Ze Doldrums

So I will make a playlist (in no particular order) of songs for 'ze doldrums'.  When you get down and out, feel free to listen to the same tunes.  Or, build from it.  You know, since 'Everybody hurts, sometimes'.  Some people don't like feeling sad.  But I say, when  you're sad and blue, cry it out until you feel better.  It might take a few days or a week, but you cannot ignore your feelings even if they're uncomfortable or dark.  Embrace the darkness and just let your pain out.  If you don't express your emotions, then they'll eat you alive.  So I say when you're feeling down, just curl up with a blanket and some tea and listen to some sad songs. 

Playlist for 'ze Doldrums':

1) 'Medicine' by Daughter

"Pick it up, pick it all up.
And start again.
You've got a second chance,
you could go home.
Escape it all.
It's just irrelevant.
It's just medicine.
It's just medicine.

You could still be,
what you want to,
What you said you were,
when I met you.

You've got a warm heart,
you've got a beautiful brain.
But it's disintegrating,
from all the medicine."

 *Here is a sweet cover of 'Medicine' by Laura Hahn

 

2) 'Street Spirit (Fade Out)' by Radiohead

"Rows of houses, all bearing down on me

I can feel their blue hands touching me
All these things into position
All these things we'll one day swallow whole
And fade out again and fade out...

Cracked eggs, dead birds

Scream as they fight for life
I can feel death, can see its beady eyes
All these things into position
All these things we'll one day swallow whole
And fade out again and fade out again."

 

*Sasha and Shawna cover of 'Street Spirit (Fade Out)'

 

3) 'Who Wants to Live Forever' by Queen

"There's no time for us,

There's no place for us,
What is this thing that builds our dreams, yet slips away from us.
Who wants to live forever..

But touch my tears with your lips,

Touch my world with your fingertips,
And we can have forever,
And we can love forever,
Forever is our today,
Who wants to live forever.."

4) 'Into Dust' by Mazzy Starr

"Still falling.
Breathless and on again...
Like two strangers turning into dust
Til my hand shook with the weight of fear
I could possibly be fading
Or have something more to gain
I could feel myself growing colder...
I could feel my eyes turning into dust."

5) 'Hurt by Nine Inch Nails

"What have I become?
My sweetest friend.
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end.
You could have it all.
My empire of dirt.
I will let you down.
I will make you hurt.

I wear this crown of shit.
Upon my liar's chair.
Full of broken thoughts.
I cannot repair.
Beneath the stains of time.
The feelings disappear.
You are someone else.
I am still right here.."

 

6)  'Svefn-g-englar' by Sigur Ros

(I will not put lyrics to this song because Sigur Ros writes their songs in Vonlenska, the 'gibberish' language of Sigur Ros which focuses on the sounds and emotion of language but lacks grammar and literal meaning.)

  

7) 'It Can't Come Quickly Enough' by the Scissor Sisters

"There's no indication of

What we were meant to be.
Sucking up to strangers
Throwing wishes to the sea.

It can't come quickly enough.
And now you've spent your life
Waiting for this moment.
And when you finally saw it come.
It passed you by and
Left you so defeated."

  

8) 'Kill the Messenger' by Rio en Medio

"Take these shoes so I can fly away;
they were fine when I was running.
Hear my voice as it fades away,
now listen 'cause it's coming, coming.

Through the reigns and legs and air,
a messenger is coming."

*check out their other stuff; it's awesome!

9) 'Bullet Proof..I Wish I Was' by Radiohead

 "Limb by limb and tooth by tooth
Tearing up inside of me
Every day every hour
I wish that I was bullet proof

Wax me
Mould me
Heat the pins and stab them in
You have turned me into this
Just wish that it was bullet proof."

  

10) 'Space Oddity' by David Bowie

"Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles, I'm feeling very still

And I think my spaceship knows which way to go
Tell my wife I love her very much, she knows
Ground control to major Tom, your circuits dead, there's something wrong
Can you hear me, major Tom?"

  

11) 'Man that you Fear' by Marilyn Manson

"I was born into this.
Everything turns to shit.
The boy that you loved is the man that you fear.
Pray until your number,
Asleep from all your pain,
Your apple has been rotting.
Tomorrow's turned up dead.
I have it all and I have no choice but to
I'll make everyone pay and you will see."

12) 'Disarm' by Smashing Pumpkins

"Disarm you with a smile.

And cut you like you want me to
Cut that little child.
Inside of me and such a part of you.
Ooh, the years burn.

I used to be a little boy.
So old in my shoes.
And what I choose is my choice.
What's a boy supposed to do?
The killer in me is the killer in you."

 13) 'Mad World' by Gary Jules

(or anything from the Donny Darko soundtrack)

"Children waiting for the day they feel good.

Happy birthday, happy birthday.
And I feel the way that every child should.
Sit and listen, sit and listen.
Went to school and I was very nervous.
No one knew me, no one knew me.
Hello teacher tell me, what's my lesson?
Look right through me, look right through me.

And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad.
The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had.
I find it hard to tell you,
I find it hard to take.
When people run in circles its a very, very
Mad world.."

14) 'Sounds of Silence' by Simon and Garfunkel

"Hello darkness, my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain.
Still remains.
Within the sound of silence."

*this is a marvelous cover version by Kina Grannis

 

15) 'Margish' by Amir Fay Gutman 

אני מוכן כבר לא מרגיש חצוי
פח האשפה שלי מרוקן
אני עצמי מלא מקום ופנוי
הכנות אחרונות לוידוי
עטוף צללים בכחול רוצה להיות הכי קרוב
אסור לי להמשיך לחיות לא לחיות
כי מבלי להרגיש בכל יום אמות קצת
ואחיה קצת פחות

אנשים תמיד מתחבאים
עד שזה כואב והם מתפרצים
הם נחשפים ומשתנים
וגם אני בניתי סביבי חומות הגנה
ולא הייתי אני עד שכאב לי
והסתכלתי לעצמי בעיניים
ועכשיו
אני מרגיש

  

16) 'Just Another Day' by Air

 (The Virgin Suicides soundtrack is also fantastic for a blue mood.)

"Say
Goodbye
Sunshine
Daylight
'Cause it's just another day
You will lose it anyway

Kiss
The time
That goes
Away
'Cause it's just another day
You will lose it anyway"

 

17) 'Stealing Tomorrow' by Great Lake Swimmers

"And I built this all around me.

 I refuse to let anyone through...

And it's like someone else is driving

Like this body isn't mine.
Changed myself without even telling you.
Or even asking and I need relief..

And you don't even know half of it.
I cannot turn it off.
I don't have a switch for that.
and haven't crash landed yet.."

18)  'Everybody Hurts' by REM

"If you're on your own in this life.
The days and nights are long.
When you think you've had too much of this life to hang on.

Well, everybody hurts sometimes.
Everybody cries...

Hold on."

So that's my playlist for melancholia.  It won't 'cure' you but hopefully it will make you feel better.  Have a good cry.  Then realize that life isn't as bad as you think.  There's always a way out of the dark tunnel.  And help is never too far away.  

I used to have a co-worker who always mentioned when I was in a sad, somber mood because sshe didn't like it.  She didn't like feeling sad and only liked being in my company if I was happy.  That is so self-centered.  People are allowed to feel sad and unhappy.  I'm all for crying in public and hugging the stranger next to you.  Why not?  We aren't programmed to be happy all the freakin' time.  Sometimes, we just feel the weight of the world and have to sulk.  

I hope you find the playlist I made helpful.  Remember, crying is the best therapy to feel better.  I swear by having a good cry every now and again.  It's okay.  Cry.  Okay, now watch some funny, sappy movie (like Cry-Baby or Hairspray) that will make you forget

A sad clown,

~R~

'Rainy Days and Mondays'- The Carpenters