I’m listening to Jacques Brel right now. What else y’all got for me? All genres and languages welcome.
The band Spanish Love Songs.
The worst part of my being sad is that I don’t, I forget to. Music almost always gets me doing something and I get out of that mood.
I like to listen to dodie sometimes
I don’t , it’ll just make me cry harder and longer and that’s exhausting
I call random customer service phone lines and wait in line and then hang up after 30 seconds of listening to the saddest person on earth asking if I’m there or if I can hear them.
Johnny Cash’s version of “Hurt”
Great cover by an amazing artist. I hadn’t listened to his version in a while. It’s still so good. Thank you!
Sigur Ros.
I loved Hvarf/Heim. Which studio album of theirs is your favorite? It’s really chill music.
My go to when I’m suicidal is the Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails. It’s the perfect album when I need to feel okay with not being okay. Also gives my depression a name and a face that I can insult and yell at when my brain is being mean to me.
I love NIN, I have the album on CD. Pretty Hate Machine is still one of my all-time favorites. Probably a good time to listen to it again.
I reserve some wordless music for when my sadness gets critical. That way, they always sound bittersweet without me listening them to death.
- Lourié’s 5 Préludes Fragiles. Makes me feel aware of how easy I am to break at the moment, but also how pretty survivalism through fragility can be.
- Ravel’s Pavane for a Dead Princess. It’s not about a dead princess, just one in the past, but it makes me feel like I’m that princess, rich and sad and stepping around in a bright, cream-beige ballroom. Instead of just solely sad.
- Debussy’s Images. II. Hommage à Rameau. A quiet plaintiveness with occasionally rising energy helps me tend closer to neutrality.
- Stanchinsky’s Prelude in the Lydian Mode. As the n-tuplets get desperate, I get desperate to fix everything. But then the curses stop and we return to a pretty but occasionally sickly quiet. The nonsenses are pinpricks in its floral thoughts.
- Glinka/Balakirev’s The Lark. Reminds me that I’m fluttering, not just floundering.
In any order, but I usually start with the Fragile Preludes (especially the middle few of the set). Lyrical songs are usually for higher energy/mood to me
Well if you’re already into Brel… I can confidently give you Brassens. I consider him to have been the greatest poet. It’s difficult to convey just how beautifully he told mundane things (les copains d’abord, l’orage…), how he made life and death sweet (le testament, la prière…), how he brought the humblest people under the limelight (la complainte des filles de joie, l’auvergnat…), and elevated already beautiful works of poetry (Paul Fort, Victor Hugo) into musical classics (Gastibelza, le petit cheval…).
I listened to those Brassens tracks you recommended. I quite liked them. I must confess I don’t speak any French but I enjoyed them. “Les copains d’abord” was probably my favorite of the four. I looked up the translation, It’s a sweet song. Thanks for the recommendation!
I usually listen to the album Still Can’t Kill Us (Acoustic Sessions) by Icon for Hire.
When I feel really miserable I listen to the album I Went to Hell and Back by As It Is.
mt. Marcy
EDEN - vertigo (album)
Eyedea especially the song Even shadows have shadows
Smog - The Well
or some Brad Sucks