Smiles! Unicorns! Puppies! Cupcakes!

I listen to my iPod on shuffle and wonder when I fell into this coma of depressing music. There's no need to make sleep mixes anymore. The happy songs are so few and far between that I'm usually long asleep by the time any of them roll around. "Aw, that's sad," you might say. "She needs light in her life," you may suggest. You may even recommend me some of the best music ever to lift me out of my narcoleptic music slump. Well stop those interventions right now my friend. This is completely self-induced and I take any and all credit for any damage done to my psyche.

My favorite kind of depressing music is kind where the singer comes out of the speaker and jumps in your throat and all of the sudden, they make you want to cry because they're in you, or maybe are you. And you wonder if that's why you are so tired at work. Nights spent recording records and touring and your body is so shocked and emotionally tired that you just forget. You're pretty sure people would totally believe that it's just another artistic quirk of yours. Unwilling to speak of or even recongnize that this is your line of work. (You also wonder where those paychecks are and hope that your alter-ego didn't donate them to the environment because you have credit card bills.)

Back on track here. My iPod and its need of the music that makes you want to cry. It's the vocals that do it for me. I've never been a huge fan of ambient music, even when Sigur Ros ruled my school. Techno has never been my thing, and maybe not just because of the lack of vocals. I need to hear a person. I need to connect. I need to feel like they are struggling to get the next line out. This doesn't necessarily mean sleepy music or whiny lyrics. In fact, the more the music contradicts the lyrics, the better. The more hopeful and upbeat the music, paired with lyrics that rip you to shreds, the more I'll love it.

And when you're depressed, it's the best! I am a reveler. When I'm feeling low, I want to be surrounded by my most depressing music. I want to wallow and feel sorry for myself. I like to write down the lyrics to Bright Eyes songs. Almost always one of these lines will relate to me and make me want to write something myself. It's a cycle that I've come to love and appreciate.

Sad music really makes depression fun again.

I guess I don't always listen to the woe-is-me music. I do have some more upbeat bands that I listen to. (But even they sing about being lost, cheated on, or poor.)

I used to do the Song of the Moment in my sidebar. I was thinking about bringing it back, but maybe I'll just do it inside the actual blog and put a handy-dandy tag on it. "SOTM".

Okay, so all this talk about depressing music and my SOTM is actually not completely depressing. It's called "Mama's Room" by Under the Influence of Giants. Go here for a sample. You'll probably have to click on the song title to listen. I love all of their stuff, but currently this song is my fav. It inspired a late night, "making a grilled cheese and drinking a beer, dancing alone in my kitchen" routine the other night. Like I said earlier, the song is upbeat, but there's a lot more behind the lyrics. A song that can make me dance or cry? [Can't-compute-greatness.]

Check it out and let me know what you think.

This song is from their self-titled album.