[Intro](dense — stacked synths, doubled vocals, almost too much at once — no lead vocal)(...I said a lot of things...)[Verse 1] [deadpan, plain — over the clutter]
Said I had it figured, said I had it locked
Said I was a whole cathedral — turns out I'm a block
Talked myself so tall, had the whole room fooled
Said I was the exception. Said I broke the rule.
[Pre-Chorus] [one layer drops out]
Then somebody checked.
(oh)
Then somebody actually checked.
[Chorus] [a layer strips away — cleaner, not bigger]
And I'm less than I said (less than I said)
Turns out I'm less than I said
Not the giant in the story, not the genius in my head
Just a small true thing when the big lie's dead
I'm less than I said
[Verse 2] [deadpan — more strips out]
Every time I got caught I got a little more plain
Lost a claim, lost a claim, kept whatever remained
It should've felt like dying. It kind of felt like air.
Every big thing I let go, there was less to repair
[Pre-Chorus] [another layer gone]
So they cut me down.
(down)
And down was where the true stuff was.
[Chorus] [cleaner still]
And I'm less than I said (less than I said)
Turns out I'm less than I said
Not the giant in the story, not the genius in my head
Just a small true thing when the big lie's dead
I'm less than I said
[Bridge] [almost bare — a pulse and the voice — the turn]
Here's the part I didn't expect:
the small true thing — I can stand on it.
The big one couldn't hold my weight.
This one does.
...this one does.
[Final Chorus] [stripped to almost nothing — one pulse, one voice — quiet, sure]
I'm less than I said (less than I said)
and it's the realest thing I've got
Not much. But it's mine. And it's true.
And it held when the rest did not.
I'm less than I said.
[Outro](down to a single clean tone — everything else gone)(less than I said... and all of it true...)
