Every time I try to go it alone
I get shut down
Locked up and held captive in the clutches of my doubt
We go back
We go forth
We go back
I’m sick with vertigo
Weary of my ways
My days
My ebbs and flows
So
I wanna feel a new day
(There’s gotta be more than this)
I wanna live a new way
(There’s gotta be more)
I wanna feel a new day
(There’s gotta be more than this)
I wanna live a new way
(There’s just gotta be more)
Right here, right now
Under the stars
I promise You my heart
‘Cause it starts tonight
We wanna rise
We wanna touch the other side
(It starts tonight)
We wanna soar
We wanna reach right out for more
(‘Cause it starts tonight)
Tonight
Can’t feel like any night before
Under a sky full of stars
With hearts that want more (Tonight)
Like a river no dam can hold
Being driven by a source overflowin’ our souls (Tonight)
Won’t be like any night we’ve seen
It changes everything
Everything
So let us seize this night
Let us make our play
It’s on like the break of dawn
Come what may
Tonight
I wanna feel a new day
I wanna live a new way
We want more tonight
We want you tonight
Tonight
(Featuring John Cooper)
Behind the Song:Before talking about each of the 13 songs on Tonight, tobyMac says, “For me it’s just a matter of writing about life—the things I’m struggling with, the things my friends are going through, the things I’m walking through with them. Sometimes I try to look up and do a social lyric, but I find that when you write from a personal level, it usually is hitting on the social level too. And I figure if I’m growing as a person, and my life is the ebb and flow of a believer pursuing faith in this world, the songs are going to remain fresh. I do think there’s more grace in my writing now than in earlier years. But I don’t think what I’m going through is too different from what anyone else is going through. And I find when I stick to that, it connects with people’s lives.”
“Tonight”
“It’s pretty autobiographical. I can’t speak into the personal walk of most people, but for me there’s a pursuit of God and a retreat constantly going on in my life—pursuit and a falling away, pursuit and a falling away. Any believer that says, ‘I got this dialed in, I’m in constant pursuit,’ well, I think they’re a superhero . . . or not telling the truth. It’s frustrating to me that I’ve been pursuing Christ for so long, and there’s still constant ebb and flow. So the song is about commitment in the face of that—a passionate declaration that it starts tonight. Tonight, it’s on. Yeah, three months from now, it might have to start again that night. But isn’t it about the constant dive into faith and the declaration of pursuit of holiness and of God? I know that’s what I face. I’ve woken up many days and thought, If I’ve got to start somewhere, why not today. What am I waiting for?”
(Of guest vocalist John Cooper): “When I wrote the chorus (We wanna rise / We wanna touch the other side), even before a note was struck, I heard Cooper singing it in my head. I’ve always thought Cooper’s voice is as intense as a voice gets. He came in and just delivered. We were like, wow. We triple tracked his voice, and it literally took over the song; it was louder than the guitars! So we dialed it back to a single track.” - tobyMac