[Intro — bare sub bass alone, one warm pad fold. Close-mic, low, spoken-sung. No drums.] [RIAN] (spoken-sung, low, over bare bass) Come here. You're in season. [Verse 1 — kick on 1, brushy snare, sparse 16th hats, sub walks the groove, pad low. Lead natural chest voice, wry, close-mic — head-voice flip up on the ends of "keeping" and "go."] [RIAN] You came in like a season — sudden, golden, brief. The kind that's made for leaving, never made for keeping. I'll have you for a summer, while I've still got my own glow and when the pretty packs its bags, well, darling, off we go. [Pre-Chorus] I've tried the longer game — the staying, the shared door. But people want a mirror, not a witness, nothing more. We're all too hungry, anyway, for what we say we need and love's just two appetites, and mostly it's just greed. [Chorus] So adore me for a season — I don't need you to mean it. We're beautiful right now; I'd be a fool to overthink it. With me you'll be a man, not just a face the others use, and I'll be the season that you're sorry you let loose. (falsetto stack) Adore me for a season — then it's done, no hard feelings, dear. [Verse 2 — drop to verse density. Kick, brushy snare, sub. Counter-arp out, pad low. Lead intimate chest voice, drier, a touch bitter.] The pretty ones were flighty. They were courted by a crowd. They'd forget my name by autumn, but they never wore me down. There was one who wasn't lovely, and he wanted to be mine and he kept a tab on it: every favor, every line. [Pre-Chorus] He turned cruel the way the unloved do, a little at a time, while the faithless gorgeous darlings always treated me just fine. So I'll take the lovely liars over loyal, jealous spite cause they were never mine to keep, but they were gentle in the night. [Chorus] So adore me for a season — I don't need you to mean it. We're beautiful right now; I'd be a fool to overthink it. With me you'll be a man, not just a face the others use, and I'll be the season that you're sorry you let loose. (falsetto stack) Adore me for a season then it's done, no hard feelings, dear. [Bridge] Don't tell me that you love me — I can hear you rehearse it. You picked me from the crowd because the crowd just wants your surface. They want the face; I want the man — that's the whole of my appeal, and I'll work it while I'm pretty, while you still think I'm real. 'Cause my looks'll go, and then, my love, I'm the crowd they tend to mock the ones who never get this close. So let me beat the clock: I'm too good at being alone to call this love, or even try, but I'll see you while I still can — and you'll miss that, by and by. [Final Chorus — key change up a half-step. Full saturated density. Lead riding high in falsetto across the peaks, chest voice for the low anchors. Falsetto stack thickest here, wide, moaned falsetto ad-libs everywhere.] So adore me for a season — neither of us has to mean it. We're beautiful tonight, and only cowards would demean it. You'll be seen, and I'll be wanted, and we'll settle up tonight two pretty things that always knew the other's appetite. (falsetto stack) Adore me for a season then it's done, no hard feelings both of us satisfied and lighter, down the road. [Outro — strip back. Sub bass thinning, one pad fade. Close-mic, low, spoken-sung drifting up into soft falsetto on the last line. Falsetto sigh on the tail.] (low, spoken-sung, over thinning bass) You're in season. So am I. We'll be sorry by and by.
