A Flat Line on the Weather Chart

Verse 1

The light comes in through curtains grey

I count the cracks along the wall

Another morning starts the same

I wonder if I feel it all

The kettle hisses low and slow

The radio hums a tired tune

I pour the water watch it go

And stare at an empty room

Pre-Chorus

And everyone keeps saying

This is where it starts

But I keep staring harder

At the lines across my palm

Chorus

Underwhelmed is what I am

A flat line on the weather chart

Underwhelmed is what I am

The ripple never finds the shore

Underwhelmed is what I am

I watch the satellites pass through

Underwhelmed is what I am

And nothing ever quite gets through

Verse 2

I packed my bags on Tuesday night

For somewhere farther than the moon

I bought a ticket to the stars

But missed the shuttle leaving soon

The atlas sits upon my lap

The routes are drawn in fading ink

I trace a finger down the map

And feel the pages go and shrink

Pre-Chorus

And everyone keeps saying

Look how far you've come

But I keep counting ceiling tiles

And feeling mostly numb

Chorus

Underwhelmed is what I am

A flat line on the weather chart

Underwhelmed is what I am

The ripple never finds the shore

Underwhelmed is what I am

I watch the satellites pass through

Underwhelmed is what I am

And nothing ever quite gets through

Bridge

Gravity pulls everything down

Even the sparks I used to throw

Gravity pulls everybody down

Even the ones who think they know

Gravity pulls and pulls and pulls

Until the color fades to stone

I reach for something big and bold

And all I find is this

Guitar Solo

Verse 3

The neighbours plant their roses red

I watch the petals fall to grey

The fertilizer lines their beds

Their hands are busy every day

I signed my name on dotted lines

The contract runs to page thirteen

The ink has left a crooked line

But I can't tell me what it means

Pre-Chorus

And everyone keeps saying

Feel the weight of it

But all my feelings stay upstairs

Where the windows never fit

Chorus

Underwhelmed is what I am

A flat line on the weather chart

Underwhelmed is what I am

The ripple never finds the shore

Underwhelmed is what I am

I watch the satellites pass through

Underwhelmed is what I am

And nothing ever quite gets through

Outro

Underwhelmed

Underwhelmed

Underwhelmed

Mm

Underwhelmed

Mm-hmm

Underwhelmed

Verse 4

The telephone rings twice and stops

A dial tone that no one owns

I trace the spiral in the dust

And listen to the dialing tones

The calendar is stuck on May

The pages turned and turned again

I wrote my name in yesterday

And watched it drift into the rain

Pre-Chorus

And everyone keeps saying

Turn the page and go

But I keep staring at the spine

Where the binding doesn't grow

Chorus

Underwhelmed is what I am

A flat line on the weather chart

Underwhelmed is what I am

The ripple never finds the shore

Underwhelmed is what I am

I watch the satellites pass through

Underwhelmed is what I am

And nothing ever quite gets through

Bridge

And if the void has colours

They must be the colour of this room

And if the stars have numbers

They must be the numbers I can't assume

I float above the atmosphere

A capsule spinning slow

And down below the blue planet

Is the only place I used to know

Instrumental Break

Verse 5

I built a tower out of glass

To see the landscape from above

The structure shimmered in the sun

But cracked before I learned to love

The blueprint curled at both its ends

I kept it in a metal drawer

The measurements were never right

The angles always off by more

Pre-Chorus

And everyone keeps saying

Higher than the clouds

But I keep measuring the floor

And tracing out the shrouds

Chorus

Underwhelmed is what I am

A flat line on the weather chart

Underwhelmed is what I am

The ripple never finds the shore

Underwhelmed is what I am

I watch the satellites pass through

Underwhelmed is what I am

And nothing ever quite gets through

Bridge

The mission control calls me home

But I am sixty light-years out

The signal bends around the sun

And fades into a ghostly doubt

Apollo never made it here

The moon was just the start

I orbit what I can't become

A shadow on the chart

Guitar Solo

Verse 6

I found a postcard in the yard

Addressed to no one, no return

The picture showed a distant shore

Where water neither turned nor churned

I keep it in my coat pocket

Next to receipts and broken pens

The shoreline never changes though

The ocean never comes again

Pre-Chorus

And everyone keeps saying

Maybe next year then

But my appointment's been erased

And I cannot resend

Chorus

Underwhelmed is what I am

A flat line on the weather

Verse 7

The sun goes down in fractions now

A double exposure on the sky

The clouds are folded over twice

Like letters that I never sent

I walked the corridor at night

The emergency lights were green

I counted every turning

And the floors between unseen

Pre-Chorus

And everyone keeps saying

You are almost there

But I keep pacing to and fro

And finding nothing where

Chorus

Underwhelmed is what I am

A flat line on the weather chart

Underwhelmed is what I am

The ripple never finds the shore

Underwhelmed is what I am

I watch the satellites pass through

Underwhelmed is what I am

And nothing ever quite gets through

Bridge

I sent a signal out to space

A lonely dot of radio

And waited years for any sound

But only silence chose to grow

The distance multiplies by ten

The echo never starts

I left a question in the dark

And lost the question's heart

Guitar Solo

Verse 8

The apartment smells of dust and time

The wallpaper repeats in rows

I drew a portrait of the moon

With charcoals going soft and slow

The ceiling fan revolves in thirds

A lazy engine overhead

I tilt my head and watch it turn

And turn again and yet and yet

Pre-Chorus

And everyone keeps saying

Seasons come around

But my calendar is spiral-bound

And circling the ground

Chorus

Underwhelmed is what I am

A flat line on the weather chart

Underwhelmed is what I am

The ripple never finds the shore

Underwhelmed is what I am

I watch the satellites pass through

Underwhelmed is what I am

And nothing ever quite gets through

Bridge

The capsule drifts through empty dark

No gyroscope, no guiding star

I folded up my astronaut

And kept him in a mason jar

The docking bay is closing now

The umbilical is slow

I press my palms against the glass

And watch the landing glow

Instrumental Break

Verse 9

I tuned the radio to white

And left it humming overnight

The static formed a language

That I almost understood

I wrote it down in pencil script

On napkins from a diner booth

But morning flattened every word

And turned the static back to truth

Pre-Chorus

And everyone keeps saying

Let the colors show

But I am colourblind to awe

And everything I know

Chorus

Underwhelmed is what I am

A flat line on the weather chart

Underwhelmed is what I am

The ripple never finds the shore

Underwhelmed is what I am

I watch the satellites pass through

Underwhelmed is what I am

And nothing ever quite gets through

Bridge

If I could bend the light from here

And wrap it round the sphere of home

I'd thread the beam through all my years

And find the needle I was shown

But optics keep their distance and

Refraction doesn't last

I hold a prism to my eye

And watch it come to pass

Guitar Solo

Verse 10

I painted over all the walls

A primer coat of quiet grey

The brushstrokes dried in parallels

To hide the cracks another way

The floorboards carry every weight

I ever thought to drag across

I sweep the dust into a pile

And wonder what the pile has lost

Pre-Chorus

And everyone keeps saying

One day you will feel

But the feeling station's boarded up

The platform's gone to steel

Chorus

Underwhelmed is what I am

A flat line on the weather chart

Underwhelmed is what I am

The ripple never finds the shore

Underwhelmed is what I am

I watch the satellites pass through

Underwhelmed is what I am

And nothing ever quite gets through

Outro

The light comes in through curtains grey

The cracks are running down the wall

Another morning starts the same

And I don't wonder anymore

Underwhelmed

Underwhelmed

The shore waits still

The ripple stays

Underwhelmed

Underwhelmed

Mm

Underwhelmed

Mm-hmm

Underwhelmed

Mm

Underwhelmed