melancholic dark rock ballad, 80 BPM, half-time drum pattern with heavy but muffled kick on 1 and 3, sparse hi-hats, deep sub-bass rumble under the verses; layered instrumentation: clean acoustic fingerpicking, tremolo electric guitar for tension, cinematic strings that swell in the chorus; male vocal — husky, emotional, slightly cracked voice, raw delivery like he’s speaking from the bottom