TUESDAY TUNES: Songs for When You Need Light
Welcome to Tuesday Tunes, our new monthly series where we’ll be bringing you songs to match whatever challenge or triumph you may be facing as you navigate life in your twenties.
I recently inherited a hand-me-down winter jacket from an old family friend, and I’m obsessed with it. If I catch a glimpse of myself in storefront windows when I’m wearing it, I feel like a million bucks. One thing, though—it’s really heavy. I don’t always notice, or mind; my shoulders adjust to bear its weight, and it’s so warm I’ll sometimes even sigh out loud in contentment. But there are days when this gorgeous jacket, that I’m so lucky to have, drapes over me like there are rocks in the pockets, like it’s weighing me down, rooting my heels into this ugly cold winter gray. And I get irrationally resentful, and cranky, and long for warmer days when I didn’t have to deal with all this.
Wintertime is like that. The holiday season has a way of weighing us down. This time of year is supposed to be so full of joy and light and laughter, a time to feel so lucky for all we have. But sometimes all we feel is weight. The weight of loss, of stress, of loneliness, of everything that feels wrong in a season when we just this once want everything to be perfect. We want to go back to easier days, days that don’t strain our shoulders and sit heavy on our hearts. We want to cast off the weight. Even just for a moment. Even just for the amount of time it takes to smile at the twinkle lights glowing through this season that too often is darker than we expected. We want, however briefly, to shed what’s heavy and rise above it into light.
These songs? They’re for that. They’re happy, dance-y songs for long days, hard days. They’re five little sighs of contentment, five little lights in the dark. I hope you bump these in your headphones, catch a glimpse of yourself in a storefront window, and feel like a million bucks. I hope that no matter how heavy your jacket feels on your shoulders, for a moment it feels like wings.
“Contact” // Lulleaux
If you don’t start snapping at that high-hat beat and dancing at that drop, start this track over. Lulleaux’s vocals are straight-up pretty, and they float like a breeze over this banger of a backtrack.
“Drove Me Wild” // Tegan & Sara
I smashed repeat on this track one evening this past summer, on a long walk from my office to an event downtown, the sidewalk patched with golden hour light. Reader, I did a twirl right then and there. No reason I can’t bring that little bit of summer sunshine into winter with me, right?
“ILSYB” // LANY
I’m never over the way the beat shifts that first chorus—there’s a patience to it, a purity. And the line “And you need to know that I’m hella obsessed with your face” makes me smile every single time.
“Read Receipts” // Kyle Thornton & the Company
So random! So catchy! Those horns! This one feels like one of those phone calls with your best friend where you might not feel a whole lot like talking, but that’s perfect, because she’s got a hysterical long-winded story to make you laugh out loud.
“Thunder Clatter” // Wild Cub
“I hear a call through the center of my heart—you’re the love of my life, the love of my life.” For those moments when suddenly, inexplicably, everything in the world feels light. Rare.
And worth being grateful for.
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Melissa graduated Boston College in 2016 with a double major in English and philosophy. She loves Ultimate Frisbee, Hamilton, Harry Potter, and ice cream, and thinks most problems can be solved with a nap, an iced coffee and the right Spotify playlist. She hopes to work in publishing.