I wouldn’t categorize my mood as “wanting to fight God,” although we very well may be approaching such a tipping point. This is a year though characterized by overbearing pressure, a constant drain on the sense, an overwhelming dread. For lots of things. For lots of reasons. This month I’ve been listening to a lot of fight songs. A lot of songs I’d definitely cut AMVs to if I had any semblance of patience to perfectly sync an AMV.

But really, these are the songs that follow after reading a tumblr shit post from two years ago on Instagram, because that’s how I get most of my tumblr content these days.

“Gonna take on the world / right now, I’m taking on myself.”

This is the latest song in my rotation. A lot of my music is informed by the seemingly random algorithm of indie rock and rap feuding in my feed, but honestly I’m not mad at it.

I think what makes this a perfect fight song is the high energy guitar riffs and tempo changes. I think it’s the upbeat melancholy meditation about internal behavior and external circumstances. The want for something to change and the want to keep some of the comforts.

But something’s gotta give. And the question it poses, is what will give?

“And when the magic’s on me, I can’t miss.”

I originally had Dessa’s 5 out of 6 on this slot, but then I stumbled on Decoy, and I think more of the lyrics hit. Although, honestly any Dessa makes for a good fight song.

This particularly one strike me as a Psion’s anthem.

Smokey eye because the mind's on fire
Break glass and pass the axe skyward
Stone the satellites, drones versus battle kites
Here goes the next past life
There's a speaker in a decoy
At the heart of the mine that rewinds, the same birdsong
Tell the back of the line that the digging is fine
Let's get the third shift on.

She is a sharp wordsmith. But it’s definitely the ending that I’m vibing with the most. That flow state energy. That confidence when everything’s aligned, nothing can go wrong.

“Tonight is the night, we’ll fight ‘til it’s over.”

I can’t say this song has aged incredibly well with all of its lyrics, but as much as I felt tepid about Macklemore at the height of his popularity in the 2010s, Ryan Lewis as a producer made incredibly music.

Back when I was into homestuck (god, what a sentence that dates me in such a specific and particular way), this was one of the songs that I’d script out a hypothetical [S] Cascade for my OC, a Knight of the Void. Although, that’d only be one half of the the tale. The other would be…

“The stars, the moon. They have all been blown out. You left me in the dark.”

Florence and the Machine is one of my favorite bands, but something about this 2012 remix from Seven Lions takes up a nontrivial part of my brain.

It’s the dubstep. A perfect audio distortion for cosmic energies being manipulated and torn asunder. This is truly a song you’d rage against the heaves to in the name of a loved one.

“Hold on for you life / dreams are not theirs to take.”

Look, I’m not one to shy away from my roots. I listened to Creed (largely because my dad listened to Creed), and I listened to the psuedo-Christian rock band spin off, Alter Bridge. It’s not on my rotation frequently, but, and this is a true story:

In high school and early college, my big dream project was a mutligenerational saga called ONE DEGREE where 11 (later 13) different stories would unfold from the beginning of time to the end of time, with 12 different protagonists attempting to stop the “American Time God” (a shameless self insert) from destroying the fabric of reality, and each of the chapters of this saga had meticulous songs selected for each of the moods. I can’t remember them all, but I’d be remiss not to include the one I do remember mostly clearly in this set.

Anyways, I forgot March had 5 Tuesdays this year, so I am not entirely sure how I’m going to handle the next two weeks worth of newsletters, but rest assured dear reader, I will figure out.