VHS Summer (Tracking Lines)

[Intro] (The sound of a VHS tape being pushed into a VCR, the mechanical whirring, and the sharp click as it sets. A low hum begins.) Play. The screen is blue... just for a second. Then...

[Verse 1] The sun is bleached out, the color's bleeding at the seams Sprinklers on a green lawn, living in my faded dreams The audio is warped, I can barely hear the laughter A ghost from my own past, in the ever after That barbecue smoke is a hazy, magnetic cloud My dad is waving at the camera, but the sound is not allowed To be clear, it’s just a muffle, a memory in decay I'm stuck inside the playback of a perfect, dying day.

[Chorus] This is my VHS Summer, I'm living on a dying tape The tracking lines are rolling through this beautiful escape The sound is underwater, the picture's full of static snow I'm reaching for a feeling from a lifetime ago Yeah, my VHS Summer, I press rewind to feel it all But the tape gets more corrupted every time I hear the call Stuck in this magnetic memory, a prisoner of the past Just a perfect moment that was never meant to last.

[Verse 2] I see my little sister, she’s drawing on the concrete drive I'm screaming that I love her, but my voice doesn't arrive It's just a phantom in the data, a glitch inside the hum I know every single moment, every outcome The ice cream truck is coming, I can hear the muffled song It's the sweetest melody, but everything feels wrong 'Cause the tape is getting thinner, the image starts to bend This is the part I love the most, right before the end.

[Chorus] This is my VHS Summer, I'm living on a dying tape The tracking lines are rolling through this beautiful escape The sound is underwater, the picture's full of static snow I'm reaching for a feeling from a lifetime ago Yeah, my VHS Summer, I press rewind to feel it all But the tape gets more corrupted every time I hear the call Stuck in this magnetic memory, a prisoner of the past Just a perfect moment that was never meant to last.

[Bridge] Please... just let me stay right here a little longer Before the static gets a little stronger I keep rewinding... rewinding... but the tape is almost gone Just trying to hold on... to hold on...

[Outro] (The music becomes more distorted, the beat falters and slows down as if the VCR is eating the tape. The sound of heavy static grows louder.) The image is gone... Just snow... And the blue screen... (The music cuts out, leaving only the sound of tape hiss and the low, electric hum of the VCR.)