It's always the depressing songs that stick with me. Like this one:



Which is quite possibly the most depressing song I've ever come across. For those of you who don't speak French, here's a summary: "Rich dudes fucked the planet up for the rest of us. Apparently there was a time when snow fell from the sky? I don't even remember that. All I remember is suffocating heat and my friends dying of thirst, or hunger, or horrible diseases. My brother died yesterday. I'm now the last human being on Earth, and I can feel myself growing weaker. It hurts to breathe. Goodbye, human race."

It's called "Plus Rien", and it's by the Québecois group Les Cowboys Fringants. Original French lyrics are here.

Nothing More

There are only a few minutes left in my life
Or at most a few hours, I can feel I'm growing weaker
My brother died yesterday in the middle of the desert
I am now the last human being on Earth

When I was a child they described the old times
That seemed like a world from a very long time ago
When my great-grandfather's parents were alive
And in winter the snow still fell

In those times people lived by the rhythm of the seasons
And the end of summer brought the harvest
A clear and pure water flowed in the streams
Where the deer and the moose would come to drink

But me, all I've ever seen is a desolate planet
Lunar landscapes and suffocating heat
And all my friends dying of thirst and hunger
Falling like flies
Until there was nothing more
Nothing more
Nothing more

There are only a few minutes left in my life
Or at most a few hours, I can feel I'm growing weaker
My brother died yesterday in the middle of the desert
I am now the last human being on Earth

All that began many years ago
When my ancestors were obsessed
By pieces of paper they called "money"
That made certain men really rich and powerful

And these new gods, not stepping back for anything,
Were ready to do anything to achieve their ends
To make themselves even richer they razed the Earth
Polluted the air and dried up the rivers

And after a hundred years some people rose up
And warned them that all of this had to stop
But they did not understand this wise prophecy
These men only spoke in terms of profit

It wasn't until years later that they saw the nonsense
In panic, they declared a state of emergency
When the oceans had engulfed the islands
And the floods had struck the great cities

And following that, for a decade
There were hurricanes and then fires
Earthquakes and the great drought
Everywhere you could read distress on people's faces

People had to fight against pandemics
Millions killed by atrocious illnesses
Then others died of thirst or hunger
Falling like flies
Until there was nothing more
Nothing more
Nothing more

My brother died yesterday in the middle of the desert
I am now the last human being on Earth
In the end the intelligence that we were given
Will have been nothing but a beautiful poisoned gift

For there are only a few minutes of life left
Or at most a few hours, I feel I'm growing weaker
I can't walk any more, it hurts to breathe
Goodbye humanity, goodbye humanity...


I find this song both depressing and scary, so naturally I keep playing the video over and over again. When I was a kid, I used to pick at the scabs on my knees, too.