have a nice life - deathconsciousness album cover

HAVE A NICE LIFE DEATHCONSCIOUSNESS ALBUM COVER HOW TO

“Destinos,” a song that can be found as far back as the band’s 2010 demo-collection, Voids, eases the album towards a patient, contemplative close that seems to suit the 2019 version of Have a Nice Life. “Lords of Tresserhorn” transforms from a slower, calmer track into a blistering assault of noise that rivals even the second half of Deathconsciousness closer “Earthmover” and is the emotional peak of the album. “Trespassers W” is a straightforward, hard-hitting and darkly-toned drum and guitar-led post-punk track. While a bit of the edge has been smoothed and the dirt wiped off slightly, there are still moments of good-old-fashioned loud, distorted malaise that feel quintessential. The group hasn’t entirely gone soft, mind you. Further softening can be found on tracks like “Science Beat,” which, with its shimmering guitars and airy synthesizers, is not only the most gentle song on Sea of Worry, but also in the entire Have a Nice Life catalog. The title track and opener is a surf-goth anthem, and as strange as it is to ride the wave of the endless bummer into a Have a Nice Life record, and even as different as the song is compared to everything else on the album, the contrast of beachy guitars and Barrett’s darkly-toned lyrics do well to introduce listeners to this newest era of unease. Whereas there was a certain desperation at the center of Deathconsciousness and The Unnatural World-the albums were both made with minimal resources, with their energy deeply focused on intense, personal depression-a contentedness with life has driven some of Barrett’s despair outward, concerning himself with external and global anxieties like ever-declining climate and the responsibilities of fatherhood in the face of what seems to be an ecological collapse. There is a discernable nuance and duality found on Sea of Worry that has never really been present on any Have a Nice Life or Giles Corey projects that comes in the form of a type of happiness, standing against the unrelenting depression that has come to define Barrett’s work.

HAVE A NICE LIFE DEATHCONSCIOUSNESS ALBUM COVER HOW TO

A decade on, the DIY-duo has grown into a full band and has transitioned into their music into adulthood as they have matured, started families and learned how to live beyond their own nihilism.

In 2008, Dan Barrett and Tim Macuga quietly released an extremely lo-fi, hour-and-a-half-long existential crisis titled Deathconsciousness that, through the power of music forums on Reddit and 4Chan, became something of a cult classic.

Have a nice life - deathconsciousness album cover