The Darkest Playlist

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It comes to no surprise that my Spotify Wrapped for 2024 contains many songs from my “Let’s Get Scared, Barb” playlist. To me, Halloween is a year-round treat like pumpkin spice lattes or hot apple cider. I have dozens of playlists, each with its own goal: workout, chill, Christmas, Latin, yard work, hurricane season – you name it, I most likely have a playlist for it. One of my playlists is entitled “YOU DISRESPECTED ME?” and meant to be played after a frustrating day of substituting a class of impudent students. Every few months or so, I revisit my playlists, add or subtract from, or rearrange the songs depending on my mood at the time. If not, I tend to memorize the order and expect the same songs. The songs in my Halloween playlist, otherwise known as spooky $hit, show up across different playlists as well. 2024 was another year in darkness, sparked by occurrences of grief in the past decade, and because of that, I prefer to write about death, terror, ghosts, ghouls, or witches. This fear of the unknown is a common theme in my writing.

I found “The Hearse Song” after telling my son that my mom used to sing the first two lines of the refrain to me as a lullaby. “The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out/the worms play pinochle on your snout.” He looked at me and said, “Mom, have you heard the rest of the song?” Such silly lyrics until you hear the rest it. For example, “Satan tears you limb from limb/your suffering will never end” seems dark to sing to a child. Tom then asked me, “What did they do to gramma when she was a child? Was it the Depression? Why would she sing that to you?” It turns out this song originated during World War I by British schoolboys who thought it was just neat-o.

The metaphors and figurative language in the lyrics are distinctly repugnant and macabre. Instead, I find it a sober reminder that we are nothing after we die; the worms remain. However, so will my writing. We need to make the best of our time while we are still here, and we cannot ignore the importance of being kind to one another.

"The Hearse Song"

To begin with, this song has a catchy beat. It recounts how evil is all around us, surrounding and enveloping us. Suffering exists now in the form of shootings, plagues, war, and political garbage to name a few. Then the song asks, “What have you done?” And suddenly the onus falls back on me. I must have brought some of this evil into the world somehow, and now I have to figure out what steps I need to undertake to reverse it. I’m not talking about original sin; it’s something more onerous that will require more than a village to erase. It also touches on how the “evil is gonna come” suggesting that our future isn’t looking good either.

"Wicked Gonna Come"

The next song is familiar to many as the pirate song. This was chanted by the sailors and slaves on a ship who were forced to row to get the ship moving. The melodies and harmonies in this song are amazing, and the base line just shivers me timbers. Maybe it’s just this version of the song, but listening to this motivates me and moves me forward, especially in burdensome chores I don’t want to do. I feel like an indentured servant in my own house. It takes a song like this to compel me to sweep, mop, do dishes, do laundry, or rake leaves. It’s not fast, but neither am I.

"Hoist the Colors"

Ah, Disney. Most people are familiar the Walt Disney theme parks, and just about everybody remembers Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Haunted Mansion. In the Haunted Mansion, a slow-moving car takes you through a child’s version of a scary place. One of the rooms in this mansion is a ballroom where ghost ladies and gentlemen dance to a waltz in the style of a Victorian soirée. The organist plays through this song with a powerful yet enchanting melody. At 7:58 into the song, the music goes off kilter and twists away from the norm. Mistakes take the front stage now and lead to his evil laugh at the end.

How many times have we metaphorically danced through life without a care in the world when suddenly a draft of mischance occurs, tripping us up and turning us sour? This must happen in the “otherworld” as well. Garth Brooks muses he “could have missed the pain/but [he’d] have had to miss the dance.” However, the otherworld ghosts in this ballroom continue to dance, even after they have ceased breathing. They look happy as the music continues to play, whirling around in their dresses and tuxedoes. The evil laugh is no longer ominous as the people step lively.

"Otherworldly Concerto"

There’s a question going around in social media platforms asking if Diehard is a Christmas movie since it takes place during Christmas. By that logic, Nightmare Before Christmas is a Christmas movie. Although the movie (and theme song) is more than twenty years old, it still vibes with me. Jack sees something that he likes, and it inspires him to re-create that festive spirit in his own world. His vision is utopian, but it soon falls apart. When it goes awry, he gets help from the person he first admired, Santa Claus. Of course, in Halloweentown, the citizens remind us that they’re not mean, just different. All the different “towns” played their parts when the time was right.We just forget who we are and how we fit together as cogs in the wheel.

"This is Halloween"

The next song by Midnight Syndicate is entitled “Haverghast Asylum.” It makes me think we’re all inmates in this giant unseen asylum. Today’s world is just as chaotic as it always has been and now seems more confusing than ever. The designs, the lines, and the shapes that we’ve all become familiar with are now being folded inside out like insane origami by those in power. A lot of this is of our own making. We’ve drawn ourselves into a maze, and we can’t get out.

"Haverghast Asylum"

Breaking down the song title “Sanctuary of Shadows,” we start off with word “sanctuary,” where one definition is “a place of refuge and protection” (Merriam-Webster). For me, this is the perfect description of music like this. A definition of shadows is “shelter from danger or observation” as opposed to the next definition of “a source of gloom or unhappiness.” Music has always been a refuge for me; I can retreat with noise-cancelling headphones and make the dissonance of the world disappear. I can spend time with what people call dreary music, clarifying situations and seeking solutions. Songs like this take the rust off problems so that the chrome shines through. The group is named Nox Arcana which is Latin for “mysterious night.” Many of the stories I write involve such mysterious nights and nightmares which make this music more meaningful and inspiring to me.

"Sanctuary of Shadows"

This brings us to the last song in this collection. “Time Has No Meaning Here” is perhaps the gloomiest song musically without any lyrics. It begins with constant percussive sounds, like clanking or striking something, and reminds me of something coming closer to me. The plaintive melody overlays this constant jarring sound punctuated by a single low piano note, running parallel to and contrasting with each other. The sound of breathing breaks in a few times. What is coming toward me? Is it a zombie? A poltergeist? Death? A second piano melody appears like the dawn of hope coming from an unexpected source, skittering around into a minor key, throwing confusion into the mix. With no clear resolution, it’s mesmerizing. In death, time has no meaning; eternity is infinite.

"Time Has No Meaning Here"