My “chill” playlist contains a handful of songs that, when listening to them on headphones in the late-night calm, can trigger an emotional response. Maybe even a tear or two.
When you’re young, these “cry songs” tend to be about lost loves. At my age, they speak of lost years. Some are tinged with regret or longing; all are just plain beautiful:
>> “Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell. Almost 35 years after the song she wrote became a hit for Judy Collins, Mitchell recorded a lush orchestral version, heard in the movie “Love Actually.” Her voice much changed from her folkie days, Mitchell admits with convincing weariness that she really doesn’t know clouds — or life — at all.
>> “Lay Me Down” by Sam Smith. Have you seen the music video? He’s singing at the funeral for his husband.
>> “I Hope You Dance” by Lee Ann Womack. This works it on two levels: First, it’s a message to your kids, and who doesn’t get choked up about that sort of thing? But it’s the background refrain that moves me:
“Tell me, who wants to look back on their years and wonder … Where those years have gone?”
Not me!
>> “Flying” by the Peter Moon Band. This song recalls the sights, scents and emotions of all the times I left home and the enduring pull of Hawaii in my heart.
>> “Rainbow Connection” by Kermit the Frog. This wistful Paul Williams tune offers the promise of adventure, no matter how far along you are in life: “Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection, the lovers, the dreamers and me.”
>> Anything by Adele, but, obviously, “When We Were Young.” The girl is a mere 29. What does she know of life and how does she do it?
>> “Castle on the Hill” by Ed Sheeran. The driving guitar rhythm on this anthem, drenched in nostalgia for the singer/songwriter’s days as a teenage hell-raiser, also earns it a spot on my “road trip” playlist.
>> “We’re all Gonna Die” by folk-rock band Dawes. Near the end of this languid number, singer-guitarist Taylor Goldsmith, in his fragile falsetto, imagines contacting a former lover he left behind to follow his music career and flying her out to L.A.:
“And if the plane goes down on her way to me, I think I know how she would react …
She’d smile, and close her eyes, and think about her life.
While some voice, screaming in the back, ‘We’re all gonna die.’
So try not to get upset, everything is fine.
Hey, it’s not that big a deal … We’re all gonna die.”
That one makes me laugh and cry.
What’s on your cry-song playlist? Email me at cwilson@staradvertiser.com.
“She Speaks” is a weekly column by the women writers of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@staradvertiser.com.
