How Are You Feeling Today?
Even people who don’t have depression or like alternative music or wear all black will understand — sometimes you just have one of those days.
You have too many chores to do. You have too much homework and the LoFi Hip Hop Girl or 100% Brain Activation YouTube videos aren’t making it any easier. You finally make a plan to go out for lunch and your favorite ramen shop is closed for the next 90 minutes when you’re peak hangry.
The world isn’t actually against me, but it feels like it is today for no real reason, so I am in a mood. Well, fuk u world I am TAKING A SHORT BREAK TO BE EMO IN PEACE!
Don’t you ever just need a few hours to reset? Same. Here are some of the songs, stories, movies, and hobbies that help me improve my mood.
Bonus fact – “Angry or Emo” is the title of a major collaborative Spotify playlist I have with some BFFs that includes nothing but music for when you’re angry, angsty, or your heart is achy.
Speaking of which, the featured image is from my Spotify Wrapped. They just don’t make this kind of music anymore. At least that’s what I tell myself when I don’t know any of the top hits and my Spotify Wrapped looks the same every year. :’)
Music 💔
Here are some songs for your queue.
Nirvana – All Apologies
Flyleaf – I’m So Sick
A Perfect Circle – The Outsider
Blind Melon – Tones of Home
This video is fucking sublime. I keep rewatching it instead of writing the rest of the blog post.
AFI – …but home is nowhere
On the subject of homes.
Talking Heads – This Must Be the Place
On the subject of home again. I really love New Wave music, how about you? It’s kind of like… whiny and electro at the same time. Just the sort of thing I need when I’m feeling some type of way.
System of a Down – Lonely Day
When you’re lonely but also kind of mad about it.
Linkin Park – By Myself
Let’s be honest. Any Linkin Park song = BIG MOOD any time.
My Chemical Romance – I’m Not Okay (I Promise)
This is self-explanatory.
Alanis Morissette – Hand in My Pocket
And what it all comes down to
Is that everything’s gonna be quite alright
‘Cause I’ve got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is writing this blog post.
The Smiths – How Soon Is Now?
Every time I hear this song I think of this scene from Orange Is The New Black:
Grimes – you’ll miss me when I’m not around
Throwback to one of my old blog posts. Look how much this site has grown since then LOL!
Third Eye Blind – The Background
Don’t tell me you didn’t see this coming. 🙂
Band of Horses – No One’s Gonna Love You
This is another live video that I love. A good live version is a good way to coax a visceral feeling from a song you’ve heard countless times.
Utada Hikaru – Simple and Clean
The nostalgia of Kingdom Hearts makes my heart swell. What is it about this song that appeals to so many of us? Sometimes when I can’t sleep, I repeat this on my headphones until I can relax. Simple and Clean just does it for me in English or Japanese.
Circa Survive – Phantom
I had a really hard time picking one Circa Survive song for this list because they’re my all-time fav. Helping me get my mind off things since… 2004? I refuse to say I feel old, I’m actually impressed I’ve been on the planet for so long.
Taking Back Sunday – One-Eighty by Summer
If you hear me playing Taking Back Sunday, chances are it is at full volume and I’m loudly (and badly) singing or screaming along. Don’t mess with me until the song is over.
Literature 💀
If I can concentrate on it, reading is a great way to get my mind off whatever punishments the universe is personally victimizing me with. Moody escapism.
Virgil – Aeneid (Book IV)
Name a better emo love story than Aeneas and Queen Dido. Beautiful and tragic. What more could my inner goth want in a poem?
Momochi Reiko – Confidential Confessions (Vol. 1)
I thought all of this edgy manga series was amazing when I was an angsty teenager. Clearly, my teen angst hasn’t gone away. It’s just adult angst, which means it has to hide away until I can read these cheesy sad after school special comics shamefully in the privacy of my apartment.
Cat Marnell – How to Murder Your Life
You probably know that I love this memoir from the throwback post. You know, before I learned about SEOs. I also recommended it to one of my professors and she said it was right up her alley. Which alley, pray tell? Marnell’s alley? My alley? I am curious.
Mark Z. Danielewski – House of Leaves
A cult classic, so I get very excited whenever someone asks me if I’ve read this. Yes, and I have an interesting personal history with this text, so it means a lot to me. I’ll save that story for another time when I am feeling more open and brave.
Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki – Skim
My graphic novel dream edit.
Philip Pullman – The Subtle Knife
The second installment of His Dark Materials and my favorite of the trilogy.
Film ⚡️
Sometimes you need a sad comfort movie to make you cry. Try to make yourself feel better that way, it’s cathartic. You know how I feel about movies — the less you know before you watch, the more you’ll get out of the work. I won’t be giving descriptions here, so go on one of your thousands of streaming services and give one of my recommendations a try.
Colorful
Little Miss Sunshine
Eighth Grade
Hobbies 🥀
Doing something fun and slightly productive can turn your mood around. Even if you don’t feel much better when you’re done, at least you were able to turn that entropy into a ~creation~ ! All of these are made better with some of those songs from earlier.
- Write something seriously.
- Get all your bad feels out.
- Write something silly.
- Like a fluffy listicle of emo recommendations.
- Play with your pets.
- Building a bond with your familiars is productive, too.
- Try on a new outfit.
- Preferably all black. Maybe a little plaid.
- TIDY UP!
- I know I was just feeling aggressive about chores, but organizing something that’s cluttered might make it easier to tackle the rest of the stuff.
- Cook something healthy before your vegetables go bad (again.)
- Combat the PTSD from the Ramen joint being closed when you needed it the most.
- Take a loooooooong hot shower or bath.
- Use some of the nice smelling things your friends and family bought you for the holidays.
- Take and edit a new profile picture to fit your mood.
- I just updated mine.
Before And After
Looking at these side by side I realize that I always crop part of my face when I’m feeling down and less confident. I actually kind of hate it now? I guess this blog post actually did the trick and I feel better and that profile pic is not going to last very long. 🙂
New Mood, New Me
Not going to lie, I actually feel a lot better taking a break from life to just do some things for myself. The world isn’t going to end if I write a little something that is not related to the World’s Fair or children’s literature and listen to alternative music with anime movies playing in the background.
And even if it did, would it really matter anyway?! No! Because nihilism goes hand in hand with everything in this post. 🙂
Maybe some of my “trauma dump” media recommendations will work for you, too. Inevitably, I will need to do another post like this whether it is because of the planetary alignments or my own poor planning. I’ll put some new songs on it next time, too. 🤘 That’s my favorite part.
Cheer up, emo kids.
– Moody
Miss Moody Lilac 