[INTRO — cello solo, no drums, just breath] strings come in low and slow, like a memory you didn't ask for [VERSE 1 — half time trap, cello under everything] Woke up in a penthouse feeling basement low chasing all this paper but the paper doesn't know my name, my face, my mother when she used to braid my hair I got everything I wanted and I left myself back there Marble on the counters, hollow in the walls I keep buying things to fill the silence in the halls my therapist says "tell me what you're running from" I said "doc I'm not sure that I remember where I'm from" Notifications going off like someone cares I'm famous to a million strangers on the stairs of an algorithm, they don't know my middle name they know my highlight reel and I don't even like the game [PRE-HOOK — cello swells, drums drop out] and the cello says the thing I don't have the words to say it bends a note so low it sounds like yesterday [HOOK — double time flow over half time drums, cello carries the melody] I got hollow gold, hollow gold everything I touch turns to hollow gold shining on the outside, crumbling inside I been selling sunshine while I'm terrified hollow gold, hollow gold you can't spend hollow gold I tried to fill my hands but they just won't hold hollow gold [VERSE 2 — single time, deliberate, every word landing] Called my brother Tuesday, he picked up on the ninth ring we talked for forty seconds 'bout a meaningless thing hung up and I sat there with the phone against my chest like maybe if I held it long enough I'd feel the rest I got friends in every city, strangers every one we take a photo, someone tags it, then we're done I've been lonely in a crowd so long it feels like home I built a mansion out of company and live there all alone Wrote a song about my father, couldn't finish it too many chords that hit the wound and wouldn't visit it the cello player in the session started crying first I held it in and drove home and I sat inside the dark and let it burst [PRE-HOOK — cello only, devastatingly slow] it doesn't resolve it just holds the note the way grief does [HOOK] I got hollow gold, hollow gold everything I touch turns to hollow gold shining on the outside, crumbling inside I been selling sunshine while I'm terrified hollow gold, hollow gold you can't spend hollow gold I tried to fill my hands but they just won't hold hollow gold [BRIDGE — TRIPLE TIME rap, unraveling, cello becomes frantic underneath] everybody-wants-a-piece-of-something-I-can't-locate-anymore I-been-performing-being-fine-so-long-I-forgot-what-I-perform-it-for checked-my-bank-account-to-feel-something-didn't-work-like-it-used-to checked-my-phone-to-feel-something-the-phone-does-not-feel-something-it-sees-through-you I-remember-being-broke-and-sad-but-broke-and-sad-had-texture now-I'm-rich-and-sad-and-smooth-and-I-can't-find-a-thread-to-pull-the-rest-through bought-a-watch-I'll-never-look-at-bought-a-car-I-rarely-drive bought-a-plant-it-died-immediately-which-felt-personally-designed (sudden stop — one cello note, held) [VERSE 3 — half time, barely above a whisper, just voice and cello] I think I'm doing better I think I'm doing better I said it to the mirror 'til I started to believe it then the cello started playing and I couldn't quite retrieve it that version of me that knew how to need something that knew how to kneel at the feet of a feeling and not call it weakness [FINAL HOOK — slower, cello in front of everything, barely any drums] I got hollow gold, hollow gold everything I touch turns to hollow gold shining on the outside, crumbling inside I been selling sunshine while I'm terrified hollow gold, hollow gold you can't spend hollow gold I tried to fill my hands (cello finishes the sentence the lyrics couldn't) *[OUTRO — cello alone again, mirroring the intro, but the note resolves this time] barely
