I've been thinking about our fortune

March 30, 2012 7:32 PM

Quitting a prestigious job I really enjoyed but grew incompatible with, starting a new one that has more promise, but is still an unknown. I've listened the hell out of Moody Blues' "Story In Your Eyes" and Simple Minds' "Don't You." What other songs capture the essence of a bittersweet ending and an exciting but uncertain future?
posted by Slap*Happy to Media & Arts (18 answers total)

Green Day - Good Riddance (Time of your Life)
posted by John Cohen at 7:57 PM on March 30, 2012

Fastball - The Way
posted by deathpanels at 8:19 PM on March 30, 2012

The Wedding Present - Come Play With Me
posted by N-stoff at 8:30 PM on March 30, 2012

Dylan - Tangled up in Blue
posted by Chekhovian at 9:14 PM on March 30, 2012

Tina and the B Sides, In My Own Time.
posted by willbaude at 9:16 PM on March 30, 2012

Best answer: Beyonce - Best Thing I Never Had
Alanis Morisette - Thank you
Florence and the Machine - Dog Days are Over
Rhythms del Mundo - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
posted by leigh1 at 9:21 PM on March 30, 2012

The Weepies - Can't Go Back Now
posted by kylej at 9:52 PM on March 30, 2012

Peter Gabriel, Solsbury Hill
posted by theredpen at 10:31 PM on March 30, 2012 [3 favorites]

The Ataris - My Hotel Year
posted by SisterHavana at 11:30 PM on March 30, 2012

Augustana - Boston ?
posted by treehorn+bunny at 11:46 PM on March 30, 2012

Beck - The Golden Age, and maybe also "Little One" from the same album.
The Arcade Fire - Wake Up
Band of Horses - The Funeral
The Beatles - I've Got a Feeling
The Dandy Warhols - Heavenly
Doves - Caught by the River
The Folk Implosion - Free to Go (the video is horrible), "Chained to the Moon"
REM - seems like about half of Automatic for the People would work, but particularly "Sweetness Follows" and "Find the River".
Rolling Stones - "Moonlight Mile"
posted by LionIndex at 11:48 PM on March 30, 2012

The The, This Is the Day.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 3:37 AM on March 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

Metric - Gimme Sympathy
Tom Petty - Into The Great Wide Open
posted by iviken at 3:51 AM on March 31, 2012

When I moved from a dull but stable job to a new exciting opportunity I started listening the hell of out Lynryd Skynryd - Freebird.
posted by Wysawyg at 6:14 AM on March 31, 2012

Big country-In a big country
posted by newpotato at 6:19 AM on March 31, 2012

Read My Mind, The Killers

Chicago, Sufjan Stevens

Graceland, Paul Simon
posted by kagredon at 2:20 PM on March 31, 2012

Here's a spotify playlistof this, I won't have time to finish it, but it's open for others to work on.
posted by fizzix at 5:10 PM on March 31, 2012

Response by poster: Hmm. Dunno. If anything, the answers have underlined the problem of insincerity and a shunning of grandiosity in modern pop music. If you're going to go small and be dishonest about caring even that little, what's the point? Apart from the car commercial royalties, that is.

I mean, the Moody Blues could have been talking about the end of a one-night stand or the end of human civilization there, and the Simple Minds had a megalomaniacal melancholy vibe that got right to the heart of it.

Best answer goes to Florence and the Machine, because the video? That's some enjoyably insane shit right there, with music that does its damnedest to transcend the genre it's stuck in, with power and verve, even if doesn't quite manage to break free.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:24 PM on March 31, 2012