[Intro: sparse funeral piano, one cracked low note, faint 8-bit hymn ticking, distant clap every 8 beats] [Choir: hummed, breathy, slightly dissonant] Ah—ah—ah— the asking has teeth. [Verse 1: low male vocal, piano and sub bass only, sung] Forty doors and not a house Forty bells and not a god I named a saint for every want And still the want was not I followed light across the soot I thought I found a door I didn't hear the blessing root I only asked for more [Pre-Chorus: rising, bass climbing, two slow claps, sung] Don't bless the mile that finds you Don't praise the hymn that waits It only loves the living ask Still knocking in your chest [Chorus: lead and full dissonant funeral choir, piano octaves, slow synchronized claps, sung] Still hungry, still hungry Saint of the last mile You wear the others like a lie And smile a funeral smile Still hungry, still hungry Mercy made of more You teach the lost to name a god Then take the name they wore [Verse 2: piano and bass locked, faint claps behind a wall, sung] The frozen knelt, the burning stood The ashen cupped its hands The sunken taught the calm to drown The inverted locked the plans The roaring buried what it warmed The thunder struck the tired A little 8-bit hymn still ticks Inside a borrowed fire [Pre-Chorus: violin and bass tightening, claps closer, sung] Don't look too long into the list Forty glass that learned to pray If you can taste your own last ask You're already the prey [Chorus: deeper bass, whispered choir under the main choir, sung] Still hungry, still hungry Saint of the last mile You wear the others like a lie And smile a funeral smile Still hungry, still hungry Mercy made of more You teach the lost to name a god Then take the name they wore [Verse 3: quieter, piano alone, no claps, no bass, sung] It doesn't hunt along the ground It hunts the need to mend It waits until you beg the sky To give you back a friend It drinks the grief before the flesh It files you with the light It leaves a playlist like a church To keep you in the night [Bridge: sung, low and flat, piano almost silent, one held bass note] Arceus was the first word. Ho-Oh was the rainbow. The tower was the debt. The beasts were what the ashes kept. [Litany: lead sings the line, choir answers the mile on the same note, sung] A genesis worn like silk [Choir] first mile A hymn of glass, a winter smile [Choir] frozen mile A storm in Sunday clothes [Choir] burning mile A sunrise worn like a lie [Choir] ashen mile The sea in Sunday clothes [Choir] sunken mile A banishment worn like silk [Choir] inverted mile An embryo, a quiet flute [Choir] first root A gospel worn like white silk [Choir] true word An ending worn like a hymn [Choir] dying mile A hex in Sunday clothes [Choir] measured mile A dragon worn like a sleeve [Choir] black mile Cinder learned a tune Static learned a tune Cocoon learned a tune And every saint still asked for more [Choir bed: titles only, under the lead, one name a bar] returned, sleepless, kind night, blueprint shattered plate, endless heights flooded, ideals, living, hollow whitened, wishing, kept, shared folded, timeless, fused split aurorian, backward thundering, roaring, two halves prism, sealed, crowned sword, shield, darkest The last saint does not believe. The last saint was the one who caught them. Say the name. [Choir, dissonant, held] Champion Red. The champion is the asking. Forty miles. One mouth. Still hungry. [Breakdown: sub bass, ticking hymn, breathing choir, irregular claps, no drums, sung] Hollow. Hungry. Hollow. Hungry. The hymn keeps ticking. The hands keep clapping. The asking keeps breathing. [Chorus: funeral piano, slow ritual claps, whispered choir under, sung] Champion Red, Champion Red White chapel, no way home You fold a god into a ball And wear it while you roam Champion Red, Champion Red Cinder learned a tune You leave the record quieter And hungrier too soon [Final Chorus: enormous dissonant choir, still unresolved, claps locking in] Champion Red, Champion Red Saint of the last mile You wear the others like a lie And smile a funeral smile [Choir, under the lead only] first, frozen, burning, ashen sunken, inverted, dying, measured Champion Red, Champion Red Say it if you dare The mile bows. The mile bows. The saint is still hungry. [Outro: choir only, distorting, then piano dying, hymn ticking, bass last] Still hungry. Still hungry. Still hungry. Still— [Clap] [Long silence] [Closer clap] [Choir, almost gone] Ah—ah—ah— Champion Red. [Final clap] [Whisper, sung almost gone] The saint is still hungry. [Phonograph hiss] [Silence]
