A Song is a Weapon: Playlist

[laceblade]

As I've mentioned before, cultivating a playlist has been very valuable for me. It allows me to think about my fic when I'm not writing: at my desk at work, in my car, while I'm making dinner, etc. It also allows me to get into the mood to write, as I've assigned certain songs to certain characters/relationships.

Ways to Listen to the Music:
On YouTube | On Spotify [missing Yellow Brick Road] | On Last.fm

The songs & the order of the songs is subject to change, but it's settled into this set for a few weeks now.

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The Wolves (Act I and II) - Ellie Goulding - This is Quinn, season one, I think.

Girls Like You - The Naked and Famous - Quinn, as treated by the narrative on the show and her "rich white girl problems," right up through On My Way and the car crash.

Everyone will remember you when you're gone
And your heart is a stone
Buried underneath your pretty clothes
Don't you know people write songs about girls like you?

What will you do when something stops you?
What will you say to the world?
What will you be when it all comes crashing
Down on you little girl?
What would you do if you lost your beauty?
How would you deal with the light?
How would you feel if nobody chased you?
What if it happened tonight?

How would you cope if the world decided to
Make you suffer for all that you were?

Ballad of a Politician - Regina Spektor - Kind of a creepy little interlude about political power, ;)

My Life Would Suck Without You - Glee cast - This and the next song are very much the united feelings of Glee club as a whole, I guess. Setting the sort of happy-go-lucky mindset everyone is mostly in at the end of high school.

We Are Young - Glee Cast

Empire State of Mind - Glee cast - This and the next song are very much for my “New York City” mindset. I love the ensemble use of voices in this song, Finn & Puck & Artie on the verses, Rachel & Santana & Mercedes distinct in the backgrounds.

It's Time - Imagine Dragons

Come Back (Lorn Remix) - ESKMO - This is kind of the “oh man, shit just got real” transition.

Shot Me Down - Bare - from the fan video that inspired it all, making Glee look like an action movie. You saw that, right??

Wild Tigers I Have Known - Emily Jane White - This is Quinn again.

Silence is a power and a tool
For you
...

You keep your heart from your chest
It'll be gone just like the rest
'Cause it's a man's world
Say all the right words
And hold your heart from your chest

Turn Me On - David Guetta feat. Nicki Minaj (I know that this song is actually about sex, but it's easy to take the "I need a hero" lyrics literally when you're distracted & writing, :D)

Power - Kanye West - This and the next song are very much about “the man” & power, obvs.

Handlebars - Flobots

Golden Sand - The Republic Tigers - I fucking love this song. Sort of the ND kids’ answer to the above, but also about the whole “How do you fight what you hate WITHOUT BECOMING WHAT YOU HATE?” conflict (see also: Animorphs).

How much responsibility do you bear
For the ill uses others might make of your ideas?
Almost as much responsibility that you'd bear
If you failed to speak your mind
When it might have made some kind of a difference.
So make a difference.
Could you make 'em dance
Turn your bleeding hearts into some bleeding hands?

Blow (Cirkut Remix) - Ke$ha (I have this scene in mind where Santana's singing this quietly over a walkie-talkie while they're waiting for a bomb they planted to go off, idk if I'll do that or not, lol)

The Bones of You - Elbow (still being in love with someone a long time later, and being reminded of it suddenly! This is my only Finn pov at the moment.)

Who Are You, Really? - Mikky Ekko - also love the fuck out of this song, I would quote it in its entirety. I like the "lift me higher, let me look at the sun" like trying to figure out the truth but the whole song is a little about suspicion and stuff too, and at some point I'd really like there to be a schism between everyone in which they're like, okay is Quinn really trying to take these guys down, or is she just manipulating all of us?

Scream - Glee cast - this is a good song to listen to when angry (omg I listened to it a billion times on medical leave), it's also very much a "fuck the system" kind of song, imo. I think this is still my favorite song that Glee has ever done. I've listened to it more than any other.

Knights of Cydonia - Muse

What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger) - Glee cast

Warrior - Kimbra - this song feels the most like Santana's pov in this fic - her sense of no control.

You're just pushing me down, pushing me down, pushing me down
(They tell you 'Trust your head, be like men' but never feel like you're good enough)
You're just crushing me down, crushing me down, crushing me down
(They wanna take our light, make us fight, but never cry for the ones you love!)

Fallen Empires - Snow Patrol - all of this.

float - bush - I like the lyrics for all of this song, but most specifically:

When I am with you I feel a little brave
The madness and the wars the circles that we run
Confusion we import look what we have become
And all of this time I was just trying to reach you

Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums - A Perfect Circle - At the moment, I view this very much as Quinn talking to Rachel.

Don't fret, precious, I'm here; step away from the window and go
back to sleep
Safe from pain and truth and choice and other poison devils,
See, they don't give a fuck about you like I do.

Marching On - One Republic - omg I <3 all of this song.

There's so many wars we fought,
There's so many things were not,
But with what we have,
I promise you that,
We're marching on

Lose Your Soul - Dead Man's Bones (Quinn) - I need to decide if I'm killing anyone in this story or not.

i get up in the morning
to the beat of the drum
i get up to this feeling,
keeps me on the run.
i get up in the morning,
put my dreams away,
i get up, i get up, i get up again.

My Love Is Your Love - Glee cast - If I wake up in World War III ... And I feel like I want to go home / it's okay if you're comin' with me. Also the lyric, "It would take an eternity to break us," which is the emo title I used when first thinking of a title for the fic.

Moth’s Wings - Passion Pit

Whose side are you on?
What side is this anyway?
Put down your sword and crown
Come lay with me on the ground

Seven Devils - Florence + the Machine - your shit is fucked.

I don't want your money
I don't want your crown
See I've come to burn
Your kingdom down

Blood and Fire - Indigo Girls

I am looking for someone, who can take as much as I give,
Give back as much as I need,
And still have the will to live.
I am intense, I am in need,
I am in pain, I am in love.
I feel forsaken, like the things I gave away.

Yellow Brick Road - Kris Delmhorst (ugh, this is like the perfect Rachel song)

I'm off to see the wizard with his curtain and his crowd
But my hands are not trembling and my head it is not bowed
Cause I'm not looking for any answers, no truths to be revealed
All that I am asking is to show me something real

First Breath After Coma - Explosions in the Sky (a coda)

Babel - Mumford & Sons - &, at the end of it all, they can take it all on & keep going.

'Cause I'll know my weakness, know my voice
And I'll believe in grace and choice
And I know perhaps my heart is farce,
But I'll be born without a mask