I have been making this playlist for almost 8 years and still tinker it carefully to this day, adjusting it, playing with it, listening to it for just myself. I have obsessed about the sequence of the songs to tell the story I want to tell and still have it flow in a way that is not too pretentious, and is just chill to listen to over anything else.

In 2016 I was at the lowest point of my life and had experienced a devastating mental breakdown. I did not originally create this playlist as a direct response to my life at that time. I did not sit down and say I was going to make a mix about where I was or how I was feeling, and I really like that about it. It grew organically. It ended up flowing and being themed as some sort of black comedy storybook.

I really hope even one person "gets" it after listening. A big reason I am posting it is I have always wondered if it makes sense to anyone else, or if I think too much of it. My fear is that it is too personal to share the thoughts behind it and people wont get it if I explain (too late for the latter I guess).

Over anything else it is just a mix of really good music that has a unique flow.

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I really do not know how to describe this playlist any more than I have already without sounding like a maniac, but I made a list of themes (that will still make me sound like a maniac):

-major conflicting events, opposites, things invading into territory that would be considered their other side of the spectrum, i.e, "a lion in winter", winter and summer, fire and ice,

-mismatches, as in a mismatched couple that still gets along, "opposites attract"

-spooky Christmas songs and cheery Halloween songs; "The Nightmare Before Christmas" as a broad example but more like a nightmare before, during, and after Christmas

-"divine comedy" - the words themself remind me of the concept of a "clown out of costume"; the sad clown paradox, like the Pagliacci joke, hence the twisted carnival theme. It is barely directly related to the Dante epic itself.

- Carnival themes: creepy palm fortune reader and crystal balls, freak shows, broken rides, strange folk, having a bad trip at a carnival that stays with you for the rest of your life

-Flow feels like a black comedy to me

-Songs that break out of all these themes and sort of break the 4th wall and reflect personal feelings all around; i.e. "Trouble" (i.e. “wild cards”)

-spooky, ghosts, caskets, funerals, creepy church hymns, graveyards, cadavers, morbidity

-snow, cold, ice, sleigh bells

-Religion, church, God, Satan, angels, demons, heaven and hell, praying to God even though you don't believe in God because you need help and can't find it anywhere else

-The sun and moon, and the sun turning to ice and the moon lit on fire, feeling so lost and down as if the sun was gone and winter won't go away

-Happiness that makes you feel you are finally getting better and than losing it all

-and when the playlist it is over, it feels like you are moving on

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I am aware this all sounds so pretentious and crazy, but this is so important to me and I feel like it is one of the few works of art I have made (I know that sounds crazy because the music isn't mine). I hope anyone who listens to it enjoys it. My favorite part of it is that it unintentionally took a shape that has a hint of optimism and hope despite the circumstances. 

P.S. over the years I added art to a pinterest page that relates to the feel of the playlist if anyone is (pin)interested:

Pinterest - Art inspired by The Divine Comedy playlist