‘Cause you can’t jump the track, we’re like cars on a cable/
And life’s like an hourglass, glued to the table…

One-hit wonders get a bad name but think of all the bands that never even have one hit. We haven’t heard much from Anna Nalick since “Breathe (2am)”, but what a breath-taking release this first single of hers was. The song sounds like it could belong in both the rock world or the country world. That is extremely rare.

Nalick tells the story of a woman who is struggling to cope with the alcoholism of her man. She feels embarrassment as she has to help him home, stumbling out of the bar late at night, but she rejects the pious pity from the onlookers who are simply in a lesser state of drunkenness.

The best part of “Breathe” is her comments about fatalism. She knows that her and her man are on a path that does not lead to anything good; rarely to people turn around once they fall into the pit of alcoholism. They simply fall deeper and deeper; like an hourglass glued to a table.

Her only respite is to tell herself (and her man) to just breathe and try to get through today. This is of a bleak existence, but one that many that struggle with substance can relate to. And she can’t give up. Because her lover IS so beautiful when he smiles. And he is hers.

Breath 2am Lyrics

Two AM and she calls me ’cause I’m still awake,
Can you help me unravel my latest mistake?
I don’t love him, winter just wasn’t my season.
Yeah we walk through the doors, so accusing their eyes.
Like they have any right at all to criticize, hypocrites;
You’re all here for the very same reason.

‘Cause you can’t jump the track, we’re like cars on a cable,
And life’s like an hourglass, glued to the table.
No one can find the rewind button girl,
So cradle your head in you hands.
And breathe, just breathe,
Whoa breathe, just breathe.

May he turn twenty one on the base at Fort Bliss,
Just today he sat down to the flask in his fist.
Ain’t been sober, since maybe October of last year.
Here in town you can tell he’s been down for a while,
But my God it’s so beautiful when the boy smiles.
Wanna hold him, maybe I’ll just sing about it.

‘Cause you can’t jump the track, we’re like cars on a cable,
And life’s like an hourglass, glued to the table.
No one can find the rewind button boys,
So cradle your head in your hands.
And breathe, just breathe,
Whoa breathe, just breathe.

“There’s a light at each end of this tunnel”, you shout.
But you’re just as far in as you’ll ever be out.
These mistakes you’ve made, you’ll just make them again,
If you only try turning around.

Two AM and I’m still awake, writing a song,
If I get it all down on paper, its no longer
Inside of me, threatening the life it belongs to.
And I feel like I’m naked in front of the crowd.
‘Cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud.
And I know that you’ll use them, however you want to.

‘Cause you can’t jump the track, we’re like cars on a cable,
And life’s like an hourglass, glued to the table.
No one can find the rewind button now,
Sing it if you understand.
And breathe, just breathe,
Whoa breathe, just breathe.

written by Anna Nalick