Tommy Ashby’s Finish Line Is a Quiet Reckoning with Trust and Grey Areas
Tommy Ashby’s new single Finish Line plays out like an overheard thought—soft, unsure, and oddly familiar.
It opens with a bare piano line that barely holds itself together, the kind of intro that doesn’t signal a big moment, but still pulls you in. “Everyone wants clarity,” he says, “but life is really lived in the grey.”
Ashby doesn’t try to neaten that grey. His vocals stay close to the chest, sketching out a relationship where both people are second-guessing everything—“Your heart is just wanting to get it right”—but neither knows how to unlock the other. “Tried my key but you changed the locks on us.”
Co-written with Carey Willetts (Athlete) and produced by Sam Okell, the track layers acoustic tones with sudden jolts of electric guitar and drum hits that feel more like stumbles than resolutions.
But there’s also an infectious pull that sneaks in as it builds—something in the rhythm and pacing that flirts with being danceable, without losing the weight of what’s being said.
“We wanted the intensity of the situation to be reflected in the production,” Ashby shares, “with a heavy drum sound and frantic electric guitars.”
The arrangement rises and unravels in tandem—“Crawl across the finish line / Screaming that we’re killing time”—but Ashby never lets go of the thread.
His voice remains the anchor in a story about loving someone through the silence, the stalling, and everything unsaid. Play it when clarity feels too neat to trust.
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Tommy Ashby Finish Line Lyrics
You’re guarded, no ignoring the warning signs
Your heart is just wanting to get it right
You’re hiding your pain, when it’s justified
You’re feeling so weak and it’s gonna bite
I don’t believe in love like I used to
Tried my key but you changed the locks on us
It’s hard to rise when your eyes won’t open
Can’t survive if you haven’t spoken up
Cause I love you too
I love you to death
Cause I love you too
I love you to death
I’m learning that nothing is black and white
We live in the cold grey space on the borderline
Stop burning your lungs just to feel alive
I’m holding tongue I don’t wanna fight
I don’t believe in love like I used to
Tried my key but you changed the locks on us
It’s hard to rise when your eyes won’t open
Can’t survive if you haven’t spoken up
Cause I love you too
I love you to death
Cause I love you too
I love you to death
Crawl across the finish line
Screaming that we’re killing time
The only thing that makes you mine
Cause I love you too
I love you to death
Cause I love you too
I love you to death
Cause I love you too
Crawl across the finish line
I love you to death
Screaming that we’re killing time
Cause I love you too
The only thing that makes you mine
I love you to death
Cause I love you too
I love you to death
Cause I love you too
I love you to death
