[INTRO – voice starts at 0:00, close low raspy male vocal, almost spoken; sparse imperfect clean guitar, faint amp hum, no drums] I didn’t write this down to make you understand. I just needed to know how many things it took to get this far. [brief pause] So I counted them. [long pause] One by one. [VERSE 1 – restrained detached vocal; nervous bass, dry minimal drums, uneven mid-tempo pulse; space between each reason] Reason One: Because cruelty became ordinary. [brief silence] Reason Two: Because everything that mattered stayed unsaid. [guitar scrape] Reason Three: Because fear kept choosing for us. Reason Four: Because we were close enough to know everything, but never close enough to be honest. [bass grows warmer] Reason Five: Because I convinced myself the world would carry on without me. Reason Six: Because even the good things couldn’t make everything else disappear. [BUILD – bass pushes forward, guitar slowly distorts, feedback rising] [CHORUS – wider dirty guitars, melodic bass, dry drums, vocal stronger and slightly cracked] Count the cracks in the ceiling, count the cars out in the rain. Count the words we never finished, count the times we looked away. Call it nothing. Call it normal. Give it any name you choose. Some things only make sense in the things we never say. [POST-CHORUS – fuzz swell, electrical crackle, abrupt drop] [VERSE 2 – lower tired vocal; fragile clean guitar interrupted by distorted stabs; tempo subtly unstable] Reason Seven: Because I forgot what it felt like to be myself. Reason Eight: Because I mistook being alone for being free. Reason Nine: Because I learned that endings don’t need a fight to be final. [drums become more restless] Reason Ten: Because some things keep moving long after they’re already broken. [harsh guitar scrape] Reason Eleven: Because wanting you became louder than everything I knew better. [bass pulse grows heavier] Reason Twelve: [everything drops except bass hum] Because the one thing that made me want to stay [long pause] was never mine to keep. [INSTRUMENTAL BREAK – jagged fuzz, detuned notes, irregular drums, feedback bursts, amp crackle, abrupt signal cuts; controlled chaos] [CHORUS – heavier, rougher, unstable drums, strained vocal] Count the cracks in the ceiling, count the cars out in the rain. Count the words we never finished, count the times we looked away. Call it nothing. Call it normal. Give it any name you choose. Some things only make sense in the things we never say. [abrupt stop] [BRIDGE – stripped to bass pulse, faint clean guitar and amp hum; nearly spoken vocal] Twelve lines. [pause] Twelve answers. [pause] Twelve ways of calling something anything but what it was. Maybe counting changes nothing. Maybe numbers never do. Maybe all they really show us is how long we already knew. [long pause] And still— [FINAL BUILD – bass alone, crooked drums enter, clean guitar gradually breaks into distortion] [FINAL CHORUS – full-band explosion; raw fuzz guitars, deep bass, irregular drums, feedback and electrical glitches; vocal strained but not screamed] Count the cracks in the ceiling, count the cars out in the rain. Count the words we never finished, count the times we looked away. Call it nothing. Call it normal. [brief stop] Call it whatever gets you through. Some things only make sense when nobody says the truth. [FINAL COLLAPSE – drums fall apart and stop, guitars dissolve into feedback, sudden signal dropout] [OUTRO – near-total silence, faint amp hum, extremely close whisper] Reason Thirteen... [LONG SILENCE] [no answer] [HARD CUT – no final chord]
