Hello readers! Today’s post is about how I have been coping with all the craziness of the pandemic, racism, police brutality and overall bad news. In addition to talking with your loved ones and those who you seek out for support, music can also be a form of relief. I listen to music both to come to terms with reality and to feel better. That’s how this playlist is set up. I listen to a lot of genres, so this playlist is a mix. It moves through 12 songs from a place of feeling lonely, lost and angry to emotions in between and ending off in a place of hope.
Here is the link to the Youtube Playlist
First up we have All Alone by Gorillaz featuring Roots Manuva. During this time it can easily feel like you’re all alone. Please, text or call your family and friends, you are never really alone, but people cannot read your mind. No one will know you need support if you don’t ask for it. This song is rumored to be about Manuva’s outlook on the world. The pacing of the beginning builds a feeling of sadness and disappointment. A plea to again be alright.
Next is Breathe You In by Grace The Enemy. This band’s lead is a woman with a delicious scream and a lovely singing voice. The lyrics call out as if you are searching for validation, for redemption:
“Holding on to this dream we’ve made
I’m less if not crumbling,
I know my mind won’t be the same
As long as we remain undying
Breathe you in
Overwhelmed, As I
Breathe you in
Take my hand
Show me life as I
Breathe you in
Breathe you in!”
It is a call to perseverance, to keep going, to breathe in the good, and to remain undying in your stride. To fight for something higher, something better. I believe that I have needed this advice. When this social distancing began I didn’t want to take the situation in. I didn’t want to believe I’d be stuck inside for 3+ months. Once I took the situation in it became easier to see the pandemic not as a loss of everything I once knew, but a gain of something new and unexplored.
Then we have The Pretender by Foo Fighters. I personally love this song and play it all year round. It gets me hyped up to do anything. The better part of my adult life has felt like a fight. I fight to survive, fight to drag myself out of poverty, fight to keep food on the table and a roof over my own head. Discovering this song a few years ago was very uplifting for me. Whenever I need the push to get back on my feet, I remember the lyrics:
“What if I say I’m not like the others?
What if I say I’m not just another one of your plays?
You’re the pretender
What if I say that I’ll never surrender?”
The idea that I’m somehow special, “not like the others” makes me feel empowered. The idea that I’ll never surrender, I’ll always keep going makes me feel strength. Not falling into the “pretender’s” play; that notion is very powerful. To be able to stand in the face of opposition and refusing to bow down. There has been a lot of discourse online about what they meant by pretender. For me personally the pretender is my depression. She wants to lie around all day pretending I can waste away. I pretend when I am depressed that my life isn’t worth living, but it always has been and will continue to be. This song gives me the strength to fight another day, to see my worth, and to keep growing.
Segueing into something lighter, next is Something’s Gotta Give by All Time Low. Despite the band’s name the music they make can be very relatable and even uplifting. I have felt fed up with the state America is in long before these protests. This song shines a light on feeling like you’re at your wit’s end. The chorus goes:
“Wake me up, say enough is enough,
I’m dying to live, something’s gotta give.
Pull me out of this sinking town,
I’m dying to live, something’s gotta give!”
The first lyric is a plea, and I feel like I have been trying to “wake people up” to the truth. When I see those who are misguided it almost feels like they are asking me to enlighten them. They probably aren’t, but I can’t seem to stop myself from correcting misinformation. I want to wake people up to the truth of the racist system we are governed by. Wake them to the truth of white supremacy that hovers around every corner. Show them the truth that we all live on stolen indigenous land. Too many turn a blind eye to people struggling, but I will no longer blink in the face of ignorance. We are dying to live to our full potential. Black people are literally being killed by both law enforcement and the bias within the system. Something does have to give, something has to change.
I can also relate to this song in the fact that we are all stuck inside from the pandemic, slowly passing the time, wanting something to give with the virus. I truly hope that we are at a new norm by the end of 2020.
The moment you realize generational pain has been being placed on the shoulders of every new generation because not enough changes are being made, you can begin to feel…hopeless.
Next we have Kiri by Monoral. The Japanese rock band’s song was popularized by the grungy anime Ergo Proxy.
“You complete my fate
The world unwinds inside of me
You complete my fate
The halo crawls away
You repeat my fate
Rewinding all we can
You refill my place
You refill my place, place”
These lyrics speak to me a lot right now. The notion that history repeats itself, and that we are all completing each other’s fate, refilling each other’s place. The pattern of getting older and seeing someone younger in your place. It reminds me of this video that has been circulating online.
And of course I can’t forget the chorus, the pleading echoing line sung 5 times:
“Come and save me.”
The simple prayer of finding reprieve, redemption, for all the suffering to birth something worthwhile.
Now we transition from that hopelessness to somewhere still sad but more level with the situation.
Next up is another throwback Move Along by All American Rejects. “Move Along” is some of the best advice I have received. Sometimes it’s easy to succumb to our emotions, or the way we feel about situations in our lives. If you shorten transition time (idea I read from Peter Bergman) and choose to look forward and keep going it will be easier to get through your day to day. As the song says:
“Speak to me!
When all you got to keep is strong
Move along, move along like I know you do
And even when your hope is gone
Move along, move along just to make it through
Move along
Move along”
Sometimes all you have is movement, moving into the next moment. I try to make it better than the last, the small steps add up to a significant recognizable change.
Next up is Snap Out Of It by The Arctic Monkeys. Too often I find myself stuck in a rut. Now that all this extra time is available to us it can be so easy to fall victim to spending a significant amount of time on our phones, or on social media. Many times a week I will find I am glued to facebook or twitter. I feel the pressing need to stay in the know. To be aware of the state of this country given all the protests and police brutality people are rallying against. Sometimes you need to snap out of it for your own mental health. Remember to draw the line for your own well being, because if you don’t you will burn yourself out and we need everyone at their best right now. The best you possibly can be.
We have gotten past the anger, we have gotten past the shock of the current moment, we have snapped out of it. Now we want to Rise Again. This song is by Equilibrium, one of the most uplifting metal folk bands I’ve ever stumbled upon. This song came from my “Hype” playlist. Once you are past all your low-vibrational emotions, you need something to help you pick yourself back up. As the lyrics go:
“Let’s get forward, no time to rest
It doesn’t really matter if east or west
So many roads are unexplored
The journey is its own reward
I feel it inside
My eyes are open wide
My heart will acclaim
The sun will rise again”
This song is all about living to see another day and cherishing the moment. Garnering the courage to seize that moment and truly appreciating it. No matter where in your journey it happens to be you can appreciate it for what it is. It’s about finding the drive to pick yourself up as you move and act with intention. During this time inside it has been hard to stay productive at times. It’s okay if you stray, but coming back and rising again is crucial to making progress.
Next in line is Patience by Tame Impala. The hypnotizing chorus, (and I say hypnotizing because that’s how all their songs make me feel) :
“Just growin’ up in stages
(Lay down, low down)
Livin’ life in phases
Another season changes
And still my days are shapeless”
When quarantine began, the weather was still chilly. I still had to wear the lighter of my two winter coats. We have seen the change of the end of winter, to spring and now we have the summer solstice coming up on June 21st. I still had structure from school, but once the semester ended I have been feeling my days are a bit shapeless. To be fair to myself, this website was only 50% done when quarantine began, and now I am writing to you daily on this blog. Patience is also a virtue I have been struggling with, but am trying to have more with myself and others. I have been doing a ton of self discovery during this time, which is why the first and third lyrics resonate with me deeply. I’m taking things one day at a time, but cannot deny the transition I’ve been going through. The same can be said about the political unrest we are seeing in the air. All the anger and trauma are being transmuted into malleable changes. Police Departments across the country are having resources rerouted back into communities.
The embodiment of this next song, Everybody’s Something by Chance the Rapper feat. Saba and BJ The Chicago Kid, is that no one’s life is nothing. Everybody is someone to somebody. Chance is an outspoken man of faith and he does right by it in this song. The bridge and chorus goes:
Nice to see you Father New Year
Middle finger Uncle Samuel
Shooting death with weighted dice
And hitting stains on birthday candles
I know somebody, somebody loves my ass
Cause they help me beat my demons ass
Everybody’s somebody’s everything
I know you right
Nobody’s nothing
That’s right
The first two lines are said to be Chance acknowledging the beauty of seeing another year, but flipping off Uncle Sam is a criticism of our government. Chance has not been all talk, he has put an enormous amount of his resources back into Chicago’s community and government. The next two lines are debated about whether he means death is weighting the dice in its favor for Chicago’s youth. Or if the youth are weighting them escaping death another year. In addition echoing back to what I was saying with The Pretender and depression, this is looking at it from the other side. “Cause they help me beat my demon’s ass”. No one should have to fight their demons alone. You matter to someone; at the very least one person in your life, even if that person happens to be yourself, or someone you haven’t even met yet.
Nearing the end, we come to We Got The Power by Gorillaz. I was trying to not repeat artists on this playlist, but this song is exactly what this playlist needs. At the end of the day through all the terrible things happening in the world, we have power. The chorus goes:
“We got the power to be loving each other, no matter what happens
We’ve got the power to do that
On a le pouvoir de s’aimer, okay?
We got the power to be ringing the great bell out there above us
We got the power for that
We got the power to do that”
We as humans can choose to feel unity. The lyric in French sung by Jehnny Beth translates to “We have the power to love one another, okay?” I urge you reader, when it is safe to go out once again, get to know your community. Your neighbors, the local shop owners, the people in your immediate area. You are even more fortunate if your town has a community center, check out local events. We see these racists online and ask how they can be so hateful and ignorant. It is because they aren’t exposed to people who don’t look like them. They make assumptions and don’t fact check their news. They follow an orange menace who spews hate, bigotry, xenophobia and much more. Spending time with people in your community is a great way to make friends and feel empathy for others. We have always had the power to keep loving each other. Be the example you want to see in the world.
Lastly, we have Crystal Clear by Hayley Williams. This song is fairly new, it is about seeing things as they truly are and as Williams says in the echoing chorus, much like a mantra:
“Crystal Clear, I won’t give into the fear.”
In these troubling times it is important to look at the situation without fear, but rather objectivity. Giving into fear will only make your decisions erratic and possibly dangerous. Seeing things in new light can be incredibly liberating. The second I started looking at quarantine as a detriment I lost all power in the situation. I now see this just is, and I need to make the best of it and have been attempting to do so.
Thank you for reading, let me know what songs you are using to cope with in the comments below! Lastly I found this artist while searching for songs, while I don’t know any of them well enough to put them on this playlist, Yves Tumor, an upcoming Black Non-Binary artist deserves your time, so please lend your ear:
See you next time and stay safe!
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