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Destroyer

by The Running Youngs

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1.
Piano Song 03:19
I wonder if I’ll ever get my chance to kill him To knock his lights out, dress him up, then hide him somewhere I know he’s there he keeps his door wide open And he won’t go away Mother he’s called but we don’t know his name He asks me to come but I can’t stay I wonder if anyone ever does They move our pictures around in their veins Part of the poet stays in em’ that way I wonder if anyone ever dies I know that you’re right and I’m writing as if I were thinner As if I could squeeze out all my feelings out in a day I’ll drag you down to places you never thought possible All my fossils all keep us warm at night But if you ask me why I don’t fight I bet that I couldn’t give you an answer I challenge anyone to tell me his true name I’d call off the wind if I could hear anything above a whisper But I can’t Mother he’s called but we don’t know his name He calls me to come but I can’t stay I wonder if anyone ever does They move our pictures around in their veins Part of the poet stays in em’ that way I wonder if anyone ever dies
2.
I am always watching I am always taking down The beat of your footsteps The cold of the room when you’re not around Forever reciting A prayer I made out of words left out to rot Let them stay unbroken Let them be the one thing I’ve still got To hold to you You drape each room In black and blue And silence too What do I know? Rhetorical? Fuck no I am really asking you to unmask me What do I know? Rhetorical? Fuck no I am really asking you to unmask me Earn another halo Take your things and go Dig in blood red soil Wearing chains to keep me in toil I don’t need it yet To hold to you You drape each room In black and blue And silence too (the cold in the room when you’re not around)
3.
I threw myself through tumbleweeds In a rush of color, through a rush of leaves As sun came up, saw ocean blue I thought of no one except for you To leave it all, to cease to fight Nothing is wrong and no one’s right Spout that shit up, see what it buys In your eyes My crumpled legs and dewdrop eyes Made easy the art of staying in disguise But in your broken speech and easy grace Was the only beauty in this place We read the books We made the time We broke apart upon their line And now every second is mine But I’m Caught on the backside of my whale And I can’t ask when or where And I can’t ask anyone If I’ll find you there (ooooOooOooOooOOOoooOoooOoooOooOOOAAHHH) But I’m Caught on the backside of my whale And I can’t ask when or where And I can’t ask anyone If I’ll find you there Come, let water overtake yourself Come join me and the broken shells Neath sky and sea I swear I’ll find you there love I’ll find you there
4.
End of Days 02:26
I’m sorry in advance for everything that I’ve written I just haven’t felt at home in here, it’s the darkest place I’ve been Like skeletons the rooms and dens we learned to love with time Are vacant now since it’s run out and I’m still stuck inside Despite the locks on doors I’m safe with rope around my throat, A stomach full of pills that I washed down with bleach and coke Before I’m gone the Earth’s burned down and the pockets have all grown Someone remind these bastards that grass doesn’t grow on stone O! I really wanna see you, I guess we didn’t get that far I fear come January we’re all gonna take this to heart I really wanna see you, I guess we didn’t get that far I've always half believed in life under another star We’re not the same, we owe you nothing It’s the end of days They’ll pay the price I really want to see you, I guess we didn't get that far I fear come January we’re all gonna take this to heart I really want to see you I guess we didn't get that far I've always half believed in life under another star I really want to see you I didn't think it'd be so hard I've had good things and all good things are had with care I really wanna see you I didn't think it'd be so hard I got beside myself and they all disappeared
5.
We lined up our angle Took years of course Stuck around to watch things die Stuck around to feel remorse Not that any of us were chomping at the bit It is easy to be strong when you don’t have to commit When the day finally came you were there on the bow Said, “I can’t believe we’re just ditching our ground. There are some things I just thought constant, like the moon, even you, to a certain extent.” “Baby this body ain’t nothing but a hearse, expect nothing from no one, except maybe the worst.” “Don’t like that, I know things will be alright…” Even if we die They’ll throw our bodies towards the light And every night When they’re looking at the stars When they’re wondering where we are We will laugh and throw our heads back like Cannons firing off, but we won’t make a sound No one will be watching and when everything is drowned Out in the black, we will take off our masks, I will fill all your cracks, you will fill all my cracks When flesh is stripped from bone Everyone is hung out by their ears with their atoms exposed Do you think it will shake the foundations of our makers to see a subtle lining of hate? No, they will look at what you gave Turning circles over in your head won’t take your fear away I’m just trying instead to focus your attention on burying A hope in place of grief A storm looms over me
6.
Maria 04:12
Moriah in the year 3048 ‘Neath the shadows of palisades Comes the flood I can see Dead angels with dirty wings Hung to dry from every ceiling I don’t care Should I care Maria in the rain in the dead of night ‘Neath the gaze of Eckleberg’s eyes Couldn’t see Anything til I lost my faith In my mother, the glorious state One by one, the scales fell from my eyes Sunday comes and you’re left cold You wonder why your tails been pulled Why there’s no strings playing for you in the dark I can feel your inhibition Try to shut your mouth, just listen (But) not to me, to know one else Don’t lose yourself, don’t lose your trust in people Maria, I see you in the rain Moriah, it’s bigger everyday Maria, I see you in the rain Maria take my pain away
7.
January 05:32
I bet you’re waiting for the world to end For blood mountains and torrents of chaos To come in the form of your stomachs distended shape Spewing forth all the things you wanted to say but never did Since you were a kid Since they turned your eyelids outside in And put a number on your skin Hide like a rat, down soggy alleys Hide cigarettes in your sleeves, smoke them in valleys That you carve from the depths of your hate, do not listen to those who would have you equate this with weakness, although in the end they’ll be right If you sleep you will do so alone tonight And you will do so in covers cut from bare skin wreathed in Sweat at the thought of never getting to leave its body (leave its body) You will burn and you will break Form but not enough to shake Off the tethers/shadows/shapes Etched into your restless face With a ring your carved from clay Baring nothing but your name Let your anger fall away Endless, nameless, til the Day Destroyer rears his head and shines a light on our long dead hands Two hands reaching, two hands buried in soil (open and unfurled) If your body gives way slowly, shed yourself, shout, “you don’t know me!” You’d call me by anything but my name (the song will bend and change)
8.
You took your car out I’d had enough so I called it a bluff and I cussed you out It was my last shout, the one that I had been holding back since you’d checked out But I made it about me I had to flout the Reasons to doubt your feelings about The things that you said had sent you away I think about you everyday And my anger, it was frightening Had I known I’d have tightened My restraints and bound them tight to yours Sewn myself in places that are torn You took your car out You’d had enough so you drove real rough, blew your tires out It was your last shout, the one that you had been holding back since your world gave out But had you heard these words I doubt they would have meant anything to anyone other than me Goddamm the herd-kind-of mentality that makes it OK to just throw it all away Just cus they murdered expectations that you have doesn’t mean that they owe you anything And it’s absurd, but when we’re young we think that what we need’s no less than what we all deserve But you made up your mind Some things just decay with time And I mistook the line between “I’m OK, I’m fine” And “forever you’re mine” Why’d you go out that night Had you told me to try, had you told me to try I would Carry it all off your back so you can rest your shoulders Carry it all so we'd all we find out your heart is sick Carry it all off the backs of all these broken people Carry it all so we'd all find out that loves exists (You took your car out I'd had enough so I called it a bluff and I cussed you out It was my last shout The one that I had been holding back since you checked out)
9.
Make numbers out of clay. leave them where they lay Give them something to say They wanna know some more, who is keeping score What I’m asking for There was nothing I could do to ever keep away from you To ever keep the words that I said true I am not a lowly part, I am the whole, the end, the start And every word I say’s a world in bloom Face tragedy in spaces, call it by its name With no ill will or bad taste But twist existence with a smile, in gracious self denial And you’ll wither every vine There was nothing I could do to drive myself towards further truth To ever keep the words that I say true Cut my strings my bleeding heart lies open to the crows, their art Drives letters into me, I am a wound But my hate, and my lies, will take shape Everyone loves a devil, I can give you several My hate, and my lies, will make change Everyone loves the devil, for his grace, for his meddle Lay them down in rows at my feet And we’ll meet And who is keeping score, and who is asking for more From every open door, a sun a moon, what a chore There was nothing I could do to ever keep away from you To ever keep the words that I said true I am not a lowly part, I am the whole, the end, the start And every word I say’s a world in bloom But my hate, and my lies, will take shape Everyone loves a devil, I can give you several My hate, and my lies, will make change Everyone loves the devil, for his grace, for his meddle I called your name (I heard it all) Where was your voice when I sculpted the World to match your face my love? (You lost me from the start my dear. The world is not Yours to own, its songs are played on immovable stone) Oh, if only I had known…
10.
Avian 04:19
Mother told me forget what they said And father’s wise words “Be you instead.” Being the one who feels drifted apart From the burden of those whose morals depart Playing the odd role in which I’m defined I’ll search for their chapter, the same as mine I’ll light up the sun, while you catch the stars When the heavens clear up, we can meet by Mars It’s funny to think, with a world so small, I don’t even know who you are A catalyst sings to a reaction inside That draws your heart closer to mine Like the mystic hand, that guides this song It binds us to who we really are And how we sound A melody shrieks upon the frets we used to know Our hearts cried out and our stomachs shown The lullaby screams of which the forms we are suppose to keep It's all we ever know It's all we ever seek All I ever dream is to be their everything And I’ll be their anything in rhyme But every fucking time I fall down and feign death inside And cry out to a god to which the skies reply Little bird you’ll fly away, your cage door fades today Realm the skies and meet your flock Find the one who will own your heart And make it sing.
11.
By the Lake 06:00
I’m reading letters in my father’s hand The lines are broke, syntax be damned I crawl and squirm with every line At all the things that I am not And everyone’s gone far away Desires went but bodies stayed We’d talk for hours in linen sheets Anticipating every sea Will you meet me in the water in Alameda Hold your breath watch things grow shorter in Alameda Blotting our candles out in dirty water Keeping our brooms in time, we didn’t think they’d Whittle away at our hours spent by the lake, we break Ourselves in two to move with how we’re told to Now jessie’s basement’s quiet and her mildew’s Piling up as our boat sits dry by the lake, we wait I’m writing letters in my father’s hand I don’t expect you to understand Is it in me to push away? Will we remember our own names? Will you meet me in the water in Alameda Hold your breath watch things grow shorter in Alameda Kids in the movies meet and drift away but Our undercover hearts don’t make us able to Turn on a dime and forget our time in the light Call me out, call me in, call me something in my home tongue I need it, the warmth and fire Slick my blood, from Europe, on the floor I don’t need it, or it me, we’ll find a way to Go back to the lake and throw ourselves from the land We’ll meet underwater, no sons and no daughters Call me Al, call me fire, drive your body past the limbless trees Blotting our candles out in dirty water Keeping our brooms in time, we didn’t think they’d Widdle away at our hours spent by the lake, we break Ourselves in two to move with how we’re told to Now jessie’s basement’s quiet and her mildew’s Piling up as our boat sits dry by the lake, we wait

about

Destroyer was, like most good things, a product of toil, turmoil, and conflict. Its name is somewhat deceiving - at least to me - because, although Destroyer came from a painful place, it also brought with it newfound hope, ease, and release. We decided to record this album after deciding not to break up. I hope it makes you as glad as I am that we didn't.

All good things are had with care.

-Jack

credits

released March 9, 2018

Mixed and Mastered by Jordan Wagel at The Krilosphere in Livonia, MI

Sam Klos - vox/guitar/keys/bass
Jack Hoover - vox/guitar/bass/keys/percussion
Andrew Brauer - guitar/percussion/vox
Brian Oliverio - drums/percussion/vox
Zack McCarter - bass/keys/guitar/percussion/vox

Lyrics by Sam Klos, Jack Hoover, and Zack McCarter

All music by The Running Youngs

Additional vocals by Megan McClanahan on tracks 7, 9, and 10.

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