Royal Ruckus > Summer of the Cicadas > Track 14
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Intro
Mike left spaces in this song. I filled some of them with a fairly bad offer: I could be anything she wanted, as long as it wasn’t me.
“Making Nice” was the oldest song on the album. Mike had written and recorded it himself. I don’t know whether he originally meant it for Royal Ruckus, but it found a place near the end of Jimmy and Sally’s story.
The two of them are still trying to patch things up. My verse promises I’m better than before. Mike keeps returning to something that never settled itself. We’ve arrived at the last attempt to make the relationship hold together.
Videos
Behind the Cicada Ruckus (commentary)
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Lyrics
Flatline:
Why do you want me?
Why do you want me to be?
It’s better when we just sit back and see
You want me
Why do you want me to be?
It’s better when we just sit back and see
Chunjay:
I can be what you want me to be
Anything but me, if you want me to see
I’ll try to see what is wrong with me
Making nice, making marks, making mends, believe
Got off track, taking things back
I’ll color in the lines and I’ll bend the hacks
Fill in, refine what we lack lack lack
But we never settled out our reflection cracks
Flatline:
So set off we’re making mends with the ends
I’m better and so are most of our friends
I’m better and so are most of our friends
I keep running back and talking back to a thing that never settled itself
Chunjay:
I swear to you I’m better than before
I fear you think we’ve already settled the score
But there’s more to this mess than the stress and the chore
Can’t ignore this test, I know what a pyre is for
Running back, burning back, it all falls off
Choking down reality ’til the chains fall off
Broken old me trying not to call it off
Token old me longs for all that wasn’t off
Flatline:
Why do you want me?
Why do you want me to be?
It’s better when we just sit back and see
You want me
Why do you want me to be?
It’s better when we just sit back and see
I keep running back and talking back to a thing that never settled itself
Chunjay:
Doesn’t matter how many times we go back to the beginning
Doesn’t matter how much we repeat another inning
Clocks tick time, time is never ending
Seasons cycle in our mind, a garden needs tending
Our friends are better now it’s written on their faces
Pain and joy and frowns turn into frontal spaces
Mends with the ends within my frantic paces
Minds burn and bend, setting off to new places
Flatline:
So set off we’re making mends with the ends
I’m better and so are most of our friends
I’m better and so are most of our friends
I keep running back and talking back to a thing that never settled itself
Credits
Music: Flatline
Lyrics and Vocals: Chunjay and Flatline
Narrator: Heath McClure
Album-wide credits
Additional Credits
Production: Flatline, Chunjay
Mixing, Engineering, Co-Production, Mastering, Additional Scratches, Everything but the Kitchen Sink: DJ Sean P at TWLVS in Fort Worth, Texas
Vocal Production/Consultation: Krum
Pre-Mixing: Flatline, Chunjay, Krum, Shedlyn/Chris Felix, Annex, Grizzly Beatz, David Mathewes
Background Vocals: Flatline, DJ Sean P, Chunjay, and Friends
Executive Producer: Chunjay
Lyrics and music copyright 2017 Neopolis Media in partnership with Invisible Library Records. All rights reserved. M. Walker & J. Bennett Artist rights (BMI).
Guest/co-writer FYI: Act I shared credit: Music — Flatline; Lyrics and Vocals — Chunjay and Flatline; Narrator — Heath McClure. These source credits are attribution information, not a lyric-scope blocker; they do not specify legal ownership shares.
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