I love making playlists. Especially when it vibes. I was working on one and it just wasn’t getting there. The songs didn’t feel connected and that lack of flow meant that it couldn’t rip from one song to another. So it hit me, why not make a playlist that captures the emotions and feelings I am going after with Neo-York? It wouldn’t be a soundtrack, per se. I wouldn’t expect to hear “London is Burning” in a Neo-York movie, but the deterioration of a beloved city to violence and confusion is right up the campaign’s alley.
So here is a link to the playlist, with some commentary on the songs. This will be a multi-week process to get through all of them.
“Chippin’ In” by Refused (playing as Samurai):
I remember one of the Cyberpunk 2077 ads had this song playing and I was like, “they RECORDED this?!?!?!” and then I came to find that CD Projekt Red brought Swedish punk legends Refused to do the work. The lyrics are different than what was put out in the books and I always felt like Samurai would have a faster, more desperate sound to them, like a heavier Bad Brains. That said, I think this song rips. It’s quintessential Refused, with a pounding rhythm and heartfelt vocals. I hope CDPR has more on this level in the back of the game.
“Trash City” by Transvision Vamp
The modulated spoken word at the beginning is delightful 80s futurism cheese. The song sounds like a bunch of catch phrases thrown together to sound hip and edgy. Wendy James was an amazing sugar-pop front woman. It’s stylish, it’s upbeat, and unfettered with serious emotion. It makes you feel cool and modern, but there’s not much there, really. It’s a perfect metaphor for the Cyberpunk world.
“Kids of the Black Hole” by the Adolescents
Yeah, Neo-York is a Beast Coast city and the Adolescents are pure west coast punk energy, this song is a slow build to a climax that captures a lost generation of homeless punks. “House of the filthy, house not a home; House of destruction where the lurkers roam,” is every night in the combat zone among the street scum who are de facto refugees in their own city.
“London is Burning” by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros
Joe Strummer’s work with the Mescaleros has a groovy cool that I have loved since Rock Art and the X-Ray Style came out. The lyrics “Too many guns in this damn town; baby flak jackets on the merry go round” were as earnest and pained as they were angry and defiant. New York was once the capital of the world. There are some in Neo-York who remember those days and have no idea what happened.
“Reagan” by Killer Mike
Another slow build of a song. Killer Mike catches the beloved Great Communicator in his lies and discusses the policies enacted that have shattered the African-American community. I honestly don’t know what kind of role race will play in my game, but I am keen to touch upon how the government will take on certain actions that play to a base of support and destabilize a potential threat. The War on Drugs, like the War on Terror, is a ruse to ensure that potential threats to the status quo are demonized and disrupted to a point where the government can do as it pleases. That is pretty fucking cyberpunk if you ask me.
“The Press Corpse” by Anti-Flag
When the United States invaded Iraq, I didn’t really watch the news coverage. Well, I couldn’t because I was busy doing the invading. When I got home, people asked me a lot of questions about things they saw on TV that I had no answer for. It felt like they were watching something very different than what I was experiencing. Despite the fact that the Media role is designed to be a heroic Edison Carter breaking the truth through a wall of lies, the overwhelming majority of media in the Dark Future are complicit in perpetuating the myths of happiness and prosperity promoted by corporate and government interests. Aaaaaaaand there’s one more bit of evidence we’re living in a Cyberpunk Present.
“Maharishi Manalishi” by the James Clarke Five
I have no idea how to describe the James Clarke Five, further illustrating that I have no future in rock journalism. This is a neat little jangly tune that has this interesting sitar-backed sound that sounds really sweet. Then you listen to the lyrics. As best as I can tell it’s about some grifter who packaged up some spirituality (probably co-opting some semi-Hindu/Buddhist style) and shammed a lot of people out of money. Cyberpunk never shied away from talking about religion (I know Night City and Home of the Brave go into it a little bit), but I’m not sure if there have been any scam religions in any of the releases. The Dark Future is desperate as fuck and there are definitely Maharishi Manalishis out there taking advantage.
“Once and Never Again” by The Long Blondes
This song is one that is mostly an artifact of when I started the playlist without the express intent of making it the spiritual soundtrack to Neo-York. It’s a tune that has me conflicted the more I think about it, which is probably why I kept it as the playlist evolved. On one hand, it’s an upbeat nostalgic song warning the youth that they have plenty of time to worry about shit when they’re older. On the other, there’s this weird sense of impropriety that I can’t shake. It started when I was thinking about how it would sound if a man was the singer. It would sound creepy as hell, that’s for goddamn sure. Maybe that creepiness infected how I feel the narrator is looking at the nineteen-year old woman that the song is about, because now I feel like there is this desperate, clinginess of the narrator. It feels like an unhealthy relationship. Unhealthy relationships are cyberpunk as fuck, so the song stayed.
“Give It All” by Rise Against
There were many songs off this album I could have chosen, but this one captures the desperate, back-to-the-wall rebellion that marks the edgerunner spirit. Still, as desperate as the song is, there is a glimmer of hope when they sing “A sacrifice is not what we had in our minds. I’m coming home tonight,” that it’s not just a valiant struggle that we are born to lose. The fight is going to be fought and won.
“Shake Your Coconuts” by Junior Senior
I have had a soft spot for Junior Senior ever since I saw that 8-bit squirrel video on Fuse back in like 2002 or 3. We may or may not have had dance parties to them shortly before going on missions in Iraq. What I love about “Shake Your Coconuts” is that it is one of the latest entries in the subversive pop genre alongside Frankie Goes to Hollywood and The Village People. An upbeat, happy song that encourages the listener to come to their party, get wild, and fuck. I could see songs like this all over corporate radio, with the artists who sold their souls to DMS and the like sneaking in messages that are different than the consumer party line they’re supposed to spout.
“Rise Above” by Black Flag
A punk rock classic, this is another anthem for the revolution. In a lot of ways, Henry Rollins (love him or hate him) is a great example of a Rockerboy. Starting as a musician perfectly capturing the angst of a generation and transitioning into a multi-media talking head and entertainer, Rollins provides a template for how Rockerboys can be used in the game. A song like “Rise Above” is what would have broken Samurai out from obscurity. In fact, I think Black Flag is a great substitute for Samurai in the sense that other members of the band have stayed in the music scene and played with some great bands, but really Rollins/Silverhand is the only one that transcended the band into pure celebrity.
“bury a friend” by Billie Eilish
I think Billie Eilish is punk as fuck, I have coworkers who say she is gangsta as fuck, but I think we’re actually saying the same thing. She makes this infectious, moody, danceable, and amazing pop music. Her attitude towards her sexuality definitely goes against the grain of pop music, further cementing her iconoclast status. “bury a friend” has this nihilistic push-pull that I feel characterizes how humanity and relationships struggle to cope with the strains of modern, post-modern, and Dark Future life. The dangerous, violent, and disloyal future makes it hard to trust someone. Betrayal is a standard trope in the genre. That doesn’t stop that human need to be loved and supported. Our social nature, combined with a shattered social support network, creates this schism and once again, we’re living in the Cyberpunk Future already.
“Romeo” by Chairlift
The last song I’ll talk about this week, “Romeo” is the singer’s challenge to a suitor to catch her and win her over. It doesn’t sound like she wants to be caught, but there is this resignation that if her suitor pulls out all of the stops, she will be theirs. I feel like this is the same kind of push-pull denial of emotional needs that would be typical of Cyberpunk relationships. I don’t think any of them, even the happy ones, are that emotionally healthy. For that matter, I don’t think many people in the world would be emotionally healthy at all and it would definitely show through romance. And it’s a nice, fun, and catchy tune.
On the next Media Monday, we’ll finish off the playlist.
Really like the Long Blondes in here. Tricky but essential?
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