The Getting By Mixtape
Because music is the best pick me up.
September hasn't been the most fantastic month for mixtape writing; it's been a good month for life soundtracks - just not for writing. My whole summer itself has been obscenely crazy and eventful. I've attended a wedding, a funeral, had my heart broken, partied too much and an ER visit for wicked kidney stone. But as the old adage goes, "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger," and so everyone must go through some rough patches in life. Just sometimes those rough patches like to clump together, and that can be a real bitch.
Now that I'm hopefully out of the woods on ER visits and traveling for funerals for a decent amount of time, I'm back with mixtapes every week, and this week the theme is songs of survival - not actual lost in the woods and possibly will resort to cannibalism survival - but songs that you can turn on when you have to keep repeating to yourself that everything is okay. Things most likely do work themselves out the end, but it always does help to have a killer soundtrack to move things along.
The Mountain Goats - This Year - Any song with a chorus of, "I am gonna make it through this year if it kills me" is destined to be anathematic.
Cake - I Will Survive - The karaoke staple and classic survival song, only Cake makes it sound a lot cooler and a lot less disco.
Queen - Don't Stop Me Now - This song makes me so instantly happy that I automatically start doing more jazz hands than a choreographed gay men's choir.
My Chemical Romance - I'm Not Okay (I Promise) - A song where you get in your car, roll down the windows and head bang along. It may seem like another angsty teen anthem, but it's proven a good bit of use into my 20's as well.
No Doubt - Just A Girl - I don't know any girl my age that didn't at least once jump around her room singing this song when she just couldn't take it anymore.
Modest Mouse - Float On - The summer this song came out, a lot of my problems were simply solved by putting this track on, taking a deep breath and driving off into the sunset.
Radiohead - Everything In Its Right Place - The perfect juxtaposition of the chant like lyrics and eerie music composition make this song almost like a mantra at times. It's slightly unnerving at first, but by the end it is such a calming and soothing song.
Sigur Ros - Glosoli - To me this song musically embodies a simple beauty that possesses a comforting effect. It's lush and peaceful and the build to the shimmering end is just triumphant. When I saw Sigur Ros live, this song was one of the most heartbreaking beautiful moments I've ever had with music. Hearing this song, feeling that feeling of beauty again, is simply enough sometimes to survive.
Posted by Lisa White on Sep 29, 2008 @ 7:00 am
