Shadow on the Wall

[Intro]
[soft piano, distant string harmonics]
[Verse 1]
Ash in the ashtray
Lipstick on glass
Chair by the doorway
Waiting for the past
Floorboard remembers
Every quiet fall
Turn out the light and
She’s the shadow on the wall
[Chorus]
She’s the shadow on the wall
There when you breathe in
Gone when you call
You can close your eyes
You can face the hall
But you can’t outrun
The shadow on the wall
[Verse 2]
Clock hands are crawling
Staring straight ahead
Cold air is talking
Where she used to tread
Her name in a whisper
Doesn’t sound like yours at all
Say you’re alone but
There’s a shadow on the wall
[Chorus]
She’s the shadow on the wall
There when you breathe in
Gone when you call
You can change the locks
You can scratch the paint down small
Still she’s written in the grain
A shadow on the wall
[Bridge]
Eyes in the mirror (oh)
Don’t quite look back the same
You move and something lingers
One heartbeat out of frame
[Chorus]
She’s the shadow on the wall
There when you breathe in
Gone when you call
You can leave this room
You can watch the darkness crawl
Every doorway, every room
Holds a shadow on the wall
[Outro]
[piano treads downward, cello and violin fade to a thin, trembling note]

jazz, Haunted small-room jazz ensemble; close-mic’d female vocals over moody upright piano, brushed kit, and sighing cello + violin. Start sparse and hushed, piano and bass outlining tense chords; strings creep in with dissonant swells. Choruses bloom slightly louder with tremolo strings and reverb-touched vocal doubles, then retreat to a brittle, intimate whisper by the end. Live feel with audible room tone and breathy phrasing., violin, cello