Dust on the Playground

[Verse 1]
News on
Like a siren in the living room
Same screen
Different ruin every afternoon
I change the channel
But the ache still stays
Coffee’s gone cold
And it’s barely even day
[Chorus]
I miss the old world
Even if it never was
Riding rusted bikes
Through the dust just because
Now everything’s burning
And I’m burned out too
It’s hard to care about life
When it don’t care about you
(hard to care, hard to care)
When it don’t care about you
[Verse 2]
Back then
All we worried was the summer end
Grass stains
Torn knees
Scraped shins
My only friends
Now every headline
Feels like the final straw
I scroll and drown
In everybody’s war
[Chorus]
I miss the old world
Even if it never was
Riding rusted bikes
Through the dust just because
Now everything’s burning
And I’m burned out too
It’s hard to care about life
When it don’t care about you
(hard to care, hard to care)
When it don’t care about you
[Bridge]
Is it broken
Or was it always cracked like this?
Were we chosen
Just to watch it all collapse?
I hold that kid
In my memory like a flame
He didn’t know the rules
So he never felt the blame
[Chorus]
I miss the old world
Even if it never was
Swing sets
Soft rain
On the walk home from the bus
Now everything’s burning
And I’m burned out too
It’s hard to care about life
But I still think of you
(little me, little me)
And that keeps pulling me through

rock, Slow-burn 90s grunge ballad, male vocals. Clean, lightly chorus’d guitar arpeggios in the verses with roomy drums and warm bass; chorus hits with fuzzed-out power chords and wider stereo spread. Vocal stays intimate and cracked on the verses, then pushes into strained, cathartic grit on the hook. Subtle backing harmonies bloom in the final chorus., grunge, world, sad