Music For the End Of The World Part 9: "Mishima/Closing" by Philip Glass, performed by Kronos Quartet

Soundtrack music for the end of the world...

https://philipglass.com/
https://kronosquartet.org/

Music For The End Of The World, Part 8: "Piano Concerto I. Andante Con Moto" by Wojciech Kilar, performed by Waldemar Malicki and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra

Creating a score for the end of the world...

Music For The End Of The World, Part 7: "Peace Is Just A Word" by Eurythmics

Assembling a soundtrack for the end of the world...

https://www.eurythmics.com/

Music For The End Of The World, Part 6: "Untitled #1 - Vaka" by Sigur Ros

Scoring the end of the world...

If heaven had a house band, it would be Sigur Ros.

https://sigurros.com/

Music For The End Of The World, Part 5: "Lower Your Eyelids To Die With The Sun" by M83

Making a soundtrack for the end of the world...

https://ilovem83.com/

Music For The End Of The World, Part 4: "Symphony No. 3, Op. 36: I. Lento - Sostenuto Tranquillo Ma Cantabile" by Górecki sung by Dawn Upshaw with the London Sinfonietta

Making a soundtrack for the end of the world...

https://londonsinfonietta.org.uk/

Music For The End Of The World, Part 3: "Ask Yourself" by Plastikman

Scoring the end of the world...

"I am everything
Why listen to me
I'm just a voice inside your head
I can't help you
Help yourself"

https://www.plastikman.com/

Music For The End Of The World, Part 2: "Summoning of the Muse" by Dead Can Dance

Creating a soundtrack for the end of the world...

...within the realm of a dying sun.

https://www.deadcandance.com/

Music For The End Of The World, Part 1: "Ethhnicolor" by Jean Michel Jarre

Might as well score the end of the world ... let's start with "Ethnicolor" from Jean Michel Jarre's incredible album "Zoolook." This track features samples of Laurie Anderson among many other spoken word sections. It is an appropriate way to kick things off, right from the first howling, screaming moments.

https://jeanmicheljarre.com/
https://laurieanderson.com/

4th of July Night Ride Home

Once in a while
In a big blue moon
There comes a night like this
Like some surrealist
Invented this Fourth of July
Night ride home

Hula girls
And caterpillar tractors in the sand
The Ukulele man
The fireworks
This Fourth of July
Night ride home

I love the man beside me
We love the open road
No phones 'til Friday
Far from the overkill
Far from the overload

Back at the bar
The band tears down
But out here in the headlight beams
The silver powerlines
Gleam
On this Fourth of July
Night ride home

Round the curve
And a big dark horse
Red tail lights on his hide
Is keeping right alongside
Rev for stride
4th of July
Night ride home

I love the man beside me
We love the open road
No phones till Friday
Far from the undertow
Far from the overload

Once in a while
In a big blue moon
There comes a night like this
Like some surrealist
Invented this Fourth of July
Night ride home
Night ride home
Night ride home
On a night ride home
On a night ride home
Night ride home

Thank you, Joni.

https://jonimitchell.com/

"Here Come July" by Scritti Politti 2026

Yep, here comes July...I'm gonna watch the worlds crash, burn, collide...I think we all will. Hang on.

The incredible Green Gartside and Scritti Politti (previously here): some of the smartest pop music ever recorded.

Here come July
The world is there for me to share
Here come July
It sort of feels so hyper-real

Here come July
To test you all before the fall
Here come July
The end of school, the death of cool

Here come July now
And everybody's burning
My summer's high now
The world has never been so happy in its heart of hearts

Here come July
To sort the men from boys again
Here come July
To melt away the need to say

Here come July now
The heat'll hurt your feelings
It's beautified now
The sun will scorch the pavements of all piety and sin

It doesn't mean nothing, it doesn't mean sh*t
How can I be a part of it?
It doesn't mean nothing, it doesn't mean spit
How can I be a part of it?

It doesn't mean nothing
Some things never do to me

I'll mean the world to you
Maybe I could double all the negatives we know

Here come July
I love it makes it hard to take
So why d'you lie?
To me about the truth will out

Here come July now
And I can't hear your lipgloss
No case to try now
The sun will be on subterfuge, iniquity and you

It doesn't mean nothing, it doesn't mean sh*t
How can I be a part of it?
It doesn't mean nothing, it doesn't mean spit
How can I be a part of it?

Here come July now
Here it comes (woah)
Here we come
I'm gonna crash, gonna burn, gonna watch as the worlds collide
I'm gonna crash, gonna burn, gonna watch as the worlds collide

(It doesn't mean nothing)
Here come July now (it doesn't mean nothing)
Here come July now.

http://www.scritti.net/
https://www.facebook.com/scrittinet

"Coming Up" by Active Child

I am sooooo glad Active Child is back after a years-long break. Here is the gorgeous, heartfelt "Coming Up." From his self-titled album, out now.

Give me some time to wander
Through my aching mind
Different names for all I ask
To see the truth

But they keep coming up
A long time now with yourself
They keep coming up
A long time now with yourself

Everyone knows the road
It bends away from you
Infinite love surrounding
All that you do

But they keeping coming up
A long time now with yourself
They keep coming up
A long time now with yourself

Coming up a long time now
Coming up a long time now
Coming up a long time now

https://activechildmusic.com/

"Laurie Anderson: Tiny Desk Concert, May 2026"

Laurie Anderson (previously here) played a Tiny Desk Concert at the NPR studios recently, performing some of her classic songs ("Let X = X" and "Dog Show") as well as a fascinating cover of "Dirty Blvd." by her late husband Lou Reed.

Laurie Anderson: Tiny Desk Concert
Tom Huizenga | May 22, 2026

Laurie Anderson has a way of holding our lives up to a mirror, reintroducing us to ourselves, in all our ridiculousness and splendor. Now in her late 70s, the curious-minded visionary maintains her impish smile; her incantations — on everything from the American Dream to Amelia Earhart in this Tiny Desk set — seem more sage-like than ever.

The idea of playing music behind an office desk struck Anderson as just another off-beat idea. She's had hundreds of her own. No one can boast being NASA's first artist in residence and performing a concert for dogs at the Sydney Opera House.

Anderson emerged from a hothouse of visual arts, theatre and music that commingled in lower Manhattan in the early 1970s. She hung out at Philip Glass' loft, she once told me, listening to "organs at ear-bleeding levels," while staring at the ceiling. In 1981, she enjoyed an unexpected hit in "O Superman," and since then has created thoughtful, tech-savvy musical meditations on wide-ranging topics.

Coming straight from the Big Ears Festival, where she played with a seven-piece band, Anderson pared down to a trio for this career-spanning set with violist Martha Mooke and multi-instrumentalist Doug Wieselman.

"Let X=X," with its inscrutable references, random yet consequential, is from her debut album Big Science. It might be telling us what you see is what you get, but also that it's OK to let the unknowable be what it is. "The Letter," which follows, is from her latest, Amelia, a moving travelogue following the flight path of the famed pilot. From the desolation of her late husband Lou Reed's "Dirty Blvd.," Anderson shifts to brief moments of beauty — a paean to the stars above and a dream of being a dog.

https://laurieanderson.com/

"Soft Speak" by obli

After I posted "Sun Sun Sun" (here) by obli (the nom de musique of musician Chris Null), he released his full length album "Soft Speak," full of the same kind of hazy, trippy, glitchy sounds...it might be the summer album for me...

https://www.instagram.com/oblimusic/

"I Buried All The Answers" by Fink

Another gorgeous, moving track from English singer-songwriter Fink (previously here). "I Buried All The Answers" is from his forthcoming ninth studio album "The City Is Coming To Erase It All" available June 5th, 2026.

I should be sorry but I'm not
Now I'm standing on my own two feet
I should be bitter but the memories they taste so sweet

I know I should be richer than I am
But I spent it all like tomorrow isn't real
I should be yearning for more but I'm full to the brim

I should be in a hurry but I'm not
As I watch the sand of the hour glass
I should get ready but the moment has already passed

I should be busy as hell
But sometimes doing nothing is enough
I should be running from myself but I buried all the answers here

I should be sorry but I'm not
Now I'm standing on my own two feet
I should be bitter but the memories they taste so sweet

And here is a beautiful live version...

https://finkmusic.net/

"Sun Sun Sun" by obli

The lazy, trippy beat of "Sun Sun Sun" by obli puts it in the running for my "song of the summer"... he says he made it "for the midsummer sun!"

https://www.instagram.com/oblimusic/

"Buzz and Tommy" by Mantaraybryn

English singer-songwriter Mantaraybryn has released "Buzz and Tommy," a joyous, thrilling song celebrating authenticity in the name of those who came before us. Called "Buzz and Tommy," he says the song "started as a list of advice to my younger self, but soon became me trying to throw a lifeline to those stuck in a deep dark closet, and also an homage to the real Buzz and Tommy." The sense of the song and the powerful words make me quite emotional ... and that coupled with a powerful, anthem-sounding banger of a tune makes me soar up high and want to dance like a man possessed. Amazing work, Mantaraybryn!

And here are the real Buzz and Tommy. This photo first showed up on internet at least as early as May 25, 2016 on the IG account lgbt_history. It shows two lifeguards, presumably from 1949, Buzz and Tommy. The inscription on the reverse is heartbreaking not for what it says but for the avalanche of things it doesn't--can't--say, all the things they couldn't at the time. Of course we don't know the actual story of this photo and who these two young men were (or still are? they could be alive in their 80s-90s) but the intimacy of the insciption indicates the strong possibility that they were secret lovers.

Tell me now, what do you dread
Are there monsters under your bed
You’re in the closet and they can’t see you,
So why are you scared

Scrolling through topless men
Reminding yourself again and again
They are paid to look like that
We all age and that’s a fact

And yes some of them hate you
But they’re dying off
So go out dancing
Get with someone hot

Do it for those who wouldn’t
And those who couldn’t
For Buzz and Tommy
Writing letters when they shouldn’t

Wallflower crawling off the wall
Sunflower standing nice and tall
Big Buster, now muster
All the nerve you lost before

Get yourself into a good book
Remember how those words took
All the pain that you felt away
Now it’s all the just the same

Are you a tired Atlas?
Are you holding up the world?
Stop, drop, and roll
And it’s a disco ball

And yes some of them like you
But that’ll wear off
Do you like who you are
Do you like what you’re not

Have you done the work?
Have you put in the time?
Broken the cycle
And the family line?

Wallflower crawling off the wall
Sunflower standing nice and tall
Big Buster, now muster
All the nerve you lost before

Could be a lover boy and Casanova
An overflowing supernova
I want you to escape
Be a know-who Houdini
Got chains for days
Are you even breathing

All the nerve you lost before

Wallflower crawling off the wall
Sunflower standing nice and tall
Big Buster, now muster
All the nerve you lost before

Here are what Mantaraybryn calls the main points of his list:

1. Do the things you did fearlessly as a child before you cared about external opinions.

2. Come out sooner.

3. Go out and dance like a man possessed.

4. Even though the future seems dark, you must keep dancing.

5. Feel lucky that you are hopefully in a better situation / timeline than these secret lover lifeguards [Buzz and Tommy] from 1949.

6. Remain kind despite the closet being painful.

7. Time and youth are fleeting. You must act now.

Thanks Big Buster! I've got the dance down now...

https://www.instagram.com/mantaraybryn

"Rock On" by Doublespeak

Doublespeak are a new synth-pop supergroup featuring Vince Clarke (Erasure and Depeche Mode), Neil Arthur (Blancmange), and producer Benge. They are releasing a debut album on May 29, 2026 and this single, a cover of the classic David Essex song "Rock On" (previously here) is pretty amazing.

https://doublespeak-band.bandcamp.com/album/doublespeak

"A Perfect Storm" by José González

It is not random.

"A Perfect Storm" by José González

https://jose-gonzalez.com/

We Are the Boys of the Light Brigade

A very old friend of mine, along with a collaborator, has a new musical project called We Are the Boys of the Light Brigade. They say:

We are two old men, who, after some significant health trauma, decided to do what we want, which is make SYNTH POP.

Here are five fascinating songs, "The Sun," "Stay," "The Burning Bridge," "We Want It Now," and "Seventeen."
Great work, Adam...

https://www.instagram.com/wearetheboysofthelightbrigade/