Monday's Playlist: Hold On

So, I went through a really bad patch (quite) a while back... really bad. I was a total wreck, a big bloody mess of a person wandering through my days in a haze of whacked out depression. I've always had a tendency to romanticize misery, to paint it as something sort of pretty and tragic instead of being honest about just how pathetic I was. Even now, full aware of just how terrible that time was, I still sort of whitewash it for nostalgia's sake. I remember lonely twilight meanderings on streetlamp lit sidewalks listening to sad bastard music and lamenting/loving my indie film isolation. I have no desire to ever go back to the reality of that time, but every now and then I revisit the edited version by replaying some of my miserable music selections from that era. Even just sampling the playlist below makes my heart ache. These songs are exquisitely sad, I think... even if the lyrical content doesn't always match the vibe of the music, it's guaranteed to bring you down. But they're not just syrup thick misery... they're tuneful, sometimes hopeful, sometimes even a bit triumphant in their sadness. This isn't a definitive list of ultra sad songs by any means... it's just music that defined a certain very wretched moment. I think of it, now, as musical sedative for the days when I'm just too darn happy.

1. The Bleeding Heart Show - The New Pornographers (from "Twin Cinema")
2. Hold On Hope - Guided By Voices (from "Do The Collapse")
3. No Signs of Pain - Azure Ray (from "November")
4. Your Ghost - Kristin Hersh (from "Hips & Makers")
5. Suicide Life - Eels (from "Blinking Lights & Other Revelations")
6. Our Time Has Passed - The Pernice Brothers (from "The World Won't End")
7. Mr. Ambulance Driver - The Flaming Lips (from "At War With The Mystics")
8. Salesman At The Day Of The Parade - Rogue Wave (from "Descended Like Vultures")
9. Lonely As You - Foo Fighters (from "One By One")
10. Honey - Tori Amos (from "Cornflake Girl")
11. Except For The Ghosts - Lisa Germano (from "In The Maybe World")
12. Mad World - Gary Jules (from the "Donnie Darko" soundtrack)
13. NYC - Interpol (from "Turn On The Bright Lights")
14. I've Been Waiting - Sixpence None The Richer (from "Divine Discontent")
15. Cut - Plumb (from "Chaotic Resolve")
16. Breathe Me - Sia (from "Colour The Small One")
17. The Movies - Earlimart (from "Everyone Down Here")
18. It's All In Your Mind - Beck (from "Sea Change")
19. Invitation - Richard Buckner (from "Dents & Shells")
20. The Shadowlands - Ryan Adams (from "Love Is Hell")