As I sit listening to these tunes, I realise they are all pretty intense in subject matter. I know it’s Friday and usually folks pop in the party mix, but if you find yourself with a spare hour and you’re looking for an intense ride, then this is the playlist for you.

1. Prostitute – Guns ‘N Roses

The last song on the Chinese Democracy album, possibly my favourite track of them all.

What would you say
If I told you that I’m to blame?
And what would you do
If I had to deny your name?
Where would you go if I told you
I love you
And then walked away?
N’ who should I turn to
If not for the ones
You could not save

Awesome!

2. Like a Stone – Audioslave

I love everything about this song, the drums, the bass, the awesome guitar solo and the lyrics.

On a cobweb afternoon in a room full of emptiness
By a freeway, I confess I was lost in the pages
Of a book full of death, reading how we’ll die alone
And if we’re good, we’ll lay to rest anywhere we want to go

3. Shake Me Down – Cage the Elephant

Pretty melancholy stuff, but it reminds to appreciate the people in my life now and to appreciate my life as it now, no time for wistful thinking about the past or wishful thinking about some distant future.

4. Stuck – The Heavy:

Love, man,  is brutal.  This song speaks to those trying to hang on to a relationship that has clearly run it’s course, but one person doesn’t want to let go. Don’t put this track on if you’re in that position now or you’ll just cry.

And I don’t know if I can do it by myself
I just feel like I’m responsible
And I don’t know if I can do it by myself
I feel loved but I’m not capable
And how can I breath
Till you make your mind up
How can I think of leaving you when

I’m stuck

5. Undisclosed Desires – Muse

I love just turning this track up and dancing to it with my eyes closed.

I want to reconcile the violence in your heart
I want to recognise your beauty is not just a mask
I want to exorcise the demons from your past
I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart

6. The Great Beyond – R.E.M.

I wonder if they are any answers in the great beyond. I’d like to think so, but sometimes I’m not so sure.

I’m breaking through
I’m bending spoons
I’m keeping flowers in full bloom
I’m looking for answers from the great beyond

7. One Last Breath – Creed

Please come now I think I’m falling
I’m holding on to all I think is safe
It seems I found the road to nowhere
And I’m trying to escape
I yelled back when I heard thunder
But I’m down to one last breath

8. Darkness on the Edge of Town – Bruce Springsteen

I think might possibly be my all time favourite Springsteen song, but ask me tomorrow and I’d probably tell you a different song. The Boss just has so many great tracks.

Tonight I’ll be on that hill cause I can’t stop
I’ll be on that hill with everything I got
Lives on the line where dreams are found and lost
I’ll be there on time and I’ll pay the cost
For wanting things that can only be found
In the darkness on the edge of town

9. Unconsolable – X Ambassadors

Another one of those intense tracks for me that merit closed eyes and swaying body.

I hope we stay
Thick as thieves, butter and bread
Pillars of colonial homes
And I wish I could shout you out
False start
Don’t get your cane caught in the cracks
Buckle your seatbelts, polluting the airwaves
Single and lonely

10. Police Station – Red Hot Chili Peppers

I saw you on a TV station and it made me want to pray
An empty shell of loveliness is now dusted with decay
What happened to the funny paper?
Smiling was your money maker
Someone ought to situate her
Find a way to educate her
All the way, time to come and find you
You can’t hide from me girl, so never mind what I do

11. Astral Weeks – Van Morrison

I put this one last so you can drift away on a slipstream between the viaducts of your dreams. Enjoy.

If I ventured in the slipstream
Between the viaducts of your dream
Where immobile steel rims crack
And the ditch in the back roads stop

Here’s the full playlist on Spotify: