9 SONGS TO HELP YOU GET THROUGH QUARANTINE

We seek refuge in music. When the inevitable breakup finally comes, we surrender ourselves to the lyrics of Adele. When someone has done us wrong, we feel a little vindictive, and dance our problems away to the beat of “Shake It Off.” When we’re on our best moments, we can’t help it but to blast our ginormous speakers, and disrupt the whole neighborhood, with the British Synth Pop band called “The 1975.” Anywhere you are in life, there’s always a soundtrack to what you’re feeling. Anyone who doesn’t listen to music is in no excuse, a psychopath!

Taylor Swift's "City Of Lover" Concert in Paris

In the midst of crisis, there’s always something in store to lift our spirits up. John Lennon’s Imagine has remained symbolic after all these years and has been with us through trying times like this. Just like the famous quote from an anonymous Buddha, “When words fail, music speaks.”

Music, is a way for us to understand the complexity of our emotions. It is the nearest that we’ve even been with God. With heart-wrenching lyrics comes honest tears. We feel a lifetime better after the vulnerability that we share with our favorite tunes. I think that it’s just right of me to share with you guys, the music that is getting me through this lonely phase. Don’t you worry, I’m not here to glorify your depression by sharing only ballads. I’m here to cheer you up with playful lyricism and gracious storytelling.

9 SONGS TO HELP YOU GET THROUGH QUARANTINE

In Your Eyes -  The Weeknd

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A song by the master of melancholy (pun intended). With “After Hours” the album, the Weekend reminisce 80S disco music, alluding to the King of Pop, Micheal Jackson. This album is truly well deserving of all the praise and recognition it has gotten. This song in particular, is one of the highlights of the album for exemplifying nostalgia and heartbreak.

Flop artists are ruthless to stay relevant by deciphering the formula to what constitutes a great song when they already know for a fact that the formula is nonexistent. It’s all about quality honey, and this song surely has that in its core.

Change - NF

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Whenever this song plays, I feel a lot more guilty of myself than I do when having a breakdown. I grew up with Hip-Hop in the 2000s. Eminem was owning the rap game, while Tupac was being mourned on and claimed to be the greatest rapper to come into existence. NF is relatively new but sure knows how to make you wanna get up and do something.

This song is a self-reflection and admitting the naked truth; what led you to make bad decisions, and what behaviors you have worth changing. This song is about taking responsibility and being in charge of the decision that you make in your life. It’s a great song to listen to when you feel like giving up. It’s an undiscovered fuel

Holding On To You - Twenty One Pilots

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A song about taming your demons and leashing it to a tree. When you realized that you’ve hit rock bottom, and deluge by deplorable happenstances, you start demanding for your life back. This song is the turbo boost that you’ve been waiting to happen. I’ve heard people also talk about it as a song about depression, and that can also be interpreted that way.

You are surrounding, all my surrounding

Sounding down the mountain range

Of my left-side brain.

This is giving the middle finger to your fucked-up decisions and saying, “Fuck you! I had enough!” This is kicking your demons in the jugular and throwing it out the woodwork, then saying, “I am taking control over my body back.” P.S That’s how passive-aggressive I am, just kidding.

Sky Full Of Song - Florence + The Machine

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Talk about songs to get you by! Sky Full Of Song, as it may sound base on the title, is not a Coldplay song. It’s sung by Florence + the Machine whose voice has the clarity that can cut through glass. According to her, she wrote the song based on the experience she has in touring. The song is a torch song to her.

It’s about being exhausted about life that you just let things slip and flow. It’s a retrospective look into a life led by volatility, that kind of switches back and forth all throughout the song.

It’s about finding peace and letting go. It’s a hippie song in the form of a tearful ballad.

The Greatest - Lana Del Rey

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If I could make this list all about Lana Del Rey’s new album “NFR” I would, but for diversity's sake, I'm not allowed to. How do I even begin to describe this song? The entire album is packed with jams, but I only included this one because I have to.

It’s a brilliant song about wishing things to go right back to the start. It’s that discomfort that travels in your veins needing sweet embraces from people in your youth. It’s like you wondering, “Back home, I wonder if my favorite salon has closed?” or “I wonder where does Debbie live now? How I wish I could talk to her!” It’s so detailed and vivid, without making the song fully personal, so you can put your own spin into it. It leaves you with a good laugh in the lines of “Kanye West is blond and gone.”

Soon You’ll Get Better - Taylor Swift feat. The Dixie Chicks

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That’s right, it’s a Taylor Swift song. People really hate her for irrational reasons or no reason at all. This was actually the first song that made me cry the first time around. I remember listening to “Lover” album for the first time and shuddering the whole time that this song played.

Desperate people find faith,

So now I pray to Jesus too.

In the song, she sings about her Mom’s cancer relapse. What makes this song so special is Swift’s ability to add crisp into her writing. Her lines are extremely vivid and excruciatingly painful to hear. The storytelling metaphysically puts you in her shoes.

Hearing this live, during the One World event was everything that I never thought I needed. You know it’s a song when the artist had to do multiple takes, just to not choke on the lyrics.

Say So (ft. Nicki Minaj) - Doja Cat

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A big shift from the first half in this list. Say So is a very sultry and teasing song. It’s seductive and playful, in ways that most songs fail to achieve. Doja Cat is very diverse and experiments a lot in her music. Nicki Minaj, what can I say, she’s the unbeatable Queen of Rap, she knows her material and makes a spin into it. This remix spiced things up.

Plus factor is that it’s so catchy. Even though this gets played a lot, we know it’s one of those songs that we secretly listen to. It’s a guilty pleasure, if I may use the word.

Too Much - Carly Rae Jepsen

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This song exhibits the phase we go through when the 2nd Monthsary kicks in. Questions being thrown into the atmosphere, like “Where is this heading?” or “Does he like me for me?” We are bombarded by these relationship queries that walk on the scalp of our heads. All of a sudden we’re unsure if we're right for the person, unaware that we’re piling anxiety and pressure inside the premise of the relationship. Some times, we even go as far as to push the person away.

“Is what we have authentic?” It’s such a delicate question that if used incorrectly, can easily be manipulated into a big pen designed to put a period in relationships, even before it gets the chance to get good. If you spend too much time in your head, then may I suggest this song to let you see how silly those questions are.

Oh My God - Alec Benjamin

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Oh, My God is understanding our life and what led one thing to another. It’s when you start questioning what you’ve become: someone unfamiliar. It’s a look inside the lives of Hollywood stars, how much they’ve changed, and the friends they have to cut ties with to get there.

Running low on patience, running low on fumes,

I’m never gonna make it, halfway to the moon.

The song’s timeline is placed during a man’s journey to an even higher ground of success. When he is having a midlife crisis situation, cross-examining his identity and his belief system. Alec Benjamin is pretty good at storytelling, and this song is a testament to that.