Be Kind, Please Rewind (Forever)

[voice: strained tenor, emotional, raw, conversational] [production: garage recording, lo-fi, tape hiss, overdriven guitars, dry vocals] [range: G3-A4] [technique: vocal fry, glottal stops, screaming, desperate shouts] [melody: angular, syncopated, follows complex guitar riff] [exclude: auto-tune, clean production, pop vocals, heavy reverb] [Verse 1] {mumbled} The buzzing fluorescent lights hum a funeral song Plastic cases cracking where the history went wrong The new release wall hasn't changed since 2008 And the carpet stains spell out a future sealed by fate Candy's gone sticky in a layer of dust and time Another late fee waived for a non-existent crime [Pre-Chorus] And the digital tide, it washed the whole world clean {voice cracks} But it left us stranded in this analog scene A monument to tracking, a forgotten VCR We're the last known planet orbiting a burnt-out star [Chorus] {shouted} Be kind, please rewind! A VCR prayer for a lost kind {screamed} These late fees are my life savings! Stuck on pause with my faded cravings! Be kind, please rewind! Before we leave it all behind! [Verse 2] There's a copy of Space Jam that's been out since ninety-nine I read the faded summary, I trace the yellowed spine The membership cards are a graveyard in a drawer Of people who don't know what they're searching for anymore They scroll through endless menus for a soul they'll never find It's right here in the horror section, losing its damn mind [Pre-Chorus] And the algorithm prophets, they promised us it all But they never knew the feeling of a Friday rental haul A monument to tracking, a forgotten VCR We're the last known planet orbiting a burnt-out star [Chorus] {shouted} Be kind, please rewind! A VCR prayer for a lost kind {screamed} These late fees are my life savings! Stuck on pause with my faded cravings! Be kind, please rewind! Before we leave it all behind! [Bridge] {spoken, over clean math-rock arpeggios} You can't hold a data stream. You can't feel the weight of a pixel. There's no fingerprint on a file... no tear stain on a download... there's nothing... there's nothing left to hold... [Drop] {instrumental break: frantic, distorted math rock riff, complex drumming, tempo increase} [Chorus] {screamed at full volume} Be kind, please rewind! A VCR prayer for a lost kind! These late fees are my life savings! Stuck on pause with my faded cravings! Be kind, please rewind! We left ourselves behind! [Outro] {distorted, like a worn-out tape} Please rewind... Please... {static hiss} rewind... {abrupt silence}