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  1. Tracks
  2. Foals
  3. What Went Down
  4. Birch Tree
Birch Tree by Foals

TRACK

Foals

Birch Tree

Release date: 27th August 2015

From What Went Down
Track 3
4:21
AlternativeMusicRockIndie Rock
Spotify Apple Music More on Foals

About This Track

'Birch Tree' moves through displacement and time with the kind of restless precision Foals have made their signature. The song begins in absence, tracing a distance from the city of the narrator's birth, then pivots inward to a heart described as restless and contradictory. Intricate and delicate guitar lines weave through the track, anchored by the repeated image of a river as a place of reckoning, where time's passage becomes something to face rather than flee. The architecture is built on return and release. A series of refrains about meeting by the river establish a meditative pulse, whilst the later sections shift into something more defiant, the narrator chasing time itself rather than being chased by it. The interplay between vulnerability and resolve, between the specific pain of estrangement and the larger question of how we change as we age, gives the song its emotional weight. It settles not on answers but on the act of turning around to meet what comes.

"Birch Tree" is a track by Foals, from the album What Went Down, released 27th August 2015. The track is 4:21 long. It's filed under Alternative. Full lyrics are available below. Dork has published 20 articles about Foals.

About the Artist

Foals

Foals

Lyrics

Birch Tree

The city I was born in
I left a long time ago
We lost touch
Grew apart, my friend

My heart's an old pole dancer
Troubled romancer, you know?
It's a subway chancer
A question with no answer

Come meet me by the river
See how time, it flows
I'll meet you by the river
See how time, it flows

And when we age
Shed our skin and grow
We shed our layers
Spread our wings and go

My heart's an old black panther
Corrupted financer, you know
It's a troubled romancer
A question with no answer

Come meet me by the river
See how time, it flows
I'll meet you by the river
See how time, it flows
Come meet me by the river
See how time, it flows
I'll meet you by the river
See how time, it flows

Oooh, oooh
Oooh, oooh (Yeah)
Oooh, oooh (Yeah)
Oooh, oooh
Oh, now the river runs away but I chase it (Yeah)
Time holds no fear when I turn round and face it (Yeah)
Oh, now the river runs away when I chase it (Yeah)
Time holds no fear when I turn round and face it (Yeah)

Come meet me by the river
See how time, it flows
I'll meet you by the river
See how time, it flows

Oh, now the river runs away but I chase it
Time holds no fear when I turn round and face it
Oh, now the river runs away when I chase it
Time holds no fear when I turn round and face it

Lyrics provided by LRCLIB

View full lyrics page →

Track details

From What Went Down

4:212015
Listen
Album
What Went Down
What Went Down
Foals
28th August 2015
Track number
3
Release year
2015
  1. 1What Went Down
    5:01
  2. 2Mountain at My Gates
    4:04
  3. 3Birch Tree
    4:21
  4. 4Give It All
    4:47

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    • Credits

    Production & Engineering

    Writer
    Foals, Yannis Philippakis
    Producer
    James Ford
    Engineer
    Jimmy Robertson
    Bass
    Walter Gervers
    Drums
    Jack Bevan
    Guitar
    Jimmy Smith (UK), Yannis Philippakis
    Keyboards
    Edwin Congreave, Jimmy Smith (UK)
    Vocals
    Yannis Philippakis
    Assistant Engineer
    Damien Arlot
    Assistant Mixing Engineer
    Caesar Edmunds
    Mastering Engineer
    John Davis (Engineer)
    Mixing Engineer
    Alan Moulder
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