Disco Dystopia
My Mixtape’s A Masterpiece is a weekly feature in which a guest compiles a playlist around some theme. For Fourths Of July, this week Lili Labens assembles 12 songs for dancing in the face of doom. Read Lili’s thoughts on each song and listen along to the Spotify playlist on top and/or the YouTube playlist at the bottom of the post.
Throughout the pandemic I’ve experienced emotions that I didn’t know were possible—causing me to feel, at times, simultaneously energized and depleted, enraged and exalted. For the human race to beat on, despite COVID and its variants' attempts to wipe all of us out, is both inspiring and somewhat unsettling. The gloom and doom we all felt in March of 2020 was seemingly replaced with a numbness that confuses the senses: are we meant to celebrate evading death by partying, or by further protecting ourselves? With so much death, destruction, damaging legislation, and shameless capitalistic domination surrounding us, I’ve been more hesitant than ever to let my hair down—despite my undeniable urge to let loose. This is the conundrum of a post-apocalyptic world. When you’ve survived the storm, but come out of it so battered and bruised, finding the fun again can be immensely difficult. Pre-pandemic, I loved to go out dancing. I loved the process of getting ready, the shared excitement among friends and strangers, and the delusions of potential that I held for each evening.
Overnight I became terrified of strangers, fearful of public spaces, and indifferent to the act of dancing. But at some point between panic attacks, I realized that COVID, governmental failures, and horrifying people would not be going away anytime soon. So while I stay masked and vaxxed, I’ve decided to give fun another chance, and dip a toe in this wild, weird world once more. “Disco Dystopia” is a grim but groovy playlist for those who still dread the uncertainty that exists out there, but want to dance on anyway. Within each of these electrifyingly upbeat, paradoxical party songs exists an ominous message or a disturbing tone, one that seems fit for our ever-devolving world. Put on your hazmat suit and your boogie shoes, the soundtrack to your post-apocalypse is here.
1. “Voulez-Vous” by ABBA
From the moment “Voulez-Vous” begins, it is so suspiciously catchy and infectiously energetic, you have no choice not to dance. ABBA so aptly explains that on the dance floor, and in life, nothing is promised. This moment is all we get, so you might as well take advantage of it. Its relentless rhythm is so intoxicating that it has the power to place you into a cult-like frenzy, and no one would blame you. We should all pray at the altar of ABBA.
2. “Dancing Girls (Suite 304 Demo)” by Farah
I don’t think I’ve ever opened my Shazam app quicker than I did a few years ago, when I first watched Ana-Lily Amirpour’s horror film A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT and heard the sinister synths of “Dancing Girls” by Farah. It’s the kind of song you’d listen to as you drive through the desert late at night, imagining the possibilities and horrors that exist out there in the endless beyond. Its mid-tempo nature is chill enough to disarm you, and has a way of creeping up on you as you sway to it, arresting you with its haunting lyrics and hypnotic melody.
3. “Love My Way” by The Psychedelic Furs
“Love My Way” is not just the song that Armie Hammer, the alleged cannibal, dances to in CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, it is a liberating love anthem about finding joy in the club and in life–despite both being full of people who are dressed and socialized the same way. To express yourself freely, to love without limits, is a bold and political act, both in 1982 and 2022. The lyrics, which imply the power of sexual and romantic freedom, somehow evoke a sense of urgency as the sound of delightfully incessant marimbas echo behind them.
4. “Nice Out” by Kilo Kish
Kilo Kish rather succinctly expresses exactly how I’ve been feeling for the past two and a half years when she declares that she’s afraid to go outside, but something keeps pulling at her to move. It’s a bizarre feeling to watch people having fun and to feel both envious of them and disgusted by them, but that’s exactly how I felt in the early days of the pandemic, when many people chose to act like the world hadn’t just gone through a monumental change. I’ll forever be puzzled by the cognitive dissonance that is required of partying in a petri dish, but one thing that will always make sense to me are these lyrics: “sweating like a margarita, blistered skin, I love tequila,” because, well, I can relate.
5. “I Feel Love” by Donna Summer
Donna Summer’s iconic hit “I Feel Love” is one of the most versatile eerie dance bops to ever be created. It could be the background music to a murder, a drug deal, a sex scene, a slow motion or sped up dance sequence, or any montage that acts as a dark foreshadowing. All Donna Summer has to say is “I feel love” and “it’s so good” over and over again, and suddenly you’re ascending—not just above the ground but through time and space, to another dimension. This is not just a dance song, it is the sonic form of psychedelics. And like any psychoactive trip, listening to this will either put you at ease or send you to a realm of nightmares.
6. “1999” by Prince
In the original album version of Prince’s “1999”, the song begins with a robotic voice that says “don’t worry, I won’t hurt you, I only want you to have some fun”—a message that would be unnerving enough, with or without the subsequent lyrics about the world ending. Perhaps the most straightforward song on this playlist, “1999” is all about living it up while you still can. Prince is all about having a good time, and while his ambivalence toward judgment day is a bit concerning, it is completely apt for the perpetually-unprecedented times we are living in.
7. “Stupid Love” by Lady Gaga
As a lifetime Little Monster, I would be remiss to not include a song by the Mother of All Alien Lifeforms and the author of countless dance hits, Lady Gaga. Her post-apocalyptic album Chromatica came out, appropriately, in May of 2020, but at the time I was not ready for it. As time has gone on, and as the apocalypse proves itself to be gradual and not sudden, I’ve learned to love this song, especially. Like any good Gaga hit, “Stupid Love” has inspirational lyrics and an undeniably fun melody. I can say with almost 100% certainty that the lyrics “nobodys gonna heal me if I don't open the door” helped me get out of my pandemic funk, and continuously makes the slow-roasting end of the world feel less daunting.
8. “Everything Is Embarrassing” by Sky Ferreira
A significant shift in tone kicks off with track eight, as one of the most beautiful and existential songs on this playlist begins. Sky Ferreira’s “Everything Is Embarrassing” brings us back down to reality, with a message about heartbreak, and so much more. When I had to move back home with my parents at the start of COVID, I found myself once again rotting in my childhood bedroom, drowning in the soft, sentimental stylings of the underrated pop queen Sky Ferreira. This time, though, I had an even greater appreciation of this song, and how its message can be applied to just about anything in our endlessly-embarrassing world.
9. “Oblivion” by Grimes
When Grimes isn’t making bizarre headlines, she’s creating some of the most innovative and thrilling music of her generation. “Oblivion”, along with the other songs on her album Visions, was recorded entirely on GarageBand, which makes its captivating composition all the more impressive.
Like most of her work, “Oblivion” is highly experimental, but it is anchored by a melodically-pleasing sound and reasonably paranoid lyrics that, while detailing an assault that Grimes experienced, seeks to reclaim the darkness that overtook her.
It is one of the creepiest dance songs to ever be released, and it very much belongs on this list.
10. “Tragedy” by Bee Gees
Out of all of the artists on this list, the Bee Gees are probably the most synonymous with the disco era, but it takes a song like “Tragedy”, one with such a sincere message and an angry delivery, that reminds one of their timelessness. I believe that the vibrant musical stylings of the Bee Gees, combined with their boisterous three-part harmony, has the power to stop the world from ending. Even as they cry out in anguish, expressing the isolation and loss of control that comes with losing a love, I can’t help feeling hopeful for these three brothers and for myself.
11. “99 Luftballons” by Nena
Speaking of tragedies, our next song is the only bop on this playlist to not speak of purely existential nightmares, but of a more specific, more immediate impending doom. Written in Cold War-era Germany, “99 Luftballons” details a sense of hope in the form of 99 red balloons being released into the sky, only for them to be perceived as a threat of nuclear attack. To be living in a time of such unfettered gun violence, to be living in a time where we instinctively duck for cover every time a firework goes off, one can sympathize with Nena’s point of view. And for one to have any hope at all in such volatile times is an act of courage that we desperately need.
12. “Copacabana (At The Copa)” by Barry Manilow
While I cannot verify this, I’m fairly certain that Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana” plays inside the elevators in hell. As you listen to Barry Manilow croon about a tale of glitz, glam, and romance over a fabulously cheerful melody, it actually becomes quite a disturbing experience by the time you reach the end of the story. “Copacabana” utilizes every instrument and every emotion in the artistic arsenal, and while those bongos and violins start to sound menacing as the song goes on, you can’t help but groove along to this bleak hit. It’s a song that charms me, troubles me, and makes me want to dance, but it also reminds me that every party must come to an end.
