Playlist: Oh Wow So I’m Starting All Over Then I Guess

feature image by natalia perez


Sometimes you’ve already decided what the rest of your life is going to look like and then something happens, like, for example, the breakup of a very long & serious relationship with your girlfriend, and then you’re like oh wow, okay then, I should figure out some new plans? Except not immediately, obviously, because that is just too much to handle in general. Instead you both should stay right where you are in the apartment you have no immediate plans to move out of and listen to music that makes you feel like you’re moving forward in life, even if the most dramatic move you’ve made so far is to switch from T-Mobile to Verizon. You’re sort of in this space where you feel LIKE A TOTAL MANIAC. Like anything is possible! Which can be good but also bad! Hypothetically!

This playlist is an abstract emotional journey from sadness to self-destruction to moving forward to various sleep issues and onwards and upwards into the unpredictable future because at some point you will feel like a bird, albeit a nestless bird, and then you can fly wherever the fuck you want, little wing!

Fly Away – Poe
Flaws – Bastille
Burn Your Life Down – Tegan and Sara
I Need Some Sleep – The Eels
Sleeping In – The Postal Service
Habits – Tove Lo
If I Ever Feel Better – Phoenix
Let Go – Frou Frou
Let Her Go – Jasmine Thompson
Could I Be – Sylvan Esso
Starting All Over Again – Israel Kamakawiwo’ole
Help I’m Alive – Metric
O-o-h Child (remixed) – Nina Simone
I Think I Need A New Heart – The Magnetic Fields
Anything Could Happen – Ellie Goulding
Dancing On My Own – Robyn
Title and Registration – Death Cab For Cutie
Changes – Stars
Free As A Bird – The Beatles
Wings – Birdy
Sitting On The Dock Of the Bay – Smith & Meyers
Forever Young – Audra Mae & Forest Rangers
Free – The Martinis
White Flowers – Flashpapr
I’m Like a Bird (Acoustic Version) – Nelly Furtado
Move in the Right Direction – Gossip


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Riese

Riese is the 40-year-old Co-Founder and CEO of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in California. Her work has appeared in nine books including "The Bigger the Better The Tighter The Sweater: 21 Funny Women on Beauty, Body Image & Other Hazards Of Being Female," magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3020 articles for us.

27 Comments

  1. Oh, honey.

    Breaking my comment silence to say I feel your feels right in the feels.

    Looking at last year’s (6 hr long) playlist from my own upheaval, I humbly recommend the following:

    On the Radio – Regina Spektor
    Pursuit of Happiness – Lissie (seriously listened to this last summer on repeat for DAYS)
    This Too Shall Pass – OK GO
    Dance Yrself Clean – LCD Soundsystem

  2. Another beautiful song about (slowly) moving forward: “Splendor in the grass”, by Pink Martini.

    “I can see you’re thinking baby
    I’ve been thinking too
    about the way we used to be
    and how to start anew

    […]

    Life is moving oh so fast
    I think we should take it slow
    rest our heads upon the grass
    and listen to it grow”.

  3. This is exactly where I’m at right now. Gonna listen to this playlist on repeat while cycling through excitement/manic planning/UTTER TERROR/listlessness/doubt/caffeine-induced uphoria/googling “jobs for hermits”(not for the first time and probably not the last)

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