"Deathconsciousness" Have A Nice Life

Submission 4,154

About

Deathconsciousness is a 2008 album by the American post-punk band Have A Nice Life. The album, which features a darkened version of the painting "The Death of Marat" by Jacques-Louis David, gained a cult following online following its release, particularly on boards like 4chan's /mu/ and Reddit's r/indieheads where it is often considered among the best albums of all time. The album has inspired memes about its depressing tone, as well as photoshops of the album artwork, throughout the 2010s and 2020s.

History

On January 24th, 2008, Have A Nice Life released their first studio album, Deathconsciousness. The album is a double-LP split into two sections, titled "The Plow That Broke the Plains" and "The Future" and follows a concept described by Pitchfork^[1] editor Jason Heller in 2014 as, "Existence is bleak, gallows humor undergirds it, and sometimes wallowing in that sick paradox is the best revenge." A full upload of the album to YouTube posted that year gained over 1.9 million views in eight years (shown below). The album was reissued twice, once in 2009^[2] and once in September 2014.

The album gained a cult following on imageboards, including 4chan's /mu/ (music) board and Reddit's r/Indieheads subreddit, where it is often regarded among the best albums of all time by users. In 2014, Vice^[3] published an article on the album's success, mentioning its cult following on /mu/. In 2019, Bandcamp^[4] published an interview with the band, mentioning its popularity on r/Indieheads and /mu/. The band also has a subreddit, r/HaveANiceLife,^[5] where the album is often discussed.

Fandom

On June 15th, 2020, YouTuber NOISE. 0S posted a short documentary on the making of the album, gaining over 54,000 views in two years (shown below).

Memes

The themes of and album artwork for Deathconsciousness became the increased subject of memes starting around 2019, often in memes about the album making people have existential breakdowns. On August 20th, 2019, a user of r/HaveANiceLife^[6] posted a meme using SpongeBob SquarePants images to describe each track in the album, gaining over 70 upvotes in three years (shown below).

On December 17th, 2019, iFunny^[7] user AdrianRamos___2015 posted a meme about the album, gaining over 890 smiles in three years. On March 17th, 2020, Instagram^[8] user gloomelo posted a photoshop of the album artwork replacing Marat in the painting with Peter Griffin from Family Guy writing a note, gaining over 300 likes in two years (shown below, left). On April 17th, Instagram^[9] page neutralmilkmemes reposted a meme from now-deleted account cult.of.bladee using the album, gaining over 2,100 likes in two years (shown below, right). The Peter Griffin meme was notably reposted by Instagram^[10] page pageformusicchads in 2022, gaining over 8,600 likes in under a day.

On May 6th, 2021, Instagram^[11] page pageformusicchads posted a meme referencing Bill Gates' Divorce using the album artwork, gaining over 12,400 likes in 11 months (shown below).