[Intro 4] [Low overdriven guitar, serrated bass and phone-vibration percussion] [Each vibration adds another guitar layer] [Drums lurch into 7/8] [Close sung lead] Put it on me Everybody does [Verse 1 12] [Each request makes the arrangement heavier] Manager left the keys beside me Said, “Ray called out again” “I know you’ll handle closing” I said yes before he finished At lunch my sister called me “Can you talk to Mom for me? She gets quiet when I say it She still listens when it’s you” Then a friend asked for a favor Said he’d pay me back on Friday By the time I made it home Everybody else could finally breathe [Pre-Chorus 4] [Guitar layers choke together before the final beat] One more thing One more hand Every “You’re the only one” Adds another floor above me [Chorus 8] [Massive 4/4 half-time] [Full-band stop and sub hit on the title] Load-bearing Don’t ask if I can hold Just add another story To the ones I never told “You always come through” Like that makes it fair They keep thanking me for standing While they leave their weight up there [Verse 2 12] [Return to 7/8; stereo field narrows] Dinner had gone cold beside me Phone was facedown by my plate You were halfway through a story I was nodding at the screen You asked, “Did you even hear me?” I repeated your last words Then the phone began vibrating And my hand moved toward it first You said, “You don’t have to answer” I said, “Somebody has to” You said, “Does somebody really? Or do you need it to be you?” [Pre-Chorus 4] [Clipped self-vocals crowd the lead] I called it being needed You called it being gone I was sitting right beside you But you weren’t wrong [Chorus 8] [Harsher guitars and heavier sub impacts] Load-bearing Don’t ask if I can hold Just add another story To the ones I never told “You always come through” Like that makes it fair They keep thanking me for standing While they leave their weight up there [Break 4] [Phone vibrations trigger stacked guitar hits] [The riff buckles beneath its own layers] [Hard cut] [Verse 3 12] [Begin with dry vocal, bass and one guitar pulse] [One layer disappears after each refusal] Saturday the phone woke me Same name, same kind of need I watched it stop, then called him back Said, “I don’t have that in me” Waited for the roof to buckle For his voice to turn to blame He said, “Alright, I’ll work it out” Then asked if I was okay Nothing cracked above the doorway Nobody fell through the floor I sat there with my hands empty Didn’t know what they were for [Bridge 8] [Dry vocal over bass feedback] [Sustained guitars grow behind the confession] Some of them kept taking Some believed me when I said “Put it here, I’ve got it” I helped build this overhead Being needed felt like safety Till I couldn’t leave my place I was scared if I stopped carrying They would stop calling my name [Final Chorus 12] [Wide 4/4 groove; the riff is distributed across the band] [Open cymbals and complete vocal tails] Load-bearing I thought that was my worth Thought if I stopped holding everything I’d disappear beneath it first Let the ceiling find more shoulders Let the weight go where it should I can still come through for people Without proving that I’m good Nothing fell when I stepped backward Somebody else reached up I don’t have to earn my place By holding up the room [Outro 4] [Phone vibrates once] [No guitar layer answers] Phone buzzes I turn it over Nothing falls [One resolved band hit] [End][End][End]
