I know we're in September
And this is my house
And this is my town
But my clothes are in the case, and I am leaving
Don't tell me what you spent it on
You always lie, you always lie
and it's a decision, I am leaving

We used to say for fun,
Let's say you lived, and then you did
You were the leader of us all - the perfect fall
You speak to the weak, an old picture of me
Everybody says they want to be free
and it's a decision, so I am leaving

The powder's in the kitchen
The spoon is on the floor
Your sister says it's different now
I don't believe her anymore

And I don't want your hand-me-downs
They're old, they're all worn out
No, I don't want to hang around
I don't want your hand-me-downs

So now I'm in this hotel room
I'm free and droning on
But the music's way too loud
I wanna skip to the next song

The glass is on the counter
The sheets are on the floor
Your sister says it's not the same
I don't believe her anymore
And I don't want your hand-me-downs
They're old, they're all worn out
No, I don't want to hang around
I don't want your hand-me-downs

So you'll lie yourself to sleep tonight
but you won't think of me
Cause your world revolves around you
Or so it seems, or so it seems
And you can't get off
And I can't get on
And yourself is all you see
So I don't want to hand around
I don't want your hand-me-downs
Anymore

You speak to the weak
An old picture of me
Everybody says they want to be free
So I am leaving

"Although it sounds like a "love relationship song," this song is loosely based on the story of a person deciding not to be friends anymore with a woman who's addicted to drugs. I wrote this song with Stephanie Bentley, a songwriter from Nashville, best known for her co-writing of the song "Breathe" for Faith Hill. We decided to put the bridge at the very tail end, which is an unusual place for a melodic bridge, but we felt like it made the protagonist's situation seem more hopeful as she decides to leave the bad situation she's in behind. I wanted this song to sound very intimate. To get that feeling in the production, I performed the vocals and guitar live at the same time at Chad Fischer's studio in Los Angeles. I feel very much at home in his studio, and that helped my performance, enabling me to tell the story in a very honest style. After the fact, we tried to add drums and other instruments to the recording, but those extra sounds just took away from the storytelling, so we left the recording as simple as possible. We added a strange backwards-sounding rhythmic track to build the second verse. We tried a few drum loops, only to realize that we needed something more unique and haunting, like someone walking through a room. Chad manipulated the sound of his shoe walking on the floor. There it was. He also played a piano part that emphasized the sad tone of the song: an unfinished-sounding melody that traces the major-to-minor phases of the chord progression."

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