Stephen Wicks Makes the Apocalypse Catchy on "The Doomsday Clock"
It takes a certain kind of ideological whiplash to shift from navigating corporate property deals to aggressively narrating the downfall of humanity, but at 74, Stephen Wicks introduces his single "The Doomsday Clock" with the blazing clarity of someone watching civilization slip off the edge. https://open.spotify.com/track/70JffY8Y63JRdjn98A1fMB?si=xK17Z-ERQO-o2he9oKPX-g The Hertford-based entrepreneur-turned-songwriter channels his late-in-life reinvention to confront a cocktail of existential horrors: geopolitical collapse, climate crisis, unchecked AI, and nuclear dread. Yet, the real shock is the sound itself. I entirely anticipated a solemn, withered acoustic dirge. Instead, Wicks unleashes a tense, racing pop-rock onslaught. A fiercely galloping rhythm anchors the track, mimicking the frantic heartbeat of global panic. As the soaring, anthemic core melody unfolds, rapid, interlocking high-pitched notes relentlessly ratchet up the anxiety. During the extended middle section, the atmosphere boils over into frenetic, highly technical soloing patterns. They furiously escalate in speed and pitch before crashing back into the driving central theme, effectively mirroring the reckless, aggressive momentum of human self-destruction. It is chaotic, urgent, and alarmingly catchy. If we truly have only eighty-five seconds left to avert the apocalypse, why does speeding headfirst toward the cliff sound strangely exhilarating? Website, YouTube, Instagram.