Music for hard times

Bwah?

I found this http://theprolific.com/2008/10/8-best-get-over-a-break-up-albums/ article off digg, and felt like I could use something like this, unfortunately that music is not my cure.

I've been having a really rough time lately with school(java)/family/ex-gf and could use some recommendations for music to "cheer me up?" Right now dashboard/postal service & T.I. paper trail are not cutting it.

Thanks fellas.

i n c u b u s

Try "Morning View" album - Incubus. Very calming and rockin at the same time.

Speakeasy

Warning: Youtube post

Built to Spill has always done that job for me. Catchy melodies and great lyrics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i9T5N4-0_k

I don't know if you'll like Architecture in Helsinki but here it is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXIzyquw-kc

The Go! Team is great too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQg7qOB5Heg

Kate of Lokys

Read through this review. The first thing you'll notice, if you follow the music review scene at all: it's not your typical Pitchfork indie-cool breezy dismissal. It's deeply personal, it's painfully detailed (it takes three paragraphs just for the reviewer to actually get to the topic of the album itself), and most tellingly, it's a confession: he was wrong about the album.

So was I, when I first heard it. It's an easy album to dismiss, if you aren't in the right state of mind for it. My boyfriend played me a track from it on a road trip we took down to Florida last year, and I thought it was pretty "meh, OK."

Then on the drive back from Florida, passing through Tennessee at night after a full day on the road, he put on the whole album. I put my DS away, and we listened to it, in complete silence, just hearing the music and watching the lights of Memphis swing past us to the south, then driving on through darkness to the slow, contemplative, not-quite-defeated outro of "13 Months in 6 Minutes." And I fell in love with it.

The Meadowlands was what got me through my undergraduate sociology thesis. (I even credited them for it in the text). It's what I listen to for untold hours during long drives, just the whole album over and over again, letting it swing my emotions from anger to acceptance, from rebellion to loss. It is beautiful and fierce and shining, simultaneously triumphant and hopeless, and every time I hear it I realize that my own life isn't so bad after all.

Listen to The Meadowlands. And if you don't like it, keep listening until you do.

Sir Carcass

The Polyphonic Spree

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUHgKBw994A

BlackbeardonGuitar

I always like the score to the magnificent seven.

Sam Cooke's Night beat always helps me out. It's full of blues and soul.

I always like Parliament and Funkadelic anything by them is great specifically Parliament's Mothershup Connection.

Brightblack Morning Light makes this slow burning soul/funk thats so slow it's hard not to relax while it plays. I would listen to it before I ran a couple years back and it would make me feel relaxed.

Mr Bubbles

Hello Rockview by Less Than Jake is probably one of the happiest sounding albums ever recorded

Tam

If you don't mind strange music, Aphex Twin's

Flim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFE7-LOSqXE

On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toS-QvUtbfY

4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5EGUPP0uN0

are pretty good. They help when I'm down- especially Flim and On.


Or, if you don't think you'll fall deeper, you could go the catharsis route and listen to some blues

e.g. Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNj2BXW852g

Monoxide

What exactly are you asking for?

I mean, some people like to listen to music that matches their mood, and others like music that dictates it. So do you want something poppy and peppy and fun, or do you want something to try to connect to?

pots+pans

Bob Dylan and Tom Waits always make me feel happier, as does the Arcade Fire's first album.

Alpine

Arctic Monkey's "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" has a bunch of good, light-hearted songs that can cheer anyone up, and the rest of the album is pretty good "It sucks to be a teenager but let's make the best of it" rock.

Tav

MR. BLUE SKY
PLEASE TELL US WHY
YOU HAD TO HIDE SO LONG

Speakeasy

If you want music that suits your mood:

This Will Destroy You:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BSHAXpNey0

The Cinematic Orchestra:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGcbEqlU49o

Hope of the States:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kKymqU2Ouw

Grandaddy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrOsvwIsZBg

All I've got for now.

Jubeh

Leonard Cohen is your man if you're having girl problems.

musanman

just listen to some SRV or Jimi, those dudes can make their guitar sound sadder than you ever will

Daemonion

So, you want something that will make you happy? Lift your spirits? Motivate you?

Golden Leg

Electric Light Orchestra is pretty great. The Flaming Lips are motivational in their own special way.

Recently, I've found Heroes by David Bowie to be pretty great, and Nessum Dorma as sung by Pavarotti moves me to tears.

Project Mayhem

Thrice
Come All Ye Weary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU7FV7wHt3M

and

Kings Upon the Main

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3gTEf-bZfk&feature=related

NotYou

I like listening to Robert Johnson when Im sad. It's Blues FYI.

ilmmad

Okay if you want happy music look at Natalie Portman's Shaved Head. Seriously its the awesomest music.

If you want sad music but with upbeat tunage listen to certain Okkervil River songs, such as:

Black
If It's Kicks
All the Latest Toughs

That being sad if you want sad music with a slower sound also look at other Okkervil River songs, such as:

A Stone
Come Back, I am Waiting
A King and a Queen

Masked_Mullet

Momma Sed- Puscifier

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdE_zE068Bw

it's one of those mellow songs, an well Maynard James Keenan, has such a sultry voice. That's if your into a chilling mood.

Then you have
You gotta go- The mighty Mighty Bosstones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAmlW4Rm7LQ

The impression that i get- MMB

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7A8Mkg1qYQ&feature=related

It's a classic, like. It's so uplifting, the first time i heard this song was from the Game Rogue Trip- On the PS1.

That's all i can think of for now. Hope it helps mang.

Daemonion

I love Puscifer.

Seattle Thread

Joy Division.

TechBoy

The Streets - Dry Your Eyes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHOf3s70w-c

is great for post break up listening. Really his whole (concept) album A Grand Don't Come for Free is great for post break up listening. I realize that's not the entirety of your issues but it's made me feel better.

Bwah?

Thanks guys, I feel like a lot of this stuff really hit the spot- And I appreciate the input!!!!

cooljammer00

just saying, that digg list, while very good (NMH FTW), is probably really depressing.