No Wall Too High - Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ)

No Wall Too High is TAAQ’s 7th studio album, and first collaborative concept album,created along with Mathew Kurian (United Nations University, Dresden, Germany).

Coinciding with the 25th anniversary of German reunification post the fall of the Berlin Wall, the ten songs on the album address themes of division – between lovers, between the powerful and powerless, between past and present, young and old, ideology and reality, memory and truth.

No Wall Too High was launched internationally at the UN Day Celebrations in Bonn, Germany, on 24th October 2015.

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Songs

01 - The Ghost of Godiva

Wrapped in glitter, a promise inside

Oh please won’t you give me that sugar rush to my core

A faraway legend, a bare-back ride

Oh please won’t you tell me that story once more

Sweetness and love in my mouth

Pull the trigger on this memory

It’s enough to break my heart

Again and again for me

It was a fine night, a fine time

Beside still water in the high school park

And I’m dealing with this difficult rhyme

With the greener grass of the here and now

I could believe

If I ask maybe I will receive

‘Cause it hurts so much to have loved you so

I got lucky on that summer night

And the clocks on the wall they ran so much slower (so much slower)

You were the music of a song I’d yet to write

A filter photogram of my future

And then I hurt you too much

So drowned, so lost in some other me

It’s enough to break my heart

Again and again, for me

It was a fine night, a fine time

Beside still water in the high school park

And I’m dealing with this difficult rhyme

With the greener grass of the here and now

I could believe

If I ask maybe I will receive

‘Cause it hurts so much to have loved you so
02 - Dresden Drumbeat

The wind plucked and pulled me in

And Heaven’s voice it pulled me out

A heartbreak glimpse, a face within

That’s our lot, in God we doubt

It came down, it came down

The mist, it rose and left the ground

And in that space, is only fear

Where division may once more appear

Down it fell in no time at all

A mere moment in the long view

It was a symbol, it was a wall

Between them and us, me and you

It came down, it came down

The mist, it rose and left the ground

And in that space, is only fear

Where division may once more appear

Ground zero, just another scar

Fading patterns of the wound

This memory won’t bleed no more

Thoughts so heavy, they rise too soon

It came down, it came down

The mist, it rose and left the ground

And in that space, is only fear

Where division may once more appear

The wind plucked and pulled me in

And Heaven’s voice it pulled me out

A heartbreak glimpse, a face within

That’s our lot, in God we doubt
03 - All the Watchtowers

Watching waiting hating

Up on those watchtowers

Lights blaze, searching finding

Kiss those whistleblowers

Am I the only one

Who can see, hear, fear

Taken all that I can bear

All the watchtowers

And all the good men

Walls in all the right places

Keep us in, keep us out

Keep us all, keep us without

All the watchtowers

And all the good men

Simple needs, simple love

The dice they are a-rolling

Believe, belief, the old lie

The old comfort, the apple pie

Am I the only one

Who can see, hear, fear

Taken all that I can bear

All the watchtowers

And all the good men

Walls in all the wrong places

Keep us out, keep us in

Keep me fat, sell me thin

All the watchtowers

And all the good men

All the watchtowers

And all the good men

Walls in all the wrong places

Keep us out, keep us in

Keep me fat, sell me thin

All the watchtowers

Without, and within.
04 - Edifice of Lies

The story done, the storyteller spent

The lie blooms, an inkblot spread

What do I see? What do I believe?

To the grey water I have been led

Look up at the truth!

Spinning around in the sky

The dogs of doubt wait outside

This edifice of lies

Give me bread, give me factories

Give me wine, give me theories

Keep me in line, file away my stories

And these will be your victories

And now you’re sad about this pass

Bold graffiti on the edifice of lies

Will I attend tomorrow’s mass

Empty laughter answers my cries

Look up at the truth!

Spinning around in the sky

The dogs of doubt wait outside

This edifice of lies

Give me bread, give me factories

Give me wine, give me theories

Keep me in line, file away my stories

And these will be your victories

There’s only here

There’s only now

There’s only here

There’s only now

Get out of class

Get out of mass

I’ll show you how

I’ll show you how

Give me bread, give me factories

Give me wine, give me theories

Keep me in line, file away my stories

And these will be your victories
05 - Silicon Outhouse

Girl I’m in a holding pattern

Girl I’m coming back

Rearrange your clothes

Rearrange your life

Rearrange your spending patterns

‘Cause girl, I’m coming back

Girl, I’m in a holding pattern

Girl, I’m turning around

Rearrange your gardens

Rearrange your roads

Rearrange your weather patterns

‘Cause girl, I’m turning around

These circles, these turns

My back straight, windows open wide

I hold my breath and now I’m flying

I’ll make it, yes I’ll make it,

I’ll cross this divide

Girl, I’m in a holding pattern

Girl, I’m turning back

Rearrange your head

Rearrange your love

Rearrange your thinking patterns

‘Cause girl, I’m turning back

Girl, I’m in a holding pattern

Descending from the skies

Rearrange your work

Rearrange your dreams

Rearrange your sleeping patterns

‘Cause girl, I’m lying awake

Lying awake

I’m lying awake
06 - No Two Ways

The stages I’ve been and seen

Solo, provider, and now outcast

Leave it to me, I’ll take it from here

In the slow lane I can make it last

No one needs to know

Where I have to go

No one has to pay

To make me stay

I’ll be on my way

My line is living, young and strong

But I must go, I don’t belong

Leave it to me, I’ll take it from here

I’m on the right side, I have no fear

No one needs to know

Where I have to go

No one has to pay

To make me stay

I’ll be on my way

There’s always a baby at the end of the room

There’s always a lady staring up at the moon

There’s always a body that death took too soon

No one needs to know

Where I have to go

No one has to pay

To make me stay

I’ll be on my way
07 - Willow Man

It’s a mystery smile, a gesture arcane

My dumb wide eyes look, then look again

And no one knows, nobody knows then

What to do or what to say, how or when

To the willow men

Movers and shakers, towering tall

Nobody knows, they just rise and fall

Time and tide is a mystery here

That river’s flow holds no fear

For the willow man

Oh the willow man

For the willow man

Oh the willow man

Dark sarcasm, and truth that hides

Nobody ever knows how they divide

The children wait under the hot empty sky

They know and go and keep running on dry

My life, it’s on the line, it’s all in a file

No one knows, nobody knows

Where it moves or lies

Only the willow man

He’ll pick it up and smile

Oh mercy, another untaught rule

And I’m just the fool

Send me back to school

Send me back to school

Throw that rule book at me now!

Send me back to school

Woah, you played me for a fool

Send me back to school

The willow man

His turn will come

The willow man

His number called

The willow man

Will have to go
08 - Solstice

It’s like an edge-of-the-seat flick

Where the fair fast hero

Spends all his time in slo-mo

I’m dry and I’m cold and I’m caught in camera

The holy sphere has divided my calendar

And the sun stands still high above

In a new twist to this old love

I’ve got a freeze-frame on the fast lane

For all my dreams of you

For all that’s sweet and true

Why oh why were you so fond of me

I ask the waters of this dried-up sea

And the sun stands still high above

In a new twist to this old love

You know I need

To slow it down,

You know I need

To take that five

I used to love this town

With you there, to keep me alive

Yes the sun stands still high above

And the sun stands still high above
09 - Moor Song

It’s an Eliot wasteland

This moor we’re in

Astray in the dark

Because we’re living in

The horizon bare

But many forces call

Evil and death they say

Are sure to befall

So find me, find me

In this dark land

Turn me, turn me

With a gentle hand

They say music brings places

And people bring love

But here is a killjoy

With power from above

So I’m off to the fair

I’ll peddle my ware

No reason to fear now

Soon I’ll take a bow

So find me, find me

Lost in rainbow colour

Come back and find me

I still need your favour

Find me, find me

Two lovers astray

On the dark moor
10 - Bangalore Blues

It’s getting warm here now, just look up at the sky

Clouds of dreams and smoke and street side stir-fry

The old city, she hides beneath a coat of ‘biz wax’

Got to pay your number man, got to pay your service tax

You can hear me grouse, and now you have the news

I’ve got a bad case of the Bangalore blues

There’s a secret handshake of the Bangalore soul

That slow sweet humour, that cheeky hyper-’bol’

Our temples of food, our oases of coffee

Give me that dog-eared book under a cool Cubbon tree

Now you hear me sigh, so you have the news

I’ve got a bad case of the Bangalore blues

The nights are getting longer, but you can still pay the rent

Go get some brews in your liver, now that’s money well spent

The cats around here are at the top of their game

They clog up the works but they fuel the flame

I’m an old city boy, staying fast and loose

And I’ve got a bad case of the Bangalore blues