[Instrumental Break - music box mechanism ticking, clean and in tune, vinyl crackle barely audible underneath] [Verse - vocal chords whispered, clear and in tune, memory still fully intact] There was a tune my mother used to hum, before the words got lost, before the days were done, I hold it now like something made of glass, afraid that if I breathe too hard it won't last. [Instrumental Break - bass clarinet entering, tone steady and warm, vinyl crackle thickening slightly] [Verse - vocal chords returning, pitch drifting slightly out of tune, the first small cracks appearing] There was a tune, I think it went like this, or maybe not, maybe something's amiss, the notes keep sliding somewhere I can't hold, the way a photograph fades before it's old. [Instrumental Break - music box mechanism slowing unevenly, tape wow and flutter becoming audible] [Verse - vocal chords returning, pitch noticeably warped, harmonies beginning to clash] There was a tune, or something close to it, a shape of sound I can't quite fit, the words are melting into one long hum, I don't know anymore where the melody's from. [Bridge - vinyl crackle intensifying, music box grinding unevenly, tension approaching collapse] still humming, still trying, still— almost. [Instrumental Break - bass clarinet alone, tone cracking into multiphonics, texture thinning to near silence] [Verse - vocal chords barely audible, mostly breath, the memory almost entirely gone] There was— a tune— I— think— [Verse - final, concluding, vocal chords barely recognizable, pitch heavily warped and dissonant, the last fragment] there was a tune. [Outro - music box mechanism grinding to a full stop, tape warble fading into crackle and then silence]
