Loving the Leech
Lyrics and music by Alex Waters
I read the tarot cards
And I held my breath
Your smile hid the scars
Your eyes saw red
You drank my sacrifice
Blood on your teeth
I’m holding on to hope
You wait to breach
Bite my lips until there’s blood
I really am my Father’s son
As below, then so above
Nothing to be done (Ah!)
Nothing to be done (Ah!)
Nothing to be done
Loving! Loving! Loving!
Loving the Leech
Trying! Trying! Trying!
To break the leash
Bathed in the borrowed hours
Your face, pale white
My love, we’ve come so far
What's one more night?
Your crying, begging eyes
Disguise your lust
You cut right through the veins
Now make it stop
Make it stop!
Loving! Loving! Loving!
Loving the Leech
Trying! Trying! Trying!
To break the leash
Do what I do
Take when I give
I'll make you admit
You’re a leech!
Do what I do
Take when I give
I'll make you admit
You’re a leech!
Loving! Loving! Loving!
Loving the Leech
Trying! Trying! Trying!
To break the leash
Loving! Loving! Loving!
Loving the Leech
Trying! Trying! Trying!
To break the leash
Loving, loving, loving
Make it stop
Case File: ES01
"Loving the Leech" is generally treated as the first recognizably complete Circa 1996 song, and in retrospect, it is almost embarrassingly predictive. The arrangement helped establish the band's earliest sonic vocabulary: down-tuned guitar, distorted bass, and blunt rhythmic violence that Waters eventually learned to disguise beneath more elaborate production. The writing is less polished (or perhaps less disguised?) than the work that followed, but the central problem is already intact: affection directed toward something demonstrably harmful.
By C96 standards, the title is unusually literal. Waters would later cite this as the "least popular" song on the release, and singled out the chord changes in the chorus as a writing choice he regretted.
Most of what Circa 1996 would eventually become is absent from this recording. Unfortunately, most of what it would later become is already featured here as well.
Status: Canonical
Origin: October 2025
See also: "The Mourning After," "Floris"