As much fun as it is to turn the car stereo all the way up and sing as loud as you can, sometimes upbeat songs just won’t cut it. Especially in high school, dealing with the stress of everyday life can sometimes make you feel like you’re losing control. With the stress of midyears this week, it’s hard to justify relaxing when you have a week’s worth of tests to study for. But sometimes you just need to put the books down, pour a cup of tea, snuggle under a blanket, and chill out. For the times when there doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day, here’s a playlist for chilling out during your studying.
Daughter’s “Youth” kicks off the list, and its build from a quiet opening to a powerful conclusion gives it the title of the playlist’s most high energy track. From there, the songs get slower and softer to help bring down stress levels without immediately turning on a timid acoustic track. But even though they’re soothing, the playlist is far from boring: songs like Damien Rice’s hit “The Blower’s Daughter” and The Head and The Heart’s “Down in the Valley” stay interesting despite their chill mood.
The middle of the playlist is slightly more toned down than its beginning, and acoustic songs such as Angus and Julia Stone’s “The Devil’s Tears” and Margot & The Nuclear So and So’s “Broadripple is Burning” begin to introduce a more relaxing mood to the playlist. Passenger’s acoustic rendition of “The Last Unicorn” consists of only vocals and an acoustic guitar, and the stripped down styling of the song is perfect for winding down. Michael Schulte’s “You’ll Be Okay” is a similarly gentle ballad, and the lyrics remind you to “slow down” because “you’ll be okay,” a perfect message for the stressful midyears week. The songs probably won’t put you to sleep (the stress of falling asleep during studying contradicts the point of relaxing in the first place); instead, they’ll help you clear your mind and forget about all the studying you have left to do.
Even the last couple of songs, which are the most relaxing of the entire playlist, stay interesting, with different sonic styles helping to keep your interest. “World” uses minimal instrumentals, which puts the focus on singer Julia Hotler’s beautifully haunting vocals. Tom Odell’s “Long Way Down” to Sleeping At Last’s “Naive” provide gentle piano ballads, whereas Iron Wine’s cover of “Such Great Heights” and Nick Drake’s “Which Will” utilize quiet acoustic guitars. By the time you get to the last two tracks (Bright Eye’s simple guitar ballad “Lua” and Peter Bradley Adams’ soothing “Los Angeles”), your mind is clear, your stress levels are back to relatively normal, and you’re ready to study once again. Good luck!
– Jamie
