Luster lyrics
All songs written, performed, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Greg Goldman at Cedar Studios, St. Louis, Missouri.
Cover photo by Jenny Sarrat.
Special thanks to Teddy, Sammy, Ben, John, Brandi, Michelle, and Rachael.
ⓒ 2024 Greg Goldman
Right Mind
I blew my chance
To approach you in the right way
Thought you knew my stance
But when I told you you were blown away
My hat tips off to you
'Cause you were holding the right lines
You stayed my hand
'Cause I was out of my right mind
I don't know where you stand
Maybe just waiting
I can't picture where you are
But I want you to know
That I found a new home
Now's not the time
Maybe never, maybe down the line
I'd hoped you'd call
Just to tell me that it was all fine
I don't know where I stand
Maybe just waiting
I don't picture where you are
Because I don't want to know
If you found a new home
I don’t know where you stand
Maybe just waiting
I don’t picture where you are
Because I don’t want to know
If you’ve found a new home
Maybe just waiting
Maybe just waiting
Maybe just waiting
(Love is home)
Real
I feel it all today
Strong as when it started
But there's nothing I can say
About the course that you have charted
Because you won't let me speak about
The thing I'm dreaming of
I know you're not the cause
But I wanted to believe
That you would come along
At least so we could see
Hold your horses
Speak to the heart
Feel the warmth I'm giving off
Cause I just wanna hold
Space for what we've got
Don't you want to know before you choose
What's this thing you're so prepared to lose
Because you were there
Until the moment that I was real
And what we've tried to do
Feels like smoke and mirrors
But what am I to do
When you won't let me nearer
To feel the force of your very gaze
Heals the wound even as it flays
But you don't wanna hold
Space for what we've grown
Don't you want to know before you choose
What's this thing you're so prepared to lose
Don't you wanna know
Don't you wanna know
Because you were there
Right up to the moment that I was real
Don't you want to know before you choose
What's this thing you're so prepared to lose
Don't you wanna know
Ah, don't you wanna know
Don't you want to know before you choose
Because you were there
Until the moment that I was real
Oh, I was real
The Thing I Wanted
I just can't believe my incredible fortune
It's like I was dealt a winning hand
Ooh, and I was scared I would never
Find someone like you
Turns out we barely had to look at all
Might be hard to believe
I'm not just being impulsive
Some impulses are there to guide your hand
Oh, I will admit that I had my
Doubts when it was new
Turns out I didn't need to fear at all
Ooh, this is the basis of the
Thing that I wanted
This is the beginning of the
Thing that I wanted
When I make a mistake
You know that it wrecks me
I can't stand the thought of causing you pain
I could never live with myself
If I brought about our end
Any fool can see I have it all
Here I got a chance to have the
Thing that I wanted
We are in the best part of the
Thing that I wanted
And I will follow this path
For as long as it goes
And I will follow this road
For as long as it takes me
And I will follow this path
For as long as it goes
The thing that I wanted
I found the thing that I wanted
I found the thing that I wanted
Baseline
It's been years
It's been decades
And I've tried to put it
Any number of ways
All those tears
They just fall away
And you're back to being surprised
I would walk away
There is no cure
Though we had a solid run
And I know one thing for sure
I can't live the way I've done
Another day
I'm not going back the other way
I'm not going back to baseline
I'm not going back the other way ever again
Every move
Every decision
Has only reinforced the choice
That I already made
You can call me rude
Say I'm narcissistic
But you're not helping your own case
That you want me to stay
You say you want peace
While you perform these acts of war
Tell me how to feel
But I'm not yours anymore
To have a say
And I'm not going back the other way
I'm not going back to baseline
I'm not going back the other way
I'm not going back to baseline ever again
There are days
When you seem to have control
Well but then I blink my eyes
And I'm back to doing damage control
Well, I know it's hard
But could you start digging out of that hole
And find your way
I'm not going back the other way
I'm not going back to baseline
I'm not going back the other way
I'm not going back to baseline ever again
I'm not going back to baseline ever again
Word for Gospel
You've seen enough
Close to all
There's always another perspective
Through cracks to fall
You might say this path may lead us to rejoin
It's possible, but I don't see it
Oh, and all of the years
It took to warm
Wash away with the tears
Are any for my sake?
Yes, I know I'm the nemesis of this story
I tried to go
Before I drowned
She always convinced me to come back
So I burned it down
After all of this time, you know my heart
I'm not trying to incite a revolution
But it doesn't seem right
To cut me all the way off
No, don't, don't write me off completely
No, don't, don't take her word for gospel
Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater
No, you know I'm three-dimensional
After all this time
We've come to love
Watch the other one shine
With genuine pleasure
To be cut from your lives
Has been the hardest part
No, don't, don't write me off completely
No, don't, don't take her word for gospel
Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater
No, you know I'm three-dimensional
Bona Fide
Well I need love
And I don't wanna go
So long without you
Though I hear those
Who have told me when
I have talked about you
"Don't avoid being lonely
Don't get involved if it's only
Reclamation"
I feel hope
And there's one other word
I wanna tell you
But it's too close
To the place I had gone
Before I met you
Don't be surprised if I can't hold it
I look in your eyes and I know it
I'm subjugated
Bona fide
Is it bona fide, what I'm feeling?
Bona fide
Is it bona fide, what I'm feeling?
Where can we go to receive it
(Confirmation)
What do we know that we can seize it
(Verification)
Don't let me go down a treacherous road
If there's a probable fall on the horizon
On the whole
I am impressed with all
I know about you
And I feel cold
When I picture my world
Going on without you
Don't be alarmed I don't go slowly
When I'm in your arms, feel I'm wholly
Intoxicated
Bona fide
Is it bona fide, what I'm feeling?
Bona fide
Is it bona fide, what I'm feeling?
It's not too hard to justify it
(Gratification)
It seems absurd to deny it
(This delectation)
I wanna go down this treacherous road
If there is someone like you
Right there beside me
All the way
Bona fide
Is it bona fide, what I'm feeling?
Bona fide
Is it bona fide, what I'm feeling?
Love Suicide
Well, I show my face to you
But you can't see through your walls of pain
The life I made with you
I nearly thought we could sustain
But when you've seen through the veil
You really think you'd turn away?
We were destined to fail
Or is that just what I would say?
But did you feel the love
Gave off heat enough to warm our hands?
Did you see us
Making peace and not just more demands?
And did you take
Nothing for granted?
I owe some things to you
You're there behind much of my change
When I swore my life to you
I think I thought you'd done the same
But if it pleases the court
I introduce exhibit A
I was bleeding and bruised
And still you turned the other way
So did you feel the love
Could sustain us both for all our days?
Did you heal up
Enough to see beyond your own malaise?
Well, you knew your side
Was love suicide
Yet you let it ride
And now you dare to cry
It was all me
Well, did you feel the love
Gave off heat enough to warm our hands?
Did you see us
Making peace and not just more demands?
Well, you knew your side
Was love suicide
And you let it ride
Well, how dare you cry
It was all me?
Moment of Impact
Driving alone
With tears streaming down
I cried out to no one, what do I do?
I thought I was wrong
I feared I was right
I shook at the thought of seeing it through
By the time I had gotten back home
Crawling right out of my skin
Trying to act like nothing was wrong
Barely holding it in
All those eyes boring into my soul
Before the moment of impact
You asked what was wrong
And I knew it was time
Recited the lines I'd come up with before
Forcing myself
To look in your eyes
Conscious of everything you have endured
By the time I'd finished my part
You knew that this time it was real
Once and for all I had broken your heart
I'm not sure it ever will heal
Imagine my shock when you were so kind
At the moment of impact
As all our lives were falling apart
And you desperately looked for a choice
I fixed my eyes on where would I start
While your anger was finding a voice
There was no pulling us back from the edge
From the moment of impact
The moment of impact
Mutually Assured Destruction
She said she remembers feeling lonely
Even when her man was around
I told her, yeah, I know that feeling
That's where it started
I know that now
She said sometimes when in the mood
She thinks of people that she knows
The look she shot me told me everything
And after that I kind of froze
We're on a path to our destruction
We barely paused to check the way
All it would take is just some
Simple deduction
We're trying to make it one more day
Yes, and the farther we go
The harder we'll fall
She's got the keys
To spring me from my cage
I asked permission to speak freely
I said it isn't just a crush
We called it mutually assured destruction
The things she said would make a
Grown man blush
She said she needed to explore it
She said she felt it way deep down
And when I raised the possibility
Suddenly she couldn't hang around
We were on a path toward destruction
We never paused to check the way
All it took was just some
Simple deduction
We couldn't make it one more day
And the farther we go
The harder I fall
She had the keys
To spring me from my cage
Yeah
In the Grey
She goes with what she knows
She doesn't need to grow no more
She wanna lay down
And on the other side
He always has something to hide
He need to stay out
Ooh, when you drill down below
What is the sense that will grow
From these days
Because I hope that you know
That the longer you go
The more that you live in the grey
I need you to know
The longer you go
The more you must live in the grey
He sees it all quite clear
He knows he can't just
Trust what he hears
He gonna phase out
And when the other cries
He feels it like it's infinite size
Can't get the pain out
Oh, and when they build their lives
Just where are the places
All of this will hide
Can't really say now
Ooh, when you drill down below
What is the sense that will grow
From these days
Because I hope that you know
That the longer you go
The more that you live in the grey
I need you to know
The longer you go
The more you must live in the grey
I hope that you know
That the longer you go
The more that you live in the grey
I need you to know
The longer you go
The more you must live in the grey
Common Denominator
I've stepped onto the wrong side
Of a line I cannot see
And now we're in a landslide
And all because of me
I don't know what to do
I'm crawling back
I'm crawling back to you
You promised me it's over
But I still cannot breathe
Something in me is broken
A loss I cannot grieve
I don't know what to do
I'm crawling back to you
All I ever wanted
Was a feeling
Connected feeling
All I've ever wanted
Was a feeling
Connected feeling
Make it so
I notice there's a theme here
The denominator's me
This cannot be coincidence
I fall down to my knees
I don't know what to do
I'm crawling back to you
All I ever wanted
Was a feeling
Connected feeling
All I've ever wanted
Was a feeling
Connected feeling
Make it so
All Things You
Did you know you saved me
When you loved me back
I'd been trying so long
To feel the pull
Before what I was on
Was such a lonely track
Now my heart is so
Thankful to be full
With this song
I'm asking you, my love,
If I can stay by your side
No access denied
As long as you remain who you are
Watching you get ready
At the bathroom sink
I am charmed by each
Tiny little move
How is it that all you do's
Exist near me
Yet I'm enraptured
By all things you
And this song
I give to you, my love
Just stay by my side
I have nothing to hide
And promise not to change who you are
Here's a song
I wrote for you, my love
And though I know I've made it clear
I can't say enough, my dear,
I'm just honored to be near who you are
I'm honored to be near who you are