The Best Soul Searching Music Ever
You know how it is…something has happened in your life - marriage, divorce, love found, love lost, new job, new place, feeling lost, feeling good, or just feeling - and wanting something to feel with you, to join you, to lead you; to burst with sound-full ecstasy or to be the background noise as you cry in a heap on the floor.
Add music.
Like water, it nourishes, satiates, and fills the void. It helps us, comforts us, and becomes a refuge. Music is common ground. We’ve all been THERE in one way or another. And we all have a complex, ever-changing soundtrack of our own making.
But sometimes we could use external help. One less decision to make. So here’s a gift - a list of dynamite music for contemplative thought and thoughtless listening. It spans all moods, from the highest highs to the lowest lows. It doesn’t contain much of what is current on the radio, mainly because radio music is so close to daily life. This music is to escape and delve deeper, to zone out and lose yourself. If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll find yourself. Good luck.
1. Enya - In the 90s, some of us discovered this gem of a music master. From teenage years up into adulthood, her thought provoking melodies and harmonies struck a literal chord in my chest. She touched us with the innovative and electronic meshing with the hauntingly timeless and exotically foreign charm of Celtic goddess-ness. From “Book of Days” to “On Your Shore,” she brought us to other realms. In more recent years, she has transported us to the Shire in Middle Earth. So very appropriate.
2. Imogen Heap/Frou Frou - Who hasn’t heard “Hide and Seek”? Well, if you haven’t, please go listen. NOW. It will change your life. Or at least your day. If you don’t feeling something, you are made of stone. The music video - ethereal and life changing as well. Then there was Frou Frou’s “Let Go” on the movie Garden State. Make my heart swell and ache and burst all at once, why don’t you? And on the movie the Holiday, the moment with “Just For Now” playing in the background…that sealed the deal. If you want to be moved, shaken, or stirred, listen to just about anything Imogen has written, produced, or touched.
3. Coldplay - I spent many hours crying to Coldplay in the early 2000s. Chris Martin almost single-handedly got me through the early stages of my tumultuous divorce. Now, I can proudly say that my love for him has continued. I listen now for pondering, inspiration, and to revel at the wonder that is this life. Go Coldplay. You are anything but cold.
4. Nickel Creek - Another great during rough times. Their first album was good, but what really made a difference were a token few songs from album number two. A few songs - "Somebody More Like You" and, especially, "Helena" - got the heartstrings and heartbeats going. Certain singers and bands have a way of hitting just the right note at just the right moment to make a difference in your entire being. Nickel Creek can do this. I applaud you. What a family.
5. Cavalia - Whether or not you love horses, have seen the show in its early magnificence or later commercialization, or whether you simply caught the theme music on something else entirely, I am telling you, it can bring you into a state of ethereal wonderment that goes beyond human and horse. I used to play the mirror dance song on repeat through emotional times of all kinds. I recently rediscovered it in my music collection and found it has the same other-worldly effect, drawing my imagination into a spiral of possibility and tear-drawing heart-wrenching closeness with something beyond myself.
6. ATB - Whether or not you have jumped into the world of EDM, take it from me, listening to ATB is like traveling around the world on the smoothest but most unpretentious Leer jet imaginable. Whether you need to lose yourself in the beat or just lose yourself altogether, ATB delivers like none other.
7. Sia - Yes, she is a little different. So are her videos. BUT that is what is so refreshing and wonderful about listening to her emotive and soul-rippingly powerful music. Some is light, some is airy, but most is soul turning in the best way possible, forcing you to feel something, anything, even when you don’t want to. I speak from ample experience. Try “Chandelier,” of course, but also “Elastic Heart,” “Bird Set Free,” and “Alive.” (Oh, try anything.)
8. Soundtrack scores (and movies) to check out for sure: Far and Away (Celtic greatness), Last of the Mohicans (one of the most powerful soundtracks EVER), The Crow (melancholy and AMAZING), Jane Eyre (Dario Marianelli greatness), Pride & Prejudice, Meet Joe Black, Avatar, the Lord of the Rings music, the Dark Waltz from the movie “Legend,” the Twilight saga music (yes, I had to include these scores, each unique and powerful in their own right), and Philip Glass scores (especially the Illusionist).
9. Other notable artists and songs: Iko “Heart of Stone,” Snow Patrol “Chasing Cars,” Nick Lachey “Resolution,” Moby “Distant Shores”, Blue October, Christina Aguilera “The Right Man” and “You Lost Me,” Sade “By Your Side,” Maroon 5 “Secret” (that scene in The Wedding Date…need I say more?), Morcheeba “The Sea,” Michael Jackson “Earth Song.” Oldies but goodies: Duran Duran “Come Undone” and “Ordinary World,” Crowded House “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” Janet Jackson “That’s the Way Love Goes.” I could go on forever.
10. Novo Amor - a last minute inclusion. I just discovered this artist and am absolutely floored by how much I love absolutely everything I hear. Please, just try. You’ll see what I mean.