Cooper's sophomore album, "Family Tree: The Roots" was released in October 2011. It is the first of the trilogy record called "The Family Tree" which follows the story of a fictional family from 1800 to 1950. Following "The Roots" will be "The Branches" and "The Relatives" respectively.
In between his first two Radical Face records Ben released two EP's to fill the gap. The first was "Touch The Sky". In the summer of 2011 "The Bastards Volume 1" EP was released. Other volumes will compliment the fore-coming Family Tree trilogy.
Under his 'Radical Face' moniker his music features acoustic guitar, "found-sound" percussion, and many multi-layered tracks. The sound is incredibly unique, not only because of Cooper's originality and raw talent, but also because most of the music has traditionally been recorded in the shed in his backyard.
Website: www.radicalface.com
Junkyard Chandelier
Radical Face Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I sit and watch the flames,
As the laugh tracks come tickle,
Our hairs.
There's car parks in the yard,
Let's hang them from the rafters,
We may not have much,
But it's enough to keep us living,
The lawns out of luck,
Because it's never going to grow.
The sink is full of dust,
There is water in the celling,
But it's all that I've ever known.
The branches hit the ground,
As the winds attempt to whistle,
I'm not going out there, no way.
As Nature does her rounds,
It's like we're in a snow-globe,
One shake, is all it takes,
To ruin things.
We may not have much,
But it's enough to keep us living,
The lawns out of luck,
Because it's never going to grow.
The sink is full of dust,
There is water in the celling,
But it's all that I've ever known.
The floors creek and moan,
The shower is just a trickle,
The lightbulbs ____ fall and flicker out,
The kitchen is still a mess,
The window never closes,
We've got it all figured out.
The lyrics of "Junkyard Chandelier" by Radical Face may seem like a set of unrelated thoughts stitched together, but on a closer listen, we can find a theme of making the best out of what we have. The singer reflects on their living conditions, which seem less than ideal. The TV sets are on fire, and yet the laughter tracks keep playing, making light of a potentially dangerous situation. The car parks are collecting dust, and yet the singer decides to hang them up and turn them into an unconventional chandelier. These are all signs of a life that is far from perfect, but the lyrics suggest that the singer has come to terms with it and found a way to make it work.
The second verse of the song adds more detail about the singer's surroundings. The lawn is barren and will never grow. The sink and ceiling are both in disrepair. Yet, the singer still calls it "home." Even as nature throws a curveball with wind and snow, the singer seems comfortable and stays inside. The final verse of "Junkyard Chandelier" reinforces the overall message of the song about finding comfort within discomfort. The floors are creaking, and the shower barely works, but the singer has gotten used to it. Nothing is perfect, but that's just how it is, and the singer has decided to make the best out of their situation.
Overall, "Junkyard Chandelier" is a reminder that we don't need to have everything in order to be happy. The song encourages us to find joy and contentment in the small things, even when everything around us may seem like it's going up in flames.
Line by Line Meaning
TV sets on fire,
The TVs are set alight, and I sit and watch the flames
As the laugh tracks come tickle,
The sounds of recorded laughter play, and it tickles our senses
Our hairs.
The laughter impacts us emotionally
There's car parks in the yard,
There are parking lots in the yard
Let's hang them from the rafters,
Let's hang the parking lots from the ceiling by chains
And call it our junkyard chandelier.
We'll call this creation of ours a junkyard chandelier
We may not have much,
We might not have a lot
But it's enough to keep us living,
But it suffices to keep us going on with our lives
The lawns out of luck,
The lawn is in disadvantage
Because it's never going to grow.
Because it won't ever grow
The sink is full of dust,
The sink is filled up with dust
There is water in the celling,
There's water damage on the ceiling
But it's all that I've ever known.
This dilapidated environment is what I'm accustomed to
The branches hit the ground,
The branches fall on the ground
As the winds attempt to whistle,
As the winds try to make sounds
I'm not going out there, no way.
I'm not stepping out there, never in any way
As Nature does her rounds,
As nature goes about its business
It's like we're in a snow-globe,
It's as if we're in a snow-globe
One shake, is all it takes,
One shake is enough to mess everything up
To ruin things.
To ruin everything we have
The floors creek and moan,
The floors make creaky and groaning sounds
The shower is just a trickle,
The shower has low water pressure
The lightbulbs ____ fall and flicker out,
The lightbulbs periodically extinguish and flicker
The kitchen is still a mess,
The kitchen remains untidy
The window never closes,
The window won't shut
We've got it all figured out.
We have everything under control
Contributed by Nathaniel C. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
e to the pie
00:00 [1] Stitches In My Side
03:28 [2] The Scarecrows Are Marching
08:17 [3] Martyr
12:04 [4] Confidants And Fish Hooks
17:07 [5] Junkyard Chandelier
23:21 [6] Fog In The House Of Lightbulbs
30:03 [7] Pockets Full Of Ink
35:25 [8] Runs In The Sidewalk
40:08 [9] Paper Birds
45:24 [10] Chewing Bottles
50:38 [11] Burning Bridges
WibblyWobblyTime
"When I started this record, I knew three things: I wanted to make something “pretty.” I wanted it to revolve around acoustic guitars, pianos and field recordings. And after listening to lots of classical music, I wanted to do something more creative with the song structures. It sounded simple on paper, but in reality it was a headache. Piecing the various parts together wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be, and my recording situation didn’t help much either.
I don’t have a lot of space to call my own, so I record in the tool shed out back. The tool shed is really old and devoid of insulation, and I live alongside a busy road. Whenever a car drives by, the sound leaks into the mics. Therefore, the traffic dictates my recording schedule. Anytime before 12 A.M. is too noisy, so I generally track from 1 in the morning until the 6 O’clock traffic starts up.
Also, just outside the tool shed is a water pump. It comes on about every twenty minutes, and it’s really friggin’ loud. Once it shuts off, I’ve got to hurry and lay something down before my twenty minutes are up.
This was also the first time I’d ever recorded with anything beyond an 8-track and a Beta 57. At the beginning of the year, I saved up and bought some gear—two condensers, a low-end pre-amp, a four channel mixer, and an $80 compressor. Having never used any of those, it took me a little while to figure them out, and more time still to learn the recording software for my PC.
The original plan was to record the album over the course of two months. It took nine. Yay."
Ben Cooper, dug up from the radical face website, from 2006, on the waybackmachine.
blazed wallflower
TRACK LIST
1) stitches in my side
2) the scarecrows are marching
3) martyr
4) chewing bottles
5) junkyard chandelier
6) paper birds
7) fog in the house of lightbulbs
8) runs in the sidewalk
9) confidants and fish hooks
10)pocket full of ink
11) burning bridges
e to the pie
00:00 [1] Stitches In My Side
03:28 [2] The Scarecrows Are Marching
08:17 [3] Martyr
12:04 [4] Confidants And Fish Hooks
17:07 [5] Junkyard Chandelier
23:21 [6] Fog In The House Of Lightbulbs
30:03 [7] Pockets Full Of Ink
35:25 [8] Runs In The Sidewalk
40:08 [9] Paper Birds
45:24 [10] Chewing Bottles
50:38 [11] Burning Bridges
moonhax
is this the correct one? i saw someone else’s that is completely different and i just want to make sure this is the actual one!
e to the pie
Indeed, this is the correct one! The wrong one you mention is the exact reason I went ahead and made this comment in the first place. I also put time stamps. Hope people find it helpful. Glad to see people still listening to this masterpiece of an album!
Sara Hampton
I've been listening to Radical Face for years but only just now discovered this album. As usual, I'm instantly in love.
Holly Hudson
this album gives me nostalgia without me ever actually having listened to it before. it's like its entire vibe is just nostalgia
WibblyWobblyTime
"When I started this record, I knew three things: I wanted to make something “pretty.” I wanted it to revolve around acoustic guitars, pianos and field recordings. And after listening to lots of classical music, I wanted to do something more creative with the song structures. It sounded simple on paper, but in reality it was a headache. Piecing the various parts together wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be, and my recording situation didn’t help much either.
I don’t have a lot of space to call my own, so I record in the tool shed out back. The tool shed is really old and devoid of insulation, and I live alongside a busy road. Whenever a car drives by, the sound leaks into the mics. Therefore, the traffic dictates my recording schedule. Anytime before 12 A.M. is too noisy, so I generally track from 1 in the morning until the 6 O’clock traffic starts up.
Also, just outside the tool shed is a water pump. It comes on about every twenty minutes, and it’s really friggin’ loud. Once it shuts off, I’ve got to hurry and lay something down before my twenty minutes are up.
This was also the first time I’d ever recorded with anything beyond an 8-track and a Beta 57. At the beginning of the year, I saved up and bought some gear—two condensers, a low-end pre-amp, a four channel mixer, and an $80 compressor. Having never used any of those, it took me a little while to figure them out, and more time still to learn the recording software for my PC.
The original plan was to record the album over the course of two months. It took nine. Yay."
Ben Cooper, dug up from the radical face website, from 2006, on the waybackmachine.
Mllasater
I love it so much!!! Would love to buy the CD so I can blast it through my house on great big speakers. I love your music, your vision, the tree albums - everything. Was so surprised to find this album on youtube!
Mars Doubleday
thank you for posting this... he sounds so young !! ive never heard any of these, they are so good
Nick Davey
I feel this album is unfairly rejected, I really love the beautiful and up-beat melodies and even if this album hides in the shadows, I’ll be playing it the car for many years to come. Paper Birds and Martyr in particular I can’t stop playing.
I must admit I am far more involved in the lyrics in his later work such as Missing Roads and many more. With this album I just play them because it sounds lovely, I don’t really know the lyrics so well, although I only discovered it recently.
blackghostcat
I feel like it's at the same level of ghost, but for different reasons. Whereas the trio feels like 1 big album. So different flavor all together. I'm hoping that the new album is something like this.