Singer-songwriter Jenny Owen Youngs, whose latest EP Slack Tide is available now, gives us the first Talkhouse Weekend Playlist of 2017. Tunes from Margaret Glaspy, Julien Baker and more just might help you deal with your post-election blues.
–Dave Lucas, Talkhouse Marketing Manager
Post-Election Blues Self-Care Playlist
Songs to make you feel better and then worse and then hopefully better again
Margaret Glaspy – “Situation”
Nothing like a jarring blast of dissonant, sludgy guitar to clear the sinuses and temporarily distract you from your existential dread! This song also serves as a great reminder that while empathy is important, sometimes what the heart truly needs is to issue a necessary, growling “BACK OFF.”
Regina Spektor – “The Trapper and the Furrier”
This is easily the saddest and most powerful song involving a trapper and a furrier that I have ever heard. The arrangement swells and contracts to pull the listener by the hand down a twisty forest path, growing ever darker, both tonally and lyrically.
Irma Thomas – “Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)”
This is a great spooky-sounding tortured love song (I’d put it in the same category as The Flamingoes’ recording of “I Only Have Eyes For You”), which I think currently doubles nicely as an anthem for anyone who loves the world but hates what happens inside that world.
Julien Baker – “Something”
Sometimes sad songs just make you feel better. “The walls of my skull bend backwards and in like a labyrinth”?! Me too, Julien. Me too.
Nina Simone – “Go to Hell”
God, has anything ever felt better or gone down smoother than this perfect recording? The smoke of the vocal and the velvety instrumental collage (every instrument utilized here sounds strikingly well-suited to hypnosis applications) combine to frame the mighty queen of queens who comes bearing this message, lest we forget the ultimate destination for the villainous.
Sufjan Stevens – “Casimir Pulaski Day”
This song is a diagonal beam of sunlight coming through your window and illuminating the zillions of dust particles that constantly surround all of us all day every day but go largely unnoticed. Sufjan made a quilt out of tiny moments bound together by bits of twine and pipe cleaners and that unmistakable falsetto-leaning whisper. Hallelujah.
Marvin Gaye – “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)”
No introduction necessary.
Waxahatchee – “Be Good”
A sunny, lo-fi romp to remind you of golden days gone by, when buying beers to shotgun and laying around in the grass were the only two items on your to-do list. You didn’t even know what a “go bag” WAS back then.
Courtney Barnett – “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party”
This song has it all: crunchy guitar riffings, a singalong chorus and permission to engage in some serious self-care. You DON’T have to go to the party if you are tired or sad or numb or unable to make small talk and/or eye contact at the moment. In uncertain times, it’s important to listen to your body, take care of yourself, stay strong and keep the gears well-oiled.
Sharon Van Etten – “We Are Fine”
In closing, a meditation on the sacred power of human closeness, a reminder to lean on your friends and to hold up those who lean on you, and a prayer for our future: please let us be fine.
