Afterimage Club

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• Lyrics
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Classic late 90s Trip Hop sound with a modern sensibilityWhat Unsent Transmissions Actually Is
I made this album alone.
Not in a studio. Not with a band. Just me, a lifetime of things I needed to say, and enough musical obsession to finally say them.
Afterimage Club is a 90s trip hop album - that part is straightforward. The sound is deliberate: slow grooves, female vocals, the kind of music that feels like 2am and knows it. But the songs aren't really about the genre. They're about being a person who survived some things and is still figuring out what that means.
There's a song about lying awake afraid for your child in a country that feels less safe every day. There's a song about celebrating your mother's birthday after she's gone - after a complicated relationship that never got its resolution, taken by a mysterious respiratory illness in March 2020 before the world had a name for what was happening. There's a song about walking into a forest and feeling your spine remember what upright used to mean. There's a song about finally choosing someone, not from need, not from habit, not from the old learned smallness, but because it feels easy and easy doesn't mean cold.
And there's a song about popcorn that is not entirely about popcorn.
This is an album that moves through grief, anger, recovery, fear, desire, and arrival. Let it wash over you.
Some of these songs made me cry while I was finishing them. A few still do.
I put it out quietly, under a name nobody knows, without telling anyone it existed. Which in retrospect is very on-brand for an album about people who spent too long making themselves invisible.
If you find a line that stops you - and I think you will - that's the one that was written for you specifically.
Welcome.Please share with your friends, and play endlessly on repeat in the background so we can defeat the algorithm!

Melt
[Verse 1]
I stand up
Like I mean it
Kick the door
Skin breathing
Clothes hit the floor
No witnesses
Sun finds me
I let it[Pre-Chorus]
Stretch slow
Teeth bared
The sky leans down
Like it cares[Chorus]
Melt
Into the ground
Melt
Spread me out
Melt
No shape
No sound
I’m the pulse
I’m around[Verse 2]
Heat talks first
I don’t argue
Life opens
Like it wants to
Get under me
Over me
Body learning
How to feel[Bridge]
Not dead
Not clean
Just everything
Between
Skin to soil
Heart to stone
I’ve never
Been alone[Chorus]
Melt
Take me down
Melt
Spin this town
Melt
Think me now
I’m the world
I’m the sound[Outro]
Spread me
Deep
Stay

No God in Your Wreckage
[Verse 1]
You call it brilliance
But it sounds like feedback
A mouth full of splinters
And a room that goes cold
You shake the table
Like that makes you holy
But quieter hands
Build better worlds[Pre-Chorus]
They said the fire was rare
So we fed it everything
Never noticing that the fire
Consumed everything in the room[Chorus]
There’s no god in your wreckage
No crown in your smoke
I don’t need the genius
Who lands bruises as a joke
You’re not the sun
Just a match in a storm
There’s another voice rising
That leaves my greenery unscorched[Verse 2]
We framed your anger
Called it depth
Hung your ghosts
Like a gallery of threats
Funny how silence
Never got a turn
Funny how kindness
Doesn’t have to burn[Bridge, dreamy, half-whispered]
Somewhere someone’s humming
Inventing whole skies
While you posture in mirrors
Practicing alibis
Greatness doesn’t need
A body count
It learns how to listen
And still hits hard[Final Chorus, instrumentation pulled back]
There’s no vacancy sign
On human brilliance
The altar was fake
The myth was convenience
Let the statues fall soft
I don’t need the noise
I’ll wait for the genius
Who chose to be kind

Cold
[Verse]
Leaves scrape the pavement like forgotten notes
The wind whispers secrets that my shadow wrote
The trees wear skeletons
Bare to the bone
It’s colder outside
But colder alone[Chorus]
Cold
It’s sinking in my skin
Cold
The dark where I begin
I’m falling
I’m fading
I’m frozen thin
Cold
Outside and within[Verse 2]
Streetlights flicker like a dying spark
Breath turns to smoke
A ghost in the dark
The sky swallows colors
A raven’s feast
This season’s a thief
And I’m its release[Prechorus]
Every heartbeat slows
Every whisper grows
The frost in my veins
The night only knows[Chorus]
Cold
It’s sinking in my skin
Cold
The dark where I begin
I’m falling
I’m fading
I’m frozen thin
Cold
Outside and within[Bridge]
Icicles hang where my tears used to be
A mirror of frost reflects what’s left of me
I reach for the sun
But it slips through my grip
This chill’s not the air—it’s the cracks in my script

Uplifted by Flight
[Verse]
Grey clouds hung low like whispers of doubt
I walked through shadows where the sun burned out
A feather fell
Spinning down
Spinning free
It whispered softly
"There's more to see"[Prechorus]
And I stood still in the aching light
The sky broke open
Something took flight[Chorus]
Lifted by wings
My heart took air
The weight fell away
I found it there
A bird in the blue
Dancing in sight
I was uplifted by flight[Verse 2]
Cracked pavement sang under my tired feet
The world felt hollow
A rhythm offbeat
But the bird soared high
A brushstroke of gold
Painting dreams on a canvas so cold[Prechorus]
And I reached out to that endless sky
Found the pieces I thought had died[Chorus]
Lifted by wings
My heart took air
The weight fell away
I found it there
A bird in the blue
Dancing in sight
I was uplifted by flight

Candles Anyway
[Verse 1]
Bought a cake I didn't want
Drew a circle on the day
The house learned how to wait
When you went away
I set the table for a ghost
Didn’t need a chair
Every room knows how to look
Like you’re almost there[Chorus]
I lit the candles anyway
I lit the candles anyway
Watched the smoke go up
Like it knew your name
I lit the candles anyway
I lit the candles anyway
Made a wish I couldn’t say
Let it burn, let it stay[Verse 2]
Wrapped the silence up in foil
Cut it neat and slow
Sang the part you always got wrong
Let the bad notes flow
The years add nothing to your total
Still I remember you
Time keeps counting
Me too[Chorus]
I lit the candles anyway…[Bridge]
Smoke keeps choosing the ceiling
Like it’s learned the route
The clock skips breathing
Right on cue
If you’re older than the flame
Or frozen where you lie
Tell me why today
Still tries[Breakdown, whispered]
No confetti
No parade
Just a date
That won’t behave[Final Chorus]
I lit the candles anyway
Let them fight the air
If this counts as celebrating
You were there
I lit the candles anyway
Watched them end in blue
Happy birthday
I’m still
Looking for you[Outro]
Smoke goes up
I stay down
Same date
Still around

Awake in the Dark
[Verse 1]
The ceiling learned my outline
Before I shut the door
The night keeps its paperwork
Spread out on the floor
Streetlight flickers
Like it’s tired of pretending
Nothing’s wrong
With the way it’s bending
[Chorus]
Awake in the dark
Teeth set
Chest tight
Awake in the dark
Counting
Who sleeps well
Tonight
[Verse 2]
The house is quiet
In the approved way
Everything standing
Where it’s told to stay
I try lying still
Like that’s neutral ground
But the walls have opinions
Once the noise dies down
[Chorus]
Awake in the dark
No dream
No grace
Awake in the dark
Feeling
The weight
The disgrace
[Bridge]
Something’s heavy
And it isn’t me
Something’s destroying
Our security
Lies fall from their faces
They break all their vows
Our doors are unguarded
They're breaking them down now.
[Instrumental Break, chaotic, genre-breaking]
[Breakdown]
They say rest is natural
Like it’s still allowed
Like nothing’s pacing
Once the eye’s shut down
[Chorus]
Awake in the dark
Hands clean
Eyes open
Awake in the dark
Nobody’s safe
When the whole world
Is broken
[Outro]
Awake
Awake
In the dark

Choices
Verse
I don’t drift
I don’t wait
I don’t lean on almostI step in
With both feet
Nothing missing
Nothing posedChorus
I choose you
Awake, not borrowed
I choose you
With my hands openI choose you
Like I finally want it
Not for tomorrow
For this momentVerse 2
I’ve worn love
Like borrowed clothes
Smiled where I should’ve said noWith you
I feel heat
No audition
No reliefChorus
I choose you
Not to be needed
I choose you
Not to be wholeI choose you
Because this feels easy
And easy
Doesn’t mean coldBreakdown
Come closer
I’m not confused
I want you
And that’s newFinal Chorus
I choose you
Right here
Skin warm
Time cleanI choose you
Like touching something
That knows
Where it’s beenOutro
I choose
You now
I choose
You now

Dispute
[Verse]
The clock’s a pendulum slicing air
Each swing whispers stay or dare
A house of cards in a hurricane
Do I rebuild or let it wane[Prechorus]
The walls hum with all we said
Your shadow lingers in my bed[Chorus]
Do I stay
Do I go
I don’t know
This love’s a tether
A heavy stone
Do I fight
Do I flee
Or let it be
A war within
It’s consuming me[Verse 2]
Your voice is thunder
A distant storm
It chills my skin
It keeps me warm
Your eyes are oceans pulling me down
I’m drowning slow but I’ll never frown[Prechorus]
The mirrors crack but still reflect
A thousand dreams I can’t forget[Chorus]
Do I stay
Do I go
I don’t know
This love’s a tether
A heavy stone
Do I fight
Do I flee
Or let it be
A war within
It’s consuming me

Pocket Light
(Verse 1)The trail forgot my married name
Ferns brushed it off my coat
The trees didn’t ask me questions
They opened like a throatI walked until my spine remembered
What upright used to mean
Every step shook something loose
He tightened into me(Pre-Chorus)Moss kept quiet
I kept going
Found the mile
Where loss stops showing(Chorus)Something warm kept pace with me
Where the shade thinned out
Soft glow
Low doubtI carried it without hands
Felt the weight shift place
Didn’t know I was rewinding
Until I felt my face(Verse 2)My breath got quick again
Like it had somewhere to be
My hands forgot the patience
Learned from apologyYears slid back like rings of water
Broken by a stone
I wasn’t gaining anything
I’d never been alone(Chorus)Something warm kept pace with me
Where the shade thinned out
Soft glow
Low doubtI carried it without hands
Felt the weight shift place
Didn’t know I was rewinding
Until I felt my face(Bridge)Time bent softly through the leaves
Like it recognized my sound
The ground kept giving signals
I was clearing, not being foundI passed a younger echo
In a pool that knew my face
She didn’t speak or warn me
She stepped aside
Made space(Breakdown)If you’re counting what I lost
Mark it down as air
Some lights just dim themselves
When someone’s standing there(Final Chorus)
Something warm kept pace with me
Where the shade thinned out
Soft glow
Low doubtI carried it without hands
Felt the weight shift place
Didn’t know I was rewinding
Until I felt my face(Breakdown)
That warmth grew divisible
Started teaching me
I felt the world remember
How much I could beIf I shine now
Don’t look twice
I didn’t change
I resumed
My life(Outro)The forest let me keep it
Whatever passed through me
I left with everything intact
And nothing
Following

Popcorn
[Verse]
Heat rises slow like a whispered dare
Little sparks dancing in the air
A crack a sigh a tender shatter
I don’t know why but it starts to matter[Prechorus]
Caught in the spin
Breaking within[Chorus]
You’re the sound I can’t ignore
The soft explosion at my core
Sweet then gone a fleeting high
You bloom you break you multiply[Verse 2]
Golden moments jump out of the dark
The quiet chaos leaves its mark
Your rhythm’s wild it pulls me near
A burst of joy a taste of fear[Prechorus]
Caught in the spin
Breaking within[Chorus]
You’re the sound I can’t ignore
The soft explosion at my core
Sweet then gone a fleeting high
You bloom you break you multiply