Indie pop singer LPX made us a playlist for her own funeral

Lizzy Plapinger is a modern synth-pop hero. While a sophomore at Vassar College, she co-founded the influential indie-pop record label Neon Gold with Derek Davies, which would go on to release music by stars like Passion Pit, Ellie Goulding, and Marina and the Diamonds. After graduation, she started the band MS MR with her college friend Max Hershenow.

After releasing several acclaimed albums—including their 2013 debut Secondhand Rapture—and touring the world, Plapinger took a hiatus from the duo in order to focus on her solo project, LPX. Her debut solo EP Bolt in the Blue came out in January. On songs like “Fog and the Fear,” Plapinger puts her years of experience crafting catchy, subtle hooks to good use. On the latest round of Funeral Playlist, Plapinger explores her roots, taking us on a journey through the best rock and indie-pop that the 2000’s had to offer.

“La Ritournelle,” Sebastien Tellier

LIZZY PLAPINGER: Bizarrely, this song is one I’ve always known I wanted played at both my funeral and my wedding. It’s one of my favorite songs of all time, and one I’ve turned to at both the worst and best moments in my life at every age. It devastates and elates me all at once. It’s been so personally intertwined into my life that no review of my life would be complete without it.

“There Goes The Fear,” Doves

PLAPINGER: I was born and raised in London till I was 18 years old. I was consumed by the music scene at the time and it massively informed what I listen to and in turn who I am. I lived for Zane Lowe’s show on XFM and his show Gonzo on MTV2, where I first heard and then saw the music. It always felt like such a beautiful reflection on life, both letting things go and moving forward while life swirls around you. It feels like it was written for the end, and in turn, a new kind of beginning.

“Hard to Explain,” The Strokes

PLAPINGER: If you know me, you know New York has been and continues to be such a pivotal piece of who I am—the music, the scene, the city itself—and most certainly the bands who defined it. Some of my favorite memories involve taking the train from Vassar into the city to catch a show and bar hopping all night long with my best friends. I’d listen to this album on the way into the city to rev me up, and without a doubt we’d end up wasted screaming it at the top of our lungs later that night. I’d hope playing it at my funeral it would get the party going.

“Two More Years,” Bloc Party

PLAPINGER: Their debut record Silent Alarm is maybe the most important record of my life. It helped set me on path to work in and make music. I remember running out to Tower Records in London, buying it and then uploading it and sending it to my best friend Derek [Davies] and listening to the whole thing front to back over the phone. This record, and this song especially, bound Derek and I together and sparked our then pipe dream of starting a label. Only to have it fully realized a few years later with Neon Gold.

“Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels),” Arcade Fire

PLAPINGER: From first seeing them at a tiny show in London, where they handed out funeral pamphlets as you entered, to seeing them headline Coachella arm in arm with all my friends, every record from this band is an experience in and of itself. I love how epic, dramatic and larger than life their music is. It’s always felt like a call to arms to me.

“Consequence,” The Notwist

This song remains one of the most emotional, beautiful and tender songs I’ve ever heard. I’ve got to have at least one aggressive tearjerker in the set and this would definitely be that moment. They’re not a super well known band but I fell in love with this record in high school, and I ended up naming my record label after it during the summer I interned at Domino Records. It would be an intimate and subtle wink to those in my life who know how much this song breaks my heart.

“Sleepyhead,” Passion Pit

This song changed my life, literally and figuratively. Without this record Neon Gold Records wouldn’t have gotten its start. In the context of a funeral it sounds like it could sort of serve as an adult lullaby. “Everything is going to the beat” has always felt so personal to me, as I’ve lived and continue to live a life driven by music.

LPX RELEASED HER DEBUT EP BOLT IN THE BLUE IN JANUARY.