House on Fire

"House on Fire" is the second track on Wolves. It was released on May 19, 2017, though people who pre-ordered the album from the band's website received the track in advance.

Background
Tim McIlrath said he wrote the lyrics about his experience being a parent of a teenager.

Lyrics
I can see the storms in her eyes now I'm falling overboard in the waves In over my head and she's a high tide That keeps pushing me away I thought that we would build this together But everything I touch just seems to break Am I your sail or your anchor? Am I the calm or the hurricane?

And I feel the ground start to shake I hear a voice shouting move But there is no fucking way I'd leave you

So I'll just hold you like a hand grenade You touch me like a razor blade I wish there was some other way right now Like a house on fire we're up in flames But I'd burn here if that's what it takes To let you know I won't let go of you

Is the soundtrack to our lives the bang of a slamming door? What happens when we all start to feel like nothing matters anymore? Every day like a chambered round, a trigger pulled A hammer click, a breath we hold A world outside, I can't control, no matter what I do

So I'll just hold you like a hand grenade You touch me like a razor blade I wish there was some other way right now Like a house on fire we're up in flames But I'd burn here if that's what it takes To let you know I won't let go of you

How is it a thing that we just want to hurt each other? I'm waiting out the rain, feels like it's gonna rain forever And someday you will learn that all I ever did was for you And I would do it all again, I would do it all again

So I'll just hold you like a hand grenade You touch me like a razor blade I wish there was some other way right now Like a house on fire we're up in flames But I'd burn here if that's what it takes To let you know I won't let go of you Of you