Next To Normal feat. Alice Ripley, J. Robert Spencer, Jennifer Damiano and Louis Hobson Lyrics
"Better Than Before"

Doctor Madden:
The memories are there,
Somewhere.
Find some pictures you can share,
Keepsakes of the life that's
There behind her.

Keep it light at first, that's best.
Careful that she's not distressed.
When the time's right,
Tell the rest...
Remind her.
You'll find her.

Dan:
So let's start with something small,
Something personal and pretty...
I bet you'll know these shiny things.

Diana: [Spoken]
They must be tacky trinkets from, I guess, Atlantic City?

Dan:
No, actu'ly Di,
They're our wedding rings.

Natalie: [Spoken]
It's going well.

Dan:
Here's a flower from our wedding,
You were such a sight to see—
And the ceremony everything we'd hoped.

Natalie: [Spoken]
Um, Dad?

Dan:
Well that's how I remember it,
So that's how it'll be.

Natalie:
It was raining,
It was Portland,
You eloped.
[Spoken]
I mean, Portland?

Dan:
It's an open book to write here,
It's a life we can restore.
We can get back what we had
And maybe more...
Maybe get us back to better
Than before.

Here's the year we drove the west,
We hit the highway in the Honda,
And I took pictures
Everywhere we went.
We saw the painted desert,
The Grand Canyon,
And Aunt Rhonda,
And Nat learned what
Her middle finger meant.

Here's the first house that we owned,
On Walton Way, we loved that place.
Then we built this one on land
That we both chose.
And here's a pic of all of us
With smiles on ev'ry face...
And the photoshopping
Hardly even shows.

Diana:
We're standing by a lake—
With all theses ducks?
And who's this little chubby girl?

Dan:
That's Natalie.

Natalie:
This sucks.

Dan:
Gonna get us back to normal...
Gonna get us back to good...
Gonna get back what we had
And maybe more.

Gonna get us back to good times,
And forget the things we should.
Gonna get us back to better than before...
We can get things back to better than before.

Natalie: [Spoken]
All right. Fine.
[Sung]
Here's the headline in the paper
When you freaked out at the market.
Here's the house on Walton Way
After the fire.

Dan: [Spoken]
Natalie...

Natalie:
Here's the damage to the Honda
When you showed me how to park it.

Diana:
Did we crush somebody's cat beneath the tire?

Natalie: [Spoken]
Yes. Ours.
[Sung]
Here's dad at my recital,
And we're wond'ring where you are.

Diana:
I remember this—
I made it to the school.

Dan: [Spoken]
Wait, you remember?

Diana:
It was the year of too much lithium—
I hid out in the car.

Dan: [Spoken]
Yes!

Diana:
And your swim meet—
Just last year—
I'm in the pool.

Natalie: [Spoken]
So you are.

Dan:
You're getting it!
You've got it, Di!
Hooray!

Diana:
Your life has kind of sucked,
I think.

Natalie: [Dan:] (Diana:)
You got it! Yay!
Hooray! [Hooray!] (Hooray!)

Diana:
Gonna get back what I lost there.
Gonna find out who I was.
Gonna open up the gates and let it pour.

Dan:
And if mem'ry makes things better,
Well, mem'ry always does—
Gonna get us back to better than before...

Dan & Diana:
Make ev'rything much better than before.

Natalie: [Dan:]
Won't anything be
Better than before? [Better than before.]

Diana:
I guess is must be...

Dan, Diana & Natalie:
Better than before.
Better than before...