Hello and welcome to Jon's guide to the sound of the apocalypse. Well... my personal apocalypse at least. Or the songs that touched me during 2019, my thirty-third year on this planet, and the time at which this story was written. Over time, the years blend together. What remains is the music and the people. That's life, I guess.
A Day in the Life, The Beatles - a classic, of course, but I almost went with "I heard the news today, oh boy", which would have made it Young Americans by David Bowie. I wanted it to be Young Americans but all I could think of was everyone assuming I'd gotten the (more famous) Beatles lyrics wrong, and frankly I couldn't stomach the comments.
Paris 1919, John Cale - truly, a secret masterpiece. This was a shock discovery thanks to Spotify, and in the opening seconds - from the moment the strings and horn cut in with a desperate urgency that brings to mind steam engines and a turning century - I was instantly hooked. How more people don't know about, and worship, this song I do not know.
Turning Back, Pictish Trail - my absolute song of the year. And a difficult year, at that - and we're talking pre-coronavirus, when the only things troubling me were of my own making. Heartbreaking and beautiful, Turning Back is about a perfect, unexpected moment and desperately trying to hold onto it before it vanishes, willing the clock to stretch seconds into an eternity.
New reader? Visit the archive and enter the world of Afterlife Inc. 
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The Great Gig in the Sky – Page 76
Hello and welcome to Jon's guide to the sound of the apocalypse. Well... my personal apocalypse at least. Or the songs that touched me during 2019, my thirty-third year on this planet, and the time at which this story was written. Over time, the years blend together. What remains is the music and the people. That's life, I guess.
A Day in the Life, The Beatles - a classic, of course, but I almost went with "I heard the news today, oh boy", which would have made it Young Americans by David Bowie. I wanted it to be Young Americans but all I could think of was everyone assuming I'd gotten the (more famous) Beatles lyrics wrong, and frankly I couldn't stomach the comments.
Paris 1919, John Cale - truly, a secret masterpiece. This was a shock discovery thanks to Spotify, and in the opening seconds - from the moment the strings and horn cut in with a desperate urgency that brings to mind steam engines and a turning century - I was instantly hooked. How more people don't know about, and worship, this song I do not know.
Turning Back, Pictish Trail - my absolute song of the year. And a difficult year, at that - and we're talking pre-coronavirus, when the only things troubling me were of my own making. Heartbreaking and beautiful, Turning Back is about a perfect, unexpected moment and desperately trying to hold onto it before it vanishes, willing the clock to stretch seconds into an eternity.
New reader? Visit the archive and enter the world of Afterlife Inc. 
