#futurepop

1) Under Sky

This song sounds like sunrise to me, in both the metaphorical and literal sense. It feels like a new beginning - whether you imagine this as relief and recovery after a long and arduous battle or as the first, hopeful step out of your comfort zone and into an exciting adventure. A perfect opener.

2) Radio

As the name suggests, this track uses airwaves and radio transmissions as a metaphor for human connections and community. It has a slow beginning, but builds towards a grand, hopeful sound that spreads as the track continues. Ronan is fantastic at making consistently patterned melodies that never bore.

3) Illusion

This song is probably their most famous one - especially in recent years since Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice used it as its ending credits song. It's a powerful, mellow track, wishing to comfort those that don't fit into an accepted definition of "normal", those that struggle under the pressure of expectations and begging them to keep living, while also expressing understanding and deep empathy for their struggles in a world that seeks to pressure them into compliance. It was actually written in memory of Sophie Lancaster - a young woman who was attacked alongside her boyfriend for looking different (they were part of the goth subculture), who later unfortunately succumbed to her injuries.

4) Nothing More

A new song from their most recent album - Construct - and it's kind of considered to be kind of a sister song to Illusion. This song is all gentle reassurance, encouraging the listener to keep fighting for a good and fulfilling life, that they're deserving of love, happiness and compassion. It makes me tear up and feel all squishy inside even just typing this, haha.

5) Arclight

This one feels like a melancholic mantra, but I primarily picked it because I really enjoy the soundscape that builds up over time, and how the sounds at the start uniquely remind me of the resounding echoes of ice cracking in a frozen lake.

6) The Spaces Between

Another new song from Construct - picked partly because I adore the sound and partly because I thought it would be a good bridge into Ronan's use of more religious metaphors and topics in the following songs, especially with its core narrative theme using metaphors of the state between states.

7) Precipice

Precipice has similar themes of being in a state of transition as the previous song, but unlike "The Spaces Between", where there is a hopeful kind of excitement in the unsureness of awaiting where change may lead them, Precipice has already made up its mind to move on, as there is nothing left for them in the present.

8) Sentinel

This song is a refusal of stagnant, cynical beliefs about mankind as inherently bad and in need of redemption, deserved only after death - instead proposing a steadfast belief that mankind can be and do better, as well as the undying hope for a better future that was more than worth a hard-fought battle. To me this also feels a bit like a shaken belief in religion, seeing false idols and mediocrity glorified as somehow worth celebrating, and instead wishing this sort of attention and reverie was invested in actual, meaningful achievements mankind has made for the better of all.

9) Prophet

I'm ngl I sincerely wasn't sure whether to put Prophet or Sentinel first, since I just mentioned my read on it feeling like shaken faith, whereas Prophet is blatant and direct criticism of the commercialization and greed of the Christian religions and the toxic cultism of its more extreme branches. A powerful piece about the exploitation of trust and fear in religion. I ultimately decided to put this one next, since it feels like an appropriate thematic lead-up into the next song.

10) God of All

This song feels like someone desperately searching for answers - to the glorification of cruelty and conquest in the world, to the distrust and lack of compassion between people, and how there seems to be no clear path to the end.

11) Wait

The peak of apathy, of avoidance, of letting problems compile while choosing to remain blinded to them. This song is a desperate, frustrated shout at the world to wake up and take action - a perfect thematic lead into the next track. (Also, as a sidenote: when this song first dropped it actually shocked me with how harrowing it felt, an incredible track that imo cuts deep.)

12) All Our Sins

This heavy beast of a song I can best describe as taking the frustration and despair from Wait and funneling it into a grand, epic war-cry against all that is wrong in this world, aiming to inspire action and righteousness... And it ends on an unbelievably hopeful tone that just gives me shivers.

13) Generator

A beautiful, droning intro with slow progression from Transnational that leads smoothly into the next song.

14) Everything

Flipping the desolation and loss of faith from the last few songs on its head, "Everything" contrasts with the bright, warm light of hope and persistence, whether you read it in a religious context or not. It's a wonderful pick-me-up type of track.

15) Streamline

Between the punchy, steady thrum of the instrumenral and the themes of rebuilding an idealized new world, I hold this track very dear to my heart. It's peak cyberpunk and peak futurepop.

16) When Is The Future

This song to me feels like a loveletter to hopeful cyberpunk-esque futurism, in all of its neon-tinted ever-moving glory.

17) Requiem for Wires

This gentle instrumental piece exudes just the right kind of vibes to me. It's called "Requiem for Wires", and true to its name, it feels like the faint, glimmering echoes of a living network that carry signals from A to B with impossibly vast branches. It also faintly reminds me of satellites sending signals, which imo carries over perfectly into the next track.

18) At Horizon's End

To me this song perfectly encapsulates this sense of being impossibly lost, yet not giving up hope to one day be found... And the unbelievable RELIEF when someone finally hears you. I just adore the way the sound ebbs and flows, the sparkling, joyous explosion of sound that follows and the utter sense of relief when our story ends with hope and sweetness. It moves me to tears everytime I listen to it, especially as someone who's experienced a lot of loneliness and depression fog.

19) Before the Rain

Similar in its sense of hopeful wonder the way When Is the Future and At Horizon's End evoke, this is an incredible love song about a powerful connection that outlasts every doubt and hurdle.

20) Nova

To me, this is the ULTIMATE love song. Nova compares the feeling of finding true love to the devastating power of a supernova in the aftermath of finding such a completing connection with someone. The beat drop gives me shivers even after listening to it like a million times. My dad picked wisely when he and his wife chose to have this song play at their wedding.

21) Forsaken

... But like so often, love can end in tragedy as well. This track is an instrumental, but to me it feels like a journey of helplessly watching a loved one deteriorate and suffer, there's a sense of fear and the desperately clung unto hope that things will improve again, it stretches through the entire song, until finally, they lose the battle. But instead of becoming the peak of agony, it's a kind, merciful embrace full of loving sadness. It delivers a heart-wrenching sense of finality that brings me to tears, without even needing any lyrics to convey this message. Insanely powerful track to me.

22) Standing

A popular must-hear song from VNV that to me feels like someone that's coping with loss by choosing to cling onto memories, despite knowing they have to move on - they don't want to forget.

23) Ghost

Soft melancholy in the deceptively peaceful eye of a storm is the only way I can describe this song. It's contemplative and powerful, a looming darkness the lyrical protagonist simultaneously seeks refuge and answers from.

24) Beloved

Just like Standing, this song is kind of considered a must-listen. After all the stress, cope and heartache from the last 3 songs, I wanted Beloved to feel like a soft, bittersweet conclusion full of hope for reuniting in a different life.

25) Guiding

This is a slow building instrumental piece, but to me it feels like arising to see a new day after a hard-fought, victorious battle. You ache bone-deep, you're soaked with exhaustion, but despite it all you're so unbelievably, wonderfully alive. You're breathing and free like you've never been before. It's ecstatic.

26) Colors of Rain