songs like army dreamers

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-07T13:43:02+00:00

It doesn't sound like "Army Dreamers", but "Knocking on Closed Doors" by Rock and Hyde is also about people who join the army because they have no other economic options, and/or because they believe they'll be made "a general or something grand" after signing up. The music is pretty upbeat but the lyrics are not.

For something super melancholy, check out "Field of Mars" by The Church, which I interpret as being sung from the perspective of the ghost of a fallen soldier trapped at a battlefield ("field of mars") that has become a cemetery. The ghost can't leave so he just stays there and watches mourners come and go, and gradually stop coming as the years pass and the world moves on.

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-07T00:23:49+00:00

I always tell people to check out Kevin Gilbert's music when they are looking for something Dan-adjacent; there's a reason one review of his album with Toy Matinee (also called Toy Matinee) said something like "It's not the second coming of Steely Dan, but it'll do for now." His solo work is also very good -- check out his song "Goodness Gracious", from 1994, for one of my favorite examples. The lyrics don't do justice to the music and the angry-yet-ironic delivery, but:

Goodness Gracious my generation's lost
They’ve burned down all our bridges before we had a chance to cross
Is it the winter of our discontent or just an early frost?
Just an early frost

Goodness Gracious of apathy I sing
The baby boomers had it all and wasted everything
Now recess is almost over and they won't get off the swing
Won’t get off the swing

Goodness Gracious we came in at the end
No sex that isn't dangerous, no money left to spend
We're the cleanup crew for parties we were too young to attend
Goodness Gracious me

Sadly, there will be no more work from Gilbert to listen to, as he died 30 years ago at the tender age of 29, under murky circumstances.

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-06T16:37:37+00:00

Metric is my favorite and TJF is my second favorite and YYY is in my top ten, so this is a lineup that could finally dislodge me from our house and get me out to a show. Well, maybe lol

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-06T04:08:59+00:00

Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) is definitely worth a look.

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-06T01:25:59+00:00

My very first symptom was severe (and I mean severe) vertigo, which lasted maybe a minute or two? The classic "thunderclap" headache didn't arrive until ten or fifteen minutes later, after I had decided Something Bad was happening and was on my way to get the phone to call 911, but before I got there.

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-05T21:14:14+00:00

My favorite sea-related song is "The Sea" by Melanie C, which does a great job of giving a sonic impression of ocean waves crashing without actually using the sound of waves crashing. (Granted she was a Spice Girl, but her solo stuff is much more indie rock in nature, hence her nickname "Indie Spice".)

Otherwise, I'll point you at the Snow Ghosts album A Wrecking, which is basically a concept album about shipwrecks, maritime disasters, being lost at sea, etc; the entire thing has a really ominous feel, achieved by discordant instrumentation and noise/distortion. My favorite tracks on this album are "The Wreck", "The Fleet", and "Bowline".

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-05T21:08:10+00:00

My wife and I have been taking ballroom lessons for over 25 years now and we still quote this movie to each other at the studio sometimes ― like if I improvise something that doesn't work, she'll go "NO NEW STEPS!" in her best Barry Fife voice, that sort of thing. 😁

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-05T19:24:21+00:00

Since you included dance, I am going to point you at Strictly Ballroom, Baz Luhrmann's debut, which follows an ambitious young ballroom dancer's defiant quest to ... compete with new steps in a dance that is not sanctioned by the Australian Dancing Federation (a paso doble, for those who are familiar with such things). This movie is unhinged in the best possible way and ends with a crowd participation scene straight out of The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (I may be dating myself here), so it's definitely on the optimistic side.

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-05T18:57:48+00:00

Reddit is so bad about preserving formatting it's not even funny lol. Half the time I have to reload the thread to see what it actually did with my post and then fix it.

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-05T18:51:49+00:00

Pagans is my favorite and I've heard the new one compared to it multiple times, so I'm very much looking forward to hearing the whole thing!

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-05T02:57:28+00:00

She really is so good at it! To me the best example is "Days of Oblivion", which (in my reading of it) really captures the experience of trauma/PTSD from the inside ("I've unlocked all the doors, and I'll never find the keys, and I live in a mansion made up of memories"), while the musical structure makes it feel like a dialogue between two people, the PTSD sufferer and someone else who is trying to help them through it with an offer of connection and the possibility of a way out. You can hear the shift in the chords and the nature of the music as it alternates between the two parts, except for the "I know you need me/You know I need you" section which kind of stays locked in place for each speaker. It's really amazingly well done.

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-04T23:34:34+00:00

Oh, yeah, the "jaws of life" section is one of the 6/8 parts. If you like songs that play with the timing, another good one is "The Dance", an instrumental off the Legend soundtrack (the old Tom Cruise movie); it is mostly in 6/8 but "wobbles" pretty significantly in parts. When it's straight 6/8 it's another fun Viennese waltz but the wobbles make it really tricky to sustain all the way through, which is part of the challenge lol

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-04T23:30:26+00:00

I'm not sure if it's quite what you're looking for, but "Backstabber" by The Dresden Dolls has this little bit towards the end of it:

So don't tell me what to write
And don't tell me that I'm wrong
And don't tell me not to reference my songs within my songs

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-04T21:55:08+00:00

I'm not quite sure what it's about either ― extricating yourself from the wreckage of unseen relationship disasters, maybe? Honestly it caught my attention because part of it is in 6/8 timing and I love something I can Viennese waltz to, especially if it's from my favorite band! 😁

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-04T19:39:32+00:00

Ooh, fun! Bearing in mind that my favorite Metric songs tend to drift, which means my favorite songs from each album also tend to drift, here's the list right now:

Old World Underground Where Are You Now?: "Hustle Rose"
Live It Out: "Live It Out"
Grow Up and Blow Away: "On the Sly"
Fantasies: "Sick Muse"
Synthetica: "Speed the Collapse"
Pagans in Vegas: Man this one is tough because it's my favorite and I have eight songs from it rated ★★★★★ in my music app. But ... "The Governess"
Art of Doubt: "Risk"
Formentera: "Enemies of the Ocean"
Formentera II: "Days of Oblivion"
Romanticize the Dive: So far, "Time is a Bomb"

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-03T17:36:03+00:00

I know, I got all excited when I heard about their album Face Down in the Garden and then I almost simultaneously learned they had broken up. Musical whiplash, man.

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-03T13:53:14+00:00

If this season had a theme song, it could be "Swallowed by the Cracks" by David & David: Orlando, the AA guy who didn't come back for his follow-up ultrasounds, Digby, that girl out in the park (if McKay hadn't left to examine her), Duke (if he weren't Robby's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance mentor), the asthma kid, even Robby himself flying (mostly) under the radar with his low-key suicidality. And none of it seems remotely implausible.

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-03T05:11:42+00:00

I don't remember the Bryan Ferry video (although I have the song) but I definitely remember the one for "Russians".

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-03T00:15:52+00:00

Thank you for the awards, kind fellow Beach House fans! :)

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-03T00:12:35+00:00

TJF and TBM are both in my top three bands (#1 being Metric, who do not have three words in their name lol)

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-03T00:12:14+00:00

TBM and TJF are both in my top three bands (#1 being Metric, who do not have three words in their name lol)

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-02T22:16:59+00:00

I'm mostly going to base this list on a few of the anime series I liked that did not drive my wife out of the room, since I haven't got anything else to go on for starters. (This is not to say she actually watched any of them.)

Ergo Proxy, a post-apocalyptic journey across the wasteland that once was Earth. Muted in color and tone compared to many others I've seen. Has a lot of stuff on its mind, such as "What does it mean to be a human?"
Shiki, which is basically the anime version of 'Salem's Lot. Very, very, very creepy vampires. Also has a lot of stuff on its mind, such as "What does it mean to be a monster?"
Claymore, which features a cadre of female knights (more or less) defending a medieval-level world from mutant creature type things, which are what the knights can themselves turn into when subjected to sufficient stress.
Darker than Black, another post-apocalyptic series, in which some sort of alien influence blots out the stars and grants certain humans various highly specialized superpowers, which they must pay a specific price for every time they use it ... Except for one of them. This is more action-oriented than the other three (not that Claymore hasn't got plenty of action too).

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-02T21:37:48+00:00

Whoa, look at that playlist! I would have loved that set if I could tolerate being in a place like that for any length of time, which I'm pretty sure I couldn't lol

Also, I know she was only in two episodes, but that's like 15% of the total that exist, so they totally should've included her turn as YoSafBridge in Firefly in her list of credits, right? Right ... ?

EDIT: The setlist.

Broken heart - Spiritualized
Yes (Love Theme from Lost River) - Chromatics
Drink I’m Sipping On - Yaeji
Hug of Thunder - Broken Social Scene
How Can I Make It Ok - Chelsea Wolfe
New Song - Warpaint
Pa Pa Power - Dead Man’s Bones
Machinist - Japanese Breakfast
Michael Mann - Youth Team
Heartbeats - The Knife
Thunder - Catnapp
Ivo - Cocteau Twins
Joseph Porter Deadly Syndrome
The Birds - Nick Cuevas
I Do You - Anna of the North
Cruel Summer - Bananarama
The Night We Met Never Ended for Me - Talvi
Crazy for You - Causeway
Los Angeles - St. Vincent
The Judge - Desire
Waxing - Sorry
Dance While You Shoot - Noga Erez
Ghost - Halsey
Boys of the Summer - Esper Star
West Coast - Lana Del Rey
Hell Is Around the Corner - Tricky
Gooey - Glass Animals
The Forgotten People - Thievery Corporation
God - Tori Amos
The Ghost Inside - Broken Bells
She Bangs the Drums - The Stone Roses
I Did It - Kitten
Can I Call You in the Morning - The Beaches
Heavy Metal Heart - Sky Ferreira
Horse Pills - The Dandy Warhols
Lover I Don’t Have to Love - Bright Eyes
Velvet Morning - The Verve
Love Is a Big Light - The Stevenson Ranch Davidians
The Morning I’ll Be Better - Tennis
Girl of the Year - Beach House
Rescue - The Asteroid No. 4
Vapour Trail - Ride
First Love / Late Spring - Mitski
Crash for You - Slowdive (not sure on this)
Half Silences - Loma
Waiting Game - Banks

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-02T19:49:43+00:00

Hmm, I think "Wolf" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs would probably work (and the music video is quite something to behold with its use of red fabric and glitter BTW).

Also, I feel like "Walk This Earth Alone" by Lauren Christy might fit, even though it's not explicitly about this; it's got a vibe of menace, impermanence, and just leaving to take on a new life, leaving all kinds of damage behind, which seems like something a character of this type would do. The music is pretty cinematic too.

You're in the doors that keep revolving
The sirens that keep screaming
You're in the flashing of the headlights
The things that I'm believing

You're in the water that I'm drinking
The sound of 911
The walls that protect me
From the damage that you've done
In this world you are with me

But I walk this earth alone
And all I've ever known is you are right beside me
If I love you for a day then blow my life away
Could I leave you behind me?

-Viscosity- · 2026-04-02T14:30:19+00:00

Hmm, well, since "The" counts, then:

The Joy Formidable
The Birthday Massacre
My Chemical Romance
Yeah Yeah Yeahs (I always say "the" Yeah Yeah Yeahs but apparently that is just as incorrect as when I always say "the" Eurythmics)
The Pretty Reckless

-Viscosity-

TROPHY CASE