Amping the Hourglass

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The Shy Reserve – Azuline

All I see are sands slipping seamlessly
Surrendering shimmered soliloquy

All I feel are feathers falling flawlessly
Facetiously forming forever free

Amping the hourglass
The sirens are singing
Don’t linger too long in the past
The clocks will keep ringing

Cherish all these seconds we can see
Today is the youngest we’ll ever be

Written and recorded by Randal Gordon Prater
Published by Doldrum (BMI)

Up until the 11th hour, this was intended to be the opening track on the album, which is why I put the backwards intro in there that was meant to serve as the first thing anyone would hear. Time Flies and Drags was meant to be the final track. But, once that one became my favorite, I decided it would be criminal to put it last since most people would never hear it. Anyway, since both of those songs are about time, they were intended to serve as the album’s bookends. But, now if you broke it up into a vinyl record (remember those?), the two time tracks would be the opening ones on sides A and B. I’m cool with that.

The first two verses are all with words either starting in S or F. This was obviously intentional. It took ages to come up with the right ones. I must have about a thousand different rewrites in my recycle bin on my computer. I took my inspiration from songs like Helplessly Hoping where there are so many words starting in H, and also from films like V for Vendetta where there is a scene where the protagonist rattles off a speech using all those words beginning in V.

Of all the different instruments used on this, I wanted to really feature the guitar since I’m still just so delighted and grateful that I’m finally able to play it on some recordings again after all these years.

Released October 24, 2024

The Shy Reserve - Azuline
The Shy Reserve – Azuline