Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

From Firefly. Sung by Sonny Rhodes, written by Joss Whedon

You know, suicide isn't painless,
When you leave everyone in pain.
NOFX - Doornails

Strangers passing in the street. By chance, two separate glances meet, and I am you and what I see is me

~ Pink Floyd - Echoes

"To defy the laws of tradition is a crusade only of the brave" Primus

https://youtu.be/AccbAu2KmFg

Now Paul is a real estate novelist,
who never had time for a wife

(...)

Let's put one classic here. One that is sadly more and more relevant these days...

Generals gathered in their masses, just like witches at black masses. Evil minds that plot destruction, sorcerers of death's construction. In the fields the bodies burning, as the war machine keeps turning. Death and hatred to mankind, poisoning their brainwashed minds...Oh lord yeah!

Politicians hide themselves away They only started the war Why should they go out to fight? They leave that role to the poor

Time will tell on their power minds Making war just for fun Treating people just like pawns in chess Wait `till their judgement day comes, yeah!

Now in darkness, world stops turning, as you hear the bodies burning. No more war pigs of the power, hand of god has struck the hour. Day of judgement, god is calling, on their knees the war pigs crawling. Begging mercy for their sins, Satan, laughing, spreads his wings...Oh lord, yeah!

• War Pigs, Black Sabbath

No, this is how it works
You peer inside yourself
You take the things you like
And try to love the things you took
And then you take that love you made
And stick it into some
Someone else's heart
Pumping someone else's blood
And walking arm in arm
You hope it don't get harmed
But even if it does
You'll just do it all again

Regina Spektor - On the Radio

In my life I hope I lie And tell everyone you were a good wife And I hope you die I hope we both die

No Children by The Mountain Goats.
The entire song is lyrically amazing. It's about a divorcing couple who were frankly broken to begin with. And while just reading the lyrics make it seem like a big downer of a song, it's in a major key, and there is catharsis to be found in its hatred.

Our hopes and expectations:

Black holes and revelations.

• Muse, Starlight

One of my absolute favorite lines in a song that doesn't require the entire song to understand the context and subtext.

My time is a piece of wax Falling on a termite Who's choking on the splinters

~Beck, "Loser"

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.

~Kris Kristofferson, Me and Bobby McGee

The people who love me still ask me, "When are you coming back to town?" I answer, "Quite frankly, when they stop building roads, And all God needs is gravity to hold me down."

~Alison Kraus, "Gravity"

Four hundred years later, I learned about my roots, And how they traded in their white sheets for badges and blue suits

~Onyx, "Getto Mentalitee"

Is your mother worried? Would you like us to assign someone to worry your mother?

~Chaise Longue by Wet Leg

You want me to love you in moderation Do I look moderate to you?

~Florence + The Machine, "Moderation"

And the salt in my wounds Isn't burning anymore than it used to. It's not that I don't feel the pain It's just I'm not afraid of hurting anymore.

~Paramore, "Last Hope"

the shit hasn't even begun to hit the fan.

~Incubus, from "Consequence"

I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve. I have a history of losing my shirt.

~"One Week" by the Barenaked Ladies

Dying is easy it's living that scares me to death

Cold - Annie Lennox

I am not usually fond of slow ballads, but Annie Lennox has the depth to pull me in.

I repeat myself when under stress

I repeat myself when under stress

I repeat myself when under stress

I repeat myself when under stress

-Indiscipline by King Crimson

Also:

The music of rebellion makes you wanna rage

But it's made by millionaires who are nearly twice your age

-The Sound of Muzak by Porcupine Tree

Kill him. Fucking kill him. Kill him already kill him. Kill him already. Kill him already. Kill him. JUST FUCKING KILL HIM. FUCKING KILL HIM.

Shellac - Prayer to god

I sing this almost daily when I read the news.

The rivers are full of crocodile nasties And he who made kittens put snakes in the grass - Bungle in the Jungle - Jethro Tull

Some rich men came and raped the land. Nobody caught 'em. Put up a bunch of ugly boxes, and, Jesus, people bought 'em - The Last Resort - Eagles

Insanity laughs under pressure we're breaking

Queen - Under Pressure

A gift shop at the gun range, a mass shooting at the mall

Bo Burnham - That Funny Feeling

(Honestly every line in that song is golden)

For the Dutch: Bokkers - Jezus Ze lup noe met Jezus en dat vin ik gemeen Want zo’n keerl zo as Jezus, doarvan is er maar één Ze lup noe met Jezus, want zien liefde is groot Moar as ik Jezus ooit teeg'n kom, oe dan hou ik um dood

The song is about a guy who's girlfriend/wife has found Jesus, but the guy seems to think Jesus is just another guy. Translation: She now walks with Jesus, and I think that's mean Because a guy like Jesus, there's only one of him She now walks with Jesus, because his love is great But if I ever come across Jesus, oh then I'l beat him to death

I came to the club drunk with a fake ID
Don't you wanna grow up to be just like me?
I've been with ten women who got HIV
Now, don't you wanna grow up to be just like me?
I got genital warts and it burns when I pee
Don't you wanna grow up to be just like me?
I tie a rope around my penis and jump from a tree
You probably wanna grow up to be just like me
Eminem - Role Model

so practically this whole song (sorta half and really half of a half. its complicated) from jethro tull just becomes more and more relevant every year as the dystopia increases:

There's the stillness of death on a deathly unliving sea
And the motor car magical world long since ceased to be
When the Eve-bitten apple returned to destroy the tree

Incestuous ancestry's charabanc ride
Spawning new millions throws the world on its side
Supporting their far-flung illusion, the national curse
And those with no sandwiches please get off the bus

The excrement bubbles
The century's slime decays
And the brainwashing government lackeys
Would have us say
It's under control and we'll soon be on our way
To a grand year for babies and quiz panel games
Of the hot hungry millions you'll be sure to remain

The natural resources are dwindling and no one grows old
And those with no homes to go to, please dig yourself holes

(Don't have to be) a big bucks Hollywood star
(Don't have to drive) a super car to get far
(Don't have to live) a life of power and wealth
(Don't have to be) beautiful, but it helps

And if you choose not to decide you still have made a choice

~ Rush- Freewill

That line helped kick my ass into gear and actually start living the life I wanted instead of sitting paralyzed by my fears

Love is watching someone die

~ Death Cab for Cutie - What Sarah Said

That song just kinda broke me after watching my mom slowly die of cancer

Tally Hall's song "Ruler of Everything" is a "nothing matters and that's terrifying" song. Contrasting that song, though, earlier in the album is "Spring and a Storm", imo a "nothing matters and that's okay and special" song. It ends with:

Create until nothing is left to create

And the Universe bursts with an overworked sigh

Then pretend to, pretend to recrown the creation

And sing the same thing 'til the clouds start to cry

And then over and over and over again

And then over and over and-- never again...

In my opinion, a commentary on how everything has already been done and it's all recycled, but it's special because we're here now, and eventually, on a personal and a universal level, there'll be a last time.

She could have turned out to be almost anything, with the possible exception of what I wanted her to be. Jackson Browne

I must fight this sickness
Find a cure
I must fight this sickness

From The Cure - Pornography

I love how the lyrics are strangely optimistic compared to the rest of the album (in that they recognize that the horrific self-loathing and depressing thoughts presented in the other tracks on the album must come to an end). I also like how they reference the band's name at the perfect moment. Truly some of the best closing lines of all time.

Kismat, Bloodywood

The paths that destiny leads to

There is sunlight in some places and shade in other (Shade in other)

Weight of these responsibilities

Time, a blind blacksmith

Has crafted this shield, has crafted this shield of mine

"the dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had" - Bad Word (Tears for Fears)

"Well, Americans don't care for much of anything
Land and water the least
And animal life is low on the totem pole
With human life not worth more than infected yeast,"

"Americans don't care too much for beauty
They'll shit in a river, dump battery acid in a stream
They'll watch dead rats wash up on the beach Complain if they can't swim" - Last Great American Whale (Lou Reed)

the entire songs is magnificent

The Goats, I forget which track from the album Tricks of the Shade:

Not forgotten like the Arawaks We mowed down a race so an engine could ride a pair of tracks Who cares about the facts we got food on the table Saying thanks because the giving was the reason for the fable

And from another track, same album:

Columbus destroyed more Indians than Hitler killed Jews But on his birthday you get sales on shoes And this is all old news but I'm afraid you can't find it You snooze you lose so I choose to rewind it Offer gun for gold but behold a real plan Using shady treaties trading trickies for land They should've scalped his ass before he even touched sand

Two songs come to mind for me off the same album (therapy, by radical face):
Dead ends:

There ain't no fixing this, but I like that you tried 
Sometimes the hardest part is being right 
There ain't no helping me, but I like that you lied 
Sometimes it's worth the burn marks to feel the light

There’s two versions of this album, a regular one and an “alternate reality” one with the same lyrics but a bit more uplifting of a take on them. The regular version of this verse is fucking crushing, I love it so much

Hard of hearing:

Another evening spent 
In the corners of my brain 
Where I wander off into the dark 
And I close my eyes and hope 
The wolves won't follow me 
But hope's hard of hearing 
So I'm waiting for the teeth

I had to learn that the helping hand 
Can be the same that holds the knife 
I know I'm not well but I'm alright 
You gotta learn how to take your hits 
When your hands are always tied 
I know I'm not well but I'm alright

This one I think I prefer the alternate reality version, it’s just the perfect melancholy song

Sleep Token - Look to Windward

Oh and I, I used to know myself.

Oh and you, you used to know me well.

Oh and I, I wish I could leave myself alone.

Oh and you, you wish you could make me whole.

Sleep Token - Gethsemane

What might be good for your heart, might not be good for my head.

What was there at the start, might not be there in the end.

Do you want to hurt me? Do you want to hurt me? Because nobody hurts me better.

Sleep Token - Infinite Baths

Drift with me, drift with me.

All this glory you did not earn, all these lessons you did not learn. You will drown in an endless sea.

If it's blood that you want from me, you can empty my arteries. Will you halt this eclipse in me? Will you halt this eclipse in me? In me?

Teeth of god, blood of man, I will be, what I am.

Tom Waits and Massive Attack - Boots on the Ground [paraphrased]

Boots on the ground

Cut you off at the ankles

Throw the rest away

A few of my favorites from Modest Mouse:

Working on living, I'm working on leaving I'm working on leaving the living Love you more than everything, loved it more than anything Loved everything more than anything Working on drinking, I'm working on driving, I'm working on driving my dreams Working on living, I'm working on leaving I'm working on leaving the living

• Workin’ on Leavin’ the Livin'

The third planet is sure that they're being watched By an eye in the sky that can't be stopped When you get to the promised land You're gonna shake the eye's hand

• 3rd Planet

And it occurred to me that the animals are swimming Around in the water, in the oceans, in our bodies And another had been found, another ocean on the planet Given that our blood is just like the Atlantic, and how Well the universe is shaped exactly like the earth If you go straight long enough you'll end up where you were And the universe is shaped exactly like the earth If you go straight long enough you'll end up where you were The universe is shaped exactly like the earth

• 3rd Planet

There's a tool for everything A sawzall can set you free

There's copper in the hills, you ain't gotta mine it. Just a pickup truck in the dead of night. Birds of a feather, they'll flock and cry but the metal man don't care which way you fly.

-sawzall v surveillance, Nathan evans fox

Take a look to the sky just before you die.

It's the last time you will.

"And on I read, until the day was gone.

And I sat in regret of all the things I've done.

For all that I've blessed, and all that I've wronged.

In dreams until my death I will wander on."

Audioslave, Like A Stone.

"With the heart of a child and the wit of a fool It's a wonder why i don't try to build a wall around you"

Full Circle by Half Moon Run

Can be applied to so many people, though I initially heard it as "...why China don't build a wall around you", which I think also works well!

Two-eyed lie, is it fight or fly?
I wanna be the shoelace that you tie
'Til the end, will you be my friend?
I wanna be the mountain, kiss the sky
Yeah, I wanna be the vapor gets you high
Yeah, I wanna feel so happy that I cry
Yeah, I wanna be the shoelace that you tie
Yeah, I wanna live forever 'til I die
Yeah, I wanna live forever 'til I die

Big Thief - Blue Lightning

It's a verb! It's a verb!
Freedom is a verb
Something never finished, never done
It's something you must make
It's something you must take
It's something you must constantly become

Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird - Freedom is a Verb

I got a houseboat docked at the Himbo Dome
And a wristwatch that's a pocket knife and a megaphone
And a wristwatch that tells me I'm on my own

MJ Lenderman - Wristwatch

"I would give my life to get some rest

But I'll do anything that Simon says"

Just all of "Common People" really

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ainyK6fXku0

"Rising up from the land of the gator

He's a modern day gladiator

Six foot six angry and mean, a living breathing war machine

Made his name in the rising sun with blood soaked battles that he won

Time and time his hand was raised

As all his victims felt his rage"

"They pass you on the road with a

Smile and you have to look twice

And you wonder to yourself

"Could a woman really look that nice?"

Girls in cars girls in cars

I love girls in cars girls in cars

Girls in cars"

Fuck you all, fuck everyone and everything, you don't know me and you wouldn't want to anyway forced into the end, I fucked myself, I fucked myself again again, I am nothing, again, fuck everything

• F.E. - 40 Below Summer

Sorry for just pasting these, the band always post lyrics in wall of text format because that’s kind of how the vocals come off…

Thou - Death to the King and All His Loyal Subjects

Ascending through the hive of the ancients, crafting candles of ethereal dissent, we are the heirs and masters to the grey throne of melancholia. We are so very worthless, and everything we do is meaningless. Towering, gilded, white pedestals erected in supplication to these raise'ed demigods, detached and preening with conceit. We are so very worthless, and everything we do is meaningless. Everything we've ever done--everything we'll ever do--is meaningless. Attend our needs. Servants, lie in debasement, sustained on the crumbs of pseudo intellect, dime store wisdom disguised as politico philosophy. The illusion of ideology. The imposition of precious ego. No room for opposition. One view rules all. One view ruins all. What was once a strength is now an affectation, a glamour cast over unsuspecting acolytes. But straddling mystery and candor leaves the bloody lips exposed. Reticence abandoned. Mythos dismantled. Blustering malcontents, so pedestrian, so very mundane. Childish bores talking and talking and talking in circles. Oh, you treacherous swine. Self entitled scum hiding in the fog of poverty, the veil of the oppressed. Self righteous ire. Self absorbed privilege. Self aggrandizing dribble. Tribulations contrived amidst vacillating abstraction reeking of guilt and greed. Fecund ambivalence from ostentatious parasites. Deluded vanity inextricably entwined. Instability, insecurity. Flagellants revealed. We are so very worthless, and everything we do is meaningless. Go now to the scourge pits to atone.

Kind of niche music (blackened sludge/doom metal) but Thou are pretty much my favorite band. These lyrics are in my head a lot. The disgust of the vocalist is a form of expression I would make if I had the ability. Cathartic, imo.

https://thou.bandcamp.com/track/death-to-the-king-and-all-his-loyal-subjects

"You look so good I'd suck on your daddy's dick" ~ Notorious B.I.G.

ARE WE HUMAN OR ARE WE DANCER? - THE KILLERS

THEY CALL ME TWO CHAINS CUZ I GOT 2 CHAINS - 2 CHAINZ

BABY SHARK DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO - I DUNNO

I often find it's hard to really capture lyrics just writing them out.

"The weather never really matterered it was just something there was to talk about

We fall into patterns and habits and there's not much we can do about that

Rearrange the room again I want to live somewhere as small as i feel when i fall asleep or wake up"

Little known band joyride! is a consistent favorite of mine.

https://joyride-sf.bandcamp.com/album/joyride

Is this how it is?
Is this how it's always been?
To exist in the face of suffering and death
And somehow still keep singing?

Florence + The Machine - Free

Also:

I did my best, tried to impress, my childhood dream made flesh
And my dresses and my flowering sadness, so like a woman to profit from her madness
I was only beautiful under the lights, only powerful there
Burned down at thirty-six
Why did you dig me up for this?

Florence + The Machine - One of the Greats

Red Dirt Girl, all of it really but this always gets me:

She loved her brother I remember back when

He was fixin' up a '49 Indian

He told her, "Little sister, gonna ride the wind

Up around the moon and back again"

He never got farther than Vietnam

I was standin' there with her

When the telegram come for Lillian

Fontaines DC song A Hero's Death is probably the most uplifting punk song in existence, I love it.

Chorus:

Life ain't always empty.
Life ain't always empty.
Life ain't always empty.
Life ain't always empty.
Life ain't always empty.
Life ain't always empty.

Don't get stuck in the past.
Say your favourite things at mass.
Tell your mother that you love her.
And go out of your way for others.
Sit beneath a light that suits ya.
And look forward to a brighter future.

(Chorus)

Sink as far down as you can be pulled up.
Happiness really ain't all about luck.
Let your demeanour be your deep down self.
And don't sacrifice your life for your health.
When you speak, speak sincere.
And believe me friend, everyone will hear.

(Chorus)

Bring your own two cents.
Never borrow them from someone else.
Buy yourself a flower every hundredth hour.
Throw your hair down from your lonely tower.
And if, and if.
You find yourself in the family way.
Give the kid more than what you got in your day.

(Chorus)

Never let a clock tell you what you got time for.
It only goes around, goes around, goes around.
Take your family name for your own great sins.
'Cause each day is where it all begins.
And don't give up too quick.
You only get one line, you better make it stick.
If we give ourselves to every breath.
Then we're all in the running for a hero's death.

Vicarious by TOOL

Eye on the TV, 'cause tragedy thrills me

Whatever flavor it happens to be like

"Killed by the husband"

"Drowned by the ocean"

"Shot by his own son"

"She used a poison in his tea

Then kissed him goodbye"

That's my kind of story

It's no fun 'til someone dies

Cause I need to watch things die

From a distance

Vicariously, I live while the whole world dies

You all need it too, don't lie

"Why would you let someone else tell you what your soul is worth?" Tallah - A primeval detachment

What if I was to cut my wrists And paint pictures on the wall Of a burning sunset Over a deep red sea Would you see Would you see

The God Machine - Pictures of a Bleeding Boy

La nuit est écarlate, trempez-y vos drapeaux (The night is scarlet red, dip your flags in it)

Aux enfants de Montmartre, la victoire ou le tombeau (For Montmartre's children, it's the victory or the tomb)

Lyrics from La Danse des Bombes by Louise Michel (a recent version with music here). The first verse gets me everytime i hear it.

How you doing? How you been?
Life got heavy didn't it, don't be shy, speak your mind
I'm not perfect, nor are you
But we both got things we been through
So I'll do all I can, to try to understand
'Cause I wanna love strangers like neighbors, I wanna be unafraid
So when the tears roll like waterfalls you can call my name

Hybrid Minds & Netsky - Let me hold you

Amiaryllis' Watashi Wa Ame cover

I suffer in this shallow puddle, while others drown among their turbulent seas

and

But, still i wish that i could suffer the pain of everyone so i'd understand

"I guess it goes to show, does it not?
That we've no idea what we've got
Until we lose it.
And no amount of love will keep it around
If we don't choose it."

Sleep Token - Take Me Back To Eden

Everything is written, we're just reading the lines we're given, like we were actors
Hoping that we make it to the curtain call
We're fighting over bit parts, stepping on each others' toes
But the audience is eyein' the clock, 'cause they know how the story goes
And they're holding on to hope until it's gone

Enormous by Streetlight Manifesto

Molly Nilsson: I Hope You Die

I hope you die
by my side
the two of us at the exact same time
I hope we die
long from now
the two of us at the exact same time

"Jaws at my heels

Mean nothing to me

Knives at your throats

All that I see

Don't doubt me

I am vengeance

I'm built for war"

Vengeance by Converge

Great for those days when I need a little pep in my step.

"Democracy don't rule the world. You better get that through your head. This world is ruled by violence, but I guess that's better left unsaid". Bob Dylan form his album "Infidels" and the song is called "Sundown on the Union". The song is over 30 years old but Dylan saw it unwinding back then.

On y a mis la tête contre une brique Que même la brique, elle a eu mal

Which can be translated to

We smashed his head against a brick So hard even the brick got hurt

(From Renaud, Deuxième Génération)

Rattlesnake Rattlesnake Rattlesnake Rattles me

Often I am upset

That I cannot fall in love but I guess

This avoids the stress of falling out of it

Cavetown - Home

You do it to yourself, you do And that's what really hurts Is that you do it to yourself, just you You and no one else You do it to yourself You do it to yourself

~ Radiohead, Just

Not another motherfucking politician, doing nothing but something for his own ambition.. The Power of Equality - The Red Hot Chili Peppers

Love, love is a verb
Love is a doing word
Feathers on my breath
Gentle impulsion
Shakes me makes me lighter
Feathers on my breath
Teardrop on the fire
Feathers on my breath - Massive Attack - Teardrop

Wanna be loved
Not for who you think I am
Nor what you want me to be
Could you love me for me?
Real love, with no strings attached
I wanna give you me heart
Don't want to take it back
And this is my chat (cho!) - Buju Banton - Wanna Be Loved

"My hand to God

I didn't mean to

After all

Look what we've been through

Men come in different shades

That's how we're made

The little house on Ellis Drive

Is where I felt most alive

The oak tree covered that old Ford

I miss it Lord,

I miss it Lord

These blood red eyes

Don't see so good

But what's worse is if they could

Would I change my ways?

Wasted times and broken dreams

Violent colors so obscene

It's all I see these days

These days"

Just a deep and profound expression of regret for misconduct towards another, a special person, and the feeling of tremendous loss that comes from the inevitable, irrevocable, change there from.

I know it all too well.

Dave the dope fiend shootin' dope Who don't know the meaning of water nor soap

Who knows what this is from? "I know she a ho so I mo go, expose the funky bitch cause she thinks she's sooooo fisticated".

We'll you can spend all your life making lots of money but, only Jesus gonna save you honey

Biram (5:5)

Motion City Soundtrack's Time Turned Fragile - One day I'll fail to breath and all you'll have left is memories. https://genius.com/Motion-city-soundtrack-time-turned-fragile-lyrics

"We'll buy some drugs and watch a band / then jump in the river holding hands"

I believe in this and it's been tested by research, He who fucks nuns will later join the church.

Wish I could stand in the spray at the cliff of your sweet revenge

An ocean of naked serrated marble crushing in

Last Lion of Albion by Neko Case

Let the waters kiss and transmutate these leaden grudges into gold.

I'm standing on a stage Of fear and self-doubt It's a hollow play But they'll clap anyway

My body is a cage We take what we are given Just because you've forgotten Doesn't mean you're forgiven

• Peter Gabriel: My Body Is A Cage

We brag on having bread, but none of us are bakers We all talk having greens, but none of us own acres If none of us own acres, and none of us grow wheat Then who will feed our people when our people need to eat?

Killer Mike ~ Ronald Reagan