Assignment 23 - Tahsen Hossain - "Laugh into the Void" Mix.

This one's a bit early but I really liked this prompt.

The "Laugh Into The Void" Mix. (7 songs)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLg57hD-tCzCnuuTMlPAj63gUpXGogzz77

Description: For those times when the world is devolving into chaos and it feels like the uncertainty of the future is becoming too stressful this playlist allows you to find some comfort in the fact that there is nothing you can do about it but laugh into the void before you.
If listening to sad music is to "feel so good to hurt so bad, and suffer just enough to sing the blues" (in the words of Elton John), to dilute one's sadness; then this playlist ought to dilute one's hopeless frustration at the world by allowing them to feel just cynical enough to sing some alt-rock. It's like exposure therapy to being an impatient teenager.


1. Lake Shore Drive by Aliotta Haynes & Jeremiah - The beginning of the song is the setup. It makes everything seem fine. But the shift to the "Laugh into the Void"  mood sort of kicks in when the singer reveals that he's really talking about an LSD trip and there is no seemingly utopian Lake Shore Drive. It starts the playlist with a playful but not too energetic tone.

2. Four Out of Five by the Arctic Monkeys - Maintains the 70's style of music but cements the "Laugh into the Void" mood from the very beginning of the song. "Advertise in imaginative ways, start your free trial today". This song is rife with criticisms about the unsustainable way we live that's hidden underneath our capitalist cultures but it never really denounces any of it. It's a brief dip into nihilism, a "none of this has any meaning so I'll do what I want anyways" mentality. It talks about a hotel on the moon that has been having problems because neighborhoods on the moon are all "getting gentrified" with "cute new places popping up". Its sort of like "yay we made the moon habitable" only to be like "yeahhhhh... but we also kinda brought the problems of capitalism with us when we did.... so boo".

3. Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino by the Arctic Monkeys - It's rare for me to include two songs from the same album in the same playlist unless its a particularly broad playlist like for driving or working out; for playlists detailing emotional states it almost never happens. However, in this case, it would be a disservice to separate Tranquility Base and Four Out of Five because they flow so well into each other. Tranquility Base has this ominous feel to it, where things that people usually say cheerfully like the call operator lines "Good Afternoon, Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino, Mark speaking, please tell me how may I direct your call." are delivered with what can only be described as a singsong cynicism. The disparities between the song's tone and what it's saying make the audience become doubtful of the realities around them, bringing the uncertainty aspect of the playlist into full view.

4. Way Beyond by Bastille - This song brings the energy level of the playlist back up and sort of serves as the bridge between the first three songs and the last three. In the way of content, it's pretty clear about its dissatisfaction in modern culture. Where Tranquility Base and Four Out of Five criticise its unsustainability, Way Beyond is dissatisfied with how shallow and unsubstantial it is. "Movies and news on television, sometimes it's hard to tell the difference." It reacts similarly, saying "It only matters if we care now" and that "you're way beyond that" putting its chips on nihilism and not caring about anything.

5. 20 Dollar Nosebleed by Fall Out Boy (feat. Brendon Urie) - This song is more chaotic than the last and its lyrics are certainly more up for interpretation but for the most part, it's about doing copious amounts of drugs and embracing chaos. The chorus involves a cartoonish exchange where two characters "exchange smoke rings" and ask for drugs and then demand to be called "Mr. Benzedrine". The few times the narrator in the song is referencing reality and not his drugs, he's criticizing the government's justification for the war in Afghanistan and the geopolitical landscape of America. Almost as if saying "Man if I was sober, I would probably be mad as hell."

6. Desolation Row by Bob Dylan, the My Chemical Romance version - Also more chaotic than the last song and probably the hardest rock song in the album. This is the climax of the playlist where Bob Dylan's great lyrics are delivered by the screaming voice MCR's Gerard Way, this is arguably the best way to experience this song. It better portrays the absurdity of the situation being painted by Bob Dylan's lyrics. While it does have a more complex view of the situation it's still describing a very strange but familiar alternate 1960s reality where people are attending mob lynchings like they were carnival shows, a possessive Romeo is heralded as an asshole for objectifying Juliet, and Cinderella's reliance on her looks to score a rich husband gives her a distinctly sexual connotation. Probably the most disturbing thing about the song is how it trivializes violence and anger like they are the parts that make the most sense and to a sad degree they are. If the lyrics are lost on you then it may just be cathartic to hear someone screaming like Gerard Way is.

7. Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen - I don't even really need to justify this one. It's just a good song. But if you still need something may I direct you to the lyrics "I'm just a poor boy nobody loves me" and "nothing really matters, anyone can see, nothing really matters to me."