None The Wiser
[Verse] There's a coldness... On the breeze... That I didn't feel before... A tiredness in my body... Unlike anything... I've ever known... There's a soreness... In these thoughts... I thought... would have eased... But life... Keeps getting to me... [Instrumental interlude — lonely fingerpicked acoustic guitar and distant dream-pop electric guitar; washed-out reverb, ghostly male vocalizations, subtle reversed textures; a nervous folktronica pulse slowly emerges underneath] [Pre-Chorus] Another year older... None The Wiser! Just three hundred and sixty-five! Days closer... To breaking... [Chorus] I remember thirteen... Like it was yesterday... Twenty-one... like it was... An hour ago... But the joy... The hope... I knew... Those years now gone... Have gone as well... Feel hollowed out... Just a... Man shaped shell... [Instrumental interlude — folk-rock drums and strummed acoustic guitar dissolve into shimmering dream-pop guitars; layered male "oohs" drift through heavy reverb as a dark-house kick begins pulsing beneath everything; synths flutter and detune like a memory coming apart] [Verse] I see young love... And know... It will die like you... Pore over... Old photos... Of places I used to know... They're still out there... But they don't mean... What they did... I wish... I could stop thinking... About how... Every year means so much more now... And they just keep... Moving by... Faster and faster... [Instrumental interlude — increasingly unstable folktronica; chopped acoustic guitar, stuttering banjo-like plucks, reversed piano, warped vocal fragments and restless electronic percussion; dark-house bass throbs underneath while dream-pop guitars smear into huge walls of reverb] [Pre-Chorus] Another year older... None The Wiser! Just more time... I can't rewind... [Chorus] I see ten... It's Right There!! But I can't reach it... Feel thirty... But that age... Is Dead to me... The possibilities... I had... Those years... Now gone... Have gone as well... Feel hollowed out... Nothing but... A husk... Of a man... [Instrumental interlude — arrangement fractures violently; pounding dark-house kick and EDM sub-bass collide with frantic folk-rock drums, distorted acoustic strumming and screaming dream-pop guitar; chopped male vocals repeat and overlap out of time, drenched in reverb and delay; synth arpeggios spiral faster before suddenly collapsing into near-silence] [Outro] My darling... My friends... Faith, happiness... My chance... All gone... Aged out... Feeling as I was... But being... As I am now... Hollowed out... Just bare bones... Of a man... [Instrumental solo — fragile fingerpicked acoustic guitar returns beneath distant layered male humming; gradually swallowed by enormous dream-pop reverb, detuned synth pads and a slow dark-house heartbeat; fragments of earlier melodies flicker in and out like damaged memories; electronic glitches become increasingly erratic while the acoustic guitar stubbornly continues] [Final fade — instruments slowly disappear one by one until only the fingerpicked guitar, distant reverberating male vocalizations and a faint electronic pulse remain; the pulse grows irregular, skips beats, then vanishes into a long decaying wash of reverb] [End]
