You know the “put on your own oxygen mask before helping others” speech they give on an airplane? That used to freak me out when I was young, because I just thought it was selfish to not help someone in need if you could easily help yourself after. Once I’d suffered through a few life crises, I realized that that is just about the smartest damn advice in the world. How helpful can you be to anyone when you can’t breathe?
I bring this up because life has been sitting on my chest a lot in the last, and I swear, that motherfucker needs to lay off the pie. Major change is incredibly stressful, no matter how positive it may be. On the plus side, I moved back to Chicago, changed careers, bought a house, and moved in with my ever-patient guy and his dogs. On the minus side, I lost my father, stepmother, both of my aunts, and the new job that got me back to Chicago.
Times like these are made for the Float.
The Float is pretty simple- it’s when life is so overwhelming that you narrow your focus and let big chunks of your life go on autopilot. It’s starting a new job/falling in love/losing someone and dropping all of the “little things”, which gather and bump around the edges of your brain like dust bunnies. You’ll get to them eventually, but they’re not hurting anyone if they sit there for a while. It’s permission to take the time you need to breathe and sort things out, even if that takes a good long while. This bunch of tunes has been relaxing my overheated brain and moving me upstream. Next time life’s got you slogging through some muck, pop this list on, lay back and float away.
- Fade Out Lines * The Avener
- Coffee Cold * Galt MacDermot
- Daydreaming * Aretha Franklin
- The Lady Don’t Mind * Talking Heads
- La Fin Du Monde * Juniore
- Pretty Pimpin’ * Kurt Vile
- Can You Get To That * Funkadelic
- Song Yet To Be Sung * Perry Farrell
- Her Favorite Song * Mayer Hawthorne
- Boplicity * Miles Davis
- A New Town * Field Music
- The Ideal Husband * Father John Misty
- After The Disco * Broken Bells
- Hold On, Hold On * Neko Case
- Dry And Dusty * Fever Ray
- Albatross * Fleetwood Mac
- Buckle * Ghost Tiger
- Quiet Corners & Empty Spaces * The Jayhawks
- Keep Sake * State Radio
- Mad About You * Hooverphonic
