blog 23 Jonathon Humphries

My perfect playlist for life

1.     Don’t Fear the Reaper- Blue Oyster Cult

I like to Begin at the end and at the end we all die. Its important to acknowledge this while living otherwise the end sneaks up on you. Some find this morbid; I find it motivational. Regardless, I absolutely LOVE this song for a myriad of reasons. It needs more cowbell though.

2.     The Mighty Fall- Fall Out Boy & Big Sean

For some reason I’ve been super into their recent album, Save Rock & Roll. This song in particular is one of my favorites on the album as a whole though (which is saying something because I like all of them quite a bit). The lyrics are a deceptive critique on love and how it brings ruin in its wake. This message coupled with Fall Out Boy’s style gets stuck in my head for weeks and is a valuable addition to my playlist just the message is valuable in life.

3.     The Pretender- Foo Fighters

Besides being kick ass, the pretender is important. It condones being the pretender that’s out of place, the anomaly that has its place. You don’t often find a song that confronts the listener like this one does, which is sad because we all should pretend to be ourselves more instead of pretending to be something we aren’t.

4.     Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High- Artic Monkeys

 A guy gets wasted and goes on a drunken Odyssey filled with monsters of the mind in order to try and win back his “girl”. Needless to say that at 3 in the morning it’s not a good idea to stumble to your ex’s house and beg for her back. This tale of failure raises the idea of being inadequate in a semi-comical manner. Its in no way laugh out loud material, but it lessens the blow of its’ rough message with clownish characteristics. For example its title is rapidly pronounceable and complex in a way that makes me giggle a little.

5.     Ghosts- The Presets

             Ok so I kinda lied. I also like to end at the end as well as begin at the end. That’s what life is all about right; the repetitive cycle of beginnings and ends? At least that’s what this beat heavy song is about. It evolves from verse to verse detailing a man changed by time as he conquests afar. Throughout his life he is haunted by ghosts, these ghosts are his regrets. They haunt him so clearly because hindsight is always 20/20 and because all we really have is our past. Our future is forever shortening, our present is as ephemeral as passage of time itself, but our past is solid. Its literally written in stone, forever solid and stable. It anchors us to the past and haunts us to our own graves. That’s why there is a pressure to make our past cherishable, everyone wants to look back on life and admire their handy work, nobody wants to look back and see ghosts.