Favourite existentially angsty yet melodic songs
April 22, 2022 1:52 PM   Subscribe

I want to make a playlist of powerful angsty songs about the difficulty of existence that also display a resilience

I want to make a playlist of angsty songs for when existence gets excruciating. I am looking for a vibe of '' ouch I am feeling so much emotion but within this hardship I discover my true strength''. Not looking for songs of unending despair, so much as songs with the depth of pain of emotion but also a catharsis/silver lining/will to live. It doesn't even have to be dark, but it does need to grapple with dark emotions. I do realize that this probably describes entire genres (ie: punk, death metal, screamo) but I am so unfamiliar with them that I'm looking for specific songs as a kind of gateway.

So far some (super random) ideas of the vibe I am describing (without knowing which genre they come from :
- Keep on Rock'n in the Free World (Neil Young)
- All apologies (Nirvana)
- Drive (incubus)
- May failure be your noose (Lingua Ignota)
- Shine (Collective Soul)
- Anthem (Leonard Cohen)
- Closer to Fine (Indigo Girls)
- Aint' Got No (I got Life) (Nina Simone)
- A Hero's Death - Fontaines DC
posted by winterportage to Media & Arts (33 answers total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
any song on emergency & i by dismemberment plan
posted by AlbertCalavicci at 2:10 PM on April 22, 2022 [2 favorites]


I wonder if you'd find any useful ideas in the 2020 "Hopeful songs for hopelessness" thread--not the same as your question, but it feels potentially related.

In that thread, I recommended one that I think might also work for you: Swim, by Jack's Mannequin.
posted by theatro at 2:11 PM on April 22, 2022 [1 favorite]


First thought is Kick by Spanish Love Songs, but also basically their entire discography. They just released a slow and synthy version as well if that's more your thing.

Also a big fan of wrong way/one way by RVIVR.
posted by General Malaise at 2:11 PM on April 22, 2022


The Weakerthans - Plea from a Cat Named Virtute (a lot of Weakerthans might fit this)
Rilo Kiley - A Better Son/Daughter
posted by wemayfreeze at 2:23 PM on April 22, 2022 [4 favorites]


You want much of the Mountain Goats' ouevre, but "This Year" is probably the one that most literally fits the bill.
posted by praemunire at 2:46 PM on April 22, 2022 [7 favorites]


'Fight' by the Cure, off Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
posted by srednivashtar at 2:52 PM on April 22, 2022




Texarkana by R.E.M.
posted by eirias at 3:01 PM on April 22, 2022 [1 favorite]


Dusty Trails by Lucius
posted by armoir from antproof case at 3:04 PM on April 22, 2022


AND!

Motel by Meg Myers
(Soooooo good)

Shake It Out by Florence & The Machine

Sky Full of Song by Florence & The Machine
posted by armoir from antproof case at 3:13 PM on April 22, 2022


Frank Turner: Get better
posted by hydra77 at 3:18 PM on April 22, 2022 [2 favorites]


Move in the Right Direction - Gossip is my go to in this area.
posted by brookeb at 3:19 PM on April 22, 2022 [3 favorites]




The Weakerthans song that *perfectly* hits this spot for me — evokes all the emotion and angst but sympathetically, and suggests that a way forward is possible without daring to push you in that direction — is “A New Name For Everything.” Just listened to it again and oh. my. god.

And the Game Theory song I’d put forth here is “Sleeping Through Heaven.”
posted by sesquipedalia at 3:44 PM on April 22, 2022 [2 favorites]


Dance Music by the Mountain Goats hits all these notes for me.
posted by rube goldberg at 3:49 PM on April 22, 2022 [2 favorites]


Hold On - Tom Waits
Calling All Angels - Jane Siberry and K.D. Lang
The Boxer - Simon and Garfunkel
Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen
posted by Redstart at 4:06 PM on April 22, 2022 [1 favorite]




The Chicks - March March
posted by signal at 4:46 PM on April 22, 2022




Fever Ray - I'm Not Done ("I'm holding on to a straw...One thing I know for certain / Oh I'm pretty sure / It ain't over / I'm not done")
Iron & Wine - This Year ("I am gonna make it through this year if it kills me")
Martha Wainwright - Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole ("I will not pretend, I will not put on a smile, I will not say I'm alright for you”)
Modest Mouse's album Good News For People Love Bad News is an extended meditation on this theme. Float On encapsulates the vibe.
posted by ourobouros at 4:59 PM on April 22, 2022 [1 favorite]


They Might Be Giants has a few very emo songs, e.g. Hopeless Bleak Despair, Climbing the Walls

Oh yeah, good call on Cowboy Junkies, lots of songs on The Caution Horses fit that description, though the themes are more persevering and surviving than transcending.
posted by credulous at 6:46 PM on April 22, 2022


The Waterboys - This is the Sea
posted by perhapses at 6:49 PM on April 22, 2022


Radiohead - Airbag (I also like Horace Andy's vocal on the Radiodread version).
Jim White - Chase the Dark Away (pair it with Why It's Cool from the same album).
Marty Bennett - Blackbird.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 6:51 PM on April 22, 2022


Might also need to add Joni Mitchell.
posted by credulous at 6:53 PM on April 22, 2022


Try Mitski. Nobody is a great starting place but she has a whole catalogue of sadness and resilience.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 7:01 PM on April 22, 2022


Julien baker!
posted by bookworm4125 at 7:27 PM on April 22, 2022


Two tracks by Jeffrey Lewis are among my go-tos for on-demand catharsis:

Time Trades
Time is gonna take so much away
but there's a way that you can offer time a trade
Big A, Little A (transformative cover of a Crass song (punk), from a whole album of Crass covers).
From God to local bobby, in home and street and school
They've got your name and number while you've just got their rule
We've got to look for methods to undermine those powers
It's time to change the tables. The future must be ours

Be exactly who you want to be, do what you want to do
I am he and she is she but you're the only you
posted by xueexueg at 7:52 PM on April 22, 2022


Gang of Four is cathartic, and some is relatively melodic in spots.
posted by Windopaene at 8:14 PM on April 22, 2022


Sail On, Sailor by the Beach Boys.

"Seldom stumble, never crumble
Try to tumble, life's a rumble
Feel the stinging I've been given
Never ending, unrelenting
Heartbreak searing, always fearing
Never caring, persevering
Sail on, sail on, sailor"
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:17 PM on April 22, 2022


Not by Big Thief
posted by SomethinsWrong at 8:17 PM on April 22, 2022 [2 favorites]


Glad to see Spanish Love Songs and Frank Turner mentioned already :). For Frank Turner, it's very much part of his vibe, the get-back-up-again-punk attitude. Other songs that fit the bill are Punches :

"'...sometimes I even lose
The will to start again
And every day feels like an end

But hey, every once in a few months when
All the punches land
That day, I'm a tiger a prize fighter
At least worth a damn"

And Recovery, If Ever I Stray and The Next Storm. Acoustic versions of each are probably easy to find, if that's closer to your musical taste. Some other suggestions: Survive by Rise Against, Something I Can Hold in My Hands by The Smith Street Band, and Take Your Medicine by Cloud Cult.
posted by snusmumrik at 3:06 AM on April 23, 2022 [1 favorite]


this feels like my *whole thing* (I'm gonna lean a little screamier/post-hardcore than most other people here because you said you were interested)

As Cities Burn - Into the Sea (the album version of this song is better than this audiotree live, but I feel they really embody the middle aged angsty energy I'm going for in this performance!)

Brand New - Millstone

Palace - Bitter

Thursday - War All The Time

these two aren't starter-screamo, but if you like the rest:

La Dispute - Andria

Touche Amoure ft Manchester Orchestra - Limelight

(for full angst experience, listen slightly too loud, on headphones.)
posted by euphoria066 at 2:04 PM on April 23, 2022 [1 favorite]


Adding to the Mountain Goats recs, my pick is Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1.
posted by naoko at 4:59 PM on April 24, 2022


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