OH NO FOMO

A poppy, uptempo song about how modern technology abets the struggle with an overwhelming desire not to miss out on being constantly aware of how awful everything is.

I woke up one morning last week and looked at my phone and the first line of the song sort of declared itself written, and it's been kicking around the last few days in the background until this morning the rest of the lyrics just sort of gelled suddenly like they do sometimes.

I was originally gonna do this as a pretty stripped down three- or four-track demo but I got carried away and so here we are with a wall of guitars and harmony vocals crashing into each other.

• play
• pause
• min volume
• max volume

posted by cortex (10 comments total)

Lyrics:

I wake up
and the first
thing I do
is look at my phone
and ruin my whole day

There's a brief
moment when
I pretend
that nothing is wrong
and then it goes away

Time was
I could spend all day
feeling sick
with anticipation
of whatever was coming up

But now I can be
instantly
in the grip
of realization
that it's all a clusterfuck

OH NO FOMO
OH NO FOMO

So turn it off
put it down
look away
and take a deep breath
and put your brain anywhere

Anything
that can keep
you away
from falling apart
while you swipe your thumb and stare

But then you
feel yourself
losing touch
with the situation
cuz you don't know what you don't know

An itch you're
never gonna
scratch
on your little vacation
so you grab your phone and here you go

OH NO FOMO
OH NO FOMO

The only thing worse
than a totalizing
awareness of the godawful state of the
world

Is not having access
to a totalizing
awareness of the godawful state of the
world

OH NO FOMO
OH NO FOMO
posted by cortex at 4:08 PM on March 26, 2019

This song reminds me of a bunch of stuff I heard in the 90s. I'd say you'd have a hit if this was the 90s, but nobody back then would have a clue what you are talking about :)

BTW, art, music, Metafilter... do you ever sleep?
posted by COD at 4:29 PM on March 26, 2019

CAN'T SLEEP, OMNIPRESENT HORRORS OF THE WORLD WILL EAT ME
posted by cortex at 5:06 PM on March 26, 2019 [3 favorites]

oh this is nice and crisp
posted by fleacircus at 10:12 AM on March 27, 2019

Brilliant and rockin, thanks!
posted by riverlife at 11:14 PM on March 29, 2019

Very nice. Alternate version:

I wake up
and the first
thing I do
is realize
that I never even made it to bed

There's a brief
moment when
I pretend
nothing's wrong
that I've simply fallen through a hole in my head

Time was
I could spend all night
drinking deep
of insomnia pouring
myself into a bottomless cup

But now I just feel
so unreal
just can't sleep
and by morning
I've already used myself up

WE ARE FUBAR
WE ARE FUBAR

So turn me off
shut me down
anyway
I can recharge and
dull this pain for a night

Anything
that can keep
me asleep
dreaming this old heart
beat hangs on 'til morning light

But then I
catch myself
wide awake
riding irritation
like a runaway train to Hell

And there's no
emergency
brake
and the final destination
for this metaphor just can't end well

WE ARE FUBAR
WE ARE FUBAR

The only thing worse
than a totalizing
awareness of the godawful state of your
mind

Is not having access
to a totalizing
awareness of the godawful state of your
mind

WE ARE FUBAR
WE ARE FUBAR
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:44 AM on April 3, 2019

Flo!
posted by cortex at 8:02 AM on April 3, 2019

some guy in a marcus allen jersey...asked me how I felt about this post...

i'm pretty glad to see mefi's best still fighting the good fight.
posted by es_de_bah at 10:54 PM on April 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

You've done well cortex.
posted by howfar at 3:32 PM on April 20, 2019

It's a 'core song, 'tex.

Singing-wise it's weird in that I'm not quite getting the "MO" part of "FOMO", if it wasn't the song title/chorus I'm not sure I'd click what it was. On the other hand, that talky "totalising" section and delivery really work for me in a way which I know I would have hated in younger days. I liked it, I listened twice (so far!)
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 6:01 PM on May 14, 2019