Playlist for The Way of the Cicadas

Here are the songs that I listened to while I drafted The Way of the Cicadas. Here's the link to the Spotify playlist.

A lot of these songs have elements about life getting worse or the end of the world. Modest Mouse especially has a lot of songs like this, with lyrics like “Well sure as planets come, I know that they end” and “I don’t want none/ of that Mad Max Bullshit” and “spend some time to float in outer space/ Find another planet, make the same mistakes.” However, I left the mood-killers off (like the amazing but really sad “The Good That Won’t Come out” by Rilo Kiley).

I saw The Killers live performing “The Calling.” It was super inspiring for this novel because on the background of the stage they projected apocalyptic images—thunder clouds, angry preachers, locusts, atomic bombs going off. But “Wonderful Wonderful” is the one that really got me. It sets the perfect tone, and it’s always the first song I listen to as I’m starting to write.

  • Wonderful Wonderful/ The Killers

  • How/ The Neighborhood

  • Radioactive/ Imagine Dragons (Reader, I had to.)

  • Lampshades on Fire/ Modest Mouse

  • High by the Beach/ Lana Del Rey

  • Animal Instinct/ The Cranberries

  • Perfect Symmetry/Keane

  • New Americana/ Halsey

  • Fire/ Louis the Child, Evalyn

  • Beautiful Now/ Zedd, Jon Bellion (If you don’t understand why I picked this one, watch the music video.)

  • Satin in a Coffin/ Modest Mouse

  • begin again/ Purity Ring

  • A Rush Of Blood To The Head/ Coldplay

  • America/ XYLØ

  • Jerome/ Zella Day

  • Shadow Preachers/ Zella Day

  • Broken/ Lund

  • Contagious/ Night Riots

  • Railroad Track/ Willy Moon

  • #Grownupz/ FEiN

  • Skyfall (Acoustic)/ Jocelyn Scofield  (I like this version better than the original)

  • Emperor’s New Clothes/ Panic! At The Disco

  • Sweetheart/ Micachu & The Shapes (This one is so weird, and I love it)

  • Heathens/ Twenty One Pilots

  • The Calling/ The Killers

  • Only Love/ Anthony Green

  • Live While I Breathe/ The Moth & The Flame

  • Sparks/ The Dø

  • Youth- Adventure Club Remix/ Foxes, Adventure Club

  • Never Been in Love (RAC)/ Elliphant, RAC

  • Bury Me With it/ Modest Mouse

  • Hollow Life/ Coast Modern

  • Brighter than the Sun/ Brick + Mortar  (By the way, this is the world’s most underrated band.)

  • Coattails/ Broods

  • Go/ Grimes, Blood Diamonds

  • 9th Pawn/ OHO

  • Down/ Marian Hill

  • The Suburbs/ Mr Little Jeans (I like this 100x more than the original.)

  • Girls Your Age/ Transviolet (Chills every time.)

  • Born to Die/ Lana Del Rey

  • Broadripple Is Burning/ Margot & The Nuclear So And Sos

  • Carousel Ride/ Rubblebucket

  • Drop The Game/ Flume, Chet Faker

Audrey Henleywriting, write tip, inspiration, musicComment