SUGAR

[Intro: plucked strings and vibraphone; close lead] Sing it once. Hold it there. Something else is in the air. [Verse 1: dry drums; warm bass enters] Come empty-handed; bring your breath. I'll bring the hum below rest. Your borrowed no runs dark and low; my little yes has room to grow. We hold them till the window sings through the web of its trembling strings. The house voice asks, "Your usual?" Our second mouth sings, "Something new." A no needs somewhere to go. We give it air and let it glow. [Chorus 1: chamber-pop lift; two vocal lines create a third harmony] Sugar, sugar, hear the new thing start. Your low blue and my high gold make a sweeter part. Sugar, sugar, what we made can make. Take the third thing, make it one of two. Hear the whole room change. [Verse 2: clipped guitar and handclaps fold into the existing groove] "I fixed your door." It still goes creak. We keep that sound beneath the beat. Somebody has to move a chair; the scrape puts silver in the air. Paper bag against my knee, soft teeth tapping two and three. The quiet order learns to sway; our benign taste grows a wild streak. The clean plate club can wait all day; we haven't heard the next thing yet. Borrowed hunger finds a tune; we feed it back into the room. [Pre-chorus: bass walks upward; strings answer the creaking motif] Tare the silence. Let it ring. Net weight can't weigh this opening. Who holds the scale? We pass it round; its loose spring joins the sound. [Chorus 2: buoyant disco-soul; four-part harmonies] Sugar, sugar, hear the new thing start. Our new green and that old creak make a sweeter part. Sugar, sugar, what we made can make. Take the third thing, make it one of two. Hear the whole room change. [Bridge: groove suspended; close lead with vibraphone] An aftertaste becomes the key to the mistress's secret recipe. Special thanks to the spoiled note for the shape it gives the next. Our north keeps changing hands; we follow where the colors bend. Antithesis to it all sings a line we couldn't plan. Leave me a little unknown; leave a space to sing again. [Final chorus: full dancing groove; earlier motifs become one countermelody] Sugar, sugar, hear the new thing start. What we made and what's still coming make a sweeter part. Sugar, sugar, what we made can make. Take the third thing, make it one of two. Hear the whole room change. [Outro: harmonies open; percussion continues softly] The force-fed phrase becomes a bass line; we put our own words on top. The room is humming what we made. We hum it back and start again. Sugar, sugar, what we made can make.