# ADRIAN CROSS — WINDOWS FACING WEST

## Album Summary

**Windows Facing West** is a late-80s cinematic adult art-rock album about the quiet hour after love has already failed. It is not rage, not begging, not melodrama. It is hotel light, restaurant glass, city rain, red taillights, unfinished drinks, and the strange adult grace of letting something die without making a scene.

The sound is slow, polished, analog, and nocturnal: deep bass, restrained drums, soft gated snare, low organ and synth pads, sparse electric piano, clean electric guitar leads with delay trails and plate reverb. Adrian Cross sings in a mature, warm, controlled male voice: intimate low verses, smooth delivery, slightly weathered but never raspy. Choruses rise through stacked octave harmonies, airy high backing vocals, and choir-like studio doubles rather than belting.

## Track List

1. Windows Facing West
2. The Red Dress at Closing Time
3. Captain of the Quiet
4. Downstairs at the Ember Room
5. A Phone That Never Rings Twice
6. No Good Way to Say Goodbye
7. Blue Cars on Laurel
8. The Table by the Window
9. Mercy in the Distance
10. When the Neon Cools
11. Only the Rain Came Back
12. The Last Room Still Lit

---

# 1. WINDOWS FACING WEST

[Verse 1]
The room went blue before the evening ended
Glass on the table, untouched and warm
You said my name like you were being careful
Like closing softly in a thunderstorm

The streetlights came on one by one below us
The city practicing its old disguise
I watched the west burn out behind your shoulder
And saw the answer waiting in your eyes

[Pre-Chorus]
No slammed door
No final scene
Just all the space
Where love had been

[Chorus]
Windows facing west
Last light on your dress
Nothing left to say
Nothing to confess

We held it like a prayer
We let it leave like breath
Two shadows in the room
With windows facing west

[Verse 2]
The piano downstairs kept repeating something
A minor phrase it never could resolve
You smiled once like you were almost sorry
Then looked away before I could dissolve

I used to think that love would make us braver
I used to think the heart could choose its cost
But some roads end without a sign or warning
And some things leave before they know they’re lost

[Pre-Chorus]
No cruel word
No mercy line
Just your hand
Slipping out of mine

[Chorus]
Windows facing west
Last light on your dress
Nothing left to say
Nothing to confess

We held it like a prayer
We let it leave like breath
Two shadows in the room
With windows facing west

[Bridge]
And the cars below moved on
Like they had somewhere to be
And the sky gave up its fire
So quietly

I could ask you to remember
I could ask you to stay
But the night was already taking
Every color from the day

[Chorus]
Windows facing west
Last light on your dress
Nothing left to say
Nothing to confess

We held it like a prayer
We let it leave like breath
Two shadows in the room
With windows facing west

[Outro]
Windows facing west
Windows facing west
You were almost mine
In the last light left

---

# 2. THE RED DRESS AT CLOSING TIME

[Verse 1]
You came in late when the band was packing
A red dress under a coat of rain
The bartender looked up like he remembered
Every beautiful thing that brings back pain

You said you only had time for one drink
I said I only had time to lie
The jukebox hummed like an old confession
And the clock forgot how to say goodbye

[Pre-Chorus]
You were never mine to keep
I was never hard to read
We were just two tired people
Making promises to leave

[Chorus]
The red dress at closing time
One last glass, one last line
You turned away, but not too fast
Like you wanted me to ask

But I let the silence climb
Let the ash fall, let it shine
Some things burn and still look fine
Like the red dress at closing time

[Verse 2]
The room had emptied into streetlight
Chairs turned upside down on tables
You drew a circle in the water
Like you were testing old fables

I almost reached across the distance
I almost gave the night a name
But love can look like recognition
And still not want to stay the same

[Pre-Chorus]
There are doors you do not open
There are bells you do not ring
There are songs that sound like rescue
Till somebody has to sing

[Chorus]
The red dress at closing time
One last glass, one last line
You turned away, but not too fast
Like you wanted me to ask

But I let the silence climb
Let the ash fall, let it shine
Some things burn and still look fine
Like the red dress at closing time

[Bridge]
Outside, the taxis waited
Yellow ghosts along the curb
I heard your heels on the pavement
I remember every word

Not what you said
But what you spared
The kindest wound
Was leaving there

[Final Chorus]
The red dress at closing time
One last glass, one last line
I watched you go through the cigarette smoke
With a heart too clean to break

And the neon lost its rhyme
And the rain came down in time
Some things leave and still look fine
Like the red dress at closing time

[Outro]
Closing time
Closing time
You were the last light
I let decline

---

# 3. CAPTAIN OF THE QUIET

[Verse 1]
You could steer a room into silence
With a look across the glass
Every word you never offered
Had a shadow, had a past

I was always making weather
You were always making shore
I mistook your calm for mercy
Till I needed something more

[Pre-Chorus]
You held the wheel
You watched the dark
You never named
The breaking part

[Chorus]
Captain of the quiet
Sailing without sound
You never raised the warning
You only turned us round

Captain of the quiet
Under moonless skies
I was drowning in the distance
You had already said goodbye

[Verse 2]
There were lights along the harbor
There were voices down below
There were years inside your jacket
You decided not to show

I could feel the water changing
I could hear the engines fade
But you smiled like nothing happened
And I called that being brave

[Pre-Chorus]
No flare above
No final call
Just softer waves
And nothing more

[Chorus]
Captain of the quiet
Sailing without sound
You never raised the warning
You only turned us round

Captain of the quiet
Under moonless skies
I was drowning in the distance
You had already said goodbye

[Bridge]
I wanted thunder
You gave me glass
I wanted answers
You let them pass

Maybe silence
Was your truth
Maybe mercy
Looked like you

[Final Chorus]
Captain of the quiet
Far beyond the bay
I kept waiting for the signal
You had put the light away

Captain of the quiet
Cold and dignified
I was still calling it devotion
You had already said goodbye

[Outro]
No storm came
No sail tore
Just your shadow
Leaving shore

---

# 4. DOWNSTAIRS AT THE EMBER ROOM

[Verse 1]
Downstairs at the Ember Room
The waiters fold the linen slow
Nobody says what everybody knows
But everybody knows

A woman laughs too loud at nothing
A man keeps checking on the door
There’s lipstick on a glass of gin
And sunlight dying on the floor

[Pre-Chorus]
We all come here to disappear
Under amber, under smoke
Some hearts bend and some hearts rust
And some just learn the joke

[Chorus]
Downstairs at the Ember Room
Where the lonely learn to shine
Where the old songs come too soon
And the young ones lose their time

I saw your face in every flame
I heard your voice in every spoon
There’s no good place to lose a love
But downstairs at the Ember Room

[Verse 2]
The cook steps out behind the building
With a cigarette and tired eyes
The hostess counts the empty tables
Like she’s adding up goodbyes

A saxophone from someone’s radio
Bleeds through the kitchen wall
And for a second every stranger
Looks like someone you should call

[Pre-Chorus]
We all come here to stay composed
To keep the damage clean
To sit beneath forgiving light
And almost feel unseen

[Chorus]
Downstairs at the Ember Room
Where the lonely learn to shine
Where the old songs come too soon
And the young ones lose their time

I saw your face in every flame
I heard your voice in every spoon
There’s no good place to lose a love
But downstairs at the Ember Room

[Bridge]
Maybe every city has one
A room beneath the street
Where people pay for candlelight
And something warm to eat

Where nothing gets forgiven
But nothing has to prove
You can leave your coat on longer
You can let the evening move

[Final Chorus]
Downstairs at the Ember Room
Past the stairs and past the rain
I learned the shape of absence
I learned to speak its name

And when they turned the music down
And swept the silver moon
I was still sitting with your ghost
Downstairs at the Ember Room

[Outro]
Downstairs
Soft light
One glass
Long night

---

# 5. A PHONE THAT NEVER RINGS TWICE

[Verse 1]
The hotel clock was blinking midnight
Though the city had no use for sleep
I laid your number by the ashtray
Like a promise I was scared to keep

There was rain against the window
There were footsteps in the hall
There was every kind of silence
In the space before a call

[Pre-Chorus]
I knew the line
I knew the price
I knew a phone
That never rings twice

[Chorus]
A phone that never rings twice
A heart that never asks why
One clean chance in the dark
One blue match, one small spark

I let it go, I let it die
I watched the wire hold the night
Somewhere between mercy and ice
A phone that never rings twice

[Verse 2]
I could see us in the mirror
Like a scene from someone else
Two people dressed for leaving
Too proud to save themselves

I lifted up the receiver
Heard the ocean in the tone
Put it down before the first ring
And found out I was alone

[Pre-Chorus]
No prayer came
No wrong or right
Just that phone
That never rings twice

[Chorus]
A phone that never rings twice
A heart that never asks why
One clean chance in the dark
One blue match, one small spark

I let it go, I let it die
I watched the wire hold the night
Somewhere between mercy and ice
A phone that never rings twice

[Bridge]
There are words you only get once
There are doors that only bend
There are nights that make a stranger
Of a lover and a friend

I had your name
I had the nerve
I had the wound
I had the cure

[Final Chorus]
A phone that never rings twice
A room that never forgives
A man can live through losing
And forget what living is

I let it go, I let it die
I watched the wire hold the night
Love has its own advice
A phone that never rings twice

[Outro]
Never rings twice
Never rings twice
I heard the silence
And called it kind

---

# 6. NO GOOD WAY TO SAY GOODBYE

[Verse 1]
We tried to make it gentle
We tried to make it clean
Like folding up a letter
No one else would read

You stood beside the doorway
With your coat against your arm
I said something about the weather
Like that could keep us warm

[Pre-Chorus]
There was no villain in the room
No broken glass, no alibi
Just two people out of mercy
And no good way to say goodbye

[Chorus]
There’s no good way to say goodbye
No perfect word, no softer knife
No holy line that makes it right
No saving grace at closing time

We can call it love
We can call it life
We can let it fade
Or let it die

But there’s no good way
No good way
No good way to say goodbye

[Verse 2]
I wanted one more evening
You wanted one less lie
We both knew where the road went
We both watched it arrive

Your hand was on the railing
My heart was on the floor
The distance between almost
And not anymore

[Pre-Chorus]
There was no thunder in the sky
No mercy waiting in reply
Just the smallest kind of ending
And no good way to say goodbye

[Chorus]
There’s no good way to say goodbye
No perfect word, no softer knife
No holy line that makes it right
No saving grace at closing time

We can call it love
We can call it life
We can let it fade
Or let it die

But there’s no good way
No good way
No good way to say goodbye

[Bridge]
I could bless you
I could blame you
I could ask the past to change

I could hold you
I could shame you
I could make the wound look brave

But the truth stood there between us
With its coat on for the rain
And all the songs were useless
When they finally said your name

[Final Chorus]
There’s no good way to say goodbye
No perfect word, no softer knife
No holy line that makes it right
No saving grace at closing time

We can call it love
We can call it life
We can let it fade
Or let it die

But there’s no good way
No good way
No good way to say goodbye

[Outro]
No good way
No clean sky
No last line
No goodbye

---

# 7. BLUE CARS ON LAUREL

[Verse 1]
Blue cars on Laurel in the evening rain
Headlights bending through the glass
I took the long way past your building
Like a man still bargaining with the past

The radio played something minor
The kind of song that knows too much
I kept one hand on the wheel
And one hand near your ghostly touch

[Pre-Chorus]
Every corner had your shadow
Every signal turned too slow
Every mile said keep on driving
Every memory said don’t go

[Chorus]
Blue cars on Laurel
Rolling through the dark
All those little moving rooms
Full of unfinished hearts

I saw our life in passing windows
I watched it blur and disappear
Blue cars on Laurel
And I was almost clear

[Verse 2]
There’s a diner by the station
Where we once stayed out till two
You drew maps on paper napkins
Of places we would never move to

Now the booth is full of strangers
And the sign still flickers red
Some dreams don’t get abandoned
They just move inside your head

[Pre-Chorus]
Every streetlight had an answer
Every answer came too late
Every turn became a question
Every question found your face

[Chorus]
Blue cars on Laurel
Rolling through the dark
All those little moving rooms
Full of unfinished hearts

I saw our life in passing windows
I watched it blur and disappear
Blue cars on Laurel
And I was almost clear

[Bridge]
I don’t want you back tonight
I don’t want to start again
I just want the road to end
Before I say your name again

And the city keeps pretending
It can wash itself clean
But the rain just moves the color
From the pavement to the dream

[Final Chorus]
Blue cars on Laurel
Moving like a prayer
Nobody knows where they’re going
Nobody knows who isn’t there

I saw our life in passing windows
I watched it blur and disappear
Blue cars on Laurel
And I was almost clear

[Outro]
Almost clear
Almost home
Blue cars pass
And leave me alone

---

# 8. THE TABLE BY THE WINDOW

[Verse 1]
We took the table by the window
Because the light was almost gone
You ordered coffee after dinner
Though you never wanted one

The waiter moved like he was dreaming
The candle shook beneath the glass
I knew before you started speaking
The future had already passed

[Pre-Chorus]
There are endings dressed as evenings
There are knives that look like grace
There are moments you remember
By the shadows on a face

[Chorus]
At the table by the window
Where the city turned to rain
You let me keep my dignity
I let you keep your name

No scene, no crime
No desperate line
Just a love we couldn’t save
At the table by the window
Where we gave away the day

[Verse 2]
You talked about your sister’s children
I talked about a book I’d read
We walked around the burning building
And called the weather strange instead

Your ring kept catching candlelight
Like a signal from below
I almost asked you what you wanted
But I already had to know

[Pre-Chorus]
There are truths that do not thunder
There are storms that make no sound
There are hearts that leave so gently
You don’t feel them hit the ground

[Chorus]
At the table by the window
Where the city turned to rain
You let me keep my dignity
I let you keep your name

No scene, no crime
No desperate line
Just a love we couldn’t save
At the table by the window
Where we gave away the day

[Bridge]
I remember folded linen
I remember silver light
I remember you not crying
Like you’d practiced all your life

I remember saying nothing
When there was nothing left to do
And the glass between the city
And the terrible shape of you

[Final Chorus]
At the table by the window
Where the evening lost its flame
You let me keep my silence
I let you keep the blame

No scene, no crime
No desperate line
Just a love we couldn’t save
At the table by the window
Where we gave away the day

[Outro]
The table by the window
The rain against the glass
Some dinners last forever
Some endings barely pass

---

# 9. MERCY IN THE DISTANCE

[Verse 1]
I used to think forgiveness
Would come dressed in white
With a hand upon my shoulder
And a voice that made it right

But mercy was a streetlamp
Three blocks through the rain
A small light in the distance
That never spoke my name

[Pre-Chorus]
I carried what I could
I buried what I must
I mistook the weight for love
I mistook the dust for dust

[Chorus]
There’s mercy in the distance
There’s mercy in the dark
Not enough to heal you
Just enough to mark

The road that keeps on turning
The place you leave the knife
There’s mercy in the distance
At the far edge of your life

[Verse 2]
I wanted absolution
I wanted clean release
But no one came with answers
No angel came with peace

Just the city after midnight
And my breath against the cold
And the strange relief of knowing
There was nothing left to hold

[Pre-Chorus]
No choir in the doorway
No fire in the sky
Just the sound of my own footsteps
Learning not to ask why

[Chorus]
There’s mercy in the distance
There’s mercy in the dark
Not enough to heal you
Just enough to mark

The road that keeps on turning
The place you leave the knife
There’s mercy in the distance
At the far edge of your life

[Bridge]
Maybe grace is not a river
Maybe grace is not a song
Maybe grace is just the moment
You stop proving you were wronged

Maybe love is not returning
Maybe loss is not a debt
Maybe I can keep the sorrow
Without keeping the regret

[Final Chorus]
There’s mercy in the distance
There’s mercy in the dark
Not enough to save you
Just enough to start

The road that keeps on turning
The place you leave the knife
There’s mercy in the distance
At the far edge of your life

[Outro]
Far edge of your life
Far edge of the night
Mercy in the distance
Almost out of sight

---

# 10. WHEN THE NEON COOLS

[Verse 1]
When the neon cools
And the last train goes
When the smoke gives up
And the tired doors close

I will think of you
Without reaching back
Like a photograph
In a room gone black

[Verse 2]
There were years we spent
Trying not to see
How the heart can stay
Where it shouldn’t be

There were words we saved
For a kinder day
But the kinder day
Never came our way

[Pre-Chorus]
Now the signs go dark
Now the glasses dry
Now the city turns
Its face from the sky

[Chorus]
When the neon cools
When the music leaves
When the beautiful fools
Stop trying to believe

I will let you go
Like the evening does
No final wound
No because

When the neon cools
And the night comes through
I will be alone
And almost true

[Verse 3]
There’s a mercy here
In the emptied street
In the worn-out shine
In the broken heat

There’s a kind of peace
No one celebrates
In a heart that bends
But does not break

[Pre-Chorus]
No more waiting rooms
No more second tries
No more borrowed names
For old goodbyes

[Chorus]
When the neon cools
When the music leaves
When the beautiful fools
Stop trying to believe

I will let you go
Like the evening does
No final wound
No because

When the neon cools
And the night comes through
I will be alone
And almost true

[Bridge]
I thought the end would answer
I thought the hurt would close
But some things keep their silence
That is how the silence grows

So I bless the empty doorway
I bless the fading sign
I bless the life that missed me
When I thought it should be mine

[Final Chorus]
When the neon cools
When the music leaves
When the beautiful fools
Stop trying to believe

I will let you go
Like the evening does
No final wound
No because

When the neon cools
And the night comes through
I will be alone
And almost true

[Outro]
When the neon cools
When the neon cools
I will be alone
And almost true

When the neon cools
When the neon cools
Nothing left to prove
Nothing left of you
---

# 11. ONLY THE RAIN CAME BACK

[Verse 1]
I left your street before the morning
With my collar turned against the gray
The city looked like it was waking
But nothing new had come to stay

The newspaper trucks were running
The bakery lights were coming on
And every window looked forgiven
Like nothing terrible had gone wrong

[Pre-Chorus]
I waited for anger
I waited for flame
I waited for something
That could carry your name

[Chorus]
But only the rain came back
Only the rain came down
Only the rain knew where I’d been
And followed me through town

No voice in the wire
No hand in the black
No mercy at the door
Only the rain came back

[Verse 2]
I passed the place we used to argue
Where the streetlight always shook
I saw our shadows in the water
Then lost them when I looked

A man was sweeping up the sidewalk
Like the night had left a stain
I almost stopped to help him
But I had enough of rain

[Pre-Chorus]
I waited for thunder
I waited for grace
I waited for your footsteps
In some impossible place

[Chorus]
But only the rain came back
Only the rain came down
Only the rain knew where I’d been
And followed me through town

No voice in the wire
No hand in the black
No mercy at the door
Only the rain came back

[Bridge]
Maybe love is not a season
Maybe loss is not a crime
Maybe every heart must learn
Its own weather over time

Maybe I was never abandoned
Maybe I was simply free
But freedom has a cold face
When nobody turns to see

[Final Chorus]
Only the rain came back
Only the rain came down
Only the rain kept speaking
When the world would make no sound

No sign in the window
No light through the crack
No answer from heaven
Only the rain came back

[Outro]
Only the rain
Only the rain
I called your name
Only the rain

---

# 12. THE LAST ROOM STILL LIT

[Verse 1]
There’s a hotel past the station
Where the curtains never close
Where the night clerk keeps a radio
Playing soft and low

I saw one light in the window
When the whole block had gone black
Like a heart that missed the message
That the past was not coming back

[Pre-Chorus]
I have been that window
I have been that flame
Burning for a shadow
That no longer had my name

[Chorus]
The last room still lit
At the edge of the town
One small square of gold
Where the dark comes down

Somebody is leaving
Somebody can’t quit
Somebody keeps breathing
In the last room still lit

[Verse 2]
The elevator hummed behind me
Like a tired minor chord
I watched a woman with a suitcase
Walk away from the second floor

She didn’t look defeated
She didn’t look relieved
Just like someone who had practiced
How to finally leave

[Pre-Chorus]
No one asks the hallway
What it had to hear
No one thanks the mirror
For making damage clear

[Chorus]
The last room still lit
At the edge of the town
One small square of gold
Where the dark comes down

Somebody is leaving
Somebody can’t quit
Somebody keeps breathing
In the last room still lit

[Bridge]
I thought I wanted answers
I thought I wanted proof
But the truth was just a ceiling
And a cigarette-burned roof

I thought the end would save me
I thought the night would split
But I only found a window
And the last room still lit

[Final Chorus]
The last room still lit
At the edge of the town
One small square of gold
Where the dark comes down

Let the morning find it
Let the old ghosts sit
Let the whole world vanish
From the last room still lit

[Outro]
The last room still lit
The last room still lit
I was almost gone
But not gone yet
