QUIET GOODBYES — Silent Avenue [Intro — cassette hiss, room tone] [Muffled voices through a wall] [Female voice, distant] Are you awake? [Long pause] [Male voice, barely audible] Yeah. [Silence] [Female voice] Never mind. [Cassette click] [Clean guitar enters] [Verse 1 — restrained vocal] We stopped fighting in November I thought that meant we were alright You stopped asking where I'd been I stopped asking why We learned to sleep without touching On opposite sides of the bed You'd say, “I'm tired, goodnight” And I'd believe that's what you meant [Pre-Chorus — bass enters] No slammed doors No final scene No broken glass between you and me [Drums cut] Just two people getting quieter Until quiet was everything [Short feedback → Chorus] [Chorus — full band] We said goodbye A thousand times Without ever saying the word In shorter calls In empty halls In all the things we never heard There was no ending No reason why [Backing vocal] No last kiss... We just got good At quiet goodbyes [Guitar feedback tail] [Verse 2] Your toothbrush disappeared one morning I noticed sometime after noon Half your clothes were already missing I don't know when you moved them There was coffee in the cupboard The kind that only you would drink I kept it there for seven months Like an idiot— [Tape stop] [Telephone-filtered voice] ...I don't even like that shit. [Drums slam back in] [Pre-Chorus] No photographs thrown from the walls No desperate midnight telephone calls You didn't hate me I didn't hate you [Music drops] Maybe that would've been easier to do. [Scratch → Chorus] [Chorus — heavier] We said goodbye A thousand times Without ever saying the word In shorter calls In empty halls In all the things we never heard There was no ending No reason why [Backing vocals] No last kiss... We just got good At quiet goodbyes [Instrumental break — distorted guitar, half-time drums] [Bridge — spoken, increasingly emotional] I used to think losing someone would be louder. [Feedback] Screaming. [Drum hit] Crying. [Drum hit] Something breaking. [Silence] But you wanna know what losing you sounded like? [Room tone] The refrigerator. The neighbor upstairs. My keys on the table. [Distant hallway vocal] And absolutely nothing from you. [Sudden distorted guitar hit] [Breakdown] NO WARNING! NO FIGHT! [Backing scream] NO GOODBYE! You packed your heart a little every night! NO CLOSURE! NO CRIME! [Megaphone vocal] Just less of you every fucking time! [Tape stop] [Whisper] Until there wasn't any left. [Reverse feedback → Final Chorus] [Final Chorus — emotional, layered vocals] We said goodbye A thousand times I just didn't know it then The shorter calls The untouched walls The way you stopped saying “when” There was an ending Hidden in plain sight Every “I'm tired” Every “maybe tomorrow” Every early goodnight [Backing vocals building] Goodbye... Goodbye... [Lead vocal] We never said it [Backing scream] GOODBYE! [Lead vocal] But we said it every night. [Everything stops] [Outro — same room tone as intro] [Male voice, distant] Are you awake? [Long silence] [Cassette click]
