Name: Keep It Together by Under The Gun Review
Duration: 2 min 44 s
Description: Under The Gun Review is excited to present the debut EP from Chicago's Real Friends.

It starts like a whisper, then sharpens to steel
Memory strikes where I thought I could heal
Flicker of faces, a voice I erased
But the record keeps playing, skipping in place

I try to outrun it — but it knows where I sleep
Buried in silence, still cutting too deep

Replay the wound — frame by frame
I watch myself shatter, over and over again
No pause. No skip. Just static and screams
I relive the moment — tear through the seams
Replay the wound — like I deserve to bleed
Let it burn in my brain ‘til it’s all that I see
Post-chorus

(‘til it’s all that I see)

Tried to drown it in noise, tried to burn it with time
But it feeds on the cracks in this mind of mine
A loop of regret, plays behind my eyes
Even forgiveness just tastes like a lie

It’s not penance — it’s rot
And I forgot how to stop!

Replay the wound — frame by frame
I watch myself shatter, over and again
No pause. No skip. Just static and screams
I relive the moment — tear through the seams
Replay the wound — like I deserve to bleed
Let it burn in my brain ‘til it’s all that I see

(‘til it’s all that I see)

Can’t rewind.
Can’t delete.
Can’t forget what I repeat.

I pressed play
But it plays me
‘Til the man I was
Ceases to be!
Guitar solo

Replay the wound — this loop won’t break
Just salt in the echo, just blood in the wake
If healing’s a lie, then pain is the truth
So I carve one more scar
And replay the wound

(I replay the wound)

Act of Corrosion - Replay The Wound

Infinity Reign | Remake

This was another song I wrote during those same emotionally turbulent high school years in the mid-1980s. If "Breakin' My Heart" was about the immediate shock of betrayal, "Shattered Illusions" dug deeper into the aftermath - that hollow feeling when you realize everything you believed about someone was built on lies.

The opening line "Midnight shadows, a phone that won't ring" perfectly captured those sleepless nights, waiting for someone who was never going to call. I remember writing that verse thinking about how naive I'd been, how I'd "built castles on empty words." The metaphor felt so real to me then - all those promises and dreams just crumbling down.

What I'm proud of in this song is the pre-chorus structure. Adding that extra emotional build before hitting the chorus made the impact stronger. "Shattering my world" felt like the perfect phrase to describe how completely someone could destroy your sense of reality when you're seventeen and think you know everything about love.

The bridge represents growth - moving from victim to survivor. "I'm done with your lies, done with the pain" shows that progression from hurt to empowerment that I was learning to navigate as a teenager. The outro ties it all together with "Your love was fiction, but I'll rise from this fall" - probably the most mature line I wrote at that age.

Like my other lyrics from that time, this sat dormant for decades until AI technology gave me the opportunity to finally hear these words with music. There's something magical about bringing teenage angst full circle with today's creative tools. The song now has that dramatic, emotional sound that matches the intensity I felt when I first wrote these words.

Shattered Illusions

Fail You Again

Molly's Desk

Can't Swim "Molly’s Desk"

Make The Best Of It

Baby Grand

Disagree

Under The Gun Review is excited to present the debut EP from Chicago's Real Friends. 

Keep It Together

Under The Gun Review

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