Now this might be something we’re more familiar with, season of jolliness be damned.
Day 10: A song that makes you sad
2020: “No Surprises”, Radiohead
I mean, the possibilities are endless when it comes to sad Radiohead songs. You could make a 2 CD compilation album out of them. “No Surprises” is probably the most obvious choice as, when you get older and chewed up by the daily grind, it speaks to you more and more. And again, with the pandemic raging on at the time a lot of us were probably relating quite heavily to the lyric ‘Bruises that won’t heal’. Nowadays a lot of people on both sides of the political spectrum may consider the entire second verse a call to arms: ‘You look so tired, unhappy/Bring down the government/They don’t, they don’t speak for us’. Good job this song sounds as sad as it makes us otherwise it would surely have been poached for a party conference by now.
There we go, there’s the appropriate sadness all nice and laid out for us. And now, more!
2025: “Into My Arms”, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Same year, different side of the world. The Boatman’s Call boasts a myriad of sad songs but it hits you in the gut right out of the gate, doubly so if you’re just coming off listening to one of the album’s predecessors like Murder Ballads and Let Love In. The customary goth rock? Shelved. It’s all pianos and the most heartfelt lyrics ever penned by Nick. Ironically, despite its melancholy it is meant to be a more optimistic song expressing a firm belief in love over interventionist Gods, and letting nature run its course. Yet the performance boiling solely down to the piano and Nick’s beautiful singing…it’s a struggle to stop those waterworks from springing into action.
Right, just a quick heads up – I’m going abroad for a few days with some friends and I’m going to try and schedule the next few installments of Thirty Days of Music. I’ve never tried this at all since I started the blog so if it doesn’t work and there’s no posts between now and next Monday, apologies in advance.
If it does work though, excellent, see you tomorrow!
A-Side Glance 