I let music get to me. I'm an anxious person, and music easily obliterates the emotional barriers I've spent years curating. Here are some tunes that shatter the Brusberg Dam.
1. "How to Save a Life" by The Fray
I guess this article should be called "Songs That Make Everyone Cry." Is anyone immune to the thought of losing someone close that could have possibly been prevented with intervention? 25 seconds into this tearjerker, I drop into my wallow stance, granting me a +5 People Are Staring bonus. By 45 seconds, the whole house can hear my sobs. I haven't lost someone I feel very close to yet, but thankfully this music video has some steps to prepare me for that. Number 18 is very helpful. Death comes for us all, but I hope it's not my fault when it happens to a friend or family member :(
2. "Chandelier" by Sia
The way Sia describes throwing them back until she loses count reminds me of a wild night during my sophomore year of college in which I lost count of how many spoonfuls of peanut butter I ate during a very demanding DoTA marathon. I contracted a sickness that can only be described as "Nut Gut" from my antics. Although Nut Gut is temporary and affects just one Bobby about once a year (I never learn), the uncomfortability in the lower digestive system is very painful and hindering. Will I ever give up peanut butter? Probably nut. Will I ever not cry when I hear "Chandelier" by Sia? Nut a chance.
3. "The Altar" by Alice Glass
This simple song unravels a complex bundle of emotional instability embedded within what little muscle tissue I have. It also makes me run out of tissues :( "The Altar" reminds me that whenever I'm feeling sad or less than 1 hundo, there are people all over Earth who have it much worse than me. Do I deserve to feel sad if my life is generally more stable than someone else's? When I recognize global suffering and daily injustice, it feels harder to remain optimistic. The first time I heard this song, when Alice said "forget to remember your own worth," it's like she read my fragile mind. I assumed a horizontal position, quivering in a puddle of sorrow and shame of a single liquid. My tears.
4. "Butterfly" by Grimes
At the risk of becoming your "my Grimes friend," let me just say Grimes changed my life. The lyrics, the musicality, the style, the videos, I can't really put it into words. It makes me happy that Grimes is making the music they want to regardless of what the fans want. All I know is I want more! "Butterfly" gave me tears of joy, and an epiphany when I first heard it like 4 months ago. I've been looking for ways to combine happiness with purpose for years now, but lately it just feels like being alive and helping people are enough for me. I'd be happier if everyone could share my quality of life, and I wish I had more power to alleviate everyone's problems, but I won't let jerks/world leaders compromise my positive energy. "Butterfly" gives me four minutes to forget everything and just appreciate life for what it is. I queue this song at the end of some of my yoga sessions, and during a tree pose a few weeks ago, I saw a rabbit I hadn't seen in two months. My family had named the rabbit Hopsin. I knew the rabbit I saw was Hopsin because it winked at me :) This was a nice sight because I thought Hop would be hawk-food by now.
5. "Toy Story (You Got a Friend in Me Dubstep Remix)" by Remix Maniacs
:(
I put my soul out there today. Don't make me regret it.
