(Intro) (A soft, vibraphone melody shimmers like heat rising off a radiator. The detuned piano wanders in, hitting notes that seem to sag and stretch. The bass holds a deep, resonant hum, and the brushes on the snare sound like sand sliding across glass.) (Verse) The streetlights have melted into pools of liquid gold I’m walking on the ceiling of a story never told The skyscrapers are swaying like wheat in a midnight gale And the moon’s just a nickel hanging on a rusted nail I traded my shadow for a map made of smoke And the city is laughing at a punchline, though nobody knows the joke. (Chorus) And we’re drifting, drifting, on a tide of velvet noir Counting all the secrets that we’re keeping in the jar The world is getting fuzzy at the edges of the seams We’re just sailors in the harbor of a thousand broken dreams Yeah, the gravity is failing, and the sky is turning grey And we’re floating somewhere further than the dawn can find its way. (Verse) The pigeons are wearing silk, the taxi cabs have wings And the wind is whispering all those forgotten things I saw a man in a doorway counting stars inside his hat He said, “Don’t look down, kid, you’re better off than that” The pavement is a river flowing backwards toward the sea Where the ghosts of our intentions are waiting for the likes of you and me. (Chorus) And we’re drifting, drifting, on a tide of velvet noir Counting all the secrets that we’re keeping in the jar The world is getting fuzzy at the edges of the seams We’re just sailors in the harbor of a thousand broken dreams Yeah, the gravity is failing, and the sky is turning grey And we’re floating somewhere further than the dawn can find its way. (Verse) The neon signs are buzzing in a language I can’t read Sowing all the static like a field of iron seed I’m losing my reflection in the window of a bar Where the light is just the memory of a long-extinguished star Don’t wake me up, I’m balanced on the edge of a deep-sea sound Where the air is made of honey and I never hit the ground. (Piano Solo) (The piano takes the lead, notes trailing off into long, hazy reverb tails. It sounds like a music box submerged in water—tinkling, dissonant, and fragile, while the vibraphone creates a halo of ethereal noise behind it.) (Chorus) And we’re drifting, drifting, on a tide of velvet noir Counting all the secrets that we’re keeping in the jar The world is getting fuzzy at the edges of the seams We’re just sailors in the harbor of a thousand broken dreams Yeah, the gravity is failing, and the sky is turning grey And we’re floating somewhere further than the dawn can find its way. (Outro) (The instruments slowly fade, leaving only the bass and the faint, pulsing vibrato of the vibraphone. The tape hiss becomes more prominent, a warm, steady static.) Close your eyes... The night is just a curtain. Don’t look for the exit. There’s no floor here. Just... drifting. (Final, fading piano trill) Just drifting.
