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Words from the artist’s archive
CONNECTION UNSTABLE lyrics
Artist-supplied lyric sheet, matched by title. The sheet may differ from this released performance. Production notes and alternate promotional cuts are omitted.
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Intro
Two rings and the screen lights up again Same app, same signal dropping thin
Verse 1
Laptop balanced on my chest at 2 A.M. Wi-Fi symbol halfway filled, I'm watching it pretend Your face loads in squares, jaw first then your eyes I fix my camera angle so the ceiling fan won't show You laugh three seconds late, the audio won't line I mouth the words I love you to a version buffering Same hoodie, same position, Tuesday blurring into next This ritual's the closest thing to sleeping in your neck
Pre-chorus
We sound closer than we are tonight Your voice fills the room but your coat's not on my chair Something's lagging and it isn't the connection I keep smiling at a thumbnail of your hair
Chorus
You're in my room but you're not in my city Twelve hundred miles inside a four-inch frame I kiss the screen, my lips land on the glitching We're close enough to hurt but not to stay
Verse 2
You ask me when I'm visiting, I pivot to my deadlines You nod, but your jaw tightens half a pixel on the webcam I could book the flight tomorrow if I closed one browser tab But I rehearse the reasons not to every time you ask My calendar's an alibi I decorated careful The truth is I forgot the smell of your apartment stairwell Conversations float on memes we send instead of plans Easier to heart-react than hold somebody's hand
Pre-chorus
We sound closer than we are tonight Your joke hits clean but the serious questions lag Something's lagging and it isn't the connection I catch myself performing through the gap
Chorus
You're in my room but you're not in my city Twelve hundred miles inside a four-inch frame I kiss the screen, my lips land on the glitching We're halfway here and halfway walking away
Verse 3
Seen at 11:47, reply comes after midnight Three dots appearing, disappearing, reappearing, gone We argue about response time like attorneys with exhibits You screenshot my online status, I screenshot your tone We talk more to the memory than the person on the other end Filling silence with remember-whens because the present's thin Two people on a call who haven't shared a meal in months Narrating love to strangers through a rectangle of light
Bridge
Your face freezes mid-sentence, mouth half-open, eyes mid-blink I stare at that still frame for thirty seconds And I realize, nah wait I've been in love with a screenshot Not the person on the other side
Verse 4
The call drops on its own and I don't redial My thumb hovers the reconnect for maybe forty seconds I type a paragraph about the distance and the flights Delete it letter by letter Send "sleep well" with a period
Chorus
You were in my room but you were never in my city Twelve hundred miles collapsed into a four-inch grave I kissed the screen, my lips kept landing on the glitching We stayed connected just to watch each other fade
Outro
Reconnect button blinks once, twice I close the laptop, listen to the quiet
Inside the recording
Two rings and the screen lights up again Same app, same signal dropping thin
We sound closer than we are tonight Your voice fills the room but your coat's not on my chair
Reconnect button blinks once, twice I close the laptop, listen to the quiet
Excerpts from artist-supplied lyric files matched by title. Lyric sheets may differ from the released performance.