• In times of distress we find ourselves especially fascinated by calm, peace, and plenty. Sometimes in the sense of what we gave up (or was taken from us)—the cost of calamity; sometimes in the sense of what we desperately wish to have for the first time.

• Sacrificial and aspirational utopias: the cost of our current condition and the reward of endurance beyond this time.

• Utopia is often presented lyrically without reference to society—rather, lyricists envision beautiful nature scenes and, occasionally, a natural world growing from the soil made fertile by a decomposing humanity.

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• file location: indicates love in calamity

• digital reference (backslash not an English punctuation mark, only used with computers)

Love

• Love is infamous for its celestial highs and abyssal lows. In the context of calamity, this range remains: there is love lost, love sacrificed, love undeserved, love forbidden, love unobtainable, and love universal. All make an appearance in this playlist.

• Many of the incarnations of love presented here carry compound meanings—throbbing dance rhythms accompany misogyny and social isolation, electronic textures mask ended love, and in at least two instances romance is rejected—once in favor of emotional intimacy and once physical intimacy.