Dan Wells, in Musical Form

Partials Playlist Dan Wells, in Musical Form

The characters in Partials live in the ruins of the world you and I leave behind, eleven years after a devastating plague wipes out 99.9% of the human race. They scavenge through the old, empty stores and houses to find things they need, like clothes and canned food, and one of the characters, a girl named Xochi, collects music players—iPods, Zunes, and so on. This is one of my favorite little quirks of the novel because a music player is so much more than a song or an album: It’s a record of who you are, reflected through your music. It’s a little piece of your personality that survives the plague and reaches out to future generations.

So this got me thinking: If somebody found my music player in the wreckage of the old world, what would it say about me? I’d love to just plop my entire iPod up here for you to listen to, but it’s several gigs and way too big. What I can do, though, is create a little mini musical portrait of myself—a representative playlist to show you who I am and what I’m about. I’ve painfully narrowed it down to fifteen songs, and here they are:

1. “Everlong” by the Foo Fighters

We might a well start at the top: “Everlong” is my very favorite song. I also have an acoustic version,

which I listened to constantly while writing my first published novel (a supernatural thriller called I

Am Not a Serial Killer), but the standard version is just as awesome and that’s the one I’ve included

here.

2. “Tú” by Shakira

Before she came to the U.S. and got all big and flashy, Shakira was a simple Colombian singer writing

beautiful, personal, confessional songs about life and love. I discovered her back when I lived in

Mexico, and over the years her second album, Dónde están los ladrones?, has become my favorite in

my collection. “Tú” is sweet and sad, a love song with an almost country-like sound. I love it.

3. “A Day in the Life” by the Beatles

Now you know my favorite song and my favorite album, so how about my favorite group? It’s the

Beatles, hands down, and this is one of their best songs—though not, I admit, their most accessible

song. “A Day in the Life” is about living in a world that’s too fast, and too disconnected, and too

artificial. I respond to it very strongly.

4. “Common Reactor” by Silversun Pickups

My other favorite group (hey, I’m allowed to have two) is the Silversun Pickups, and holy crap was it

hard to pick just one of their songs to put on this playlist. I eventually went with “Common Reactor”

because it’s the most-played song in my iPod, and it’s a great choice. Nobody does a delayed

resolution like these guys.

5. “Gimme Shelter” by the Rolling Stones

I write apocalyptic, dystopian fiction, so there’s got to be at least one raging protest song on here,

right? My pick goes right back to the source, the seething anthem of social unrest: “Gimme Shelter”

by the Rolling Stones. Bonus Partials connection: The woman singing backup sang so hard, she

miscarried the next day.

6. “Over the Confluence of Giants” by DJ Earworm

I’m a huge fan of musical mashups—taking two or more songs and splicing them together to make a

new one. A lot of mashups are just “the music from one song and the words from another,” and I

love those too, but “Over the Confluence of Giants” is the song that convinced me the art form

could go so much further. DJ Earworm took five or six different songs and created something

entirely new and amazing.

7. “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys

I’m kind of a metalhead, and this is my pick to represent that vast portion of my music collection.

Whenever I needed to write a big action scene for Partials (and there are several), I always listened

to “Sabotage” to get me in the mood.

8. “At Seventeen” by Janis Ian

One of the things I love about art is the ability to make your audience feel two different emotions at

once: love and fear, or joy and sadness. The dissonance in those contradictions is a powerful

experience. “At Seventeen” is a gorgeous 70s pop song about a girl who thinks she’s ugly and

nobody likes her. It’s beautiful and heart-wrenching, and that combination is one of my favorite

things in the world.

9. “Me and Bobby McGee” by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster; performed by Janis Joplin

While we’re in the 70s, let’s listen to the opposite end of the spectrum, a woman so raw and

powerful she helped define an entire era. When I set out to write Kira Walker, the main character of

Partials, I used a lot of Janis Joplin for inspiration: the strength, the refusal to compromise, and just

a touch of the apocalyptic abandon in the chorus of “Me and Bobby McGee”: “Freedom’s just

another word for nothing left to lose.”

10. Swan Lake Finale by Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky

I love classical music, and more specifically the Romantic era with its intense, emotional waves of

sound. Swan Lake is, yes, a ballet about swans, which makes it sound like the non-manliest thing

ever created, but listen to the finale. There’s a beauty and a power in here that moves me every

time.

11. “You Can Call Me Al” by Paul Simon

Being a writer, I like to pay special attention to the lyrics of a song—good music is good music, but if

it also has amazing words I will love it forever. Paul Simon is one of the best songwriters in the

business, and Graceland is one of my favorite albums: simple yet experimental, light yet clever, and

lyrically brilliant. “You Can Call Me Al” never fails to make me smile.

12. “Sería Feliz (Nortec Remix)” by Julieta Venegas and Bostich

This is the weirdest song on my list, and not coincidentally the one that probably represents me the

most directly. It’s techno, but it samples mariachi instead of traditional electronica; it’s a mashup;

it’s in Spanish. I believe that art can come from anywhere, regardless of genre or convention or

medium, and “Sería Feliz” remixed by Bostich demonstrates that more clearly than anything in my

collection.

13. “Houston” by Visqueen

This song is here to represent two giant chunks of my iPod: the chick rock section and the kind of

hipstery “you’ve probably never heard of them” indie rock section. Visqueen’s biggest song was

“Blue,” and that’s the one that got me to check them out, but “Houston” is my favorite. Why?

Because sometimes you don’t need a reason to love something.

14. “Helena” by My Chemical Romance

Another representative selection, this time showcasing my goth rock tendencies. My Chemical

Romance does incredible videos, so be sure to check those out as well, especially for “Helena” and

“I’m Not Okay.” “Helena” in particular is not only goth but a screaming mix of punk and emo. So

many people hate goth, and emo even more so, but you know what? Be who you are.

15. “Fake Plastic Trees” by Radiohead

And Radiohead brings us home, returning to the sentiments of the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life”: We

live in a world that’s artificial and disconnected, where we try so hard to fit in, to look different, to

be something we’re not, that we lose ourselves completely. Do you say things because they’re true

or because other people expect to hear them? Are you real, or are you a fake plastic version of

yourself? “Fake Plastic Trees” is epic and tragic and a perfect cap to my playlist.

So there you go: If you found those songs in the rubble of some lost, forgotten house, I think you’d get a pretty good idea who I am and what I value and what makes me tick. How about you? What does your music say about who you are? Which songs will reflect your personality to the rest of the world?