[Verse 1]
This world is making me dizzy
I can't seem to keep it from spinning
This life is screaming so loud now
I can't escape from this crowd now
It's like I'm climbing up on the shoulders
In a room full of strangers
And then everybody walks away
[Chorus]
Fly high, jump and touch the sky
High, bring me back to life
I know you're there when I can't hear you
Down now at the speed of sound now
When I touch the ground now
You'll be there when I can't hear you
When I can't hear you
[Verse 2]
I am a classic case of dysfunction
I talk and talk and still I say nothing
So tell me, am I the voice of my generation?
Is everybody having the same conversation?
We're all climbing up on the shoulders
In a room full of strangers
When we should be reaching for you
[Chorus]
Fly high, jump and touch the sky
High, bring me back to life
I know you're there when I can't hear you
Down now at the speed of sound now
When I touch the ground now
You'll be there when I can't hear you
And I can't hear you
[Bridge]
Do you ever get the feeling that you're not alone
No matter who you are, no matter where you go?
Do you ever get the feeling that you're not alone
No matter who you are, no matter where you go?
Do you ever get the feeling that you're not alone
No matter who you are, no matter where you go?
Do you ever?
Do you ever?
Feel like you're climbing up on the shoulders
In a room full of strangers
We're all reaching
[Chorus]
Fly high
Sky High
Life I
I can't hear you
Down now at the speed of sound now
When I touch the ground now
Know you're there when I can't hear you
Fly high
Jump to touch the sky high
Bring me back to life
I know you're there when I can't hear you
Down now at the speed of sound now
When I touch the ground now
You'll be there when I can't hear you
When I can't hear you
I can't hear you
I Can't Hear You
Song Meaning
Matthew West opens "I Can't Hear You" describing overstimulation rather than silence — "this world is making me dizzy, I can't seem to keep it from spinning, this life is screaming so loud now, I can't escape from this crowd now" — naming noise, not absence, as the actual obstacle to hearing God.
"It's like I'm climbing up on the shoulders in a room full of strangers, and then everybody walks away" pictures a specific, isolating image of effort that ends in being left alone, and the chorus answers overwhelming noise with an equally physical response: "fly high, jump and touch the sky, bring me back to life."
"I am a classic case of dysfunction, I talk and talk and still I say nothing" turns the critique inward rather than only outward at the culture described earlier, and "am I the voice of my generation? Is everybody having the same conversation?" questions whether his own noise is any different from everyone else's. The bridge's repeated question, "do you ever get the feeling that you're not alone, no matter who you are, no matter where you go," answers isolation with the exact opposite claim, asked three times as if waiting for it to be believed.