Please Don't Be Cruel

from Ruthless Window by James Walsh

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about

“What were all those spooky ambulance noises about?”. When recording an album in someone’s spare room, people get to hear backing vocals out of context. Annoying backing vocals out of context.

Within the song, I think they work. This song is about being kind to yourself. I was probably channelling Clearlake, a band I listened to obsessively while at university and whose debut, Lido, is a clear influence on the aesthetics and obsessions of these songs. I wonder where Jason Pegg is these days: hopefully still just off the coast...

lyrics

Please Don’t Be Cruel

A month becomes three as easy as crying
You know when to laugh by the way that i pause
Is anything there I constantly wonder
We downplay our charms but fixate upon the flaws

The biggest of doubts live rent free in my head
Infinite futures and pasts all relived
The moment you wake up is when you start trying
We all learn to love but you never regret to forgive

You couldn’t have known
You couldn’t have known
You couldn’t have known

You couldn’t have seen
A world that’s like this
Don’t beat yourself up

She wasn’t to know
She wasn’t to know
Please don’t be cruel

You couldn’t of seen
A world that’s like this
Don’t beat yourself up

She couldn’t have known
She couldn’t have known
Please don’t be cruel

credits

from Ruthless Window, released February 12, 2021

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James Walsh London, UK

James wrote his first song in 2009, when his then partner bought him a ukulele for his 30th birthday. He wrote a song about Laika, the first dog in space, and then got distracted by other things. This is his first attempt to write a coherent album of songs, but now this particular monkey is off his back he hopes to write a second album before the year is out. ... more

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