Playlist: Songs to Be Sad To

What is it about being sad that causes us to want to listen to sad music? I’ve spent a long time pondering this and I’ve come to a conclusion. I think sometimes when we are not in a good mental state, we tend to isolate ourselves because of a sort of feeling of dissociation from the normal life routines we adapt to everyday. If I am depressed, I want to keep to myself because in a way it’s socially unacceptable to be quiet and visibly sad out in public. This tends to isolate the mind and make me feel a bit lonely.

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Where music comes into play is it kinda lessens any feelings of loneliness. Not only might the lyrics resonate with you in letting you know you’re not alone in feeling down, but the calming / relaxing vibes also help soothe you, helping fight anxiety in a sense. Anyhow, these are some of the sad songs I’ve been listening to recently, to kind of take you into what vibe I’ve been on lately.

I think it was around early sophomore year of high school when I started listening to Shlohmo. His music really stands out from others, a lot of textures and warmth goes into his tracks, blending genres into a sense of emotion.

This song is so damn beautiful and FKA twigs looks like a whole angel in the video. Twigs’ older music is insanely good.

I’ve definitely teared up to this song enough times to say that I’m ready for another Kelela album to play with my heart.

I had to put this song in here. One of my favorite songs ever. One of the best songs Frank Ocean has ever made, period. If this song doesn’t make you have an existential crisis whenever it comes on, you might not have a soul.

This track by Baltra is an especially good one to sort of zone-out to. It’s sad but at the same time kinda makes you wanna dance which is honestly the type of music I wanna thrive to make.

I’m channeling my inner cigarette-smoking / crime-novel-reading / middle-aged-man-in-a-tank-top vibes with this song. Something about Leonard Cohen’s voice has always soothed me.

When I was younger I stumbled across this genre of noise music that I never heard, which was a bunch of sad chords mixed with distortion and textures. Tim Hecker was always my favorite artist doing it, but this song in particular is mad pretty.

This song is just an example of a great collaboration, Mount Kimbie has some insane production, and then James Blake is always ridiculous.

James Blake dropped one of the greatest albums I’ve ever heard, I actually used to fall asleep to it every night the first year it came out, so it’s safe to say his music comforts me forreal.

I wanna bring it out of just sad music and end with a song that motivates me and leaves me hopeful. Solange really changed the whole game with this song and that makes it timeless. This song kinda helps take me out of a funk, motivating me to be productive. I guess that’s the beautiful thing about music. It can impact your life in so many different ways.

I hope this list didn’t make you sad, but if you were already, I hope it offered some tracks to help you get through it. No matter how sad we get, the silver lining is that it will always get better, those feelings won’t last forever, and no one is ever truly alone in being sad or depressed. Hope you have a good productive day!