Music for cleansing, venting, and catharsis in under an hour

November 25, 2015 9:46 PM

It’s Thanksgiving, and that means drama and tension. It also means that I don’t get much alone time to vent said drama and tension. What is some good music that I can listen to in between ten minutes (time for stage setting) and an hour (private time before sleep) that will cathartically purge all of my tension? Could be sad, could be relaxing, could be angry, but after hearing it I want to feel completely wrung out and serene. Thanks!
posted by Going To Maine to Media & Arts (23 answers total)

This is not quite right for family matters, but it has given me a lot of joy the past few weeks: A Cup of Coffee.
posted by Night_owl at 9:58 PM on November 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Either album from Of Monsters and Men really makes me feel like I'm away from whatever I'm doing. I personally like their first album My Head is an Animal a bit more, but the newer album Beneath the Skin is more serene and slow.
posted by Crystalinne at 10:05 PM on November 25, 2015

Got nothing for the ten minutes, but I find a Rick Wakeman rock opera to be a good cathartic listen. I particularly like Journey to the Centre of the Earth because it takes me all away with its story as well as music. Music begins after the 1.08 introduction and goes for 55 min.
posted by Thella at 10:08 PM on November 25, 2015

For music with twang and feels, I like The Civil Wars, especially Devil's Backbone, The One That Got Away, Pressing Flowers, Go, their covers of Disarm and Billie Jean, and that song with Taylor Swift from The Hunger Games. If you're skeptical start at the end of this list and work your way back.

For something completely different, Mahler's 10th symphony is a little over an hour long and will take you on an emotional roller coaster. Metamorphosis I-V composed by Philip Glass is a beautiful (mournful?) series of solo piano pieces, about 30 minutes for all five parts. And if you really want to wallow, put Aarvo Part's Cantus for Benjamin Britten on repeat--it's about 5 minutes long.
posted by esoterrica at 10:14 PM on November 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians kept me sane for half a year when I had a commute on the Boston T that was about an hour each way. I find it really cleansing and calming, like unraveling a knot or finishing a long ritual. Reich is very hit or miss with people though, it might stress you out.
posted by Mizu at 10:32 PM on November 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

It's probably too obvious, but Sigur Ros's second-newest-album, Valtari, will make you feel like you're in your own little fortress of solitude.

So will the Beasts of No Nation Soundtrack

I also rock the Lubomyr Melnyk when I'm in a Serenity Now mood.

If the fam is really pissing you off and you need three minutes of vicarious rage while you baste the turkey, try Crystal Castles
posted by Tenzing_Norgay at 10:38 PM on November 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

Blink 182 always did this for me, but maybe my 90s are showing.
posted by Jacqueline at 10:46 PM on November 25, 2015

Bjork's Post. The entire abum.

if you complain once more, you'll meet an army of me.

My 90s are showing, too
posted by asockpuppet at 11:04 PM on November 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Dmitri Shostakovich's 8th Symphony. It's a blood-curdling musical depiction of the Battle of Stalingrad, concluding with a last movement that represents the desolate 'peacefulness' that comes after the soviet victory.
posted by bertran at 11:05 PM on November 25, 2015

I'm going to recommend a few tracks from the Cloud Atlas soundtrack. I'm hoping they are important enough that seeing the (4 hour!) film is not necessary to be moved and ultimately uplifted, as you should feel.

Actually, all you need is the Cloud Atlas End Title.

Should you partake of the Finale and the Sextet - all the better.

One of the three directors of that film Tim Tykwer (Run, Lola, Run) wrote the score. Cloud Atlas is a novel by David Mitchell about relationships. In the novel, the Cloud Atlas Sextet is a main plot point. It was a book. The director of the film wrote the musical song and brought it to life. During all of these orchestral recordings on the soundtrack, you can occasionally hear the musicians turning sheet pages, and the like. It wasn't evident in the theater, but you will hear it on your headphones. These ambient noises actually enhance the arrangements - they're real. You fall into listening as though you are playing yourself.

It's a great underrated film. The soundtrack is (at least the theme iterations) are sublime. I highly recommend!
posted by jbenben at 12:33 AM on November 26, 2015

One of my go to stress-relief albums is Rachel's - Music For Egon Schiele, esp this track.
posted by p3t3 at 12:42 AM on November 26, 2015

Timestretch by Bassnectar is a song I can disappear into for seven minutes and come out refreshed.
posted by slidell at 12:43 AM on November 26, 2015

My ultimate relax-and-recover albums are Luscious Jackson's Fever In Fever Out and Morcheeba's Who Can You Trust?. I also find SOHN's album Tremors quite calming.
posted by neushoorn at 12:44 AM on November 26, 2015

The Dreaming by Kate Bush (but skip the title track, it's not very good).
posted by h00py at 4:20 AM on November 26, 2015

Brian Eno's Music for Airports might fit the bill. It often puts me to sleep, in a good way.
posted by STFUDonnie at 4:36 AM on November 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

How about the peppy bit from the William Tell Overture? Imagine yourself mounted on a horse, galloping through the dining room, smashing crockery, kicking the table over, Bussels sprouts filling the air, etc. For the ending, you dismount, impale the turkey on your sword and fling it at your most irritating family member, leaving everyone open-mouthed in awe that they have personally witnessed the most awesome Thanksgiving of their lives thanks to you.
posted by Short Attention Sp at 5:09 AM on November 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

Ben Folds Song for the Dumped has a really satisfying piano slammy bit for this and some yelly lyrics and ends perfectly calmly.
posted by Trivia Newton John at 5:31 AM on November 26, 2015

I used to use the live version of the song "Bad" from U2's "Wide Awake In America" for precisely this purpose.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:13 AM on November 26, 2015

Girl Band's 'Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage?' Loud, nonsensical, so, so angry. I feel wrung out after each listen. Warning- gruesome video, but I like it-
posted by JulesER at 9:21 AM on November 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

Sing along with the Mountain Goats song "No Children"
posted by MsMolly at 10:38 AM on November 26, 2015

Totally different, but perhaps Thomas Tallis' Spem in Alium?
posted by WidgetAlley at 11:06 AM on November 26, 2015

Listening to Thunderstruck good and loud would probably work. Either the original or Steve 'n' Seagulls for fun.

Most of AC/DC's YouTube videos, especially the live versions, are a good bet. (Simply watching Angus Young makes me exhausted.)
Let There Be Rock
Highway to Hell
You Shook Me All Night Long

(I don't listen to them much these days but it always lifts my spirits a little seeing huge groups of people having an incredible time together even if it's just for the space of a two hour concert.)
posted by Beti at 11:16 AM on November 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

Whenever I feel like this, I just listen to a random version of Savages playing Fuckers. Works for me, though the song does take a while to get to the point, I guess.

Other possibilities. Primal Scream, Accelerator. Pretty much any Heads song. 50 Foot Wave, Power+Light. In a different register, but still cathartic in her own way: Tess Parks.

And ... OK. At the risk of total self-aggrandisement, I jokingly put together a Spotify playlist to accompany the "your favourite band sucks" trainwreck that developed out of the Royal Blood thread earlier this year. It's an hour of deliberately one-note, foot-to-the-floor stupid garage rock but again, it works for me.
posted by Sonny Jim at 2:45 PM on November 26, 2015