The Colour of Then
pop/synthpop, bittersweet nostalgic ABBA style, early 80s electronic, female vocal, melancholic, moderate tempo, lush synth pads, subtle arpeggios
The Colour of Then
pop/synthpop, bittersweet nostalgic ABBA style, early 80s electronic, female vocal, melancholic, moderate tempo, lush synth pads, subtle arpeggios
Lyrics
Verse 1
The kitchen light was yellow
And the radio played low
You were standing by the window
Watching somewhere I don't know
I can almost hear you breathing
I can almost see the snow
But the picture keeps on fading
Like it happened long ago
Pre-Chorus
And I don't know why I keep returning
To a room that doesn't exist anymore
Something in me still believes it's burning
Like a light beneath a long-forgotten door
Chorus
The colour of then
Is slipping away
Like watercolour left out in the rain
I close my eyes and reach for you again
But the colour of then
Won't stay
Verse 2
There's a coat still on the hook there
In the hallway of my mind
And the smell of something baking
That I've never left behind
Was it winter, was it summer?
Does it matter now at all?
We were standing on the threshold
Of a spring that turned to fall
Pre-Chorus
And I don't know why I keep returning
To a room that doesn't exist anymore
Something in me still believes it's burning
Like a light beneath a long-forgotten door
Chorus
The colour of then
Is slipping away
Like watercolour left out in the rain
I close my eyes and reach for you again
But the colour of then
Won't stay
Verse 3
There are voices I keep hearing
In the spaces between sleep
All the words we left unspoken
All the promises we keep
And the laughter in the hallway
And the creak upon the stair
I turn around to find you
But there's only empty air
Pre-Chorus
And I don't know why I keep returning
To a room that doesn't exist anymore
Something in me still believes it's burning
Like a light beneath a long-forgotten door
Chorus
The colour of then
Is slipping away
Like watercolour left out in the rain
I close my eyes and reach for you again
But the colour of then
Won't stay
Bridge 1
Memory is not a photograph
It bends, it shifts, it cracks
And everything I thought would last
Is slowly fading to black
And yet I'd trade tomorrow
For one minute back
Bridge 2
Maybe this is how it always ends
Not with loss but with the slow forgetting
Maybe time is kinder than it seems
Washing clean the things not worth regretting
But I still see the yellow light
I still hear the radio
And I'm standing at that window
Watching somewhere I don't know
Final Chorus
The colour of then
Is slipping away
Like watercolour left out in the rain
I close my eyes and reach for you again
The colour of then
The colour of then
Won't stay
Outro - slowly fading, synth arpeggios dissolving
The colour of then
Won't stay
The colour of then
Won't stay
(Fading)
The colour... of then...