If you're anything like me, your Valentine's Day was long and emotionally deteriorating. No matter how hard we try to not get too wrapped up in the damning Hallmark holiday, witnessing the mushy gushy is unavoidable. My advice on this Wednesday comedown: stay off social media for the day and listen to sad music. I'm not saying this to encourage you to wallow in self-pity—sad music is actually therapeutic and beneficial to the brain.
According to a 2014 PLOS ONE study, "The Paradox of Music-Evoked Sadness," sad music has the ability to evoke positive emotions rather than feelings of mourning or grief. The study recorded that when some respondents were in a bad mood, listening to sad music provided them with emotional regulation, making them feel good as they empathize with the singer or artist.
WGRE's Top 5 Saddest Albums:
- Crush Songs – Karen O
- Hospice – The Antlers
- Overgrown – James Blake
- In The Aeroplane Over The Sea – Neutral Milk Hotel
- For Emma, Forever Ago – Bon Iver
In the realm of politically charged sad songs, Father John Misty (Joshua Tillman) has risen from 2015 to play. In late January, Tillman shared two tragic, sarcastic, piano-led tracks, "Pure Comedy" and "The Ballad of the Dying Man," from his promising album "Pure Comedy," set to release April 7.
If sad songs don't do the trick for you, keep your head up. May 5 is another date we can look forward to thanks to Mac Demarco. The Canadian singer-songwriter followed Tillman's lead with two early releases from his forthcoming album: "My Old Man" and "This Old Dog." Both songs, mellow but not necessarily sad, sound more acoustically centered than tracks from his previous album, "Another One."
Regulate those emotions and listen to all four new tracks on WGRE 91.5.