Here's number 5, with a write-up that might not do the record enough justice. Anyway, this is the longest write-up in the top 50 (I said that about 'Bath' too, but that was the longest up until that point. This one here really is the longest). There are few albums that leave a long lasting emotive impression, but this is one of them..
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5. Have a Nice Life – Deathconsciousness (2008) And here we are, at number #5 in my album top 50. The last 10%, starting off with an album I guess many who are reading this thread have not heard. And that’s a shame really, because this is one of the most beautiful albums I have ever heard, and simultaneously it’s ridiculously dark and depressing as well. ‘Deathconsciousness’ is one of those albums that need many spins before you can fully appreciate them, but also one that’s just such a rewarding experience when it does click. Back when I first heard this album (which honestly, was only August last year), I never thought that this album would end up in my top 50 at all, let alone this high. Though I said it needs many spins before it can truly be appreciated, ‘Deathconsciousness’ had me intrigued at the first listen and sucked me in.
‘Deathconsciousness’ is not an easy album to listen to. Its title is quite fitting actually, in the sense that it kind of makes you wonder what’s behind the word. The band name Have a Nice Life also has this kind of sarcastic tone to it, a bitter or dark underlying tone that can’t really be portrayed by mere words. The music on this record is dark, depressing, haunting and overall pessimistic. That the music from this album came forth from depression is pretty obvious when you listen to it. This might in fact very well be the saddest album I have in the whole list, but like with any good art, it does not convey only one emotion, for the music is absolutely beautiful at the same time.
‘Deathconsciousness’ is best described as an album that mixes shoegazing with ambient, post-punk, adds industrial traits and drones and is overall mixed in relatively lo-fi standards. The music has been written by two Connecticut guys that randomly tried to use a bunch of different instruments, allegedly using ‘whatever they could find’. The result is a unique sounding album, that isn’t the most technical or musically brilliant album that has ever been recorded. In fact, I might even say that of all the artists featured in my top 50, the two guys that recorded these album are the least proficient musicians. What these guys did however is create something that resonates, something that is full of emotion and actually very, very varied throughout. The duo constantly flirts between styles on this 90-minute record. Divided into two discs, the album explorers some lyrical themes that have to do with either fiction or reality, but seem focused around one aspect: coming to terms with one’s own mortality and approaching death.
The band titled the two discs rather differently. Disc 1 has the subtitle ‘The Plow That Broke The Plains’ and features 7 tracks. Disc 2, titled ‘The Future’ contains 6 tracks, that are all more upbeat in tempo (not so much in mood). With a total running time of 1.5 hours, this isn’t an easy album to digest, like I said. Also, for folks desperate to hear either good singing or audible vocals, this album is not for me. The guys are not that bad singers at all, but they’re not exactly brilliant either. The vocals are also often buried in the music, muddled to some extent, a trait that makes it hard to hear what they’re singing at all. That said, the lyrics on this record are often brilliant and it’s worth it to keep a lyric sheet nearby to hear what they’re singing. The lyrics contribute a ton to what happens musically. In the following passages I will try to give an honest account of all tracks on the album, but this is not an easy thing to do at all, especially since I want to keep these write-ups at least cohesive enough so that people will read them, but I’ll try.
A Quick One Before the Eternal Worm Devours All of Connecticut starts off the album. It’s mainly an instrumental, save for a couple of spoken words at the very end of the track. The song is built on repeating patterns played on slightly out-of-tune guitars, backed by cracking sounds and a spacey background. If this sounds boring. That’s probably because there’s not a whole lot more to this track. The result however, is a track that is very hypnotising and it works really well as an album opener.
Bloodhail is the first track with vocals and is far more melodic than the mesmerising first tune, incorporating some heavily distorted guitars as drone underneath the reverb-drenched vocals. Pretty shoegazey, if you ask me. The lyrics, as far as I can tell, feature a man desperate to kill god, after he witnesses the destruction on earth. All humans form a living staircase, which the hunter climbs. He shoots god with 75x arrowheads and is successful in killing.
The Big Gloom is probably my favourite track from the first CD and is a recounting of Jean-Paul Marat’s final days. The album cover is, for those who don’t know, an eighteenth century painting by David called ‘The Death of Marat’. The lyrics here are barely indecipherable, but the music provided is gloriously atmospheric.
Hunter continues the story
Bloodhail left us with. God has indeed been struck down, but rather than get angry, he’s merciful and lets the animals of earth eat of his flesh, so that he may be of further use still.
Hunter opens very sombre, with distorted drums in a funeral pace, with slow vocals and little instrumentation at all. The ending is more uplifting and features some of the most melodic playing on the entire album.
Continuing the faster tempo is the next track, even though lyrically,
Telefony is probably the most heart-breaking song on the album. A very depressing post-punk tune, despite the vocals being drenched in the mix.
Who Would Leave Their Son Out in the Sun is probably about Jesus’ crucifixion. It’s very mellow and completely drenched in reverb. The band went for the full cathedral sound here, with the vocals being completely undecipherable. The vocals actually become the main instrument in this 5 minute drone that gets distorted through the lo-fi mix. The tinny acoustic guitar in the background is eerily out of place against the backdrop of drowned vocals. A haunting tune, definitely. Closing off the first disc is another instrumental, titled
There is No Food. Supposedly about starving to death on a post-apocalyptic world, the song features mechanical beeps, as well as lots of volume swells in guitars. It’s not completely instrumental, because you can actually hear some faint voices in the background, though it’s completely not audible what they’re saying.
The second disc titled The Future is much less restrained than the first one, and you can hear that immediately on the first track. After 2 minutes of brooding guitar feedback,
Waiting For Black Metal Records to Come in the Mail starts off with an actual riff an some audible singing for the first time in over half an hour. This song is actually similar to black metal in the sense that it has heavily distorted guitars, lo-fi production and processed drums. The track even contains some faint, distant screams in the last minute or so. Up next is my favourite from the album, called
Holy Fucking Shit: 40.000. I don’t know what it is about this track that makes it so great, but the creativity of actually using a metronome as an instrument on this track is very original. The acoustic guitar is also a welcome change of things, as well as a verse/chorus-structure that you can follow. The middle part is actually the part I enjoy most of the entire song. The song gets completely drowned in distortion, with thanks to its lo-fi-ness and as a listener you get immersed completely into the sound of pounding drums. Up next is
The Future, a track that’s based mostly on electronic drones with various sound effects. It’s the shortest track on the entire record and the only one on disc 2 that’s instrumental, though it does not feel out of place at all.
Deep, Deep is probably the heaviest track on the entire record, even though the guitars aren’t necessarily more distorted in this track than they were in disc 2’s first track. The most driving track on the record starts out in multiple ways, but the almost shouty singing and actually catchy chorus melodies are but one aspect. If I hadn’t limited myself to four tracks recommended down below, I would surely have added this one. The previous track being so heavy actually makes
I Don’t Love stand out as the most demure track of the second disc. Starting out as clean singing, the song soon bursts into the most all-encompassing drone we have yet heard on the album. Drowned In guitar feedback, the slightly distorted vocals sound almost like an elegy or lament. The bass melody that’s the most apparent within the massive feedback is the thing that gives the song momentum and keeps it together.
The final track,
Earthmover, is often named as the best track on the album. The lyrics to this track speak about stone golems, created by humans to destroy landscapes and devour the earth. These machines can not be killed, and through their destruction they realise how futile life is. Obviously symbolic for something, this song’s power does not merely come from the lyrics, but also from its massive sound all the way through. The words the golems would say when they could speak are “We wish we were dead.” This sentence, ironically, concludes the album lyrically, but the song won’t be finished for another 5 minutes. Through a very lengthy shoegazing/drone part, the band reaches the climax of this song and of the entire record. A powerful song, and one of the very best on this album.
As with so many albums in this list, mere words can’t really do an album enough justice. I have no idea how futile it has been to write down all of this, but I hope I will inspire at least some people to actually listen to this record. While it’s nice to write and read about music, it’s predominantly there to be listened to and this album really demands to be listened. It’s an album that needs to be experienced, preferably in full, for it’s amazing. Have a nice life, and enjoy this one. Ironic as that may sound with regards to its subject matter.
Favourite song: Holy Fucking Shit: 40.000
Other songs worth checking out: Earthmover, The Big Gloom, Hunter
Other stuff by this band: After years of silence, the band released a second album after this one in 2014, but it’s not nearly as good as ‘Deathconsciousness’ (in my opinion of course), but I must admit that I haven’t heard it as much.