NEW ALBUM: EMOTICON

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Here are all the lyrics to Dan’s new Sept 2026 album, song by song (two songs, Rapids and Nice & Easy are instrumentals):

Comfort Food

Feeling tired and bad

And don’t know why you’re sad

Got the need to get away

Cannot sleep again

Worries overtake your head

Try to grab that thing tried and true

Comfort songs, comfort food

Calm, warming brew

Passport to that refuge in your mind

Like a child going home

Place to return

What you know and love for ever more

Might not be what you touch

But I like it very much

And you know I still remember the first time

Comfort food, comfort food

Special it must stay to make your darkness go away

Might not be your cup of tea

But it is a friend to me

But gotta know when it’s time to quit, so be it  

No surprises, no mistakes

Just good feelings for goodness sake

But if you linger on the feeling goes, bye bye

Comfort food, comfort food

Special it must stay until your darkness goes away

Comfort food, comfort food

Comfort food, comfort music

Comfort food, comfort music  (nice and familiar)

Emoticon

Emoticon, emoticon, can’t stop using emoticons

Emoticon, emoticon, gotta stop using emoticons

Words come hard to my scattered mind

So I turn to the cartoon kind

When I need to express

Anger, joy, or tenderness      

Come in every size and shape

Not always clear what they convey

Just love ambiguity

Can’t hang anything on me  

Emoticon, emoticon, can’t stop using emoticons

Emoticon, emoticon, gotta stop using emoticons

Hundreds of faces I can choose

To fit my every changing moods

Why use words any way

When-you-can-keep-em-guessing-what-you-mean    to say

No need to form coherent thoughts

Spread them faces like a wayward bot

Skies the limit, pick all you can

And scatter your emotions like grains of sand

Emoticon, emoticon, can’t stop using emoticons

Emoticon, emoticon, gotta stop using emoticons

Will I See The Light

Hey advisor tell me please

Let’s talk immortality

When my body gives out one day

Will my soul find a place to stay

If my soul and body part

What would I feel without a heart

How would I move, or breath, or eat

Without use of hands or feet

And what about that tunnel bright

To which so many testify

Sounds so nice, but don’t make sense

So far from experience

Tell me with authority

Just some proof that’s all I need

Will I see the light?

Will I see the light?

Will I see the light?

How would I think without a mind

Probably thoughts of a different kind

Would I have a sense of agency

Or simply wander aimlessly

Will I see my loved ones’ face

Reunited past time and space

Let’s get real I’m getting close

To entering a world of ghosts

When the body fades away

Will my senses remain in play

If a tunnel, where does it end

In eternal promised land

As a fan of rationality

Evidence is all I need

Will I see the light?

Will I see the light?

Will I see the light?

Garden

Take a walk in my garden

See the light shining through

Feel the beat of my forest

Every turn is new 

Watch the drip of the water

As it falls to the ground

Hear the flow of the river

Under ice and snow

Watch the colors fade to gray

Clouds obscure sunny rays

Drizzle turns to showers

Happy creatures dance

Like a child in wonder

Gentle peaceful grace

Reaping harvest, staying honest

Casting time away

Take a walk in my garden

See the light shining through

Feel the beat of my forest

Every turn is new

Master

So they want me to smile, and I don’t wanna fake it

But I have to really fake it cause I don’t wanna smile

So I look like a blissed-out freak being led to the slaughter  

So they want me to be smart, and I don’t wanna fake it

But I have to really fake it cause I’m not too smart

So I yap like I know everything like a perfect master, master, master, master

So they want me to agree, and I don’t agree at all

But I cannot disagree cause they’ll hate me if I don’t

So I nod right along like sheep being led to the slaughter

So they want me to be cool and I don’t wanna fake it

But I have to kind of fake it cause I’m not very cool

So I act like I don’t give a damn like a perfect master, master, master, master

Oh how proud you make them be, join them in harmony

Do what they say, make their day

Walk, chew gum, you know the game  

So they want me to smile, and I don’t wanna fake it

But I have to really fake it cause I don’t wanna smile

So I look like a blissed-out freak being led by a perfect master master, master, master

Split the Difference

Here we are tied up in knots ,

Don’t know how it came to that

Cannot give or take away

Gotta win at all costs

Slings and arrows richochet

Ain’t no ticker tape parade

Hurting words get tossed around

Sinking further in the ground

Winner loser will not happen

You got your view, I got mine

There is just one way to climb out of this hole

Let’s split the difference and go

Started civil and sane

Turned into a bitter game

That pot of gold looked so nice

Ticket to paradise

Let’s admit we’re getting nowhere

Victory is not our fate

Sure is getting stale this old show 

Let’s split the difference and go

Now the hour’s gotten late

Sick and tired of debate

Dawn is on the horizon

We’ve been at this much too long

Competition  breaks the spirit

Can’t look each other in the eye

There’s only one way to lighten up the load

Just split the difference and go

Burn the loot, bend the knee

And submit to destiny

There is just one way to climb out of this hole

Let’s split the difference and go

Let’s split the difference and go

Let’s split the difference and go

Who’s the Bigger Victim

Scars to show, tears to shed

Lots more than you ever had

Sad stories that’ll make you cry

Bout my times with evil  guys

Lay it all out for all to see    

Who’s the bigger victim, you or me

I’ve been treated like a poor old mutt

Called all kinds of nasty stuff

If you can do better than that

Stand right up and pass your hat

Let’s agree  to make a plea

Who’s the bigger victim, you or me

I don’t like to scream and shout 

Even when I’m being knocked about

Bet your trials are all your fault

Unlike me, you can call a halt

Everybody thinks that they’ve been had

Taken for a ride and left for dead

Taunted by the other side

All they wanna do is take you for a ride

Got more reasons to blow my horn

No way you can be as torn

In the shadows and alleyways

Planning all their nasty ways

Thinkin bout how to mess with me

And chase me up the highest tree

The other cats like being bad

All they want to do is make me sad

Stay away, they’re all the same

Make you suffer, that’s their game

Sympathy is what I seek

Who’s the bigger victim, you or me

Not talkin’ jealousy

Who’s the bigger victim, you or me  

Collateral Damage

Don’t wanna be collateral damage

Just wanna go on living my life

Don’t wanna be somebody’s statistic

Just wanna be safe and sound

Too many folks are collateral damage

Caught in a mess that’s not their fault

Does anybody care about their plight

Just go on lucky, not a care in sight

Too bad they say as they target the helpless

That’s just the cost of winning the fight

So you think you’re so noble and righteous

Is that why the innocents have to die?

Don’t wanna be collateral damage.

Stay out of trouble, stay out of sight

Don’t wanna be in the line of fire

Wouldn’t you say I have that right?

Collateral damage

Collateral damage

Collateral damage

Collateral damage

Too bad they say as they plan their attacks

Might makes right is the code they live by

Can’t see the carnage from way on high

As the bombs explode and the children die

Don’t wanna be collateral damage

Profile low, distractable mind

Don’t wanna be dead and forgotten

Another statistic in a growing pie

Collateral damage

Collateral damage

Collateral damage

Collateral damage

I Don’t Get It Anymore

Used to be in the groove, knew when a joke was coming round

Wink and nod at every name getting tossed up on the wall

Listened to the radio, saw all the same films and TV shows

Now I sit here in a fog , cause  I don’t get it anymore

Used to wear the dumbest clothes, kept up with every Jones

Knew all the same celebrities great targets for a laugh

Knew every cue and every line.

Trashy culture state of mind

Now I’m clueless all the time

I don’t get it anymore

I don’t get it anymore

Sure glad nobody’s keeping score

Out of touch with all that’s turned to be

Yes I don’t get it anymore

Try to hide what’s in my head, so they think I understand

Would rather not confess,

So I just turn my head  away

Don’t feel the need to keep up with the times,

Don’t mind  being left behind

Sure was fun riding every wave

But I don’t get it anymore  

I don’t get it anymore

Sure glad nobody’s keeping score

Out of touch with all that’s turned to be

Yes, I don’t get it anymore

 I don’t get it anymore

Sure glad nobody’s keeping score

Out of touch with all that’s turned to be

Yes I don’t get it anymore

Guess I don’t get it anymore

Guess I don’t get it anymore

Sure glad that no one’s keeping score

Yes, I don’t get it anymore

Guess I don’t get it anymore

Guess I don’t get it anymore

Sure glad that no one’s keeping score

Yes I don’t get it anymore

Laugh About It

Irony, hyperbole, silly, incorrect

Slapstick or talky, real or on a set 

Punchlines and puns, garbled or clear

Turn away in boredom or give them a cheer

Just laugh about it, it’ll make your day

Just laugh about it, tension goes away

Just laugh about it, not so hard to do

Find your funny bone and make it fly

When it connects to your troubled mind

Could be a farce, satire, rhyme

Wholesome or edgy, racy or tame

Want to run away or take more of the same

Just laugh about it, it’ll make your day

Just laugh about it, tension goes away

Just laugh about it, not so hard to do

Find your funny bone and make it fly

When everything  feels serious

Heavy and bleak 

And humor feels like fun,

But fun is wrong to seek

Feels like your head is in the sand 

But then that joke gets in your head

And you shout for more

Urge goes away to rage against the tide

Leave your darkness at the door

Just laugh about it, it’ll make your day

Just laugh about it, tension goes away

Just laugh about it, not so hard to do

Find your funny bone and make it fly

Just laugh about it, it’ll make your day

Just laugh about it, tension goes away

Just laugh about it, not so hard to do

Find your funny bone and make it fly