instant karma: completely gone fishing

liner notes: the sun shines out of my behind

'Sometimes playing around with shitty equipment turns out better recordings than developing a song over months and producing it on high end gear. This track was originally intended to be a duet with Neil Diamond, but he just wouldn't answer our calls. And no, Ollie and Tom weren't drunk during the singing ...'

La, la, la, la, la, la, la. La, la, la, la, la, la, la. La, la, la, la, la, la, la. La, la, la, la, la, la, la. La, la, la, la, la, la, la. La, la, la, la, la, la, la. La, la, la, la, la, la, la. La, la, la, la, la, la, la. La, la, la, la, la, la, la. La, la, la, la, la, la, la. La, la, la, la, la, la, la. La, la, la, la, la, la, la. La, la, la, la, la, la, la. La, la, la, la, la, la, la.

--Gordon

liner notes: sleeper

'Slightly surrealistic lyrics. I just compared my own feeble body to plants & trees, with wrinkles and scars just growing on me while I'm asleep. As I'm one of these people that need to iron their faces after they've woken up (I'm a real pain in the morning), the thought just came up slightly before any signs of age were really visible. My Dad was amazed that I would write such stuff this early in life ...'

Call me the sleeper, cause I'm hiding from the day. I creep out of the woodwork, just at night so I can fake. I'm the sleeper. Dreamwrinkles grow my face, each one a different taste. Who cares if sadness or even gladness? I'm the sleeper and I dream. I love what they do to me, they clean. Dreamwrinkles grow on me, each one's a different tree. My heart is ploughing the seeds my heart is sowing ...

--Gordon

liner notes: birthday suite

"The single of the album with a great, unusual animated video. A favourite for many, it's about an old man in a pensioners home, communicating with the bugs in his room. Slow forest, by the way, is the nice Thai word for cemetery. The highlight of the song , the elevating finale with Tom and Ollie on their best Pavarotti, was inexplicably culled for the radio single."

I'm not growing anymore, I decompose, I break my leg my shoulder, I lose my ears, I lose my nose, oops there it goes ... And she doesn't know that I'm not quite alone, I got friends on the ceiling, got neighbours in my bed, they're keeping me the company I never have, they're everywhere, and she won't care, that I see semaphores, they see moths, I receive morsecode, they see fireflies. They all tell me it's a slow forest, all the bugs and worms and maggots and butterflies, they're all friends of mine. I'm a giant, a whole world of their own. I'm all hills and valleys and forests and roads, they party on my pelvis and hide in my toes, and when the lights go down, they make music for me ... listen.

--Martin

liner notes: give me a deal

'Ego trip, part one. Many people who heard this classic IK rocker thought it was all about getting signed. It's not. At the time, I had lost my girlfriend, had huge financial problems ( OK, still have ...) and was running out of people I could shovel my problems on (Let's hear a big `Ah' for Gordon ...). Blamed it all on the music, I did. So, lets `give me a deal' and get this thing over with. Oh, the company exec loved it, `must have felt like a big wet sloppy one on the bum. But then again, it worked, right ?'

You've been pushing around my friends for much to long. You've been playing around with me and jerked me off. I'm twisted, I'm screwed, your sewer is my head. Maybe just a bond to much you broke. Suck, suck again. Give me a deal and be quiet. Give me a deal, I'm getting tired.

--Gordon