Long-time readers of “Another Kind of Currency‰” may recall a column I wrote my freshman year about Frightened Rabbit‰’s “Poke,‰” which I always considered not only one of their most depressing songs (saying something if you know FR‰’s catalog), but also one of the most depressing songs ever. However, with the release of their 2016 record Painting of a Panic Attack, both of those titles have been awarded to a new song—the album closer “Die Like a Rich Boy.‰Û

I‰’m sure you already are assuming how the song sounds purely based on the title, and you probably are not far off. With strikingly similar instrumentation to the aforementioned “Poke,‰” bandleader Scott Hutchinson and the rest of the Scottish band are right in their indie-folk wheelhouse. Starkly accompanied by finger-picked acoustic guitar, Hutchinson croons at nearly the top of his tessitura, setting the scene for the song to come:

I need to find somebody to tear me away

From the car crying babies and switchblade days

The bark of the unemployment hounds

And the thought of the thick, white skull on the ground

I won‰’t die in the bony arms of the state

To be laid to rest in the wake of the faded town

This firmly identifies the narrator as quite a poor individual—someone suffering not only from poverty but also something else we‰’ll discuss later. Imagery created in the lines “car crying babies‰” and “thick, white skull on the ground‰” contribute to the feeling of despair, and the desire to not “die in the bony arms of the state‰” show that the narrator is not entirely pleased with his dependence on benefits. Something else noteworthy is that it is heavily implied that the individual singing “Die Like A Rich Boy‰” is the subject of the previous track on the record, “Lump Street‰Û—a song about an impoverished couple wishing to escape from that lifestyle.

But the true tug on the heartstrings come a bit later in the chorus when the musical texture thickens up with low piano chords and a string section and Hutchinson sings in one of the most heartbreaking ways possible:

I want to die like a rich boy diving

In a hydrocodone dream

And you can die like a rich girl by me

Oh, how the magazines will grieve

I‰’ll die like a rich boy, bathing

In a milk bath I could drown

I want to die like a rich boy,

Even if we‰’re as poor as we are now.

And it is the final line that I believe is truly one of the saddest lyrics I have ever heard in my life—sadder than the final lyrics of “Poke;‰” sadder than anything from the musical theatre canon. It shows that while our narrator is clearly impoverished, he is also quite depressed as well. He wants comfort. He just wants to feel important and relevant in this world. He wants his death to mirror the deaths of important figures—he wants people to know about him. And I think that the mere fact he feels like he needs to die in order to feel important, appreciated, and loved is absolutely one of the saddest things I have ever heard. Sadder than any failed relationship—sadder than a dog dying.