(Intro) (The track begins with a single, warm acoustic guitar, finger-picking a descending minor melody. There’s a faint, atmospheric hiss of a lo-fi tape recorder and the distant, rhythmic creak of a wooden floorboard.) (Verse 1) (Vocal Pitch: Soft, breathy baritone; intimate and close to the mic) The kettle’s humming a low and lonely tune While the shadows stretch across the afternoon I’ve got a letter that I’m never gonna send Tucked in a book about how the world might end (Vocal Pitch: Shifting to a gentle, melodic mid-range) And the garden’s growing wild against the gate A little bit of beauty and a lot of wait I’m tracing circles in the dust upon the glass Watching all the heavy-hearted seasons pass. (Chorus) (Vocal Pitch: Warm, soaring head voice; layered with a soft, ethereal harmony) Oh, it’s copper and rust and the things we don’t say Tangled in the light of a dying-down day We’re just ghosts in the hallway, quiet and thin Waiting for the winter to finally begin (Vocal Pitch: Delicate, wordless humming) (Mmm-mmm, mmm-mmm...) (Verse 2) (Vocal Pitch: Low, conversational, and slightly raspy) I found a photograph of a house we used to know Back before the rivers all forgot how to flow The ink is fading but the memory is sharp Like a jagged little splinter in a hollow-bodied harp (Vocal Pitch: Rising with a subtle, emotional grit) And I’m walking through the woods where the pine needles lay Finding all the pieces that the wind took away It’s a fragile kind of magic, it’s a rugged kind of blue To be standing in the kitchen and be looking for you. (Chorus) (Vocal Pitch: Warm, soaring head voice; layered with harmonies) Oh, it’s copper and rust and the things we don’t say Tangled in the light of a dying-down day We’re just ghosts in the hallway, quiet and thin Waiting for the winter to finally begin. (Bridge) (The music stays minimal, adding only a soft, bowed cello and the steady, slow thump of a palm against the guitar body.) (Vocal Pitch: Low, rhythmic whisper; building slightly in volume) First comes the frost. Then comes the cost. Of everything found. And everything lost. (Vocal Pitch: A single, clean, melodic belt) LET THE COLD IN! (Guitar Solo) (A brief, melodic acoustic solo focusing on slow slides and hammer-ons, staying deep within the melancholic atmosphere of the finger-picking.) (Chorus) (Vocal Pitch: Warm, soaring head voice; layered with harmonies) Oh, it’s copper and rust and the things we don’t say Tangled in the light of a dying-down day We’re just ghosts in the hallway, quiet and thin Waiting for the winter to finally begin. (Outro) (Vocal Pitch: Fading out with soft humming and the sound of the cello) The kettle's gone quiet... The light's getting low... Nowhere left... For the shadows to go. (The guitar returns to the opening minor melody, slowing down until it ends on a final, soft pluck that rings out into the sound of a distant wind chime.)
