[INTRO — 8 bars at 126 BPM. Distant filtered siren wails low. Filter-swept sub-bass swell rises bar 3. Deep kick pulse enters bar 5 on 1 and 3, opens to driving four-on-the-floor bar 7. Slinky syncopated synth bass drops in bar 8. Glassy plucked synth arp glints bar 8. Filter opens through bar 8. No lead vocal.] (ah) (breath) [VERSE 1: close-mic humid tenor natural voice. Bass and kick lock. Sixteenth hi-hats. Warm pad low. No claps. No falsetto.] The prefecture is ash. The Assembly locked the door. Nation is a barricade, and the barricade is more. Molotov and cocktail glass and oil across the thread. They take what they came for. They leave the paper dead. [PRE-CHORUS: counter-arp enters octave up. Sidechained pad pumps in. Filtered chopped strings whisper. Filtered vocal chop panned wide. Filter sweep begins to build. Snare roll into the chorus drop.] And we — we do what our house has always done. We chalk the floor, we strike the mirror, we cue the drum. The paint is set. The heel is high. The walk is prayer. The city is what the city is. We are still there. [CHORUS: drop. Full stack. Punchy claps on 2 and 4. Falsetto harmony above lead in thirds and sixths on hook top only. Filtered chopped strings sweep in wide open. Sidechained pad pumps hard. Deep kick locked. Open hat on offbeat.] Paris is burning, Paris is burning down. The préfet's on the coast. The president left town. The floor is oil, the light is gold, the room is ours. Paris is burning — and we walk it through the hours. (ah — ah) [VERSE 2: strip back to bass, kick, snare, hi-hats, close-mic lead. Vocal returns to conversational verse register. Claps drop out. Filter closes.] The banlieue is barricade and gasoline and bread. The tear gas moves like air. The news is what is said. The children of the house come in from every line tulle and leather and raw silk. Category: divine. [PRE-CHORUS — reprise with second filter sweep, more tension. Snare roll longer into the drop.] And we — we do what our house has always done. We chalk the floor, we strike the mirror, we cue the drum. The paint is set. The heel is high. The walk is prayer. The city is what the city is. We are still there. [CHORUS: drop again. Full stack, escalated. Second falsetto layer stacked above. Wide sighed ad-libs.] Paris is burning, Paris is burning down. The préfet's on the coast. The president left town. The floor is oil, the light is gold, the room is ours. Paris is burning — and we walk it through the hours. (ah — ah — ah) [BRIDGE: drums out. Density drops to bass, sub, warm pad, low drone, close-mic lead, low hummed counter far under. Delay-soaked counter-melody arrives midway. Distant filtered siren returns faint beneath. Filter closes to intimacy. Vocal declamatory, unhurried, letting the tempo hold under the stillness.] Weimar knew the smoke. Christopher Street knew the flame. The Harlem floor was mirror while the century burned its name. Every empire has a fringe. Every fringe has raised a light. We were the room before the fire. We are the room after night. [BUILD: 4 bars. Layers stack back in one by one under rising filter sweep. Kick returns bar 1. Sixteenth hi-hats bar 2. Claps bar 3. Snare roll long across bars 3 and 4. Filter opens fully bar 4 into modulation and drop.] (mm — ah) [FINAL CHORUS: modulate up a half or whole step. Drop again. Maximum density. Full falsetto stack, chopped strings wide open, punchy claps, sidechained pad breathing hard. Pitched vocal chops panned wide. Two passes.] Paris is burning — Paris is burning down. Paris is burning — Paris is burning down. Paris is burning — Paris is burning down. The préfet's on the coast. The president left town. The floor is oil, the light is gold, the room is ours. Paris is burning — and we walk it through the hours. Paris is burning — Paris is burning gold. The floor knows every dance the fire ever told. The paint is set, the heel is high, the mirror doubles all. Paris is burning — and the house is at the ball. [OUTRO: full band strips back over 4 bars. Kick and claps out first. Hi-hats out. Bass out. Warm pad and drone hold. Filter closes. Lead intimate and close-mic. Final line unfinished mid-phrase; one delay-tail fades on the last word held.] The paint is set ,The heel is high. The walk is —
