There are times in life when you need to let the music wash over you. No conversation, self-help book, or call to mom will resolve the unrelenting emotions that music relieves. Music is the only friend you have.
Music, like other art forms, provides a safe space to process complex feelings and concepts. As much as music asks us to put ourselves in the songwriter’s shoes, it also provides a space for us to interpret and feel independently. Often, the confines of a song are the only appropriate place for us to release rage, longing, and joy. Maybe Phoebe Bridgers doesn’t scream until her vocal cords fail at the end of “I Know the End” just because she’s an emo girlie. Maybe it’s because it’s the only place she can. Screaming in public is disruptive and may provoke a call to the authorities. Screaming while smashing a guitar on SNL is an artful expression and invites us to scream in the peace of our home or car along with Bridgers.
So, without further ado, here are three songs that let you feel all the emotions you stored away for a rainy day or unscheduled therapy session.
“Selfless” by The Strokes
Have you ever felt like you abandoned yourself? That is the sharp pang of emotion this song evokes for me. The lyrics “How did this fit in your story? / Why’d you let them judge your body?” cut me to the core every time. I don’t even wince at the fact that this song has nearly a billion plays. First, because I would consider myself to be a good portion of those. Second, it reminds me that I am never alone in my emotions.
“Telepath” by Manchester Orchestra
Currently, at 19 years old, I wear the loss of childhood around my neck. Telepath drudges up all those strange feelings of loss and coming-of-age. How do you experience it?
“You Are a Beam of Light” by The Beths
Long. Distance. Relationships. It does not matter if you chose to move away for college or not, it seems like we are all playing phone tag with close friends, siblings, and parents that are far from us. The Beths perfectly relate this experience of reaching out through “broadband lines.”
If you’d like to listen to any of these songs and some others I think are cathartic, look here!