The Music and Planet Project

Not many songs embody the Halloween spirit in the distinct and creative way that Side Hustle Prophets do in their latest single “Roadkill Love Story”. Telling a tale of a young woman building a lover out of roadkill body parts, the song gives reimagined life to objects in just the same way we love to bring life to ghosts, zombies and other dead spirits in the month of October. Fans of the morbid and macabre will find no better musical home than right here in “Roadkill Love Story” by Side Hustle Prophets. 

One of the many highlights of the spooky song is its lyrics, which weave together grotesque images with descriptions of real human emotions in the telling of this roadkill fantasy. Setting the scene in the first verse with lines like “my brains are splattered and my torso’s lying in this ditch,” the vocalist evokes the roadkill scene with vivid imagery. True to the tradition of Halloween campfire storytelling, the vocalist sings the experience of the roadkill lover not from afar but in the first person. In the chorus, we hear ““Got me some raccoon eyes, a crocodile smile, opossum tail that’s way too long…” making us feel the morbid nature of the scene up close. In the second verse, the singer injects human emotion with lines like “I was so lonely when I strew my guts on this street / I’m so together as a lover I feel complete”. This mixing of human emotion with non-human, deadly objects really evokes the tradition of classic Halloween stories, like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, that personify ghastly, non-human creatures. To clarify, the singer says this story is NOT written by Mary Shelley, but in stating this, he does indirectly harken back to her classic novel. It is a sort of indirect way of citing an inspiration and one of many clever lyrical tactics found in this song.

Adding to the lyrics themselves is the vocal delivery of them. The singer perfectly delivers the morbid imagery and establishes the mood with a rough and gristly tone. Backed by thickly distorted guitars, the singer both blends in with the overall tone of the song and also stands out and takes center stage at the right moments. Without the singer’s uniquely haunting vocal delivery, the words would not come to life in the way that they do. 

Whether or not this is your go-to genre, you are likely to find some spirited fun in Roadkill Love Story by Side Hustle Prophets. Through vivid lyrics, haunting tones, and dark melodies, the song cleverly embodies paranormal spirit of Halloween. Fans of the morbid will delight in this jaunt through the otherworldly, while others newer to the genre will be drawn in to take a closer look. 

Stream Roadkill Love Story here and follow Side Hustle Prophets on Instagram.

Stream the Up and Comers playlist to stay up to date with emerging acts.