Surprise! lyrics - Dawes

Once the gatekeepers decided we would fade into the crowd

You took what makes you charming and you turned it up too loud

Now how many songs does the band have to get through before you steal away the mic

How many cakes do you have to jump out of before no one yells "Surprise!"?

I remember us both learning that no one's dreams come true

They're either not quite how you saw them or the goalpost just gets moved

That's when you changed your expectations and started rolling your third eye

But you still don't know the ending, you can't spoil the surprise

Now the nature of your birthday party's changed a lot for me

What was once a celebration feels like a shameless victory

I guess we all confuse our happiness with what it takes to just survive

But the moment that the switch gets flipped is always a surprise

There's a little bit of poetry in what you're doing to your face

Removing all the evidence of our shared time and space

But your eyes close when you smile now because you're squeezing it too tight

If this is how you double down you're in for a surprise

There's a nightclub deep in Hollywood for each night of the week

Watching all my fake friends congregate where no one wants to be

But you have to muddle through it if you wanna make it out alive

And the ones that find the other side are in for a surprise

No I'm not letting myself off easy here, I've been going through it too

I might've leaned into things more gracefully, but what good did that do?

You found your way to rage against the dying of the light

I thought I planned for all contingencies

I thought I knew who I was meant to be

All those roads laid out in front of me

But it's still a big surprise