I'll admit to being confused by what you wanted with this challenge, and I think it's resulted in a confused lyric that only barely makes sense to me, and also requires people to remember my first two songs, which I realise is asking a lot when there's 24 others in the competition. So I'm hoping that those judges who aren't reading liner notes won't mark me too harshly if the lyrics don't make a lot of sense to them. They still might not make sense after reading the notes.

Liner notes:
Spoiler
This song is about my broken brain. I think I have a bit of an unhealthy fixation on things that are out of my control, wanting to try and impose myself upon them, and that comes through in a lot of my lyrics - whether that's feeling guilt about things that I can't directly effect and have nothing to do with me (as in my first song Semiprecious, about the exploitation of workers and more specifically the Myanmar jade trade), or a near constant fixation on death and illness (as in my second song Pareidolia, about freaking out riding the subway during the pandemic). When I write songs about these sorts of things it feels very narcissistic, like taking these massive issues or concerns that effect everyone and saying "but how does this effect ME?". This song is basically trying to capture my snide inner monologue that constantly calls me out for being an narcissistic idiot who things he's the protagonist of existence, while also undermining me at every turn with anxiety, fear, self-hatred and all the other fun stuff a broken brain is wont to do. I liked the idea of this voice "dragging me around", pulling me between all these different negative emotions and mental health crises.

The first verse directly comments on my first song - mocking the idea that because I read an article about jade mining I'm suddenly some human rights expert, with a couple of punny callbacks in "he really puts the me in mine" and "some jaded arsehole". The second verse references my subway anxieties from my round one song, "sat on the Inner Circle seeing things that aren't there" (the inner circle is a line on the Glasgow subway), and the "paranoia, pareidolia" hook from that song is echoed here in the "paranoia, panic attack" lyric.

Hopefully it makes some sense. As I say I found this challenge a real struggle and hope I haven't completely gotten the wrong end of the stick, but to my ears this would work as a linking track between my first and second song.

Drag Me Around - The Lowest Bitter

Boy read an article in TIME,
suddenly he's Mr Human Rights
he really puts the Me in Mine
some jaded arsehole, a tourist in less fortunate lives

if it helps, he feels guilty all the time
if it helps, he knows he's a hypocrite
if it helps, he has this voice that's always chattering
an awful sound, it says "drag him around"

anxiety
self-hatred
insecurity
drag me around
paranoia
panic attack
neuroses
drag me around

sat on the Inner Circle,
seeing things that aren't there
with this messed up inner monologue
circling his head

if it helps, you know he's feeling terrified
if it helps, he knows he's a narcissist
if it helps, he has this voice that's always chattering
an awful sound, it says "drag him around"

anxiety
self-hatred
insecurity
drag me around
paranoia
panic attack
neuroses
drag me around

if it helps, he knows he's a hypocrite
if it helps, he knows he's a narcissist
drag me around

paranoia
panic attack
neuroses
drag me around
anxiety
self-hatred
insecurity
drag me around