Ghost in the Frame / Track 10 / song

Black Water

Two people watching the same moon from opposite sides of an ocean that used to be a room. The only song here where the other person answers back, and she does not agree.

5:10 / 132 BPM

Black Water — track plate: warm monochrome material printed for this song, scraped through the middle
01

Lyrics

Verse 1 - Male Vocal

City bleeding through the curtains

Silver lines across your face

Two cups cooling on the counter

Like they're waiting in our place

Every word became an anchor

Every silence pulled a chain

We kept throwing stones at mirrors

Then got angry when they changed

Now your shadow leaves before you

Mine still circles where you stood

And the room keeps getting wider

Like the ocean says it should

Pre-Chorus - Male Vocal

Same moon above us

Different tide below

I can see your light from here

But there's nowhere left to go

Chorus - Female Vocal - Japanese

海の向こう側

声を探してる

揺れている灯り

今も見つめてる

怒りも涙も

波に預けてる

夜が明けるまで

ただ波を見てる

Post-Chorus - Male Vocal

Same moon

Different shore

I see your light

Nothing more

Verse 2 - Male Vocal

We drew maps across the wreckage

Marked the places we were right

Built a harbor out of reasons

Then set every dock alight

You kept storms behind your eyelids

I kept thunder in my throat

Both of us were taking water

Still pretending we could float

There are things beneath the surface

That I never learned to name

Every time the tide goes out

They wash up on the sand again

Pre-Chorus - Male Vocal

Same moon above us

Different tide below

Your silhouette is getting small

But I still watch it go

Chorus - Female Vocal - Japanese

海の向こう側

声を探してる

揺れている灯り

今も見つめてる

怒りも涙も

波に預けてる

夜が明けるまで

ただ波を見てる

Post-Chorus - Male Vocal

Same moon

Different shore

Still your light

Through the storm

Break - Fractured Beat

[Male Rap]

You say I made the water rise

Like you were standing somewhere dry

Like every wave came from my side

Like yours just happened to arrive

I heard you leaving in the quiet

Long before you touched the door

So don't tell me I imagined

What the silence turned us into

[Female Vocal - Japanese]

今さら何を言うの

ずっと待ってた

[Male Vocal]

I was drowning too.

[Female Vocal - Japanese]

沈めてない

私はただ待ってた

[Male Vocal]

I know.

[Female Vocal - Japanese]

じゃあ

なぜなの

[Break]

[Male Vocal]

I don't know.

Breakdown - Male Scream

WE KEPT FIRING FROM THE SHORELINE

AT A SHIP WE BOTH WERE ON

BURNED THE SAILS TO WIN THE ARGUMENT

THEN WONDERED WHY THEY'RE GONE

I CAN STILL SEE YOUR LIGHT

THROUGH EVERYTHING WE TURNED TO SMOKE

BUT THERE'S AN OCEAN IN THE ROOM NOW

AND NEITHER OF US KNOWS

HOW TO CROSS IT

Bridge - Female Vocal - Japanese

嫌いになれたら

海も浅いのに

忘れられたら

夜は短くて

残った灯りが

波間で揺れてる

消えてほしいのに

目をそらせない

Bridge Response - Male Vocal - Spoken

Maybe some things don't sink.

Maybe they just drift

far enough away

to stop being ours.

Final Chorus - Female Vocal - Japanese - Powerful

海の向こう側

声を探してる

消えそうな灯り

今も見つめてる

戻れない岸に

朝が近づいて

言えなかったこと

波に残してる

Male Response - Rising

Same moon above us

Black water below

Your light gets smaller

But it never goes

Final Chorus - Female Vocal - Higher

海の向こう側

まだ灯りがある

朝が来るまでは

ただ波を見てる

[Male Vocal]

We were one coastline

Before the water came

[Female Vocal - Sustained]

海の向こうで

[Male Scream]

I CAN STILL SEE YOU!

Outro - Female Vocal - Distant

同じ月を見てる

[Male Vocal]

Yeah.

[Female Vocal]

それでいい

[Final Pulse]

02

Song sheet

How the track is built.

Tempo
132 BPM
Feel
132 BPM, straight, choruses floating in halftime, double kick in the breakdown
Key / mood
minor and tidal, aching, never resolving
Emotional axis
nearness ↔ unreachability
Central image
two people watching the same moon across an ocean that used to be a room
Signature transformation
the two voices alternate for the whole song and only overlap in the final section
Structure
  1. 01 intro
  2. 02 verse
  3. 03 pre-chorus
  4. 04 chorus (Japanese)
  5. 05 post-chorus
  6. 06 verse
  7. 07 pre-chorus
  8. 08 chorus (Japanese)
  9. 09 post-chorus
  10. 10 break (rap and bilingual exchange)
  11. 11 scream breakdown
  12. 12 bridge (Japanese)
  13. 13 bridge response (spoken)
  14. 14 final chorus (Japanese)
  15. 15 male response
  16. 16 final chorus (higher)
  17. 17 outro
Vocal — verse
close male vocal, restrained, conversational
Vocal — chorus
soaring female vocal sung in Japanese, wide and unpolished
Vocal — harsh
male screams in the breakdown and one final cry, nowhere else
Guitars
clean tremolo lines, one wall of distortion in the breakdown
Electronics
submerged synth pulse, sonar blips, tape hiss, deep sub