VEILED HOPE [Intro — distant street ambience, low bass pulse, muted guitar harmonics] [Spoken quietly] Crazy people exist everywhere… [Verse 1 — restrained male vocal, dry and observational] Crazy people everywhere Walk down the street You’ll find them there In the park and on the bus Could be you, could be them Could be one of us [Verse 2 — beat grows heavier, clipped guitar enters] Crazy people, out of their minds Watch what happens When they cross the line Film it on your mobile phone Post it on your socials When you get home [Pre-Chorus — chords open, rising unease] Something’s moving underneath Something we can’t name Every familiar doorway Doesn’t feel the same [Chorus — wide vocal, powerful but melancholy] And what is happening to this world? Familiar places have come unfurled Life is stranger Filled with danger How are we meant to cope When all we have Is veiled hope? [Post-Chorus — ghostly backing voices] Veiled hope Veiled hope Something shining through the smoke [Verse 3 — bass-driven, weary nostalgia] Crazy nights and crazy days Don’t you sometimes wish They’d all just go away? Remember leaving doors unlocked Playing outside Never watching the clock The strange man living down the road Was simply strange In his strange abode [Pre-Chorus — female harmony gradually appears] Something’s moving underneath Something we can’t name Every familiar doorway Doesn’t feel the same [Chorus — fuller drums and layered voices] And what is happening to this world? Familiar places have come unfurled Life is stranger Filled with danger How are we meant to cope When all we have Is veiled hope? [Instrumental Break — distorted baritone-guitar motif, bowed metal, distant fairground organ] [Middle Eight — drums withdraw, intimate vocal over a low pulse] Where did all of this come from? Where will we all end up? I’m just glad I knew the good times Closer to the full stop And I live in the town of fun Though it’s changed across the years I look into the places I remember And find happiness in my tears [Breakdown — almost whispered, music reduced to heartbeat kick] Could be you Could be them Could be one of us Could be you Could be them… [Final Chorus — explosive drums, massed voices, orchestral weight] What is happening to this world? Familiar places have come unfurled Life is stranger Filled with danger How are we meant to cope When all we have Is veiled hope? [Final Chorus — higher harmony, desperate but uplifting] What is happening to this world? All of our certainties coming unfurled Life is stranger Filled with danger Still, somehow, we cope Holding on To veiled hope [Outro — instruments fall away one by one] Veiled hope Through the smoke Veiled hope We cope [Spoken, close to microphone] Could be one of us.
