Vapor and Hard Bop

Intro

Mm

Mm-hmm

Faded in the half-light

Verse 1

Low and slow the smoke curls under the door

Piano keys stumble where the pavement used to roar

Blue note bending sideways through a dusty second floor

I sip my coffee cold and watch the morning snore

Cracked vinyl spinning like a wheel that lost its way

Bass line walking out the door it's never coming back today

Saxophone weeping in the corner where we used to pray

I wrote my name in vapor now it's gone before I say

Pre-Chorus

Hold the smoke low

Hold it close

Let the horn blow

Let it ghost

Chorus

Blow rings through the ceiling

Breathing slow and even

Blow rings through the ceiling

Make the ceiling believe in

Post-Chorus

Oh-oh

Oh-oh-oh

Slow

Oh

Verse 2

Sticky fingers on the record sleeve the dust is heavy gold

Every metaphor I fumble turns to vapor in the cold

The upright bass is grumbling a sermon that I never told

The drummer's off the grid and still the pocket holds

Half a spliff and half a truth on the corner of the couch

Jazz box humming sideways while the theory wears thin

Big band ghosts are leaning in to listen to my doubts

I'd tell them all the answer but the answer won't begin

Pre-Chorus

Let the reed sting

Let it sting

Give the horn wings

Give it swing

Chorus

Blow rings through the ceiling

Breathing slow and even

Blow rings through the ceiling

Make the ceiling believe in

Post-Chorus

Oh-oh

Oh-oh-oh

Slow

Oh

Bridge

The horn laughs sideways at the hard bop math

The kick drum stumbles right before the path

I trade a lucid moment for a faded photograph

And lose the thread again I never had

Drop

Low rider tempo

Low rider tempo

Low rider tempo

Let it go

Outro

Mm

Mm-hmm

Faded

Verse 3

The ceiling's getting softer now it breathes like ocean skin

The ashtray's turning spiral slow the edges caving in

I blink and forty minutes melt like sugar in the wind

The horn is speaking backwards and I almost understand

The walls are made of honey or they might be made of lead

The clock on the wall is leaning like it's going back to bed

My shadow's doing yoga on the carpet overhead

And the smoke is forming staircases that lead up to my head

Pre-Chorus

Let the room spin

Let it spin

Let the dream lean in

Let it in

Chorus

Blow rings through the ceiling

Falling slow and dreaming

Blow rings through the ceiling

Watch the ceiling start to breathe in

Post-Chorus

Oh-oh

Oh-oh-oh

So slow

Oh

Verse 4

I'm halfway through a thought that I can't remember starting

The bass line grew a garden and the garden started parting

There's a doorway in the wallpaper with hinges softly parting

And the saxophone is humming like a lullaby departing

My eyelids getting heavy like they're filled with river stone

The piano's playing underwater somewhere on its own

I feel myself dissolving like a sugar-coated bone

And the room is getting rounder like a planet left alone

Pre-Chorus

Let me sink

Let me sink

On the brink

On the brink

Chorus

Blow rings through the ceiling

Falling slow and dreaming

Blow rings through the ceiling

Watch the ceiling start to breathe in

Post-Chorus

Oh-oh

Oh-oh-oh

So slow

Oh

Bridge

Colors melting into colors I don't have a name

The horn is stitched to midnight and the midnight's stitched to flame

Every breath is lighter than a feather in the rain

I'm drifting through the cobwebs where the hours go to hang

Verse 5

I saw the bass player's fingers turn to ribbons in the air

The grand piano melted into vapor everywhere

My coffee cup is floating like a boat without a care

And I'm not sure if I'm sitting or already sitting there

The smoke is building cities and the cities build their own

There's a coronation happening in my living room alone

The record player's turning to a spiral made of bone

And I feel myself unspooling like a song that's never known

Pre-Chorus

Soft and low

Soft and low

Let me go

Let me go

Chorus

Blow rings through the ceiling

Falling slow and dreaming

Blow rings through the ceiling

Watch the ceiling start to breathe in

Post-Chorus

Oh-oh

Oh-oh-oh

So slow

Oh

Verse 6

The ceiling turned to water and the water turned to sky

The sofa's made of starlight and I'm melting into spry

The horn is just a whisper now it's barely even shy

And my eyelids are the horizon where the dreams go by

I can't tell my fingers from the shadows on the wall

The smoke is writing letters that I'll never read at all

The room is getting narrower and narrower and small

And the drummer's ghost is tapping on the rhythm of my fall

Pre-Chorus

Almost gone

Almost gone

Ride the dawn

Ride the dawn

Chorus

Blow rings through the ceiling

Falling slow and dreaming

Blow rings through the ceiling

Watch the ceiling start to breathe in

Post-Chorus

Oh-oh

Oh-oh-oh

So slow

Oh

Outro

Floating

Floating

Floating down

Floating down

Past the amber

Past the feather

Past the sound

Past the sound

Lighter

Lighter

No more ground

No more ground

Mm

Mm-hmm

Falling

Falling

Soft

Soft

Asleep

Asleep

Gone

Gone

Gone

Gone

Mm

Mm-hmm

Gone