STAND Playlist

The playlist for STAND has seen as many iterations as the book itself (which only makes sense, I suppose.) It’s an interesting amalgam of Drake and Leah’s experiences, and it’s honestly one of the playlists I like the most as a stand alone thing (no pun intended!) As with the first three books in the series, there is a wide array of emotions represented in this playlist, but STAND has a bit of a different vibe than other books. I’m not sure if that comes across particularly strongly in the playlist, but my intentions with playlists are never to create them to represent the book–they’re just a collection of songs that fueled my brain while writing. Sometimes they relate to a specific scene, but other times they more reflect a broader feeling of a portion of the plot or the book overall. In this case, Sober (by Tool) is a great example of a song whose feeling/vibe/sound is exactly right for the scene it represents–gritty, inwardly driven, uncomfortable, and with an overall feeling of emotional instability–but the lyrics aren’t indicative of the story at all. (The lyrics reflect a struggle with substance addiction, which isn’t the story I’m telling here, needless to say.) Still, it’s in the playlist because the sound and feeling did a great job of getting me in the headspace I needed to write a big part of the book.

Hope you like it!

Random note about Black and Gold: I sort of see this song as the ending credits for the final movie–the song that sums up the entire series, in a way. I’ve wanted to put it at the end of every playlist, but I made myself wait to put it at the end of the last playlist. Listen to the lyrics–it’s too freaking perfect.