So, you’re sitting at home, busying yourself on the internet, reading about the virus (while trying not to read about it). As you wait for the pandemic to settle down, maybe this will be of some help. Here are ten of my most favourite songs I find myself returning to. These songs are familiar, comforting and remind me of who I really am. To me, they feel like home. They’re also tiny pieces of my heart. So if you do happen to like some of these (or if you listen to them and like them too) please reach out. I’d love to talk more.
The Dangling Conversation – Simon & Garfunkel
“Like a poem poorly written
We are verses out of rhythm
Couplets out of rhyme
In syncopated time”
If Van Gogh’s paintings could harmonise, this is what they’d sing. This song is pure poetry and I fall more in love with it each time I listen to it. It takes me back to the time I was 18, still living in the small town I grew up in. I remember the exact feeling of yearning to move out and live on my own. The song may be about a failing relationship, but it still makes me hopeful.
“I’ll wait, so show me why you’re strong
Ignore everybody else,
We’re alone now”
This song reminds me of my own metamorphosis.
I heard it in Bangalore for the first time when I was 24 and it felt unlike anything I’d ever heard. That’s how I entered Blake’s velvety soft inner world. More than the vocals, I love this song for its melancholy, its wistfulness and the suddenness with which it turns from a soft ballad to a delicious explosion of sound.
Subterranean Homesick Alien – Radiohead
“Up above
Aliens hover
Making home movies
For the folks back home”
You know how some songs only make sense to you and nobody else seems to understand why you like them so much? This is one such song for me. Much of Radiohead’s lyrics are lost on me but what gets me every time is the way their music makes me feel. Ethereal and otherworldly. This song was like a soft pillow to the angst-ridden soul of a nineteen-year-old Astha.
“Do not spray into eyes
I have sprayed you into my eyes”
I was already an Alt-J fan when I attended their concert in Bangalore on a beautiful, rainy evening with one of my best friends. When I found out this song was actually about two photojournalists who both died separately covering wars in the 20th century, I fell in love with it all the more. It’s for that reason this song fascinates me just a little bit more than the others.
Blue Ridge Mountains – Fleet Foxes
“In the quivering forest
Where the shivering dog rests
Our good grandfather
Built a wooden nest”
I got hooked to this song when I was shuffling from one local train to another in Mumbai, trying very hard to be a good crime reporter (and failing). The days were long and tough, and the only solace was Robin Pecknold’s voice in my ears. Somehow it got me through the day. Every time I listen to this, I hear the chugging of Mumbai local trains in the background.
“We played hide and seek in waterfalls
We were younger, we were younger”
I first heard this song in a video game called
Life is Strange. Around the same time, I was also falling in love with a kind, gentle soul who went on to become my best friend. With its soft vocals and acoustic strums, this song always makes me think about how innocent those times felt. We definitely were younger, and madder.
The Rest Will Flow – Porcupine Tree
“Stay with me my angel I found you
Now I don’t feel low
All of the rest will flow”
It’s tough to choose only one PT song, but this one is definitely in my top three. (Arriving Somewhere But Not Here is the first). But the reason I added this one to the list is because it makes me feel more nostalgic about my teenage years than all other songs put together. Listening to this transports me back to all those nights I spent lying in bed wondering what life was going to be like.
“Can’t keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue tied and twisted just an earth bound misfit, I”
I discovered this song when I felt misunderstood and misguided. I found it on a CD a friend had burnt for me. This song was the first to play, and I instantly resonated with it. I kept it close to me throughout my twenties, and it has become something I play on my phone without even a thought. I only listen to it when I’m alone though.
“It’s so easy to laugh
It’s so easy to hate
It takes guts to be gentle and kind”
Apart from the sorrow and beauty in Morrissey’s voice, what I feel particularly drawn towards is the lyrics of this song. The Smiths always wrote music that felt raw, vulnerable and profound. It makes me aware of my mortality, my emotions, and my affinity towards poetry and art in general. Give it a listen, and let it take refuge in your heart slowly.
Something in My Heart – Royksopp
“Oh, something in my heart
Something in my heart
Makes me miss you more”
I wasn’t into electronic music until I was introduced to the Norwegian duo called Royksopp. This also makes me think of the happy relationship I’m in right now (since I found it on his playlist), and how natural and effortless being in love feels. I remember liking this song instantly. Listen to this on your earphones and make sure the bass is adequately high.
Butterflies and Hurricanes 
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