betterthancupcakes:

nickdouglas:

Do you have a sad playlist? I do. I wrote about it at Gawker but I didn’t say everything I meant to. Here’s what I did say:

I assumed until a few days ago that everyone had a playlist full of sad songs for when they felt really low. I mean I only had two mix CDs in college: Favorite new music, and the sad playlist. I’ve curated that sad playlist (now named “Blue”) for six years. It’s not that I’m a sad person, but a soundtrack soothes me in a time of sharp emotion, and certain songs will always hit me in the chest. I only thought about the playlist recently because I hadn’t played it in so long. In fact, it seemed like the past decade of my life can be told by recalling how often I played it: All the time growing up, to only rarely pulling it out now.

I’ve listened to that playlist a lot lately. Life hasn’t been particularly hard, but emotions have rode high. And most of the songs still feel right. My songs of joy change over the years. Sometimes a song only works for a week and then it’s embarrassing or inappropriate. But the sad songs rarely stop working. I have songs in here I wept to on the edge of a creek in college, and at least one song that made me tear up during my bike ride home in high school. The meaning of each song changes as I find new reasons to be sad. New songs are added that speak to the sorrow I find before first hearing them. These songs express sorrow better than I can, and I am starting to lose hope that I will ever make such beauty out of my darkness. Do all the people who quote sad songs wish they had better words of their own?

I thought everyone had a “sad song playlist” too. I’ve clearly thought about mine a lot as I have a whole blog post about it. I agree that the songs express sorrow and make beauty out of my darkness better than I’ll ever be able to. Sometimes it’s just good to feel.

Tru. My sad playlist is far better at eveoking emotions than words ever will be for me as well. It’s so easy to slip into anger from sadness and a sad playlist just puts the brakes on.