Sticker Collection

by Lauren Best

/

  • Digital Album
    Streaming + Download

    Immediate download of 12-track album in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire. Download includes PDF liner notes. Download free until May 15!
    Purchasable with gift card

      $5 CAD  or more

    You own this

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Comes in a high-quality digipack with a 15.5"x15.5" fold-out poster with collage by Sandra Rojas on one side with liner notes and all lyrics on reverse.

    Also includes immediate download of 12-track album in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.
    ships out within 5 days

      $10 CAD or more 

    You own this  

     

  • The Compact Disc comes in a high-quality digipack with a 15.5"x15.5" fold-out poster with collage by Sandra Rojas on one side with liner notes and all lyrics on reverse.

    This package ships includes a 100% organic cotton Me To We t-shirt (in Pale Yellow) with original artwork by Moira Campbell. NEW update: Heather Blue now available (organic cotton/recycled polyester blend).

    "Me to We Style is a new social enterprise that is committed to providing ethically manufactured, quality apparel for the socially-conscious consumer. Our product line is domestically produced, sweatshop-free and made using certified organic cotton.
    In addition, 50 per cent of our profit goes to our charity partner, Free The Children, to support development projects in rural and impoverished areas across the globe."

    Also includes immediate download of 12-track album in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.     ... more
    ships out within 7 days

      $40 CAD or more 

    You own this  

     

1.
04:29
lyrics
buy track
2.
02:34
lyrics
buy track
3.
02:31
lyrics
buy track
4.
04:53
lyrics
buy track
5.
03:09
lyrics
buy track
6.
03:22
lyrics
buy track
7.
05:16
lyrics
buy track
8.
02:59
lyrics
buy track
9.
03:54
lyrics
buy track
10.
04:10
lyrics
buy track
11.
03:51
lyrics
buy track
12.
02:43
lyrics
buy track

credits

released January 11, 2011

all words and music by Lauren Best (SOCAN)
except Tangled Up With You: words by Lauren Best, music by Lauren Best and Brian Tannahill (SOCAN)

produced by Lauren Best
with Tyler Wagler and Adam Hall

with horn production by Colleen Allen
and vocal consultation from Joy Juckes

executive production by Kevin Best

recorded and mixed by Adam Hall
with production and mixing consultation by Chris Hall and Terry Brown

mastered by Peter J. Moore at The “E” Room

horns/strings arranged by Tyler Wagler (Biography of a Good Girl, Semblance of Faith, Sticker Collection, Tangled Up With You, The Itch), Tania Gill (Zero Point Five), Kevin Barrett (Crooked), Richard Underhill (Sex and Self Destruction), and Bruce Cassidy (Dear Universe)

drums, horn sections, and selected percussion, horn solos, bass, and organ recorded at Vivace Studios
grand piano recorded at the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto
all additional overdubs recorded at vWave Productions


published by Goodness Gracious! Records
www.goodnessgraciousrecords.com

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Lauren Best image

Lauren Best Ontario

Lauren Best and The Renegade Company: Lyrical alt-pop, revealing a quirky singer-songwriter with diverse influences. "Thinking and feeling music" with jazzy grooves and reflective lyrics that speak to audiences of all ages. Small-town sensibility with big-city flavour. ... more

contact / help

Contact Lauren Best

Streaming and
Download help

Track Name: Sex and Self Destruction
There’s a girl with storms in her eyes
Stars dance beneath her skin
She’ll take a taste of your troubles
She’ll breathe you in, breathe you in

She turns and whispers to me softly, bitterly,
I know that I’m worthless, I know that I deserve this
I said, Oh no my darling, you’ve just been a bit flung around by

Sex and self destruction
Mass consumption and mass production and microcosms and scaled reductions
I’m still feigning with
Make believe, supersaturated fantasy
Faerietales aren’t lies you see, your castle in the clouds was built by me
And I never ever ever meant to tear it down

I’m loving this feeling of how much I hate
Feeling so much, lying so much, laughing and seeing so much
Not thinking clearly, and sleeping in too late
Pondering, wondering, reading unsuccessfully and such

A perfect time to disappear
Pack my soul inside my fears
I’m turning once again to

Sex and self destruction
Mass consumption and mass production and microcosms and scaled reductions
I’m still feigning with
Make believe, supersaturated fantasy
Faerietales aren’t lies you see, your castle in the clouds was built by me
And I never ever ever meant to tear it down

Forget what I tried to be
Ideals I’ve seemed to fail to achieve
What I tried to make from what you made from me
Did you ever truly see, did I ever truly believe

The difference between the heart and the soul
I don’t know

Sex and self destruction
Mass consumption and mass production and microcosms and scaled reductions
I’m still feigning with
Make believe, supersaturated fantasy
Faerietales aren’t lies you see, your castle in the clouds was built by me
And I never ever ever ever ever meant to tear it down
Track Name: Zero Point Five
My glass is sitting squarely at zero point five
‘Cause pessimism’s cliché and optimism’s for fools
Fifty percent of what I regret and fifty percent it was all for the best
So zero point five and I drink sweet love to you

The sum of the parts is only as broken as its pieces
But I can’t seem to glue it as great as the whole
I’ve tried affection, I’ve tried crying, I’ve tried mistakes and excuses
But I can’t replace it and I can’t make it better again
Because I’ll break it and I can’t take it
Your eyes looking at me so hurt again

You left a big gaping hole where my stability used to be
And tried to fill it up with things like human love and generosity
It seems by this you made a wreck out of me
So why love, why love is it that you can’t seem to see

The sum of the parts is only as broken as its pieces
But I can’t seem to glue it as great as the whole
I’ve tried reflection, introspection, reverence and abuses
But I can’t take it and I can’t make it better again
Because I’ll break it and I’ll misplace it only to find
Your eyes looking at me so hurt again, again

‘Cause the sum of the parts is only as broken as its pieces
But I can’t seem to glue it as great as the whole
I’ve tried affection, introspection, ignorance and abuses
But I can’t replace it and I can’t make it better again
Because I’ll break it and I’ll misplace it
And I can’t replace it, oh I can’t take it
Your eyes looking at me so hurt again
So hurt again
Track Name: Biography Of A Good Girl
I’ve never understood
How I’ve always been so good
And they’ve never seen that I was just scared
How I rarely was denied
And always seemed to try
Unless something caught me unprepared

It’s this feeling of resentment that I can’t seem to escape
And the chance to fuck it up that I always want to take
I’ll make so many well-placed mistakes
Spice up my history with every pill I take

Being good was never good enough for me
Being a good girl don’t make for much mystery
Self-loathing, self-help and a little self-pleasuring
Is what gives a young lady a best-selling biography

I know I’d let you down
If I ever hit the ground
So I learned how to discreetly hover
Keep my problems perfect
The sort that will be worth it
Once I become that excellent daughter, mother, lover

It’s forming bad habits that I know that I can shake
Making little promises I know that I will break
Stay when I should leave, and leave when I should stay
Spice up my history with every woman I lay

Being good was never good enough for me
Being a good girl don’t make for much mystery
Self-loathing, self-help and a little self-pleasuring
Is what gives a young lady a best-selling biography

I could never be amazed
I could never be a disgrace
Playing out exactly according to script
Not too normal
But not too much of a performer
Just the right amount of insecurity to be hip

It’s soiling my own destiny with every move I make
Planning out the moments that I’ll let my façade break
I’ll be everything I hate
Spice up my history with each wrong word I say
Spice up my history with every breath I take
Track Name: Dear Universe
Let's shut ourselves up in an empty room
With just some colour for the walls and our bodies' tunes
We'll paint everything we can't keep inside
Things that can't be hidden but can't be vocalized
Not representations
Of how we feel
But rather explanations
Of what to us is real

Dear Universe
I've still got a lot of growing up to do
And I know I don't have to explain
Because you know exactly what I'm going through
One day I'll stop being silly and selfish
Learn to play with whatever I'm dealt with
So bear with me a while
I'm just feeling a little bit blue

Strangers on a train was my fantasy
Anything that'd give me a taste of some mystery and intrigue
Walking down streets on crisp cold nights
Looking into any window that exhaled light
Speculating
Painting fiction in my mind
Separating
The reason from the rhyme

Dear Universe
I've still got a lot of growing up to do
And I know I don't have to explain
Because you know exactly what I'm going through
One day I'll stop being silly and selfish
Learn to play with whatever I'm dealt with
So bear with me a while
I'm know you’ve tasted this too

Let’s drink coffee and talk about social policy
Existential angst, pop culture and philosophy
Environmentalist righteousness and indie pretension
Academic posturing and strained comprehension
Laughing, disguised as debating
Trying out fresh new bullshit lines
Commiserating
About belonging to this thing known as human kind

And when we realize we're living in a cliché
Does that give you comfort, does that give you faith
The fact that typical has always been saved
And the fact that typical always remains
Never mind, sit with me, watch the rain and write bad poetry
Haikus about me loving you loving me

I'm not altogether sure about these values I cling to
And I'm afraid that my planet will never be renewed
To be honest, I don't have many well formed opinions
I'm terrified, a victim of human condition
I wonder sometimes if I'm just a
Distorted reflection of what I've been sold
And I wonder sometimes
If all I know is what I've been told

Dear Universe
I've still got a lot of growing up to do
And I know I don't have to explain
Because you know exactly what I'm going through
One day I'll stop being silly and selfish
Learn to play with whatever I'm dealt with
So bear with me a while, bear with me a while, bear with me a while
Bear with me

Dear Universe
I've still got a lot of growing up to do
And I know I never really did have to explain
Because you’ve always seemed to know what I’ve been going through
One day I’ll stop being so silly and selfish
Learn to play with whatever I’m dealt with
So bear with me a while
I'm still so goddamn in love with you
Track Name: The Nihilism Song
Heat rising to my face, disgrace
Too much to lose in this sweet embrace
Maintain the distance, while keeping up the pace
You don’t understand how much you’ve misplaced

I wanted to get lost in you
But lost was never found
You’re running to try to catch up to me
But I’m running out of time before I hit the ground

My solution for sensitivity
Lies in my nihilistic tendencies
If I don’t believe in you
Then you can’t believe in me

I’m still getting used to living in my own skin
Still trying on my soul for size, and I better get a fit before I let you in

I’m lying through my teeth and kissing away my lies
Every smile is just a smirk in disguise
Getting set to play the victim, getting you to sympathize
Before you realize, before I compromise

My solution for sensitivity
Lies in my nihilistic tendencies
If I don’t believe in you
Then you can’t believe in me

I wanted you to seize me, tease me, leave me
Break me, taste me, to please just complicate me

So I can beg for forgiveness true
While I know you know I know the blame’s on you
It’s a liar’s game where you think you know the truth
About everything I made you put me through

My solution for sensitivity
Lies in my nihilistic tendencies
If I don’t believe in you
Then you can’t believe in me

If I don’t believe in you
Then you can’t believe in me
Track Name: Soaked To The Soul
Gargoyles play in your consciousness
Between insecurity and false confidence
In your firm sense of righteous deviance
They find a nice place to nestle in and call home
You'll never be alone, but you're always on your own
I want to dance with them
Bathe in this disastrous requiem
Take the shades of complexity onto my tongue
All given, no condition, tasted affliction

I would give you truth, but it's dynamically divine
I would give you a sense of security, but that's a silly thing for the constructs of your mind

When I finally open my eyes I see

You and me naked in the rain
Dancing in droplets, dripping pain
Laughing, splashing in puddles of shame
Soaked to the soul

Let me go on an exploratory dive
Swimming into the depths of your mind
And if I make it back alive
I'll go again deeper, deeper
Hoping to transcend the beginning of the end
You can challenge me, you can shake my beliefs
Shock and awe, beckon and tease
Chew and spit, plead guilty and unravel me
Playing between senses, playing between defenses

I would give you redemption, but to have redemption you have to have faith
I would give you illusion, but as your own illusions will demonstrate

When you finally open your eyes you'll see

You and me naked in the rain
Dancing in droplets, dripping pain
Laughing, splashing in puddles of shame
Soaked to the soul

I want to play in your consciousness
Between magical and infectious happenstance
In your firm sense of righteous deviance
I find a nice place to nestle in and call home
You'll never be alone, but you're always on your own

I would give you second chances, but to have a second chance you have to fuck it up
I would give you moments to see me too, but moments never seem to last long enough

If we ever open my eyes I know we’ll see

You and me naked in the rain
Dancing in droplets, dripping pain
Laughing, splashing in puddles of shame
Soaked to the soul
Track Name: Crooked
Your crooked hands
Your clever hands
Your calm and contemplating hands
The way they betray all they hide is quite becoming of you
The way they violate the black and white space makes it a part of you and a part of me too
They look like they have tried to wring themselves choked and blue
They could smooth down my face
Over the strains to the contented truth

You, you’re singing a new kind of song to me
I, I’ve never felt this kind of melody
You’re speaking to a part of me that’s never felt this kind of groove
And it comes from somewhere buried deep
It’s anticipation and relief
It’s taking hold of my body and soul and causing them to move

I drowned once in your eyes, pulled down into the sea by stormy surf
They’re honest, and they’re stoned, and they’re grieving and they’re hurt
Blinking on and on, blinking off; like some crepuscular learning curve
They’re mining for information and begging you to be unearthed

You, you’re singing a new kind of song to me
I, I’ve never felt this kind of melody
You’re speaking to a part of me that’s never felt this kind of groove
And it comes from somewhere buried deep
It’s anticipation and relief
It’s taking hold of my body and soul and causing them to move

You’re bearing me, wearing heat, so innocently caring means
So blindly full of influence, overflowing with mood
Unintentionality, indifference, pulsing changes in circumstance
Sweetly in counterpoint with chance, deepening heavier when seen beside

Truth,
you
take me so much further than my
view
to truth
to all the reasons singing higher
I have left the melody and can’t be stilled in this harmony
Truth talking ‘bout you and I’m far beyond what you were moving
too
uncouth, I think
For I can’t be stilled if my heart holds the beat

You, you’re singing a new kind of song to me
I, I, I’ve never felt this kind of melody
You’re speaking to a part of me that’s never felt this kind of groove
And it comes from somewhere buried deep
It’s anticipation and relief
It’s taking hold of my body and soul and causing them to move
Track Name: Ripples
Ripples on water aren’t the kind of thing that can be captured
They have to be lived to really truly be realized
Like my mother’s love for her daughter, like when a thousand footsteps falter
Like the moment you try to see the world through someone else's eyes

Freeze frames don’t have this sort of beauty
The beauty I see every day in the world
Loving and living and crying and singing
About the way I fall in love with every day again

Rain clouds and runaways, long walks on windy days
Ways we try to differentiate between broken hearts and broken minds
Playgrounds, oh they’re waterfalls; piano bars and curtain calls
The way your heart feels all tangled up with mine

Freeze frames don’t have this sort of beauty
The beauty I see every day in the world
Loving and living and crying and singing
About the way I fall in love with every day again

A baby’s laughter, the way I’m enraptured
By the mutual praise of the sun’s rays drenching trees reaching to the sky
Sidewalk chatter, and hope in disaster
Or the moment you find the world in someone else’s eyes

Freeze frames don’t have this sort of beauty
The beauty I see every day in the world
Loving and living and crying and singing
About the way I fall in love with every day
Oh the way I fall in love with every day
Oh the way every day seems to make me fall in love all over again
Track Name: The Itch
I’m running out of words
Of letters and syllables
To rhyme you all around me
I’m running out of pretty metaphors
Of stories and structures
To rhyme you all around me
But I haven’t even started
So I’m drawing from empty veins, if only because

Your love and my addiction are both means to an end
Creations I’ve intentionally, accidentally engineered
As demonstrations of my abilities to feel and to learn
Your love, addiction my love, my means to an end

Can you narrow down the demographic
For the inclination to destroy
Pretty things, delightful things, magical and precious things
Is it a sickness or just a personality trait
When one tries to avoid
Perfect things, precious things, wonderful and delightful things
Are there exceptions to laws of attraction
Magnetic forces that change unexpectedly, if only because

Your love and my addiction are both means to an end
Creations I’ve intentionally, accidentally engineered
As demonstrations of my abilities to feel and to learn
Your love, addiction my love, my means to an end

And I can’t stop fighting myself for you
And I can’t stop spinning my truth
And I can’t stop telling myself that oh, I really want to
Claw at the itch until I can breathe again

Your love, my addiction my love, my love, you’re my means to an end
Creations I’ve intentionally, accidentally engineered
As demonstrations of my abilities to feel and to learn
Your love, addiction my love, my means to an end
Track Name: Semblance of Faith
It’s the kind of thawing of winter that leaves the snow pocked and dirty and old
With the kind of wind that caresses your bones gentle and cold
And scrapes naked branches against your heart
It’s a graying of seasons, it’s taking my pleasant illusions and tearing them apart

And it causes me to wonder when you slipped into inevitability
And it causes me to consider how long I’ve been dancing with reality

Who was it that sowed the seeds of sadness in your soul
Was there a moment in your life when you realized that eventually you’d lose control
Every word that you don’t say brings me closer to realizing what I know
Even if I maintain some semblance of faith, you’re still going to let yourself go

I wrote a birthday greeting on a bathroom stall in the flock of angry letters
I knew it wouldn’t save anything at all, or really make me feel much better
The acrid scent filled my lungs like some non-toxic rhapsody
The futility a sweet resistant harmony

But it was my outcry against your goddamn fallibility
And it was my outcry against the humanity of humanity

Who was it that sowed the seeds of sadness in your soul
Was there a moment in your life when you realized that eventually you’d lose control
Every word that you don’t say brings me closer to realizing what I know
Even if I maintain some semblance of faith, you’re still going to let yourself go

Even if I maintain some semblance of faith, you’re still going to let yourself go
Track Name: Tangled Up With You
I lay down, turn my head around
To try to see the world from a different perspective
See love’s rough edges from a different perspective
I close my eyes, rearrange my mind
To try to prevent myself from becoming too introspective

I used to feel so unwelcome in my own skin
But baby you make me beautiful
You make me beautiful

I’ve been here before, but only in a dream
I’ve felt happiness like this before, but only in moments fleeting
So now I’m trying to convince myself
I’m only momentarily blue
Trying to keep myself all
Tangled up with you

I analyze, hypothesize, and realize
If I can be lovely for you
Maybe I could be lovely for me too
I open my heart, stand upside down to let fall out
All the strangers in me that are strangers to you

You make me feel so unwelcome in my own skin
But baby you make me beautiful
You make me beautiful

I’ve seen this time of year before, but not while in love
It’s like the difference between the view from the ground, and the view from above
So now I’m trying to convince myself
I’m only momentarily blue
Trying to keep myself all
Tangled up with you
Track Name: Sticker Collection
I cut myself to the bone
On the shards of your mind, on the fragments of your soul
The pieces lied there, suggestive, seductive
Like a dangerous jigsaw puzzle, like a warm that turns to cold

Never can play
Always remain
Just beyond the reach of hands still unseen
Look but don’t touch
Volatile enough
Serpentine shedding of the skin

Bury your sticker collection
It never could save your soul
Disregard every bitter recollection
Memories melting onto stone

The symptoms of restraint remain unclear
Dulling of the senses
Heightened perceptions
The results of futility aren’t fully understood
Replace growing comprehension
With cancerous pretention

For your own good
Is misunderstood
Through disfigured aspirations, mutated elation
Look but don’t touch
Hostile enough
Comfortable sickness setting in

Bury your sticker collection
It never could save your soul
Disregard every bitter recollection
Memories melting onto stone

Disregard every bitter recollection
Memories melting