diff --git a/src/components/PlayerBar.svelte b/src/components/PlayerBar.svelte
index 608501a..9609c15 100644
--- a/src/components/PlayerBar.svelte
+++ b/src/components/PlayerBar.svelte
@@ -246,6 +246,23 @@
         return pending;
     }
 
+    /** Resample a heights array onto a different bar count. The lane's WIDTH
+     *  follows the song title now (the cluster hugs the name), so a track
+     *  change routinely changes the bar count mid-hold — and bailing on the
+     *  mismatch threw the held shape away and turned the morph into a coin
+     *  flip. Nearest-neighbour is plenty: the result is a moving start point,
+     *  on screen for under a second. */
+    function fitHeights(src, count) {
+        if (!src?.length) return null;
+        if (src.length === count) return src;
+        const out = new Array(count);
+        const top = src.length - 1;
+        for (let i = 0; i < count; i++) {
+            out[i] = src[Math.min(top, Math.round((i / Math.max(1, count - 1)) * top))] ?? 2;
+        }
+        return out;
+    }
+
     /** The fade, one bar at a time — shared by the rise and the arrival
      *  morph, whose heights differ every frame and cannot use the grouped
      *  clip-fills of the settled painter. */
@@ -492,11 +509,17 @@
                 holdUntil = now + ARRIVE_HOLD_MS;
                 hadPeaks = false;
             }
-            if (player.wavePending && lastDrawnHeights?.length === count && now < holdUntil) {
+            const held = player.wavePending && now < holdUntil
+                ? fitHeights(lastDrawnHeights, count)
+                : null;
+            if (held) {
                 ctx.clearRect(0, 0, W, H);
                 for (let i = 0; i < count; i++) {
-                    paintBar(ctx, i * BAR_PITCH, mid, lastDrawnHeights[i], UNPLAYED);
+                    paintBar(ctx, i * BAR_PITCH, mid, held[i], UNPLAYED);
                 }
+                // Write the fitted shape back so a mid-hold resize composes
+                // and the arrival morph starts from exactly what is showing.
+                lastDrawnHeights = held;
                 lastPlayedBars = Number.NEGATIVE_INFINITY;
                 scheduleAnim(true);
                 return;
@@ -600,10 +623,12 @@
             // A NEW complete waveform arrives on the morph — from the dots,
             // from the swell mid-sweep, from the previous track's shape, or
             // from the progressive peaks the final stream decode replaces.
-            // Only on a peaks swap at a matching bar count: a pure resize
-            // re-lays the same shape and stays instant.
-            if (peaksSwapped && lastDrawnHeights?.length === count) {
-                morphFrom = [...lastDrawnHeights];
+            // Only on a peaks swap: a pure resize re-lays the same shape and
+            // stays instant. A count mismatch is refitted, not rejected — the
+            // lane's width follows the title, so track changes change counts.
+            if (peaksSwapped && lastDrawnHeights?.length) {
+                const from = fitHeights(lastDrawnHeights, count);
+                morphFrom = from === lastDrawnHeights ? [...from] : from;
                 morphStart = now;
             }
         }
diff --git a/src/lib/waveshape.js b/src/lib/waveshape.js
index 169a494..139ad7a 100644
--- a/src/lib/waveshape.js
+++ b/src/lib/waveshape.js
@@ -58,8 +58,14 @@ export const ARRIVE_MS = 1000;
  * arrival — a local file, a cached stream — lands inside this window and
  * morphs shape→shape, one waveform transforming into the other; a slow load
  * falls to the dots-and-swell story when the hold expires. Without the hold,
- * the cleared lane always morphed up from the dots. */
-export const ARRIVE_HOLD_MS = 600;
+ * the cleared lane always morphed up from the dots.
+ *
+ * 2000, up from 600: an arrival's timing is decode time, and the same track
+ * costs ~5ms once the session has its waveform in memory but hundreds of ms
+ * to over a second on the first, cold decode — a 600ms hold made the morph
+ * a coin flip on exactly the tracks it was built for. Fresh-stream searches
+ * take well past 2s, so the loading story still gets the lane. */
+export const ARRIVE_HOLD_MS = 2000;
 /** Resting/queued bars render the muted grey at this opacity — the rail's
  * pending dim, shared so the two lanes' dots match. */
 export const PENDING_ALPHA = 0.45;