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- Song Memories and Empties
- LyricsThere's a path that I regularly walk through
In the dark, empty streets of my mind
But this path only leads to a barstool
Where your memory can be left behind
Replacing memories with empties again
... - Artist(s)
- Album Memories and Empties
- Released November 14, 2025
- Label La Honda Records/RCA Records
- Songwriter(s) Colter Wall
- Producer(s) Patrick Lyons, Colter Wall
The Background
Colter Wall has always had a gift for making the sparse feel cinematic. With 'Memories and Empties', he leans into that gift completely. It’s a song that lives in the quiet corners of the mind you only ponder late at night. There’s no flash, no big production, just the raw ache of a man circling the same emotional terrain again and again.
Here, Wall isn’t trying to reinvent himself. He’s doing what he does best: telling the kind of story that feels older than time, about heartbreak that doesn’t heal so much as settle into your bones. It’s a journey through memory, regret and the small rituals we cling to when we can’t let go.
The Sound
Sonically, this is classic Colter Wall; stripped down and haunting. Acoustic guitar sits at the center, leaving space between the notes that feels almost echo-like. As the song unfolds, the arrangement slowly widens to gentle steel guitar, a touch of harmonica, subtle textures that seep in like light through a window at dusk.
It’s simple by design. That stillness gives the words room to breathe, making every line land heavier. The whole track is smooth as butter, steady as an old barstool, and built to linger long after it ends.
The Meaning
'Memories and Empties' is a song about trying to outrun a memory and failing every time. From the opening lines, Wall sketches a routine that’s as heartbreaking as it is familiar:
“There’s a path that I regularly walk through / In the dark, empty streets of my mind.”
He knows exactly where this path leads, and he follows it anyway: back to the barstool, back to the place where hurt becomes manageable. The refrain becomes the confession:
“Replacing memories with empties again.”
It’s a cycle that feels both self-destructive and strangely comforting. Every attempt to take a different road ends with him pulled back by the ghost of the person he’s trying to forget:
“Each step that I take / You’ve pursued all the way.”
Wall never raises his voice because he doesn’t have to. The resignation in the writing is the recognition that heartbreak isn’t something he’s escaping, but yet something he’s drinking through.
For the full lyrics to 'Memories and Empties' by Colter Wall, see below:
There's a path that I regularly walk through
In the dark, empty streets of my mind
But this path only leads to a barstool
Where your memory can be left behind
Replacing memories with empties again
Many times I have turned on my heels
And I've tried to find a better road
But each step that I take
You've pursued all the way
'Til I walk myself through swinging doors
Replacing memories with empties again
Replacing memories with empties again
--
For more on Colter Wall, see below:
