4 Albums for Your Terrible Mood
Today is just one of those days. You’re unhappy, sitting alone in your room, feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders, and there is seemingly no escape. But sometimes one of the best ways to lift the fog is to accept it, nurture it, and slowly dissolve it with some songs that hold your hand through it all.
It’s okay to sit in your sadness, and it’s okay to be sad. Just remember that sadness has an end, and you do what you have to do to get through it. No judgements. Here are albums from artists that get where you’re coming from and have been there before.
1. Sprained Ankle by Julien Baker
It is truly impressive how much raw emotion can be expressed through a longing voice and an electric guitar. Wielding these two powerful tools, Julien Baker meticulously spills her emotions into an album that is the musical embodiment of a tired soul. From self-doubt to hopeless love, Baker knows how to tug at the heartstrings and walks listeners through a unique perspective on crises with which we are all familiar.
2. Carrie and Lowell by Sufjan Stevens
A testament to confronting grief and embracing darkness, Sufjan recorded this album in an attempt to come to terms with his mother’s passing in 2012. With lyrics that touch on his mother’s depression, schizophrenia, and substance abuse, this album is full of tremendous courage and espouses grief instead of pushing it away.
3. Prologue by The Milk Carton Kids
Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan, the two acoustic guitarists who make up The Milk Carton Kids, are acutely aware of the sad nature of their songs. Put bluntly in an interview with Pop Matters, Kenneth says “When we’re coming, you know it’s going to get dark.” True to this message, the duo’s debut album is as heartfelt as it is heartbreaking.
4. 22, A Million by Bon Iver
Justin Vernon, AKA Bon Iver, started his story post-breakup and alone in a cabin with a bout of pneumonia. His musical career blossomed from there, but unfortunately his sense of purpose did not follow suit. As cliche as it sounds, he tried to find himself by travelling to the Greek isles in the middle of winter and was wildly unsuccessful. In Vernon’s own words, “I was trying to find myself. Did not.” The subsequent release, 22, A Million, is a testament to the exhausting journey of finding oneself, and the acceptance you may never see this journey’s end.
