The Hours by Paola Bennet
THE HOURS is a song born of this current moment of isolation for so many of us, me included. But it also reaches back to other times I’ve been isolated at home: during depressive episodes, and a long miserable stretch of unemployment. I wanted to show both the up and down sides of being home so much: maybe doing things you wanted to, maybe slipping down a hole of obliterated weekdays and numbed emotions. Levity and difficulty can, and often do, coexist.
In the spirit of actionable help, I will be donating 50% of proceeds from this song to the YWCA’s COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund. The YWCA provides shelter, childcare, and domestic violence programs for vulnerable women and children, who are even more at risk during the pandemic: https://www.ywca.org/covid-fund/
Tracklist
| 1. | The Hours | 3:42 |
Lyrics
Heavy and grey
I can’t possibly write one more song about rain
Ten day old sheets
Why bother to leave them when there’s no one waiting?
Woke up at five
Let my candles burn past the suggested time
I don’t think I’d mind
Maybe something aflame would make me feel alive
I don’t know
Where the hours go
I don’t know
What swallowed me
Like a coin in a gumball machine
Sometimes people call
And I talk pretty loud ‘cause I feel pretty small
So they don’t catch the fear
Rattling, hung round my neck
It’s my own goddamn fault
Crave a sound besides me breathing
No, I don’t count the sirens screaming
I want out
I don’t know
Where the hours go
I don’t know
What swallowed me
I don’t know
Where the hours go
I don’t know…
(Chorus x2)
Like a rowboat at sea
Credits
License
All rights reserved.
Born in Boston and based in New York, Paola Bennet is a singer-songwriter balancing at the intersection of rock, pop, and folk. Her work hinges on gut-punch lyricism, with subjects ranging from chronic pain to long-distance friendships and queer desire. Her releases include two original EPs, Maybe The Light (2021) and The Shoebox EP (2016).