idling…
- VITAL SIGNS STABLE
- DRIVER'S SEAT EMPTY
- FACE STILL SMILING
“Somebody's home in here, God, I hope it's me inside”
A report on dissociation read off the monitor. The lungs keep working, the heart clocks in on time, she laughs at the right part of the film, and the body goes on performing with nobody at the wheel.
Logged in the archive under its working title, "Vital Signs". Its closing beep runs straight into the beep that opens Fine China, so the two files play as one continuous reading.
LYRICS / TRANSCRIPT
Verse 1
Lungs keep doing their job without asking
Heart's still clocking in on time
I watch it run from somewhere past my sternum
Like a jukebox still running on nobody's dime
Nobody taught the reflex
How to stop when I check out
It just keeps making the deliveries
Long after the lights are out
Pre-Chorus
It doesn't need me here
It just keeps going on
Turns out I was never
The one it was coming from
Chorus
Vital signs, vital signs
Still running, left behind
Somebody's home in here
I just don't know who's inside
Everything's running fine
(Idling, idling)
Nobody's in the driver's seat
And the face keeps on smiling
(And the face keeps on smiling)
Verse 2
I laughed at the right part of the movie
On reflex, like a nerve that still fires
I said your name and felt the shape of missing you
Was it still something alive?
It learned the gestures off by heart
And keeps them all by rote
Now it does the whole performance
Without needing a soul to quote
Pre-Chorus
It doesn't need me here
To carry the whole thing home
Whatever's left of me
It's underneath the chrome
Chorus
Vital signs, vital signs
Still running, left behind
Somebody's home in here
I stopped asking who's inside
Everything's running fine
(Idling, idling)
Nobody's in the driver's seat
And the face keeps on smiling
(And the face keeps on smiling)
Break
Anybody home?
(Idling, idling)
Bridge
I don't know when I left, or if I ever did
I might still be in the room, just facing the wall
Either way the lights keep running on schedule
Either way it answers when you call
It answers in my voice, it answers in my name
It gets the details right
And nobody who knows me has noticed anything
They say I sound alright
Chorus
Vital signs, vital signs
Still running, left behind
Somebody's home in here
God, I hope it's me inside
Everything's running fine
(Idling, idling)
Somebody find the driver
Before the fuel runs out
Outro
(Idling, idling)
(Idling, idling)
- ARTIST
- Haylie Ferguson
- EDITION
- the bell jar: victoria lucas
- LABEL
- Maison Oblique Entertainment