BANDCAMP

ADAPTER

MARTIN HALL
CD
MARCH 1999
DOWNBEAT/EMI-MEDLEY (724349960626)

Adapter was Martin Hall’s first studio album since Random Hold from 1996, an eagerly anticipated release that was received as his perhaps most solid work so far by both the press and a larger audience.

Once again Hall worked with co-producer Thomas Li and the ten tracks on the album emphasized Hall’s position as one of Denmark’s best songwriters at the time.

1. Just a Feeling (4:46)
2. Single Melody (5:26)
3. Son of No Generation (5:24)
4. Paper Days (6:26)
5. Burning Sugar (3:43)
6. To Be Continued (5:33)
7. Couldn’t Care Less (4:38)
8. Images in Water (8:03)
9. Silverbox (5:09)
10. Reprise (5:56)

JUST A FEELING

Silver lining inside me
You’re adapting my every word
Such an eloquent silence
Feeling hurt?
Still you’re moving so lightly
Like you’re hanging within the air
Seems it’s your way of saying
Couldn’t care

It’s just a feeling
Another feeling on the sky
It’s just a feeling
Another feeling coming down
The silver lining
You’ll see it run into the air
For just a moment
Another line that disappears

Guess it’s all second chances
Getting used to the sights and sounds
With the greatest indifference
Running down
All aesthetic behaviour
Still I’m watching your every move
Give and take of the daylight
For the view

SINGLE MELODY

Logic at the end of its tether
Feeling slightly under the weather
All the time
In my mind
Helter-skelter losing my shelter
Just another secret agenda of its kind
Of my mind

I’m chasing the blue sky
I’m chasing the sky within your eyes

Take me to the forever fields of your mind
Take me to the forever needs you hide inside
Take me down the rivers wide and deep
The mountains high
The forever fields
The forever dreams

Floating like a leaf on the water
Turning over things that I’ve thought of all my life
For a while
Images keep falling like feathers
Hiding somewhere under the layers of my skin
Whispering

SON OF NO GENERATION

Son of no generation
Losing your sight
Hiding away now
A second-hand pride
It’s hard to believe you
The words that you say
Spoken too often
As part of the play

The weight of the sky
Guess you never believed that you’d run out of time
In pieces of mind
There’s a feeling inside you you can’t leave behind
And all of the time
You’ve been looking for something that you’ll never find

Blue eyes, blue eyes
They’re draining the sky
Starlight drowning
Your helium high
Blue eyes, blue eyes
You’ve run out of light
Blue eyes, blue eyes
Blue eyes, blue eyes

The silent tomorrow
That runs in your blood
It’s run out of reason
It’s run out of love
Breaking inside you
The light of the day
Whatever the season
The vacuum stays

PAPER DAYS

There’s a world of feeling running in my blood
Running like a liquid in between the dust
The starlit streets seem to call me by the name
When morning comes I feel the same

Summers turning winter inside this shell
All of the world’s been hidden inside of myself
My blood is cold like the light that hits my skin
With fingers crossed I watch the scene

The paper days
The midnight trains
The images of cities in the rain
We caught a piece of the falling sky
It stays untouched behind my eyes

In this open season
In this book of days
Running out of memory as I turn the page
I walk away
Leave the shadows on the ground
The song’s the same but the words are gone

The paper days
The midnight trains
The images of cities in the rain
We caught a piece of the falling sky
It stays untouched behind my eyes

The sheltering sky
Just a hand’s reach away
The sheltering sky

BURNING SUGAR

The memory lines that run down the sky
Running like streams of reason
The story is told in silver and gold
Words never tell the tale

I believe in all that I see
In all that I know
In all that I feel inside me
I know that dreams will come true
If they’re burning

Burning sugar
Burns inside me
Burning sugar
Burning so sweet

The things that I’ve seen
The places I’ve been
Secrets that stay unbroken
The look in your eyes
It’s high as a kite
Cooling my every need

TO BE CONTINUED

My-my
Here’s a drummer
All melodramatic
I wonder who invited him in
But I’m amused as always
By the glamorous stupidity
It’s the puff and the posh of the way that you are

Sugar coating any word
When it all begins to hurt
A little too Babylonian
Now you’re breaking into tears
Though you know I can’t be near
Such an effortless act

It’s shining through your skin
A skin so paper thin
A living memory
It’s just a breath away
All drawn in pale and grey
So tense and self-aware
I can’t breathe in the absence of beauty

Come sustain my arrogance
With a sigh that never ends
A little falling from the sky
Ain’t gonna make the day worthwhile
Not exactly unpredictable

I love the feeling
The nervous shivering
A skin show of dreams
Olympian ideals undefeated

COULDN’T CARE LESS

Carved in blood
Spread in air
All I know is I couldn’t care less
Dirty tears in rented rooms
Hey Pierrot
Hey Romeo
Hey Ulysses

Such beauty love conceals
Sucks the light out of nowhere near
Such beauty lovers feel

Who’s that breathing in the next room?
Who’s that bleeding in the next room?
No feeling of mine

Love in vein
It never dies
Spitting hate upon your closed eyes
Touch and go, then fall apart
So beautiless
They never said
It’d be like this

Such beauty love conceals
Sucks the light out of nowhere near
Such beauty lovers feel

Who’s that breathing in the next room?
Who’s that bleeding in the next room?
No feeling of mine

Thickening like mud
The poisoned blood keeps running inside
Spreading in your veins all over again
And your gypsy soul, the trails unknown
Still leading you on
Sister tears inside
They’re blinding your eyes

IMAGES IN WATER

The sound of the room
The sound of your breathing
See the night rain that falls
Hear it run down the walls
There’s a scent in the air
There’s a trace in the water
And you’re stretched like the sky
On these carnival nights
That you carry inside

And the image you see
Such a weight on your eyelids
It never dried on your eyes
Never silenced the cries
Like a needle you find
That injects light inside you
See the ribbons of rain
Draw the lines of a face

The thinnest of air
Was all that you needed
Now the glittering stars
Shine a light far too hard
On the tip of your tongue
There’s a word never spoken
Like a vanishing gaze
Choreographed games
That you try to rename

And the image you see
Such a weight on your eyelids
It never dried on your eyes
Never silenced the cries
Like a needle you find
That injects light inside you
See the ribbons of rain
Draw the lines of a face

The scenes of a night cut in marble
The sound of the rain’s getting harder
A hand mirror line turning flesh for a while
You’re so tired now

SILVERBOX

Guess it’s needless to say
That I’d do it all again
I’m still using the same words
‘Cause I’m feeling the same hurt
It’s the sweetest feeling I know
The strangest of stories haunt my mind
The sub-silence cries

Feel the pressure once again
Comes and goes but never changes
Burning pieces of April
See them light up the street
Never knew that you left them for me
The strangest needs passing for a while
If just for a while

Pouring mind out on a paper
Just to throw it away
Things I’d never remember
In the light of the day
Shadows coming alive now
In this mind gallery
Guess you know what I’m feeling
Guess you saw what I see
The oldest of circles running out

I’m still lying wide awake
Waiting for the light of daytime
See the amber moon falling
Falling down from the sky
Never knew how to leave it behind
The strangest of feelings passing by

There’s a silverbox shining
From the palm of my hand
All the things that I wanted
All the things that I am
And the layers of silence
Frozen deep down inside
Feel them breaking apart now
See them break up the sky

The strangest of feelings passing by
The strangest of reasons cloud my mind
The strangest needs passing for a while
You know what it’s like

Anna Gwozdz: Violin
Henrik Brendstrup: Cello
Henrik Marstal: Bass, harmony vocals
Johannes Søe Hansen: Violin
Lotte Wallevik: Viola
Martin Hall: Vocals, drums, keyboards, bass, violin, guitar, samples
Ole Hansen: Piano, non-midi keyboards
Thomas Li: Sonic work

Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Robin Skjoldborg

The first single from Adapter was “Burning Sugar”, a title released as an ep featuring six different versions of the song.

“Burning Sugar” became the most played song on P3 of the National Danish Radio in the week of its release and the single peaked at #5 at the official Danish airplay chart, thereby becoming Martin Hall’s biggest hit so far as a solo artist.

The album also contains the signature song “Images in Water”.