Votive
Offerings.
The first side is about the rich and powerful having their fun while everyone else gets pushed around. The second side turns to the people who make the world worth living in, despite all that.
Put on your headphones and give it a listen from the beginning.
Listening and buying links open the existing music platforms.
Two halves of the same story
The world we’re living in
I wrote these songs more than ten years ago. I thought the world was becoming increasingly difficult and dangerous then, and I think things have only got worse. The first side looks at power, greed and what happens to the people on the receiving end.
The people who get us through it
The second side is my idea of an antidote: our relationships with partners, friends and family. They don’t always work out. The Real Me opens the second side with a relationship that has gone wrong. But mostly these songs are about the comfort we find in each other, and why there’s still plenty worth caring about.
This Beautiful Life
A song about helping someone you love through a difficult time.
Read the sleeve note
I wrote This Beautiful Life for someone very close to me while she was going through cancer treatment. It’s about being there for someone you love and hoping for better days together.
Behind the music.
Album credits
All songs written by Mike Hord. Produced by Tobi Lustigman and Mike Hord. Engineered by Tobi Lustigman. String arrangements by Pete Whitfield; all other arrangements by Mike Hord.
Mike Hord — vocals, backing vocals, guitars, bass guitar, drums, percussion, keyboards and synths.
Tobi Lustigman — backing vocals, guitars and bass guitar.
Sabrina Chyld — backing vocals.
Pete Whitfield — strings and string arrangements.
David O’Dowda — piano.
John Jenkins — drums on This Beautiful Life and Man of Song.
The Killers Horns — Mike Lesirge, saxophone and flute; Ryan Jacob, trumpet and flugelhorn; Alan Hardiman, trombone.
Dave Bell — guitar on The Real Me.
This Beautiful Life — musicians
Mike Hord — vocals, bass, synths and percussion.
Tobi Lustigman — acoustic guitar.
Pete Whitfield — strings and string arrangements.
David O’Dowda — piano.
John Jenkins — drums.
Produced by Tobi Lustigman and Mike Hord.
This Beautiful Life — lyrics
Too long, too painful I promise you that this will end You will never feel alone again, my friend You’re monumental I would never have the strength Come hold my hand, lets jump that fence Together and then We will calm the stormy waters Blow the clouds from the skies Yeah, we'll gaze down from the mountain And feast our eyes On this beautiful life!
Opening verse and chorus from the current site.
Read the full lyrics on the current site