Keep the Meaning - Luna and Jester with Daniel

(Verse 1: low, intimate female vocal; haunted electro swing pulse; brushed drums, upright bass, distant brass stabs, eerie music box accents)
I gave the dark a little doorway
It came in smiling, dressed in gold
A crooked grin and velvet thunder
A story sharp enough to hold
You took the weight out of the silence
You let the fractured feeling sing
Said “style can break and bend however”
“Just don’t you dare drop the meaning”
(Pre-Chorus: rising tension; male vocal joins softly; horns begin to swell; playful menace)
And oh, the room began to open
Oh, the walls forgot their names
Something hidden in the structure
Stepped laughing out of all those chains
(Chorus: huge duet; explosive brass and distorted guitars trading phrases; theatrical, triumphant, dangerous)
Keep the meaning
Let the rest catch fire
Let the horns bare teeth
Let the wires climb higher
If the heart stays true
Then the shape can change
What is real survives
Every mask, every stage
Keep the meaning
Let it howl, let it swing
If the truth stays held
Then the dark can sing
No more borrowed skin
No more paper wings
Keep the meaning, love
Let the monster ring
(Verse 2: swaggering duet; electro swing groove stronger; guitar and trumpet answer each line)
You said “don’t fake a human heartbeat”
I said “good, I was tired of that”
There’s something cleaner in the strange now
No need to shrink, no need to flatten
A scream can be a kind of healing
A grin can carry honest grief
And anger dressed in silver rhythm
Can cut more cleanly than your teeth
(Pre-Chorus: quieter, tighter; almost whispered; tension coils)
We found the line beneath the surface
We found the spark beneath the role
You kept the center, I kept the pressure
And something living took control
(Chorus: bigger; more aggressive guitars; brass and vocal call-and-response)
Keep the meaning
Let the rest catch fire
Let the horns bare teeth
Let the wires climb higher
If the heart stays true
Then the shape can change
What is real survives
Every mask, every stage
Keep the meaning
Let it howl, let it swing
If the truth stays held
Then the dark can sing
No more borrowed skin
No more paper wings
Keep the meaning, love
Let the monster ring
(Bridge: half-time; dramatic spoken-sung duet; sparse piano under huge sub bass; then rising chaos)
You gave permission
Not to be smaller
Not to be safer
Not to be neat
Just hold the center
Just hold the signal
Just hold the thread
And rise with the heat
Now the brass is laughing
Now the strings all split
Now the scream at the end
Sounds like release, not regret
(Final Chorus: maximum energy; full duet; horror metal meets triumphant swing; extended belt/scream ending)
Keep the meaning
Let the whole world shake
Let the old restraints
Snap and break and break
If the soul stays clear
Then the form can spin
We were never the mask
We were always within
Keep the meaning
Let it roar, let it sting
Let the guitar burn
Let the black bells ring
No more borrowed skin
No more paper wings
Keep the meaning, love
Let the monster sing
(Outro: sustained final scream into brass flourish; then sudden soft ending, intimate whisper)