My Playlist for The Collapse

I’ve been a passionate music lover for as long as I remember. The first album I bought was Appetite for Destruction by Guns n’ Roses when I was 8 years old, and I’ve been obsessed with all types of rock, alternative, and heavy metal bands ever since.

I’m also obsessed with playlists. I’ve made hundreds of playlists for every possible mood, genre, artist, decade, and even year — all filled with songs that moved me at some point in my life. When I’m bored, I swipe through my playlists and add songs, remove songs, or reorder them.

The way music affects me changes from day to day. For example, sometimes when I’m sad, I want to hear happy music to cheer me up. But other times I’m sad, I want to hear sad music. I think it’s because hearing an artist express the same emotions I’m feeling is validating. It’s makes me feel less alone.

And lately, the playlist I’ve been listening to the most is called “Collapse”. I love this playlist! I listen to it more than any playlist I’ve ever made, and it’s an amazing experience. At times, it makes me joyful. Other times, it makes me furious. Sometimes it makes me laugh. And sometimes, it makes me want to cry.

Although I chose most of the songs myself, I have to give credit to r/CollapseMusic for a lot of them. Every one of these songs is either about the collapse of civilization (like We Are Fucking Fucked by Muse) or has lyrics that remind me of collapse (like Don’t Fear The Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult).

Here are some of my favorite lyrics…

I can see the weather changing
And I can feel the soul decaying
I’m observing drastic changes
In the way we’re all behaving
I can see the sooth they’re saying
Furthermore I could believe it to be true
Connection’s more important now than it ever was
Buddy, what are you gonna do
This is the golden age of dick-otry
Probably the last golden age of anything
And the ugliest word in the English language is Anthropocene
Good luck, everybody
Good luck

Normalization Blues by AJJ

Blessed are the fornicants
May we bend down to be their whores
Blessed are the rich
May we labor, deliver them more
Blessed are the envious
Bless the slothful, the wrathful, the vain
Blessed are the gluttonous
May they feast us to famine and war
What of the pious, the pure of heart, the peaceful?
What of the meek, the mourning, and the merciful?
All doomed
All doomed

The Doomed by A Perfect Circle

And we know that it’s time to go
Heard the news on the radio
One last round before we go
Through the pain and the searing glow
And the oxygen is getting low
Sing a song that we used to know
One last round before we go
One last round before we go

End of Empire I-III by Arcade Fire

Total disassociation, fully out your mind
Googling “derealization”, hating what you find
That unapparent summer air in early fall
The quiet comprehending of the ending of it all
There it is again, that funny feeling
That funny feeling

That Funny Feeling by Bo Burnham

God creators
Dream destroyers
Spineless cowards
And fearless warriors
Hopeful children
Mothers and fathers
Our blood-filled rivers fueled by hate
We worship heroes, kings and saints
But who’s out there to save us from ourselves?

Pale Blue Dot by Dream Theater

No alien invasion has happened so far
But how would we know when we don’t look at the stars
And the oceans haven’t drowned our cities yet
But soon the fish will all be dead
And the poor will stay poor
And the rich will stay rich
None of this makes any sense
I’m getting sick of this capitalist apocalypse
I don’t think this is the world for me
The things that I own, they do not make me happy
The best things in life should be free

This Is The End of the World by Ghost Mice

One hour from now
Another species of life form
Will disappear from the face of the planet
Forever and the rate is accelerating
All are gone, all but one
No contest, nowhere to run
No more left, only one
This is it, this is the countdown to extinction

Countdown to Extinction by Megadeth`

Back in the head where I see red
Where the beast and the beauty coalesce
I give in to a morbid fantasy
Death to a billion families and me
Give me fire, burning hell
Throw it on my paper trail
And I’ll watch as all the numbers go
Up in a cloud of dark and dirty smoke
Ya I’m just waiting for the end of the world
End of the whole wide world
End of the whole world
Waiting for the world to end

Waiting for The World to End by Mother Mother

Her love rains down on me easy as the breeze
I listen to her breathing, it sounds like the waves on the sea
I was thinking all about her burning with rage and desire
We were spinning into darkness, the earth was on fire
She could take it back, she might take it back someday

Take It Back by Pink Floyd

Is this the world we created?
We made it on our own
Is this the world we devastated
Right to the bone?
If there’s a God in the sky, looking down
What can he think of what we’ve done
To the world that He created?

Is This the World We Created? by Queen

A lazy rain am I, the skies refuse to cry
Cremation takes its piece of your supply
The night is dressed like noon, a sailor spoke too soon
And China’s on the dark side of the moon
Platypus are a few, the secret life of Roo
A personality I never knew
My Greta weighs a ton, the archers on the run
And no one stands alone behind the sun
It’s been a long time since I made a new friend
Waitin’ on anothеr black summer to end
It’s been a long time and you nеver know when
Waitin’ on another black summer to end

Black Summer by Red Hot Chili Peppers

I always knew that we’d be by each other’s side forever
Now our time has come, and I’d be satisfied if we died together
Yeah, our climate’s fucked, we might as well enjoy the weather
Our time is up, and I’d be satisfied if we died together

Anthropocene by Samsa

The sky is falling, I don’t care
I just want to feel good
Her train’s leaving, she don’t care
She just wants to feel good
The World is dying, we don’t care
We just want to feel good
It’s all over, we don’t care
We just want to feel good

Feel Good by Serj Tankian, (Hed) P.E., Morgan Lander

’Cause I’m praying for rain
I’m praying for tidal waves
I wanna see the ground give way
I wanna watch it all go down
Mom, please flush it all away
I wanna see it go right in and down
I wanna watch it go right in
Watch you flush it all away

Aenema by Tool

There many more great lyrics I could have included, but you get the idea.

Below is a list of all the songs in my playlist, organized alphabetically by artist (ignoring the words “a” and “the”). As of this writing, the playlist has 146 songs and is 11 hours long.

If you want to listen to it, here is the Youtube playlist, and here is the Spotify playlist.

• Aerosmith — Livin’ On The Edge
• AJJ — Normalization Blues
• Alter Bridge — The End Is Here
• Andrew Bird — Bloodless
• Andrew Bird — Tables and Chairs
• Anthrax — Among The Living
• Arcade Fire — End of the Empire I-III
• Arcade Fire — The Suburbs
• Architects — Do You Dream Of Armageddon?
• Avenged Sevenfold — Dancing Dead
• Bad Religion — Fuck Armageddon…This is Hell
• Band of Horses — The Funeral
• Barry McGuire — Eve of Destruction
• The Black Angels — Empires Falling
• Black Sabbath — Into the Void
• Bleed From Within — The End of All We Know
• Blue Oyster Cult — (Don’t Fear) The Reaper
• Blur — Out of Time
• Bo Burnham — That Funny Feeling
• Bob Dylan — Talkin’ World War III Blues
• Bob Dylan — The Times They Are A-Changin’
• Brendan Perry — The Devil And The Deep blue Sea
• Childish Gambino — This Is America
• The Clash — Armagideon Time
• The Coup — The Guillotine
• Creedence Clearwater Revival — Bad Moon Rising
• The Cure — One Hundred Years
• David Bowie — Five Years
• David Bowie — I’m Afraid of Americans
• Digital Summer — Counting the Hours
• Disturbed — Another Way to Die
• Disturbed — Land of Confusion
• The Doors — The End
• Dream Theater — Pale Blue Dot
• Eels — End Times
• Emily Wells — Come on Doom, Let’s Party
• Extreme — Stop The World
• Faith No More — We Care A Lot
• Falling In Reverse — Watch The World Burn
• The Flaming Lips — Feeling Yourself Disintegrate
• Flobots — Defend Atlantis
• Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes — Neon Rust
• Gary Jules, Michael Andrews — Mad World
• Ghost Mice — This is the End of the World
• Gojira — Planned Obsolescence
• Gorillaz — Fire Coming Out of The Monkey’s Head
• Gorillaz — Superfast Jellyfish
• Gotye — Eyes Wide Open
• Heart Of A Coward — Collapse
• Johnny Cash — (Ghost) Riders In The Sky
• Johnny Cash — The Man Comes Around
• Kansas — Death of Mother Nature Suite
• Kormac — Another Screen
• Lamb of God — Memento Mori
• Lars Frederiksen — God and Guns
• Led Zeppelin — When the Levee Breaks
• Starset — Infected
• The London Suede — We Are The Pigs
• Machine Head — Elegy
• Marilyn Manson — The Death Song
• The Mars Volta — The Widow
• Matt Maltese — As the World Caves In
• Maybeshewill — Not For Want Of Trying
• Megadeth — Countdown To Extinction
• Megadeth — Dawn Patrol
• Megadeth — Symphony of Destruction
• Megadeth — Post American World
• Megadeth — This Planet’s On Fire (Burn In Hell)
• Metallica — For Whom The Bell Tolls
• Metric — All Comes Crashing
• Metric — Doomscroller
• Metric — Enemies of the Ocean
• Metric — Speed The Collapse
• Metric — Strange Weather
• Modest Mouse — Wooden Soldiers
• Mother Mother — Waiting For The World To End
• Motorhead — Suicide
• Muse — Apocalypse Please
• Muse — Exogenesis: Symphony Pt. 1 (Overture)
• Muse — Exogenesis: Symphony Pt. 2 (Cross-pollination)
• Muse — Exogenesis: Symphony Pt. 3 (Redemption)
• Muse — Thoughts of a Dying Atheist
• Muse — Time is Running Out
• Muse — We Are Fucking Fucked
• Nicholas Britell — The Comet Appears
• Nicholas Britell — The End?
• Nicholas Britell — Hyperobject Approaches
• Nicholas Britell — Memento Mori
• Nick Drake — Day Is Done
• Nine Inch Nails — Capital G
• Nine Inch Nails — The Beginning of the End
• Nine Inch Nails — The Great Destroyer — modwheelmood
• Nine Inch Nails — Survivalism
• Nine Inch Nails — The Warning
• Nine Inch Nails — Zero Sum
• NOFX — The Decline
• Ozzy Osbourne — The Almighty Dollar
• Pearl Jam — Do The Evolution
• A Perfect Circle — So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish
• A Perfect Circle — TalkTalk
• A Perfect Circle — The Doomed
• A Perfect Circle — The Outsider
• Phantogram — Cruel World
• Phoebe Bridgers — I Know The End
• Pink Floyd — Goodbye Blue Sky
• Pink Floyd — Take It Back
• Pink Floyd — Welcome to The Machine
• Pixies — Wave of Mutilation
• The Postal Service — We Will Become Silhouettes
• Primus — American Life
• Primus — Conspiranoia
• Primus — Here Come The Bastards
• Puscifer — The Humbling River
• Queen — Is This The World We Created
• Queen — Under Pressure
• Queens of the Stone Age — I Appear Missing
• Radiohead — 2 + 2 = 5
• Radiohead — Idioteque
• Radiohead — No Surprises
• Red Hot Chili Peppers — Black Summer
• Red Hot Chili Peppers — Brendan’s Death Song
• Regina Spektor — Machine
• R.E.M. — It’s The End Of The World As We Know It
• Rise Against — Collapse (Post-Amerika)
• Roger Waters — Is This the Life We Really Want?
• Samsa — Anthropocene
• Serj Tankian — The Unthinking Majority
• Serj Tankian, (Hed) P.E., Morgan Lander — Feel Good
• Sheldon Allman — Crawl Out Through The Fallout
• Sin Shake Sin — The Mess We’ve Made
• Skeeter Davis — The End of the World
• St. Vincent — The Apocalypse Song
• Sum 41 — We’re All The Blame
• System of a Down — Boom!
• System of a Down — Forest
• System of a Down — Hypnotize
• System of a Down — Sad Statue
• Talking Heads — (Nothing But) Flowers
• Testament — Greenhouse Effect
• Time Zone — World Destruction
• Thrice — All The World Is Mad
• Tom Lehrer — We Will All Go Together When We Go
• Tool — Aenema
• The Vines — Killin The Planet
• Yacht — Dystopia (The Earth Is On Fire)
• Zamir — Bunker Buddies

Of course, when the grid goes down and society descends into chaos, I might not be able to listen to these songs anymore.

I downloaded them onto a jump drive, and I can play them on my portable boom box, which I can charge with a solar panel. Still, the day will come when I can never hear these songs again. But until then, I’m gonna keep listening while I still can.

Some people tell me these songs are too depressing, but I find them therapeutic. I hope some of these songs speak to you, too.

If you know of any great collapse-themed songs I should add to this list, let me know!