Rainy days call for hot drinks, warm blankets, avoiding responsibilities and listening to calming music. Here are some musical artists and bands for your next rainy day music session or if you’re ever just in the mood for calming and/or slightly melancholy music.
1. Ben Howard
From: Bantham, Devon, England.
Songs to start with: Oats in the Water, In Dreams, The Fear, Black Flies, Only Love, Keep Your Head Up, The Wolves, I Forget Where We Were, Further Away
Sample lyric: “I’ve been worryin’ that my time here is a little unclear. I’ve been worryin’ that I’m losing the ones I hold dear. I’ve been worryin’ that we all live our lives in the confines of fear.”
2. Seafret
From: Bridlington, England.
Songs to start with: Oceans, Wildfire, Atlantis, Drown, To the Sea
Sample lyric: “It feels like there’s oceans between me and you once again. We hide our emotions under the surface and try to pretend, but it feels like there’s oceans between you and me.”
3. Fleet Foxes
From: Seattle, Washington, USA.
Songs to start with: Mykonos, Blue Ridge Mountains, Grown Ocean, White Winter Hymnal, He Doesn’t Know Why, Drops in the River
Sample lyric: “And you will go to Mykonos with a vision of a gentle coast and a sun to maybe dissipate shadows of the mess you made.”
4. Of Monsters and Men
From: Reykjavik, Iceland.
Songs to start with: Crystals, Dirty Paws, Black Water, Little Talks, We Sink, Organs, Mountain Sound
Sample lyric: “But I’m okay in see-through skin. I forgive what is within because I’m in this house; I’m in this home all my time.”
5. Sleeping at Last
From: Wheaton, Illinois, USA.
Songs to Start with: Neptune, You Are Enough, Turning Page, Saturn
Sample lyric: “I’m only honest when it rains, an open book with a torn out page, and my ink’s run out. I want to love you but I don’t know how.”
6. Bon Iver
From: Fall Creek, Wisconsin, USA.
Songs to start with: Skinny Love, Re: Stacks, For Emma, Flume
Sample lyric: “Come on skinny love just last the year; pour a little salt we were never here.”
7. RHODES
From: Hitchin, England.
Songs to start with: Turning Back Around, Somebody, Let it all Go (with Birdy), Intro, Breathe
Sample lyric: “You don’t know how lonely I’ve been. Can you tell? Can you tell just by looking at me?”
8. Damien Rice
From: Kildare, Ireland.
Songs to start with: Grey Room, 9 Crimes, I Don’t Want to Change You
Sample lyric: “Have I still got you to be my open door; Have I still got you to be my sandy shore?”
9. The Paper Kites
From: Melbourne, Australia.
Songs to start with: Featherstone, St Clarity, Bloom, Young
Sample lyric: “And my love is yours but your love’s not mine; so I’ll go but we know I’ll see you down the line, and we’ll hate what we’ve lost but we’ll love what we find.”
10. The Head and the Heart
From: Seattle, Washington, USA.
Songs to start with: Rivers and Roads, Lost in My Mind, Another Story
Sample lyric: “Been talking ’bout the way things change, and my family lives in a different state- and if you don’t know what to make of this then we will not relate.”
11. Civil Twilight
From: Cape Town, South Africa.
Songs to start with: Human, Letters from the Sky, Next to Me, Trouble, Come as You Are (Nirvana Cover)
Sample lyric: “I am just an image of something so much greater; I am just a picture frame, I am not the painter. Where do I begin, can I shed this skin? What is this I feel within?”
12. The Shins
From: Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Songs to start with: Simple Song, New Slang, It’s Only Life
Sample lyric: “I told you about all those fears and away they did run. You sure must be strong and you feel like an ocean being warmed by the sun.”
13. José González
From: Gothenburg, Sweden
Songs to start with: Stay Alive, Heartbeats, Down the Line, Stay in the Shade
Sample lyric: “There’s a rhythm in rush these days, where the lights don’t move and the colors don’t fade. Leaves you empty with nothing but dreams in a world gone shallow, in a world gone lean.”
14. Daughter
From: London, England (and also Switzerland and France)
Songs to start with: Youth, Medicine, How, Smother
Sample lyric: “And if you’re still bleeding, you’re the lucky ones. ‘Cause most of our feelings, they are dead and they are gone. We’re setting fire to our insides for fun.”
15. Ray LaMontagne
From: Nashua, New Hampshire, USA
Songs to start with: Trouble, Jolene, Crazy (Cover), Empty, Be Here Now, Hannah
Sample lyric: “Don’t let your soul get lonely child. It’s only time, it will go by. Don’t look for love in faces, places. It’s in you, that’s where you’ll find kindness.”
And that’s it! So go grab a warm blanket, a hot drink, and enjoy the rainy weather while listening to some of these musical artists.