[Intro - whispered, almost no air, the drone bright and glassy] (whispered) Name how close. I'll get closer than that. [Verse 1 - half time, dry close vocal, low anchor on bar 3] I ain't made a sound out loud since back when it was cold. Not a word, not a knock, not a breath. And I was told. Silence was the only thing I had that I could give, and I gave it like a man decides the way to live. A bearing nobody hears is just a place to hide. And I have been hiding in my patience. I decide. I walked up to the wood, put my mouth against the grain, and I knew that he was standing there. I said it plain. [Pre-Chorus - clipped, percussion out, lead line enters] I knew that he could hear. I said it anyway. I'd been quiet a year. I gave the year away. [Chorus - the heat, full voice, out loud, unguarded] Name how close. I'll get closer than that. Say a number through the wood. Say it low. Say it flat. I'll get closer than that. I been quiet my whole life, and I'm standing here and I ain't quiet now. [Verse 2 - the cooling begins, everything a little softer] And then nothing. And the nothing was the loudest sound. I don't know if he heard it. And I'm not asking round. Nobody tells you what it costs to get a thing said: it don't change him at all. It changes the man instead. Something rearranged in me. And nothing in me moved. The same man, same hall, same bearing. Not a thing improved. A thing don't come out of the heat new. It comes out set. And it comes out holding a shape it did not have yet. [Pre-Chorus - clipped, percussion out, warmer] I knew that he could hear. I said it anyway. I'd been quiet a year. I gave the year away. [The Crossing - two seconds, hard cut both directions, nothing inside it] [Bridge - bare, no reverb, voice and low anchor only] I said it. He didn't answer. Both of those are true, and only one of them is mine. I'll take the one that's mine. [Final Chorus - wider, not louder, cooled, the drone thick and warm] Name how close. I'll get closer than that. Say a number through the wood. Say it low. Say it flat. I'll get closer than that. I been quiet my whole life, and I'm standing here and I ain't quiet now. [Outro - spoken, warm, the annealed drone underneath] Name how close. I'll get closer than that.
