happen to dream Dream of water and daylight Dream of shadows and trees And I will be right here when you awake Always, always, I promise To the very last day Don't be afraid
11.
The floor beneath our feet gave way I don't know how we made it out Now we speak sentences in code And "safe" is only "safe for now" Tell me how the night will end How the ground will wake to life again That love will somehow break through all this hate Tell me tomorrow will be better than today We move through window-shuttered towns With every wagon circled close A world seen through parted blinds They fear what they refuse to know Tell me how the night will end How the ground will wake to life again That love will somehow break through all this hate Tell me tomorrow will be better than today

about

"The world you loved is dying. Prepare your speeches for the wake."

It's been four years since This Glass Embrace last released an album, and it's scarcely an understatement to say that it feels as if the earth has shifted since then.

Musically, "Belong Here" shows the band digging deeper into the emotive pop-punk (and occasional post-rock atmospherics) that are their wheelhouse. It's a natural next step, a more confident and capable version of their established sound.

But lyrically, the horizons are broader than before. A nation that once seemed familiar has lurched sideways into a nightmare version of itself, one laced with fear and division. Songs like "They Didn't Belong Here" fiercely refuse to surrender our common humanity, and the album begins and ends with a bittersweet allegory, a narrative story of love and devotion in the face of a global collapse.

In between, the band explores more personal griefs and private joys, the quieter ways a life can be fractured or made whole again, and the things within and without that can keep us from belonging.

credits

released May 17, 2019

Matt LeFevers: lead vocals, guitars, keyboards.
Kennedy Rice: bass guitars, additional vocals.
Zoey LeFevers: drums, additional vocals.
Jackie LeFevers: lead and backing vocals.

Cello on "How The Light Changed" and "Elegy" performed by Norlene at CelloArt.

Produced, engineered, and mixed by Matt LeFevers at The Mercury Room.
Mastered by Bill Henderson at Azimuth Mastering.

Band photography by Jake Hartin. Cover photograph by Matt LeFevers.

www.thisglassembrace.com

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