(Final Version with Updated Bridge) [tempo ~86 BPM • minor key • neo-soul groove • warm electric piano + soft kit + round bass • vocal intimate → confident] ⸻ [Intro – sparse keys, lo-fi hiss, finger snaps] I kept a list in a leather book, all the right turns, how a life should look. ⸻ [Verse 1 – laid-back pocket, close-mic voice] I wore a suit made from quiet nods, smiled on cue for the neighbor gods. Weekends built like a careful cage, golden paint on a patient rage. I learned to speak in a borrowed tone, paid the rent on a stranger’s home. ⸻ [Pre-Chorus 1 – bass enters, brushed drums] But every night my hands would burn, for something I could never earn — by only living someone’s plan. ⸻ [Chorus 1 – melancholic groove, swelling Rhodes + backing vocals] Borrowed dreams, they wore me thin, a stranger’s face beneath my skin. I found myself where silence gleams — I don’t belong in borrowed dreams. Now I breathe in what’s truly me — I am who I was supposed to be. *(soft ad-lib: “supposed to be … finally free …”) ⸻ [Turn – guitar lick + rim clicks] ⸻ [Verse 2 – add Rhodes shimmer, subtle percussion] I found a room where the hours fade, lost in work that I would never trade. I blink, it’s dawn — still wide awake, flow like a river no one can fake. Call it craft or a quiet flame, when I’m there, I remember my name. ⸻ [Pre-Chorus 2 – lift, add soft handclaps] When that rhythm starts to rise, it cuts through all the practiced lies. It’s not my head that makes the plans — it’s what my heartbeat understands. ⸻ [Chorus 2 – full kit, layered BVs, brighter tone] Borrowed dreams, they wore me thin, a stranger’s face beneath my skin. I found myself where silence gleams — I don’t belong in borrowed dreams. Now I breathe in what’s truly me — I am who I was supposed to be. ⸻ [Bridge – drop drums, voice + piano → band bloom] No blame for the ones who haven’t tried, their failure taught me how to thrive. But living safe can cost your soul, and comfort sometimes swallows whole. So if I fail, I’ll fail in truth — not in a costume stitched for proof. ⸻ [Final Chorus – big but warm, gospel-style harmonies] Borrowed dreams, they wore me thin, a stranger’s face beneath my skin. I found myself where silence gleams — I don’t belong in borrowed dreams. Now I breathe in what’s truly me — I am who I was supposed to be. *(gentle echo – “who I was … who I’ll be …”) ⸻ [Outro – instruments thin, vocal near-whisper] I turn the page, unlearn the scenes … and make a home in unborrowed dreams.
