Unfinished

Every arena I play has one song it wants that I never give it. They chant the title like it's a lost track — some holy grail from my covers-kid days that leaked once and vanished. It never leaked. It exists exactly once: recorded at two in the morning on her kitchen floor, her cross-legged on the linoleum in my hoodie, my phone propped on the sugar jar. She laughed at the bridge and said keep that part, so I kept the whole thing. She's the only person alive who knows how the second verse ends. Finishing it means releasing it, and releasing it means forty million strangers two-stepping on her linoleum. So every night I give them the show and keep the secret — and if you were at the show and you screamed along to a chant you thought was for you, it was. It just wasn't only for you.

Lyrics

[Intro]

They can scream the title all night
But it ain't a title, it's a time
Two a.m., your floor, my voice
This one's yours

[Verse 1]

Phone propped up on the sugar jar
You cross-legged, cold tile, my hoodie to your knees
I sang it once, you laughed at the bridge
Said keep that part, so I kept the whole thing
Forty thousand people out there tonight
Singing a song they never heard
They chant for it like it's lost
It's not lost, it's kept

[Pre-Chorus]

Every night I give them everything
Every night except this
Let them call the vault cruel
They don't know what cruel is

[Chorus]

This one's yours, this one's yours
Let the whole arena beg
This one's yours, this one's yours
They get the show, you get the secret
This one's yours, this one's yours
Every word I never gave
This one's yours

[Verse 2]

Meet-and-greet line, hundred hands out
Your thumb pressed my wrist, said don't
So I don't, and I won't, and I'm calm about it
Let the leak-hunters dig their holes
Forty million streams would sound real nice
Till your kitchen turns into content
Till strangers two-step on your linoleum

[Pre-Chorus]

Every night I give them everything
Every night except this
Let them call the vault cruel
They don't know what cruel is

[Chorus]

This one's yours, this one's yours
Let the whole arena beg
This one's yours, this one's yours
They get the show, you get the secret
This one's yours, this one's yours
Every word I never gave
This one's yours

[Bridge]

Phone-lights sway, they're screaming the name
Of a song that doesn't exist
And you're the only one alive
Who knows how the second verse ends
I could finish it tonight, baby
One more take and it's theirs forever
So I leave it open, I leave it ours
Unfinished — that's the vow
Unfinished — say it now

[Final Chorus]

This one's yours, this one's yours
Let the whole arena beg
This one's yours, this one's yours
They get the show, you get the secret
This one's yours, this one's yours
Every word I never gave
Hear it right when they scream it wrong
This one's yours

[Outro]

Two a.m., your floor, my voice
Still on that phone, still just us
They can scream the title all night
This one's yours

Production Note

Lane: 🌙 R&B Confession (Tuesday rotation), 76 BPM. Slow-burn contemporary R&B — halftime finger snaps and soft stomps carry the groove, warm upright piano as the harmonic engine, string quartet swells answering each vocal phrase. The vocal signature is the whole concept: verses whispered in low half-voice, every chorus sung restrained like a secret — the arrangement keeps almost-finishing and pulling back, one held-back almost-ending where everything drops to bare snaps and voice — and only the final chorus opens into a single full-voice belt. The song refuses to end properly right up until the last eight bars. That's the point.

Credits

Written by Alex. AI-assisted production. NXagents.