Atmospheric vinyl crackle over a moody upright bassline.
Distant, muffled sirens fade into a steady drum break.
[Verse 1]Navigating the asphalt veins of a dying district
Redevelopment projects making the history simplistic
Corporate architecture erasing every local landmark
Evicting the families left wandering in the dark
Urban sprawl devouring the local heritage
I’m tracing the geometry of our wreckage
Polysyllabic promises from the mayor’s office
While the working class counts the losses
Gentrified blocks look like polished teeth1
Hiding the rot and the struggle underneath
They’re painting over the struggle with beige
Flipping the neighborhood like a cheap page
Systemic hypocrisy in every new high-rise
I see the displacement through tired eyes
The landscape shifting while I’m stuck in low gear
Everything we built is starting to disappear
[Chorus](Ooh, the glass is cold)
I’m driving through the ghost of us
Watching the halogen glare turn to dust
The map doesn’t lead back to your heart
(Everything falls apart)
Just the engine and the rain
Same city, different kind of pain
[Verse 2]My chest feels like a boarded-up pharmacy2
A hollowed vessel in this shifting economy
The cost of living rising while my pulse slows
I’m paying for the debt that the absence owes
Accountability is a heavy burden to carry
Between the man I was and the one I bury
Vulnerability is the only currency I have left
In a world defined by systemic theft3
I miss the way your name felt like sanctuary
Now it’s a footnote, cold and temporary
Like these brick walls getting blasted with sand
I’m a stranger in my own native land
Looking at my reflection in the side window
Waiting for the wind of change to blow
But the air is heavy with the scent of wet oil
And the roots are dying in the poisoned soil
[Chorus](Ooh, the glass is cold)
I’m driving through the ghost of us
Watching the halogen glare turn to dust
The map doesn’t lead back to your heart
(Everything falls apart)
Just the engine and the rain
Same city, different kind of pain
[Outro]Music strips back to just the bass and a snare.
Isolation in the slow lane
(So quiet now)
The pavement keeps stretching out
(Nowhere to turn)
Fading into the gray
(Just gray)
Fade out with the sound of rain on metal.
