END OF TIMES TUNES

APOCALYPSE NOT QUITE NOW

An end of year, end of times playlist

By: MATT ASHARE |  

Published: December 26, 2012

If you're reading this, then apparently the Mayan calendar experts, ancient astronaut enthusiasts, and Nostradamus decoders who have spent more than a decade presaging various end-of-times scenarios for December 21, 2012, weren't entirely accurate. To put a little twist on one of Mark Twain's more memorable quips, reports of the Earth's demise have, at least until now, been greatly exaggerated.
    Not to worry, though: if actual history is any indication, it shouldn't be long before the calculators recalculate, the prophesiers reprophesize, and a new and improved rereading of the Mayan calendar arrives with a brand new expiration date for life as we know it. After all, portending the end of the world has pretty much been around since the dawn of civilization. For some perverse reason, it's just something us humans enjoy doing in our spare time. So, whether you're rapturous about the
rapture, apoplectic about the apocalypse, or giddy about armageddon, stay tuned for the next installment of Earth on the brink.
    In the meantime, we've got a new year coming. And what better way to celebrate the arrival of 2013 than with a playlist of eclectic tunes that find various ways to contemplate the end of the world. Here are my picks for the top ten tunes about the ever present threat of total annihilation. I steered clear of death metal and goth in the hopes of creating a festive mood for doomsday. . .

1) Elvis Costello, "Waiting for the End of the World" (1977).
    With punk rock gathering momentum in England, Declan Patrick MacManus, a data entry clerk with a penchant for songwriting, borrowed his first name from the king and added that to the surname his trumpeter father had performed under and emerged as a true force to be reckoned with. It's hard to beat the sheer spite Costello conjures as he bites into each syllable of the punchline to the chorus of this angry little salvo. "Dear lord," he sings, with more than a little sarcasm, "I sincerely hope you're coming/'Cause you really started something. . ." If nothing else, Costello certainly started something with My Aim Is True, his debut album, which, in its original configuration, features "Waiting for the End of the World" as the final track. 

2) The Clash, "Armagideon Time" (1979).
    Joe Strummer and Mick Jones were clearly in an apocalyptic frame of mind when they started work on what would become a punk classic, the 1979 double album London Calling. Channeling the existential anxieties of the times — anxieties that have yet to abate — the title track makes reference to "a nuclear error," an impending ice age, thinning wheat fields, and rising tides. That would have made it a fine pick for this list. But the b-side to the "London Calling" single is a devastating cover of Jamaican dub master Willi William's 1978 reggae hit "Armagideon Time," that really drives home the Clash's dystopian point. An eerily stark rumination on a city in ruins (the Clash tune "City of the Dead" wouldn't be a bad pick either), "Armagideon Time" later showed up as one of the stand-outs on the 1980 compilation Black Market Clash. "Remember," as Strummer menaces, "to kick it over/No one will guide you/Through Armagideon time."

3) U2, "Until the End of the World" (1991).
    If tragic beauty hung around a monster guitar riff is your thing, it's hard to do better than this arena rocker from U2's game-changing, industrial-tinged, Brian Eno-produced seventh album. Reportedly, and somewhat obviously inspired by the Wim Wenders film "Until the End of the World," the song hits a hopeful note, with Bono cleverly crooning, "In my dream I was drowning in my sorrows/But my sorrows, they learned to swim/Surrounding me/Going down on me/Spilling all over the brim." Which sorta begs the question, might we all just be dreaming that the world didn't actually end on December 21?

4) The Police, "When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around" (1980).
    Sting had yet to become a household name, and the Police still had some underground cred when their third album, Zenyatta Mondatta, arrived in 1980, bearing chart-worthy gifts like the Grammy winning "Don't Stand So Close to Me," the playful "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da," and, zoinks, an uptempo, post-apocalyptic rumination on life in the bunkers. "Turn on my V.C.R.," Sting sings, "same one I've had for years/James Brown on the Tammy show/Same tape I've had for years." It's a good bet no one will get any of the references there by the time the world really does run down.

5) Talking Heads, "Life During Wartime" (1979).
    I've got a sneaking suspicion that Sting may have been "inspired" by this neurotic classic from Talking Heads' classic, Brian Eno-produced third album, Fear of Music. David Byrne sounds absolutely manic as bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Franz lock into a rock-solid dance groove, and he ponders his own bunkered existence. "I got some groceries/Some peanut butter/To last a couple of days/But I ain't got no speakers/Ain't got no headphones/Ain't got no records to play." Admittedly, there's no V.C.R. mentioned. But the sentiment is oddly similar to "When the World Is Running Down."

6) Nouvelle Vague, "I Melt With You" (2004).
    The stylized British new wave band Modern English had a minor hit with this nuclear-winter-romance number when they first released it in 1982, but its popularity grew throughout the decade, thanks to its inclusion in the film Valley Girl and some very heavy rotation on MTV. Since it was their only hit, the band re-recorded it in 1990, and then again in 2010 for a film of the same title. But my favorite version is this totally reworked cover by Nouvelle Vague, a duo who specialize in cooly crafted lounge takes on familiar punk and new wave numbers. Set to a swinging bossa nova beat, it places the sultry voice of French singer Silja front and center. And, she delivers her lines, slipping in a coy "yes I did" after "I made a pilgrimage to save the human race," with grace and allure.

7) St. Vincent, "Apocalypse Song" (2007).
    Okay, so I'm not entirely certain that this haunting track from indie songstress Annie Clark's first album as St. Vincent is actually about the end of the world. But she's singing angelically about the end of something as "Apocalypse Song" builds to dream-pop heights and then collapses into emptiness with an enigmatic declaration: "Take to the streets with apocalypse refrain/Your devotion has the look of a lunatic's gaze." If nothing else, it does conjure the disconcerting feeling of time coming to a halt.    

8) Time Zone, "World Destruction" (1984).
    Bronx-bred hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa hooks up with avant-producer/bassist Bill Laswell and the punk icon formerly known as Johnny Rotten (i.e., John Lydon) to record an electro-funk single about the end of the world in 1984. What could go wrong? Nothing at all. Set to a funk groove that's almost as deep as Bambaataa's voice, with air-raid sirens egging Lydon on to one of his best post-Sex Pistols' vocal performances, "World Destruction" is a nuclear age dance anthem that still resonates with menace and paranoia. . . always a great way to liven up a party.

9) The Decemberists, "Calamity Song" (2011).
    This anthemic track from the Decemberists' most recent studio album is, most definitely, about the end of the world. At least, that's the way frontman Colin Meloy is fond of introducing it live. And, with lines like "Hetty Green, queen of supply-side bonhomie bonedrab, you know what I mean?," it's probably a good thing that Meloy's been explicit about the song's subject. But there are also several fairly direct references to a ruinous end in the lyrics, including California falling into the sea and "the lay of Nebraska alight." Oh, and if the big guitar hook that buoys this tune sounds a little like classic R.E.M., that's because Pete Buck played it on the studio recording.

10) R.E.M., "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" (1987).
    And, while we're talking R.E.M., need i say more?