In anticipation of this week’s Mayan apocalypse foofaraw, many people have made apocalypse playlists. But no one has made this one. Enjoy it in the days remaining.
Vic Chesnutt, “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” (1992).
We had only one rule for ourselves: don’t include R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).” That doesn’t mean, of course, that we can’t include Vic Chesnutt’s off-kilter cover of it. Chesnutt—whose own personal Mayan apocalypse happened on Christmas Day, 2009, when he passed away at the preposterously early age of forty-five—gives the song all the humor and menace it deserves.
Al Green, “The End Is Near” (1989).
The Rev.’s album “I Get Joy” was one of his most successful pop-gospel concoctions, even producing a hit (a New Jack-style remix of “As Long As We’re Together”). This song bears more than a passing resemblance to the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There.”
St. Vincent, “The Apocalypse Song” (2007).
Cosmic in its concerns, alternately proggy and soulful in its presentation, St. Vincent’s song includes an excellent couplet in its chorus: “I guess you are afraid of / What everyone is made of.”
Elvis Costello, “Waiting for the End of the World” (1977).
One of the sharpest, finest songs on Costello’s début album, “My Aim Is True,” is performed here in Poland, in 2008, where it drifts into a cover of Van Morrison’s “Gloria.”
Sleater Kinney, “Banned From the End of the World” (1999).
The shortest song on “The Hot Rock” has a typically excellent Corin Tucker vocal and plenty of guitar.
Eef Barzelay, “Apocalyptic Friend” (2008).
It’s a love song, or at least a friendship song, in which Barzelay comforts a friend over fears of the end of the world. This may be especially relevant this week.
Phil Ochs, “The World Began In Eden And Ended in Los Angeles” (1970).
Is Ochs’s “Rehearsals for Retirement” the saddest album in history? Is it the most unhinged and desperate attempt to make art mean something in the history of rock and roll? Is it a master class in singing and songwriting? We may never have time to answer these questions.
Whiskeytown, “Ten Seconds ‘Til the End of the World” (1996).
Ryan Adams writes so many songs that even if there is an apocalypse, expect between two and three albums from him next year. This song, recorded during the “Stranger’s Almanac” session, wasn’t released until the 2008 deluxe edition of the album.
Arthur Russell, “Happy Ending” (1986).
Russell’s “World of Echo” collects somewhat traditional rock songs, unconventional instrumentals, and more. It’s all great, but it’s not all apocalypse-relevant. This song is.
The Beatles, “Goodnight” (1968).
Are all lullabies eerie and menacing? Well, this one is. “Now the sun turns out his light”? “Close your eyes as I close mine”? I don’t know how any of us are supposed to sleep after that.
