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
This is so relevant to my interests right now. Thank you!
Sometimes it’s scary how relevant these playlists are to my life when they pop up on my twitter feed.
Getting me right in the feels, Riese.
It would be awesome if you made these playlists on Spotify too.
I’ve been oscillating between ‘moving on’ and ‘self-destruction’ for almost a year now. I’m tired. We might need more playlists.
Well my dramatic move right now is leaving (my work at) T-Mobile after 6 years, so I guess this is relevant, hehe :-) thank you for this awesome playlist :-)
Solid gold choices, if I do say so myself.
Welp that was exactly what I needed. Maniac solidarity.
yes.
Wow so relevant. Break ups are terrible. I definitely need music that can give me the illusion of moving on in my life right now.
This is just what I needed <3
Same, other Jane. Same.
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
Also, should say that there was plenty of overlap between the awesome list you made and was on my own playlist.
Ouch, timely. But also yay new songs to discover.
<3
someday i will post a comment on an autostraddle FEELINGS post that is more than just a heart symbol. so get ready for that. in the meantime i just really love you a lot, so.
<3 <3 <3 <3
Yeah. Life after grad school and no immediate job prospects. I don’t know.
This playlist is exactly what my life needs.
I would add “The Starting Line” by Keane. I feel like it fits the bill and it’s my go-to OHMYGODWHATISMYLIFE song.
You know, sometimes these playlists tell my life story.
oh wow feeling this so hard right now
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
that's all i have to say.
What a perfect soundtrack to my favorite evening activity, getting high and lying at the bottom of the shower weeping. Thanks Riese!
i will listen to this while trying to figure out where i’m going to live in the fall / applying to more colleges because i didn’t get in anywhere / trying not to feel worthless because of that
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)
Make the “Sittin on the dock of the bay” the Sara Bareilles version and we are golden