Discover Hidden Gems: Music After Life

Welcome to another edition of the music team newsletter! If you're a DJ, consider playing some of these on your show; each pick is marked whether or not they are FCC safe.

This week, music team discusses music for the afterlife. This is one of the most abstract themes we've discussed, which naturally means we had a very wide array of interpretations. Enjoy!

Tomorrow’s Gone - Charlie Megira

Over the slow, reverberating guitar picks, we hear Megira's floating, disembodied voice sings out the anguish of a man on the last day of his life. This is a song of what it's like to leaving the world with regrets and baggage that can't be brought to the other side. The man's not ready for heaven or hell, his only wish is to haunt the living for another day. - J.L.

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: Singer-Songwriter, Hypnagogic Pop
• Translated Lyrics

Rating: 8

Meditazione - Il Balletto di Bronzo

Similarly, Meditazione begins quietly with a sense of remorseful dread and sadness. However, the song progresses symphonically and captures the moment when one makes peace with death and see greater beauty in the world. The mood changes several times throughout the song, at times delicate and at times epic.

Also, the music team conspiracy theory is that My Chemical Romance MIGHT'VE been STRONGLY INSPIRED by this song for the intro melody to Welcome to the Black Parade. - J.L.

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: Baroque Pop

Rating: 7.5

Apistat Commander - Xiu Xiu

Apistat Commander continues the trend of a triumphant understanding again, but the world of Xiu Xiu is much stranger. Apistat Commander's unique industrial sound choices and processing seeks to portray an experience that is less locked towards any particular era or place. Most interestingly, Xiu Xiu seems to sample fighting sound effects from martial arts films, which accentuates a sense of struggle.

                                -J.L.

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: Synth Punk

Rating: 6

Peaceful Sleep - Keiichi Okabeb & Keigo Hoashi

In the context of the game, Peaceful Sleep communicates the sense of exploring an apocalyptic world made beautiful again through overgrowth. However, its simple ethereal orchestration can represent the idea of passing of old age after living a satisfying life and enjoying the lasting tranquility for millennia on the other side.

                                -J.L.

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: New Age

Rating: 7.5

CHALICE OF MIND - Yabujin

Yabujin's wide, washed-out synth chords creates the more traditional imagery of heaven, but the melodies are energetic and futuristic. The aesthetic CHALICE OF MIND  feels very inspired by 2000s Eurodance that would often play in the background of Chibi anime dance video. While the Nier soundtrack represent peace and harmony in the afterlife, Chalice of Mind paint a world of endless joy where you're raving with angels and pomeranians.

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: Euphoric Hardstyle

Rating: 7.5

Lucifer Loves Me - Summer 2000

Lucifer Loves Me introduces the album John Krasinski with a short melancholic tune. As the distorted rhythm guitar kicks in, we begin hearing the vocalist echo the title of the track over and over, and a scream faintly mixed in towards the end of the song. We feel the song can be seen as someone conscious of their mischievous life, moments before being dragged down to inferno.   -J.L

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: Midwest Emo

Rating: 7

God’s Light Burns Upon My Flesh - Sematary

If you’re looking for the perfect song to cruise through Hell to in the Hellish car of your choice (whatever you can get down at Lucifer’s Rent A’ Ride) with mind shattering and imagine blistering noises that might sound like if Satan has a Soundcloud trap-metal career. - F.P.

Notes -

• Not FCC safe
• Genre: Trap Metal, Experimental Hip Hop

Rating: 5.5

Destron - Takako Minekawa

The glitchy industrial noises of Destron provokes sci-fi imaginations. Rather than any afterlife describable in ancient texts, Destron represents a digital hellscape. As you upload your consciousness to the cloud in your final moments, the computer glitches, mangling your consciousness and perpetually trapping fractures of your mind in static void.    -J.L

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: Industrial, ambient pop

Rating: 6

Romania - El Huervo

The melody of Romania evokes a feeling of bitter-sweet conclusion. As if believing it's not the end, the song carries itself with a lightness, casually strolling towards the next life. Beyond recycling of soul, the album art and samples of nature sounds also portrays the materially recycle of one's body for the broader world, serving as a hotbed for countless new lives.

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: chillwave

Rating: 7.5

You Wanna See Me Dead Cause of My Hops - Viper

Ballers know the deal when they see me in the place
Follow up, two-hand dunk, nuts in ya face

Viper is often seen as a meme figure with funny music videos and track titles, but few have checked out the more serious work in his discography or know about his god-given, herculean, leaps. We see a glimpse what Viper's world might look like through this beat–suspended in deep swirling water, isolated in a world who can't tolerate your excellence.  To close out a newsletter about death, let's remind ourselves that each day we walk this Earth is another day we could've dropped a new album. Seize the present.

Notes -

• Not FCC safe
• Genre: Cloud rap