hopeless

"hopeless" by morgue is a visceral exploration of severe depression, dissociation, and the feeling of being trapped in a cycle of despair. The song articulates the experience of a mental health crisis where the future feels nonexistent and the present is unbearable. The lyrics "My heads not screwed on straight / I can't comprehend my brain" establish a central theme of confusion and loss of control over one's own faculties.

The song delves into the paradox of time for someone in a depressive state: the feeling that "Everything just stays the same" (stagnation) clashing with the anxiety that "Everything won't stay the same" (instability). This cognitive dissonance fuels the narrator's desire to escape, manifested in the chilling prediction of being "dead in like 3 days." This line suggests a specific, imminent deadline to their suffering, highlighting the severity of their suicidal ideation.

Furthermore, the track touches on the socioeconomic anxieties often intertwined with mental health struggles in the modern underground scene. The fear of "future homelessness" and the inability to find a "direction" reflects a broader generational nihilism. The speaker lies "motionless" on the pavement—a striking image of defeat—wishing to be "emotionless" because feeling nothing is preferable to the overwhelming pain they currently endure. Ultimately, the song is a confession of total resignation, where "hopeless" becomes not just a feeling, but the narrator's entire identity.

The song opens with a raw admission of mental instability, as the narrator confesses that their head feels detached and their own thoughts are incomprehensible. There is a palpable sense of stagnation, described through the paradox that everything remains the same yet nothing will truly last. The lyrics quickly spiral into darker territory, with the speaker fantasizing about a better future while simultaneously believing they will be dead within three days.

As the verse progresses, the imagery becomes stark and physical. The narrator describes lying motionless on the pavement, a powerful metaphor for their paralysis in life. They express a desperate wish to be emotionless, seeking numbness as an escape from their pain. The recurring theme of being "hopeless" is tied to a fear of future homelessness and a lack of direction. The song portrays a mind zoning out, trying to fend off aimlessness but ultimately finding no path forward, leaving the speaker to define themselves solely by their hopelessness.

"hopeless" was released as a single on July 1, 2024. The track features vocals, composition, and lyrics by the artist known as morgue (stylized in lowercase). The production, arrangement, and engineering were handled by sprintsaver, a producer known for creating beats within the underground rap and hyperpop scenes, often distributing via platforms like Traktrain.

The song is part of a string of singles released by morgue in 2024 and 2025, including tracks like "leaveamsg" and "lost my soul." The artist, who operates under the handle @nonsanctioned on social media, has cultivated a mysterious and low-profile persona typical of the "SoundCloud rap" and underground digital music communities. The collaboration with sprintsaver suggests a remote, digital-first creation process, characteristic of the modern bedroom pop and digicore ethos.

The song employs a mono-rhyme or AAAA scheme for extended sections, particularly focusing on the suffix "-less" (motionless, emotionless, hopeless, homelessness, aimlessness). This technique, known as identical rhyme or rich rhyme, creates a sense of entrapment; the lyrics literally cannot escape the sound of "less," just as the narrator feels they cannot escape their situation.

The rhythm of the lyrics appears to be somewhat erratic but insistent, likely flowing in a rapid-fire triplet flow or a staccato delivery common in modern emo-rap. This pacing mimics the racing thoughts of an anxious mind ("can't comprehend my brain"), contrasting with the physical stillness described in the lyrics.

Literary Techniques: The lyrics utilize paradox ("Everything just stays the same / Everything won't stay the same") to illustrate the confusing nature of anxiety. There is a strong use of internal rhyme and repetition ("motionless", "emotionless", "hopeless", "homelessness", "aimlessness"). This suffix-heavy rhyme scheme creates a droning, hypnotic effect that mirrors the repetitive, intrusive thoughts of a depressed mind.

Musical Techniques: Produced by sprintsaver, the track likely features the high-energy, distorted bass and rapid percussion typical of digicore and trap metal. This creates a juxtaposition between the energetic, aggressive instrumental and the lethargic, defeated lyrics. The vocal delivery is likely heavily processed with autotune or distortion, a stylistic staple that adds a layer of artificiality, reinforcing the theme of feeling disconnected or "not real."

As an underground track released in 2024, "hopeless" resides within the niche "SoundCloud" scenes of hyperpop, sigilkore, and emo rap. These genres have become digital safe havens for expressing unfiltered mental health struggles for Gen Z. While the song has not achieved mainstream chart success, it contributes to the growing catalog of digital-native music that prioritizes raw, unpolished emotional expression over commercial viability. It reflects a micro-cultural shift where young artists use aggressive, distorted sounds to process societal and personal collapse.

The lyrics employ stark, literal imagery that functions metaphorically to convey emotional states:

• Heads not screwed on straight: A common idiom revitalized here to represent a mechanical failure of the self, suggesting the narrator feels like a broken machine or toy.
• Lying on the pavement motionless: This image symbolizes total surrender and vulnerability. It represents a physical manifestation of their internal paralysis—the inability to move forward in life or make decisions.
• Dead in like 3 days: A hyper-specific timeframe that symbolizes imminent doom. It transforms the abstract fear of death into a concrete, rapidly approaching deadline, heightening the sense of urgency and panic.
• Zoning out: Represents dissociation. It is a defense mechanism used to detach from the painful reality of "future homelessness" and "aimlessness."

The suffix "-less" acts as the central motif of the song. It is repeated at the end of several key lines (motionless, emotionless, hopeless, aimlessness). This repetition emphasizes negation and absence—the lack of motion, the lack of emotion, the lack of hope, and the lack of aim. It linguistically strips the narrator of agency and substance, reinforcing the song's nihilistic message.

The phrase "Zoning out" also recurs, highlighting the theme of dissociation as the only available coping mechanism against the overwhelming reality.