Nick Soma - Drag Me Around
SpoilerWarning: lengthy explanation follows.

So, I tried to meet the challenge in both a lyrical and musical way. First, the lyric. My Round 0 and Round 1 entries both have non-personal lyrics, and I decided that all three songs should have the same narrator, some guy named Karl, who has a slight obsession with semi-precious stones and frequently experiences pareidolia in an intense way. Karl's biggest fear is to be seen as weird, he just wants to be a regular normal guy which however, he obviously isn't. I wanted this song to have a central theme of its own, so I thought Karl might have some issues with sensory processing like I do - so this lyric is semi-autobiographical unlike the other two. To calm himself, Karl always keeps some gemstones in his pocket, but sometimes he forgets about that when under stress. The "healing touch" in the context of this song is, of course, not the touch of someone else, but Karl himself touching the stones.

Musically, I wanted this song to start out much like the first one and then gradually shift toward the sound of the second one via change in mood, instrumentation (note the organ in the last third) and modulation. It starts out in E minor with some borrowing from the harmonic minor as I did in my Round 0 entry, then later modulates to D major to fit the key of Pareidolia. The tempo is exactly halfway between my Round 0 and 1 entry. I reused some elements of both the other tracks: the drumbeat is the same as in Semiprecious, only changing in the last third; the bridge at "My shield has been destroyed..." is exactly the same as the prechorus of Pareidolia; the melody of the electric guitar in the final part is the same as the verses of Pareidolia; and the outro is meant to end the song just like my Pareidolia entry begins, with the same old nylon string guitar which BTW was my first guitar as a child, and the birdsong, emerging here from the hectic sound of cars passing, suggesting Karl has managed to flee the overwhelming situation.

I ought to go out in the sunshine
I've been hiding in here so long
A bit of social interaction
That's OK, what could go wrong?

A sunny day to spend
With my family and friends
Who drag me around
I just didn't know
How many places they would go
All the pictures and sounds...

I wonder now as I do sometimes
What it might feel like to them
I wish my sensory perception
Would never ever overload again

I'm just a zombie now
Mindlessly I tag along
As they drag me around
Faces flashing now
Messages in my head
Drowned in the sound

But in my pocket, I remember now
I got the medicine to calm me down
Pretty gemstones I love so much
I'm in desperate need of a healing touch

My shield has been destroyed
I blankly stare into the void

Breathe in, breathe out
Talisman, help me now
Here in my hands
A thousand colors dance
I'll be better once
I'm back home alone
Try to focus on
The patterns in these stones
I will be okay
When I'm home alone
Try to focus on
The faces in these stones