With a massive thanks to Metal Caver (@metalcaver_rav) for his advice and sprinkling the prog magic over the track to get the goosebumps going!

I'm really proud of this one.

Enjoy, friends!

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The manuscript is waiting on the desk

The ink is wet and accusing him

He systematically changes every "He" into a "She" inside the scrawl

A necessary, profitable task. However confusing,

To keep the poster hanging on the bedroom wall

He strikes the specific name of the lover he held close last night

And writes a generic girl so the radio won't start a fight

He knows the audience would turn away

If they only knew who he held when the lights go down

So he wears the heavy, hollow crown

And acts the role the contract makes him play

He smiles for the camera, a picture of success

While burying the truth in a wedding dress

It's not a lie, exactly - it's a translation

A heteronormative creation

Filtering the love until it fits the mould

Cut the feed and kill the screen

Don't trust the eyes, they intervene

Is the message pure? Is the message true?

It doesn't matter who is singing to you

Let the human in

Let the human in

We are more than the skin

She is a marvel of the rendering queue

A beauty born of mathematics and code

A perfect throat to push the anthem through

While he carries the heavy, secret load

He wipes the grease from his chin and takes a sip of tea

Synching his rough voice to her digital plea

He sits in a basement in Leeds

Surrounded by takeaway boxes and dust

Pouring the delicate parts of his spirit into copper and trust

Feeding the hunger of their vast desires

With a face that is fake, but a feeling that never expires

The avatar dances with a flexible youth he never knew

Living the life that he can only view

They scream her name, they worship the projection

A technological deflection

He is the ghost haunting his own machine

Cut the feed and kill the screen

Don't trust the eyes, they intervene

Is the message pure? Is the message true?

It doesn't matter who is singing to you

Let the spirit in

Let the spirit in

We are more than the skin

The tour dates scroll across the glowing glass

London, Tokyo and Rome

She watches the pedestrians walk past

From the fortress of her home

The lyrics speak of running, of wind inside the hair

Written in a room without a breath of air

To her eyes, the hallway stretches out like a canyon

Impossibly steep and wide

And she knows her legs will refuse the impossible journey to the door

So she sends her voice across the rising tide

To places she can't visit anymore

The wheels are locked tight, the brake is always on

But in the headphones, she is already gone

A prisoner of nerve, a captive of the bone

Travelling the earth while standing stone-alone

Touching a million hands she'll never hold

Cut the feed and kill the screen

Don't trust the eyes, they intervene

Is the message pure? Is the message true?

It doesn't matter who is singing to you

Let the feeling in

Let the feeling in

We are more than the skin

The doctor put a date upon the end

There is no time to borrow or to lend

The chemo takes the hair, the strength, the breath

A slow negotiation starts with death

He's frantic now, he needs to get the vocal down

Before the silence comes to take the town

He hits record to catch the final take

Not for the money, or the fame, or the sake - of legacy

Just to prove that he was here

Before the frequency turns into fear

He leaves a melody for a child he won't see grow

The only piece of him that she will ever know

The hard drive spins, preserving every word

The bravest thing that you have ever heard

A dying man projecting so much life

Cut the feed and kill the screen!

Don't trust the eyes, they intervene!

Is the message pure? Is the message true?

It doesn't matter who is singing to you

Let the human in!

Let the spirit in!

Let the music...

... begin.