The Haunted Man

I couldn´t sleep last night Cause I tried to forget you In the suffocated air I resolved to let you go

Twisted all our dreams Til you became the nightmare Close it off inside Or else the hurt is gonna rise

I couldn´t sleep last night Cause I tried to forget you Heard the old man aand the sea Singing low

And the silver fir she cried Never forget had gone and died And the babes that clung to her Had all let go

(Male choir) My dear she touched my skin And oh did the skin Set a burning My dear she touched my skin

Where once we kissed and ran The memory scorched the man I have to tell you dear (ask me to hold you and I...) Death has become my breathing (far away gone and I...)

My dear she touched my skin (ask me to tell you I...) And oh she did, she touched my skin (holding the ghost of a man I...) Where once we kissed and ran (ask me to tell you I...) This madness haunted the man (holding the ghost of a man...)

Still I´m holding out my hand Standing by my haunted man Yes, your ghosts have got me too But it´s me and you I can´t run...

Still I´m holding out my hand Standing by my haunted man Yes, your ghosts have got me too But it´s me and you I can´t run...

I think, that this verse is reference to the quote by Hemingway: "A man can be destroyed but not defeated. ” from The Old Man and The Sea.

"I think the whole album is about The Haunted Man, he features in most of the songs, where he can be a lover in a relationship that's gone wrong or relationship baggage I want to let go of. In this one, it's a husband who's come back from war. It's using that metaphor of war. The man is really traumatised, the woman is trying to help. By the end of the song, the male voices and female voices are speaking to each other but it's about how men and women speak very different languages sometimes. So the women will try and fix something by being nurturing and show love and the men are saying, I just want to go to my cave. It was using the idea that my Granddad went away to war, nobody was offered help in those days, and how did that affect his relationship with my Grandma. Our families have all experience a lot of that in this country and that dynamic can come through in modern relationships too. I wanted to make it like a mini-musical, so the woman is alone and then the soldiers come over the hill and we panned the sound across so it sounds like soldiers coming over a hill. I feel like it explores all the different textures of the record. I wanted to write a song that was like a soundtrack."

Source: Qthemusic.com