You can check out any time you like
But you can never leave

so many, I’ve been on a muse and imagine dragons binge lately.

but instead of mentioning them much, I’m going to say one that caught me by surprise. Heard my wife’s music in the background the other day and this quote stuck in my head:

“you kept me like a secret but I kept you like an oath”

just thought it was an excellent turn of phrase. turns out it was Taylor Swift lol.

I try all the time, in this institution And I pray, oh my god do I pray! I pray every single day For revolution

4 non blondes - what’s up

“Just like a drunk ballerina, stuck on a tilt-a-whirl.” - the dwarves, everybody’s girl

“Bo peep erotica, my sweet demonica” - the dwarves, demonica

love the phrase “she came in through the bathroom window” and most of the lyrics in that song.

you are young and life is long And there is time to kill today And then one day you find Ten years have got behind you No one told you when to run You missed the starting gun And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun But it’s sinking Racing around to come up behind you again The sun is the same in a relative way But you’re older Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death

Pink Floyd - Time

“How strange is is to be anything at all” In the Aeroplane over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel

So oftentimes it happens
That we live our lives in chains
And we never even know we have the key

“Already Gone” by The Eagles

Pretty much anything by Electric Six or Clutch. Honorable mentions to Soul Coughing and VNV Nation.

Karma chameleon, you come and go ⋅ Karma police, arrest this ho. ⋅ Karma’s a bitch, it gets a little jumpy when you come near.

– Electric Six, (It Gets a Little) Jumpy

Like Harry Truman dropping bombs out of the air ⋅ Like any self-respecting multi-billionaire ⋅ This is who you are, five dancing teenage boys ⋅ Who sing their way into our hearts ⋅ Backstreet’s back, alright

– Electric Six, Jimmy Carter

Next thing that I did was tap out Morse code ⋅ With a wooden nickel on the receiver of the phone ⋅ Before I could complete it, I was quickly overtaken ⋅ By the angry spirits of Ronald and Nancy Reagan

– Clutch, X-Ray Visions

Pretty.much anything by Mars Volta, Tool, Pink Floyd, and Muse. Have yet to find something by these bands that wasn’t lyrically full of awesome shit.

I’m not as stubborn as I seem, said my knuckles to the concrete

Morals aren’t a substance you can shove in someone’s ear,

They’re basically a by-product of a mind thinking clear

• The Plan, NOFX

“I fell in love with my depression The only thing that was consistent I hated how empty I felt But at least it kept me distant” VCTMS - Carefully//Caged

“Something kinda sad about the way that things have come to be. Desensitized to everything, what became of subtlety? And how can this mean anything to me if I really don’t feel anything at all?

Tool - Stinkfist

“Maybe I will always haunt you. Mark the somnolence with truth. Better hang your dead palace. Than have a living home to lose. In the River Ganges, God damns my name.”

The Mars Volta - Vicarious Atonement

I’ll get in my skin

And I’ll only breathe for you

Like you want me to

Don’t get in my skin

I feel you in my view

Baby black and blue

—In My Skin by Thornhill

I don’t think it’s precisely about this, but it really describes how (autistic) masking feels to me.

"And I tried last night to pack away your laugh

Like a key under the mat

But it never seems to be there

When you want it"

• Arctic Monkeys, “Black Treacle”