I heard there was going to be many alternate endings in Portal 2, but were removed because none of the playtesters would find them. One was being able to look up very early in the game at a full moon, shoot a portal at it, and then shoot a portal at a wall in the room you were currently in and be sucked out into space, and this song would immediately start playing. How disturbing.

I miss 2011

Today is a sad day, I am sorry to announce that this song was taken down from spotify today :(

In portal 2 I tried going backwards out of the door while holding the radio. The door shut and I dropped the radio. I was sad, but when I moved to the very middle of the door, I heard the music, and sat there for a while, listening to it, and when I was in the elevator, I heard it faintly. I was so sad in the next chamber.

In Portal 2 I found a radio. in Rat's den, I kept it until i finished the puzzle. but then when I got to the elevator room it disintegrated. I felt sad.

This song made me feel for really feel for Rattmann. As soon as I heard this, I went back and read Lab Rat again, and really grasped the Lovecraftian horror that Aperture truly is. This man, constantly on the run from his own creation, doing anything he can to stay alive in the pits of Hell, with only one salvation - Chell. Then when he finally escapes and is about to rejoice, Chell is forced back into the facility. Rattmann, despite his newfound freedom, goes back in after her. He is truly an unsung hero in video game history. It's really quite sad we haven't got an ending to his story yet. Just like Schrodinger's Cat, he is both dead and alive. Valve just needs to open the box. Schrodinger's Ratt.

For a while, i had forgotten why i love this game. It's not just puzzles and robots. There's such an intriguing and amazingly well crafted backstory to it all, which sometimes even expands outside the game itself.

Two of my very close friends taught me to play this on piano in school years ago. We lost one of them in 2015 and this song always reminded me of him. Today I just found out my best friend who helped teach me this passed away as well. This song is giving me some peace, it will forever be special to me.

Good to know the fanbase for Portal is still alive.

Oh man, the pianos in this are absolute perfection.

Coming back to this song several years later... it's just so beautiful.

The creator of Portal once said Chell isnt actually mute, she just chooses not to speak. Whether youre in the clean perfectly placed white walls of the test facility or the broken shambles of old aperture the game takes no hesitation in constantly reminding you that you are alone in this world. I think thats what made Rattmans dens feel so comforting and surreal, that another human could potentially exist. To me Portal feels like drowning in loneliness despite being surrounded by voices.

Had to come here after seeing it’s been removed from Spotify. Such a beautiful song

This song is the perfect representation of the Valve community going 8 years without a major game.

I don't understand life. In 2005 a friend recommended this song "Mr. November" to me, and I loved it and played it on repeat for awhile, but while at work I started putting the rest of the album on repeat and after a dozen listens or so I fell in love with every song. I won five tickets to see them live in a pub in Boston two years later with 30 other people and they were so friendly and great. I saw them over the years 13 more times in concert everywhere from Boston to NYC to Spain to the rural coast of Germany, and they were always great. Falling in love with Game of Thrones I was so happy when the lead singer of this personal band I'd found suddenly was singing the end credits over the finale to the second season. Falling in love with the game Portal, I was so shocked when I found a boombox I could carry in the game, and it was playing a song that's now in my top 5 for the band. I had tickets to see them where I live now in London in June, and those probably won't happen but that's okay, we'll do it again later. I guess what I'm saying is that I don't understand life. But god it's these things that make me love life.

I played portal, found this song, cried. I am such a wimp.

There's just something incredibly beautiful about this song that I can't put into words.

Valve creates worlds. They’re like some sort of modern Willy Wonka, making things that take people to the farthest realm of their imagination, conveying stories they have never been heard before. What they have left us is a legacy, for us and new generations to enjoy again and again.

shame that this song is being taken down everywhere

This song, I... I don't know why but it gets me man. Whenever something bad happens, I listen to it and I remember portal. And the rat mans story and how he couldn't give up even though he was down on his luck. And I think, I have to keep going... For the greater good.

Spotify sucks...this song is amazing. I just realized it was missing in my Playlist

taking this song off of Spotify/Apple Music is what the Burning of the Library of Alexandria must have been like

Why is it that sad songs make people use proper punctuation?

Spotify: Exiles this song from service Everyone: we will vilify them till it gets put back

After years and years I came back to this masterpiece

It's such a shame that such a great and beautiful song is so hidden in Portal 2. On my first playthrough I had no idea this hidden room was anywhere, I found out some time later. Such a great song.

Happy 2024 to the remaining portal fandom.

I miss this song, it brings back nostalgia for 2011, experiencing for the first time the story of portal 2 and the mystery videos on KZfaq at the time.

Does it trouble your mind the way you trouble mine?

Ohh the memories from Portal 2, best game experience EVER and I will never forget when i found the radio playing this song, I was in a dreamstate for many minutes!

After the events of last night, this song is pretty fitting. Rest In Peace Gordon, and thank you for the memories.

The fact that this song isn't on Spotify is criminal

Portal should of played the song in more places than than small den in the beginning of the game :/

Why isn't there a game about ratman yet? It would be so great... Having extremly hard puzles, but you'll get the help of the cube along the way. You could have the whole ratman's comic in cutscenes, and maybe even not have the Portal gun.

Tuning: Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb "Exile... it takes your mind... again" Em G C Am "You got sucker's luck..." Em C G D "Does it feel like a trial..." Am F C G "Vilify, dont even try..." Dm Am C Em Tuning: C# F# B E G# C# F#m A D Bm F#m D A E Bm G D A Em Bm D F#m Tuning: G# C# F# B D# G# Bm D G Em Bm G D A Em C G D Am Em G Bm

I remember the first time I found that radio. I picked it up and didn't even move until the song ended; the piece was just so hauntingly beautiful and sad at the same moment. I felt as utterly along and isolated as Chell and, somehow, knew what is must be like to be god-only-knows how far in the future and possibly the last human on Earth so that I would be forever alone and isolated and that this would be last human voice I would ever hear again. And then the radio went to silence and I found that I'd been crying a little and didn't even know it. That's the power of music. Add to that the perfect placement in-game and, well, emotions distilled down to their very essence.

I have to say goodbye to my cat, its been 14 years. This song reminds me of her, i cry...man.

I genuinely wish Rattmann could have stayed alive up to Portal 2, but hadn't it been for his selflessness, Chell would have died. Salutations to Doug, the man, who, despite his paranoid, schizophrenic state, sacrificed everything to save Chell.

I’m heartbroken they took it off Spotify, this shi help me sleep

i've never played portal 2, but i'd noticed, when i went looking for songs by the national, at some point i had "liked" this song on spotify. so i played it to refresh my memory and fell absolutely in love with it immediately. and not too long after it became my most replayed song, it was removed from the service. i miss it everyday.

"The Cake Is A Lie" - Douglas Rattmann

Portal 2 turns 10 years old in a week....how time flies fast when you have fun

The desolate radio sitting in an abandoned facility. The song playing on an endless loop, powered by god knows what creation of that desolate facility, echoing through dozens of corridors and once lively testing facilities and chambers. This song defines the entirety of the universe of Portal and Half-Life. But then you realize, the man, Rattmann, wandering solemnly through hallways, trying to stay sane for long enough to get out of the structurally unsound facility, hearing that song endlessly.

This song has such a special place in me, it's unspeakable

If this doesn't play at my funeral, I'm not leaving Earth

Kinda sad and weird that this is gone from streaming services, love Portal 2.

I feel like this song would go well at some point during the movie The Martian

why was this taken off of spotify. what is the reason. heartbroken

This song was written for Portal 2, yet all the commenters are here, somehow, because of TF2, which came out before this song was written.

i remember after about 3 hours playing i found a radio that plays this in a pile of rubbish i just sat there listening to it.

They removed this from Spotify so now I'm here

10 years later. Still fucking perfect.

R.I.P Spy Sad music

If you ask me, this song is about someone who's stuck in a depression and/or contemplating suicide, because they feel isolated from society ("Exile. It takes your mind again") and that previous successes have just been flukes ("You've got sucker's luck"). The singer tries to show sympathy and subtly remind this person that there's at least someone who cares about them ("Oh, you meant so much. Have you given up? Does it feel like a trial? Does it trouble your mind the way *you trouble mine?*"), trying to dissuade them from doing something rash ("Now you're thinking too fast, you're like marbles on glass"). The latter part of the song, from 2:14 onward, sounds much more positive, showing that they're feeling much better, with the singer even reprimanding them for letting it get to that point ("Vilify, don't even try. Did you fall for the same emptinesses again?") But that's just my take on it.

In high school, I spent hours in my school’s piano room, learning this song by ear with the company of my best friend. That summer, he moved away, and finally found the courage to tell me that he liked me. Whenever I hear this song, all I can think about is what might have never been if I hadn’t spent all that time with him, learning this song in that old piano room.

I always imagined Chell lingering in the chamber for hours, just listening to this song loop again and again, knowing that she couldn't take the radio with her.

Exile It takes your mind again Exile It takes your mind again You've got sucker's luck Have you given up? Does it feel like a trial? Does it trouble your mind The way you trouble mine? Exile It takes your mind again Exile It takes your mind again Oh, you meant so much Have you given up? Does it feel like a trial? Does it trouble your mind The way you trouble mine? Does it feel like a trial? Now, you're thinking too fast You're like marbles on glass Vilify Don't even try Vilify Don't even try You've got sucker's luck Have you given up? Does it feel like a trial? Does it trouble your mind The way you trouble mine? Does it feel like a trial? Did you fall for the same Empty answers again? Vilify Don't even try Vilify Don't even try Vilify Don't even try Vilify

Hearing this question “Does it feel like a trial” when I’ve been in hopeless places in my life has really filled me with something I can’t explain. Listening to this song, I can’t help but pick myself up defiantly against everything pulling me down. Everyone needs a song like this to bring them back.

I remember my brothers, cousin, and I listening to this because we loved Portal 2. My brother, who showed all of this, passed away recently. I'm so glad he shared Valve games with us all, they always will be close to my heart. Thank you bro, I miss you.

My 11 year old played this song for me and it nearly brought me to tears. Not only that it displayed depth of his feelings AND how it ties to his love for Portal but how our children have ways of communicating to us. So inspiring yet sad at the same time.

Valve, you sure are amazing.

It feels so stupid for a song that’s from Portal 2, a game I’m horribly obsessed with, to become my comfort song but honestly, I love it. It feels soft, and comforting, and grey, and it smells like rain- it makes me think of those days where the clouds are overcast and maybe raining, but in the short distance the sun is so bright that the world is both grey and yellow and green and blue all at once. It’s beautiful. And listening to the song makes me think of Portal which makes me happy. I want to try and animate Portal and Portal 2 completely as if films. I don’t know if anyone’s done that before, but I’d like to even if they have. I have this idea of Chell finding the den and the radio, and solemnly looking at the Doug Rattman’s wall art reflecting on how hard it’s been just to end up right back where she started, testing under GLaDOS’ rule, and eventually sitting down with the radio in her arms playing the song. It fades out as she falls asleep, and a dream sequence animation plays for the rest of the song before it eventually ends and fades back out and Chell wakes up. She gets up, portals out of the den, finishes the test and leaves the radio just in front of the Emancipation Grill so that it lives on forever. I can’t guarantee that I’ll ever actually do this or even be able to, but I like to think about doing it, and I like to think about it.

Goddamn it valve....i grew up playing your games, having so much fun and then you went silent for almost a decade.....i think old valve is coming back in the 2020s but i cant believe its going to be 10 years since this masterpeice of a game came out. Ill miss the late 2000s and early 2010s because of how good and popular valve games were...

This song really does communicate the feeling of exile. Being and feeling completely isolated from anyone or everything else. No wonder it fits so well into Portal. You can really tell this communicated exactly what Rattmann was feeling locked down here on his own constantly, with only his fragmented mind to keep him company.

Once Upon A Time In 2fort :(

This song reminds me of Rathmines public school, when I was in my Portal craze, I made custom cores, turrets, PotatOs and a custom GLaDOS, I remember I introduced my pals to it and they got into the craze, we watched Portal 2 videos on the computers that were in our room (we were in a special ed classroom and had access to KZfaq, we were responsible and trusted to not watch something inappropriate) we also watched Minecraft videos,like mods reviews and skits! But that was only two years of Rathmines 2015 and 2016, I got chocked up when I had to leave for highschool... my friends were Ryka, James, Benn and Ryda when I left for high school Benn had to move away with his Dad, Ryka was with a foster family and got adopted by a family that lived away from Rathmines so he and his brother, Tyger (I don't know if that's how his name is spelt) had to move to, Ryda ended up in the mainstream classes, and James, he wasn't doing to well after all that, he's illiterate and has anger issues, but he's nice, he always got annoyed by Lawson, Lawson he *CAN* be nice sometimes, but he's just chooses to be irritating most of the time and that made James suffer bad days at school, I felt bad when I found out that... The type of person the James is like is simular to Piglet from Winnie the Pooh, I'll have to someday make a video about that because I think I've just wasted some of your time by making this a comment!

The way the violin weeps is just hauntingly beautiful

I feel bad for fans of the National who like this song. We're very sorry we outshout you on your own turf. Would some cake make you feel better?

2011 was a pretty great year in gaming...

I wonder why this song is still missing from Spotify after 10 months?

No Portal 2 for me , this just reminds me of the Darkness I entered after my wife took her own life . (She had written this song down ) I never even knew that she left me song lyrics until I finally heard this song .

This song was a staple in my playlists 9 years ago or so. I just played it out loud for the first time in years and the lyrics came back in a second. Bonus: I had my hamster out, running around, but she stopped to listen to the violins in the song, staring straight at me. So there’s that!

This song is just... so powerful...

This song makes me feel sad and nostalgic but there is a mix of another feeling there isn’t a word for. It’s uncomfortable but comforting at the same time. It makes me feel like Im not very alive compared to when I was a kid. It reminds me that life really sucks but life was beautiful. I hope life can be beautiful again.

I carried the little radio that played this song around the test chamber as I completed the task and then waited until it ended to exit the room. 😩😆

"Does it feel like a trial..." Man. Found this song at a particular moment in my life. I'm not gonna give up.

The fact I’m literally tearing up shows how Portal this is.

Poor Scout. :(

Tell me why this was removed from all streaming services

I played through portal 2 again. I got the radio and just sat in a corner staring into the sky listening to this.

Once Upon A Time in 2Fort

The first time I found the rattmans cave with this song playing I felt like crying because it was just so sad

Oh hey, how are you holding out because I am a potato

This song gives Hope and Hopelessness at same time

I'm here because of Portal 2

Most of the users here are talking about Portal 2, but I'm here for the song itself. I remember when I was much younger and heard this song... it was peaceful, but made me cry. Now, I sit here remembering lost love. Trying to move past it. For those here for similar or identical reasons, don't give up. We may have suckers luck, our minds may be troubled, but we will triumph... no matter what the task is. I believe in you. Because if you're here... nobody tells you that enough, when you deserve to be told that frequently. I may not know you, but I know what you're going through enough to feel that even though I may not be speaking directly to you... you genuinely deserve to know that even some silly stranger believes in you.

I was a kid when portal 2 came out and I vividly remember playing the game for the first time. When the radio started playing this song I just sat there and stopped playing. Just staring at the screen. Not really sure why but it felt like I sat there for a really long time

So I realized this song is Rattman singing to himself, since he's been isolated for a long time, he's trying to reassure himself to stay determined 1. When he says "Exile. It takes your mind...again.", He's telling himself that yes, he is isolated, but if he keeps trying he may get out of the grasp of GLaDOS 2. "You got sucker's luck... Have you given up? Does it feel like a trial? Does it trouble your mind the way, you trouble mine." Here he's telling himself that he's pretty lucky to still be alive by now, and that he feels like he should just give up, especially since he knows GLaDOS is going to keep repeating these tests unless he stops her, which he knows is rly hard. 3. "Oh, you meant so much... Have you given up? Does it feel like a trial? Does it trouble your mind the way, you trouble mine. Does it feel like a trial? Now, you're thinkin' too fast you're like, marbles on glass." Again, he's asking himself if he should keep on going, but this time he reasons that he did accomplish a lot, and that he already lived a pretty good life, but then again, is pretty close to beating GLaDOS (or at least helping Chell beat her). And at the end he's telling himself to calm down, he'll get it together one day. 4."Did you fall for the same, empty answers again" Because of him being exiled and isolated for a long time now, he's asking himself, "Why? Why am I here? Why am I doing this? Why did GLaDOS turn evil? Why is all this happening?", but he's realizing he's always going back to the same wronge answers over and over again, and is starting to accept that there really is no answer. 5. "Vilify, don't even try" These final lines mean that he should just stop considering giving up and just keep trying to beat GLaDOS... even though he'll always come back to thinking of quitting and dying. The reason he died after seeing Chell destroy GLaDOS and saving her from death was because he has fulfilled his task, he helped destroy GLaDOS and save Chell, which might be his adopted daughter. He has nothing anymore. No job, no one to go to, no reason to live anymore. He realizes that he's already lived a life and has finally accepted that he's not needed anymore. So he goes into a slumber chamber and goes into a deep sleep, his last nap of his life.

Damn a lot of us are really sad and empty and this sucks lmao we all understand that but its crazy how so many people can hear the same song and feel the same way with the same shitty thoughts simultaneously. As alone as I feel its like I'm accompanied lol. Like we're all on our own planes in loneliness, all secluded and dark, but at the same time, we're all in the same spot. Shits crazy yo hope it doesn't take as long as its taking for me to get rid of it lol.

I heard this song for the first time on the day my niece was born. To this day, it still brings me to tears.

10 years of Portal 2. Damn...

the portal series was a very big part of my life growing up. i completely forgot about this song for probably a good 8 years? i immediately started crying listening to it again after so long. the song is sad in itself, but music we relate to our childhood always stings harder the older we get. this song reminds me of innocent times. :(

I feel that this melody fervently conveys the tragedy, the sorrow and apathy that is ratman's psyche. All melting and culminating together into a masterpiece that brings you through thoughts of pure beauty and yet pure pain as it Carrie's you through its elegant tune. Leaving you alone with its echoes....

Why must this be taken away from us 😭

"Does it trouble your mind the way, you trouble mine" Really resonates with me. There are a lot of people whom I once knew that I no longer talk to, and are without ways to contact them again. I always wonder If I'm ever on their mind, if they ever think of me even if it's in a negative way. It sucks to be remembered as a bad memory, sure, but it's even worse to be forgotten completely. Puffa.Lump, Layla, Mars, Lily. About 4 others others whom I forgot the names of. I know you'll never see this, but I still have you all in my memory. Even if we only talked for a few months each between 2018 and 2020, those were the best (and worst) 2 damn years of my life on Instagram and you guys really shaped me into who I am today. I still remember all of you, both the negatives and the positives. The fights and the love. The break-ups and the make-ups. Everything. I really hope you all remember me, too. I hope you haven't forgotten me in the way I haven't forgotten you. I hope it all troubled your mind in the way you troubled mine.

I think we all miss the old times…

This song stopped me dead in game. It just blew me away with the emotions it triggered. It almost brought me to tears. This song is speck of gold in the music we hear today.

Such masterpiece............

There are songs that you totally forget about for years on end 'till you listen to them again.

yooooo i remember hearing this song on one of the radios and sobbing. good times