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