‘A Cloud’ is the first track from the second album by MF Tomlinson, which will be released on PRAH Recordings (the Umlauts, Pozi, Group Listening) early 2023.
It is accompanied by the first part of a theatre, dance, and film work conceived, directed, and choreographed by MF’s collaborator Daisy JT...
Outside my window
There’s a cloud
Floating overhead
Instead of rain, it dropped a rope ladder down
That dangled just too high to reach
It floated merrily, merrily, merrily across the ocean
Over the water
The rungs of the ladder
Bouncing off the highest waves
Getting caught on a mountain, one day it came down in the cold
In a rain of colour and gold
And I cried out ‘If I was a just a little bit taller
Think of all the places I could soar’
But to live amongst these lights so long
Is what I moved to the city for
Outside my window
Therе’s a guy
Going off his head
At all hours of the day and of the night
Hе twists and writhes and almost falls into the street
Crying terribly, terribly, terribly out to no-one
A broken apostle
Said, ‘The world of humans is awful
There has never been a better time -
You believe in a lie’
But on summer nights when I write my songs
And the good old boys listen to reggaeton
In the car park outside the Travelodge
Outside my window
I see myself floating over to them
To offer all the guys a smoke
To be a part of the midnight salon
Is why I strayed away from home so long
Outside my window
There is a cloud coming in tonight
Rolling in and blocking out the light
Growing and blowing in year after year
Outside my window
What’s this I see?
That little cloud is coming back
With an olive branch between its teeth
It says, ‘Next time come with me’
And just at that moment, you came home
And that cloud scurried off - they scare easy you know
And for a second there I was all alone, by my window
And I thought to myself if I just had a little bit longer
Think of all the things I could know
But to hear your voice call across the hall
That’s what I live in the city for
MF Tomlinson released A Cloud on Fri Feb 17 2023.