Consciously or not, death is almost certainly on your mind this week. Dead Week is upon us, turning the students into zombies, and the campus into a ghost town. Just for you, the Emerald recommends songs about dying, death and other mortality-related topics for your Dead Week.
Listen to our Songs About Dying for Dead Week playlist here:

 
The Beach Boys – “’Til I Die.” If you take acid during Dead Week, you’ll probably end up in the same state as poor Brian Wilson in this Beach Boys deep cut. “I’m a cork on the ocean,” he frets, presumably curled up in a fetal position on the beach. Wait until spring break, folks. –Daniel Bromfield
Antwon – “Dying In The Pussy.” The French call it la petite mort, the little death – that moment where you orgasm and go limp like a pancake. Antwon understands this: it’s like he died in the pussy, and the way he tells it, the pussy’s in heaven too. –Daniel Bromfield
Current 93 – “All The Stars Are Dead Now.” Current 93 mastermind David Tibet puts the “apocalyptic” in “apocalyptic Christian folk,” and here he’s staring at burning flowers and dead cows stuffed inside other dead cows as what sounds an awful lot like a chorus of damned souls parrots his words. You honestly maybe don’t want to listen to this one. –Daniel Bromfield
Sufjan Stevens – “Death With Dignity” Finally, a song about dying for those of us in Eugene. Sufjan misses his mother, but mostly regrets the lack of intimacy between the two of them. The bummer of the week prior to finals is unbearable, but Sufjan can likely one-up any gripe that you have. –Emerson Malone
Andrew Bird – “Near Death Experience” Here, Bird calls: “Dare the plane to crash, redeem the miles for cash.” This radical, masochistic look at things can guide you through this week and the the last push of huge assignments that come with it. After that, however, you can “dance like cancer survivors, like we’re simply grateful to be alive.” –Emerson Malone
Grateful Dead – “Black Peter” This first-person account of a man’s last day as he waits to die, is among the more harrowing cuts of the Dead’s catalog. The Dead were swayed by tumultuous, trying times; and much like the last few days of a term’s run, the Dead often went to scary, brooding places to alchemize fear into adventure and to make new endings and new beginnings more bearable. –Emerson Malone
The Postal Service – “We Will Become Silhouettes” The brutal fallout from atomic radiation never sounded so blissful. Here Ben Gibbard sings about how you’ll want to be staying inside, because if you step outside, the air will make “your cells divide at an alarming rate, and that’s when we’ll explode.” This week, the Knight Library can feel like a bomb shelter, or a confining sarcophagus, and going outside may be unwise. –Emerson Malone
The Dead Weather – “Die By The Drop” The semi-supergroup featuring Jack White, Alison Mosshart, Dean Fertita and Jack Lawrence perfectly encapsulates the feeling of Dead Week:  “Die By The Drop.” This song contains all of the best elements of the Dead Weather sound including sinister fuzz bass and Fertita’s death metal funeral-march ready guitar balanced by an eerie synth riff.  –Craig Wright
The Dead Boys – “Sonic Reducer” “I don’t need anyone / Don’t need no mom and dad,” Stiv Bators claims to start the 1977 album Young, Loud And Snotty. For most college students, this is the time of the year when laundry has piled up, kitchen pantries are bare and a trip home is within reach. A little parental assistance to get your life back on track may be a pleasant assist. Or maybe you truly are a badass who needs no one. –Craig Wright
Dead Kennedys – “Holiday In Cambodia” The holiday is almost upon us. While the stress of finals week may seem like an unfair torture, singer Jello Biafra compares the plight of an over-scheduled, snazzy college student to those suffering under the murderous reign of Pol Pot in Cambodia where millions of people were killed under the Khmer Rogue Communist movement in the late ’70s. So remember, no matter how great your workload is, it can be considered a holiday compared to an oppressive government. “It’s tough kid, but it’s life.” –Craig Wright