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We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Your Husband, The Ghost

by Quiet Company

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1.
ON EX-HUSBANDS & WIVES This is weird, don't you think? How I used to have a wife, now I've only got a roommate? Weird, don't you think? How we used to hang so tightly, now we just can't come together on anything? How I never thought I'd run from you, but I've been living in the other room? This is weird, don't you think? How you used to have a husband, now there's just a fucking ghost in the halls? And he's trapped inside the house, yeah, he's tethered to the memories of love between these walls... and I think he's gonna linger, at least until the summer or the fall... and I think that he'll probably never really be free again... Now there's an angel or a demon in my room, and I confess that I can't tell the difference, but she looks a lot like you...sounds a little bit like you, too. She whispers, "It's gonna be OK," I don't know if that's the truth or just some cruel and strangely elaborate prank, but either way, I don't believe her. Because hope turns to poison in my ears, as I'm sitting here alone at the end of my rope and a deeply frustrating year. Talk is cheap, maybe I should call up an ex?! See if she wants to reconnect?! No, there's probably plenty of other eligible bachelorettes right around here that I can ruin relationships with tonight... But time is on our side...Time is on our side...I guess. If you can keep it together, just keep it together, you're fine... If you can keep it together, just keep it together, you're fine... because one way or another, for better or worse, this too is gonna pass...
2.
WE SHOULD GO TO COUNSELING Just put your back into it, just wrap your head around the ugliness. What can be said about it? What can be said for such an ugly mess? You've got to change, change, change, mother fucker! You cannot stay the same, same, same, expecting progress! You've gotta do the work, work, work, and if you want it, you've got to let it hurt, hurt, hurt, until you're smarter! I never learn, you've got to teach it to me softly... True to form, you've got to teach it to me softly... If you put your heart into it, you think it ain't your fault it doesn't work (but it is, yes, it is!) What can be done about it? What can be done except to let it hurt (because it is what it is!) What can we really claim to know from dedication? The tree remembers, the axe forgets! I don't know much about it, I don't know much about you anymore... I never learn, you've got to teach it to me softly... True to form, you've got to teach it to me softly... Let's say we never saw it there, just growing in the bitter air. Now I pretend like I don't care. Let's say we never saw it there.. Tell me how it's gonna be. The future's looking bleak to me...
3.
AN UNHOLY YEAR I'm a cliche but when we get back to my place, we both know what it is we both want. I've been thrusting my way through this city for one whole unholy year, what's one more?! When we're done I will get back to being rational. I'll be lying next to her feeling miserable, and only when she's gone will I be comfortable. Is alone the only way I can be comfortable?!? For a moment, I am happy to believe in this poor imitation of the thing I needed. I've been waiting on something to change me. I've been waiting on something to change. Here's the part where I start to freak out: I wonder if they hear us having sex in the next room. But either way, it's fine. We still take our time, and then I halfway hope she goes home...
4.
OH, THE HUMANITY! At 17, I bet that I was such a handsome thing. I bet that you could see the optimism dripping off of me, but I suppose, this is how it always had to go. The clouds were rolling in, the skies were graying quickly... But I grit my teeth and I beat my chest in the greedy face of the ugliness and I pushed it down where I could not feel it, then I kept my cool, because my cool concealed it... But I know, I can't let it go, I've been here too long. Maybe I'm the one that changed but if so, I want the devil I know, not some angel I don't. If it seems like they're all singing along but they're doing it wrong, you're doing it wrong. I can feel it in the air! Now something tells me, we've been here before... At 21, I was basking in the warming sun. I fell in love with the idea that life had meaning to it. So imagine my surprise when I did realize that everybody here was just coincidental... You take your love, put it on your shelf, while you're moving units for someone else, til you see dead eyes in the mirror's face. It's a fucked up time, in a fucked up place. But I know, I can't let it go, I've been here too long. Maybe I'm the one that changed but if so, I want the devil I know, not some angel I don't. If it seems like they're all singing along but they're doing it wrong, you're doing it wrong. I can feel it in the air! Now something tells me, we've been here...something colder in the air... as I feel my eyes growing tired and blind, can you calm me down, would you calm me down?! Because my bones and spirit bend and break but I never thought that they would... Now I'm 33, and all that's left for me is greed, spite, and jealousy. Oh, the humanity!
5.
ON GUILTY PLEASURES So I guess I finally know what shame is all about, but I won't repent because I've got nothing I can stand to say out loud. It's a part of me that I could live without but I want what I want so now the only thing that's left to do is.. Count the cost of all my sins, let it multiply my fears and doubts. I will never fall in love again, but I think that I can do without... In the end, it all comes down to what you need and what you have. In the end, it's like a joke that makes you wince when you should laugh. I guess it's sad to want somebody who will never want you back. In the end, it isn't living if you're living in the past. I want what I want and I will take what you give... but now I'm walking back to my car, tired and lonely from guarding my heart. I want you to mean more, but I know what it meant... Now I am walking home, and I am walking alone.

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released August 18, 2017

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