Chapter Text
DISC TWO: NIGHT || youtube playlist || spotify playlist CW: 813
I'm sinkin' like a stone in the sea
I'm burning like a bridge for your body
I chose this track to open Disc Two because the lyrics works as a neat thematic callback to a certain scene in SHL, which *also* has some depressingly ominous mirrors to their RL situation. Everything from this track onwards is probably going to be a downer so, uh sorry about that.
Placebo - Running Up That Hill || lyrics
It doesn't hurt me
You want to feel how it feels?
You want to know, know that it doesn't hurt me?
You want to hear about the deal I'm making?
You (be running up that hill)
You and me (be running up that hill)
And if I only could
Make a deal with God
I'd get him to swap our places
Be running up that road
Be running up that hill
Be running up that building
If I only could, oh
The anger and the hopelessness of this cover makes this a perfect fit, such that everyone and their grandma already probably had this as their pick for a post-813 playlist already.
Radiohead - Sit Down, Stand Up || lyrics
Sit down, stand up
Sit down, stand up
Walk into the jaws of hell (Sit down)
Walk into the jaws of hell (Stand up)
Anytime (Sit down)
Anytime (Stand up)
Sit down, stand up
Sit down
We can wipe you out anytime (Stand up)
We can wipe you out (Sit down)
Radiohead at their weirdest is a perfect soundtrack for everyone in their coffins in August and September. "Hail to the Thief" was a very politically-charged album with explicit allusions to 1984, just to throw out a fun fact with absolutely no bearing on Current Real Life Goings On, I'm sure.
I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME - Choke || lyrics
You get everything you want
And money always talks
To the idiot savants
Yeah, yeah
Now shut your dirty mouth
If I could burn this town
I wouldn't hesitate
To smile while you suffocate and die
And that would be just fine
And what a lovely time
That it would surely be
So bite your tongue and choke yourself to sleep
Speaking of anger! The cheerfulest song about systemic injustice and murder you ever did hear. You ever have one of those days where you just want to tear the whole world down because it dared to harm a hair on the head of your loved ones? I think GJ can relate.
Keane - Somewhere Only We Know || lyrics
I came across a fallen tree
I felt the branches of it looking at me
Is this the place we used to love?
Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?
Oh simple thing where have you gone?
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin
Coming back to Hengdian where it all began, but now with the shadow of him and with memories of your days together around every corner and every street.
Imagine Dragons - Wrecked || lyrics
Days pass by and my eyes stay dry, and I think that I'm okay
'Til I find myself in conversation, fading away
The way you smile, the way you walk
The time you took to teach me all that you had taught
Tell me, how am I supposed to move on?
These days I'm becoming everything that I hate
Wishing you were around but now it's too late
My mind is a place that I can't escape your ghost
This is very explicitly a song about grief and mourning after the passing of a loved one - any commentary I could make would be pretty extraneous :(
Joseph Arthur - Honey and the Moon || lyrics
Remember when we first met
And everything was still a bet
In love's game
You would call, I'd call you back
And then I'd leave
A message
On your answering machine
But right now, everything is turning blue
And right now, the sun is trying to kill the moon
And right now, I wish I could follow you
To the shores, of freedom, where no one lives
C-Ent can be a total shithole, if we all aren't perfectly clear on that point by now. And yet somehow, the moon survives to shine another day.
Hozier - Wasteland, Baby! || lyrics
Be still, my indelible friend, you are unbreaking
Though quaking, though crazy
That's just wasteland, baby
And that day that we'll watch the death of the sun
That the cloud and the cold and those jeans you have on
And you'll gaze unafraid as they sob from the city roofs
The world ends; somehow, life goes on. (There's a lot of beautiful but haunting apocalyptic imagery in this song, and I really deliberated heavily in cutting this track because I initially thought it was too overwrought, but fuck it, if the complete erasure of an innocent man from public life isn't an apocalyptic event then what is?)
Elbow - One Day Like This || lyrics
'Cause holy cow, I love your eyes
And only now I see the light
Yeah, lying with you half awake
Stumbling over what to say
Well, anyway, it's looking like a beautiful day
Beautiful mornings still do come even in the darkest of times. Remember when GJXM had a livestream after all the shit went down and he was like "🥺 this song represents my current mood 🥺" and it was pretty explicitly a love song? 🙃
Snow Patrol - Life and Death || lyrics
I will turn the light on
I will turn the light on everywhere
And I'll watch you lift your head up
Higher than it was before
No, I don't know how it ends
For both of us
But why would you need to know the end, my dear?
A declaration of intent. Keeping your memory alive in bold, unafraid defiance of those who wanted to erase you. GJXM best and bravest laogong.
Ani DiFranco - Willing to Fight || lyrics
I was a long time coming
I'll be a long time gone
You've got your whole life to do something
And that's not very long
So why don't you give me a call
When you're willing to fight
For what you think is real
For what you think is right
"I understand. Thank you Li-laoshi for giving me this chance to speak and defend myself. I also want to thank all the netizens and legal professionals following this matter. I am willing to be investigated and questioned. I also hope that, I also hope that my innocence can be returned to me." (My heart and emotions are just too much of a mess at this point to write any longer commentary, but you best believe that this is the one track on this fanmix whose inclusion I thought was non-negotiable. Additionally, on a meta note, you'll notice that this is the first and only song in Disc Two that is by a female singer. This is very deliberate.)
Ok Go - This Will Be Our Year || lyrics
The warmth of your love's like the warmth of the sun,
And this will be our year, took a long time to come.
Don't let go of my hand now darkness is gone,
And this will be our year, took a long time to come.
And I wont forget the way you held me
Up when I was down.
And I wont forget the way you said
'Darling, I love you',
you gave me faith to go on
Now we're there,
And we've only just begun.
This will be our year,
Took a long time to come.
As of the time of writing (August 2022), everything's still very much up in the air. But I am persistently optimistic that there will be a time in the very near future where the choice of this track will be prescient.
OUTRO: Explosions in the Sky - Your Hand in Mine
A breath; exhale; after the battle ends.