Spurred on by a brief shower thought, i’ve tried my hand at making a playlist “for the bad days”: songs (mostly rock) with big, soaring crescendos that feel like an out-of-body experience. Your “Bitter Sweet Symphonies”, your „Hoppípollas”, your “‘Heroes’-es” — the songs that make you have faith in humanity, and make you not want to jump out of a thirtieth-storey window so badly.
I’ve been asking around for suggestions on the usual (Discord) channels, and have got some cracking songs in return — so, do any of you want to try your hands at it? I’d love to hear your ideas. :-)
Here’s the current set of songs on the playlist, to give you an idea of the general “vibes” — exceptional examples are highlighted in bold.
- The 1975, “I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)”
- Bleachers, “Rollercoaster”
- Arcade Fire, “My Body Is a Cage” (thx, Pike)
- David Bowie, “‘Heroes’”
- Kate Bush, “Cloudbusting”
- Coldplay, “Viva La Vida”
- Daft Punk, “Giorgio by Moroder”
- Elbow, “One Day Like This”
- Sam Fender, “The Dying Light”
- Fun; “Some Nights”
- Keane, “Somewhere Only We Know”
- LCD Soundsystem, “Dance Yrself Clean”
- The Naked and Famous, “Higher”
- Oasis, “Don’t Look Back in Anger”
- Oasis, “Champagne Supernova”
- Radiohead, “All I Need”
- Radiohead, “Videotape” (live at Bonnaroo)
- Porter Robinson, “Unfold”
- Sigur Rós, „Hoppípolla”
- Snow Patrol, “Chasing Cars”
- Suede, “Life is Golden” (thx, Pike)
- Tame Impala, “Let It Happen”
- The Verve, “Bitter Sweet Symphony”
- The War on Drugs, “I Don’t Live Here Anymore”
- The White Stripes, “Seven Nation Army”
- The Who, “Baba O’Riley”
Cardiacs - The Everso Closely Guarded Line
i have listened to... a maybe unhealthy amount of Cardiacs. but this song in particular has two crescendo parts which are in a whole league of their own holy shit
To preëmpt the inevitable: I mulled over adding “A Day in the Life”, but decided against it, as the only kind of out-of-body experience its climax reminded me of was a bad <span class="all-sc">DMT</span> trip.
My Body Is a Cage by Arcade Fire. There's a video on YT that someone did where the song is set to scenes from Once Upon The Time in the West, crescendo timing at a great point.
Life is Golden by Suede although it doesn't have a crescendo as such, it lifts and breaks at multiple points.