December to January marks the perfect time to sink into the abyss faster than the winter sun. The agony and desolation of winter allow these feelings to come naturally. As death envelops Mother Nature herself, here are five songs — and a bonus track — for your seasonal depression or those moments when you just need to feel nothing.
1. How To Never Stop Being Sad by dandelion hands
“Allow yourself to lose interest in the things you love/Watch as you begin to take a backseat/To the world around you, don't fight it/Become a secondary character in your own motion picture.” Winter carves the warmth you once held out while wrapping you instead in the comforts of self-pity. Abandon everything that makes you you. dandelion hands begins impassioned, listing off instructions for self-destruction, but the lyrics diverge into the psychology of someone who can “never stop being sad.” As listeners sit in silence, it almost becomes reverse psychology, the words haunting as the process, action and consequence of sadness lay bare. The song closed with a gentle reassurance: “You don't need other people to drive away your loneliness/You just needed to find a way to talk to it.”
2. loser monologue by sign crushes motorist
A muffled piano and mellow guitar echo like a faded Polaroid, regret and the passage of time bleeding out. Inspired by dandelion hands, sign crushes motorist’s entire album “i’ll be okay” plays like a beautifully written poem set to music. “loser monologue” tells a story reminiscent of Radiohead’s “Creep,” offering the raw vulnerability of unrequited love: “I want to watch the sun sink behind the hills with you/Talk, laugh, make out/Anything/I just want anything from you.” For full immersion, I recommend listening to the track just before the monologue, better, to plunge yourself in the full angst of letting someone go.
3. I Bet on Losing Dogs by Mitski
Queen of depressing beauty, Mitski captures the essence of being unloved, traumatized and full of self-loathing. “I Bet on Losing Dogs” paints a bleak picture of entering a doomed relationship. She stands alone in a pair. The repetition of “My baby, my baby/You’re my baby, say it to me” paired with her confessional, “I know they're losing and I pay for my place by the ring,” taps into the self-destructive nature of love — a sentiment that cuts deeply for many.
