About a month ago, the American Psychological Association announced that 52 percent of adults in this country are coping with high levels of election-related stress. Apparently it has grown so bad, we are in the midst of a nation-wide dry spell. Far worse, one of our candidates is a walking trigger.
But we made it. Today is the day election anxiety must end. Breathe. There’s currently an 80-something percent chance it won’t have the worst outcome (go vote!). In the meantime, here’s a soundtrack that might help you de-stress, from members of the Pitchfork staff. (Yes, we made Spotify and Apple Music playlists as well.)
Evan Minsker: Pharoah Sanders - “The Creator Has a Master Plan”
A lot of people have emphasized the stakes of this election—that if the wrong person wins, the country could fall apart. It seems like an appropriate moment to step back and understand that no matter what happens in the White House over the next four years, everything will work out in the long run. “The creator has a master plan/Peace and happiness for every man,” sings Leon Thomas on Pharoah Sanders’ “The Creator Has a Master Plan.” Thomas preaches this message, between jazz yodels, in a 32-minute masterpiece that sways back and forth between chaos and peace. In a way, the song’s fluctuating structure offers a loose reflection of what happens on Election Day. Sometimes you get absolute relief, sometimes you get the exact thing you fear, and while there might be dark days ahead, maybe it’s easiest to put your faith in the inevitability of love and joy. We’ve had bad presidents before and we’ll have them again. Listen to the yodeling. Quiet your mind. Breathe.
Mark Richardson: Arthur Russell - “Soon-to-Be Innocent Fun/Lets See”
It’s common to think of music as an intensifier for political engagement, but some of my favorite songs appeal to me because they offer an alternate universe or even a place to hide. Arthur Russell’s album World of Echo is an album of suggestion and intuition, where specific “meaning” always feels just out of reach. The composer and filmmaker Phill Niblock once created an experimental video that featured Russell performing songs from World of Echo, with the short film's title capturing something of its subject's slippery nature: “Terrace of Unintelligibility.” On “Soon-to-Be Innocent Fun/Let’s See” the words are almost impossible to make out, but Russell’s voice and cello still manage to communicate so much, something about sadness and yearning and hope and whatever other feeling the listener wants to project onto its open canvas. When the mass of hyper-detailed up-to-the-second information piles up and the unrelenting ugliness of it all is overwhelming, I find deep comfort in this music where sounds floats freely, serving as a place to funnel our most essential desires.
Amy Phillips: Les Petit Chanteurs A La Croix De Bois - “Duetto buffo di due gatti”
Like pretty much every pet on the planet, my cat Leo hates going to the vet. Putting him in his carrier fills him with an existential terror, a fear of the looming unknown as he is whisked away by sinister forces he cannot control. In other words, he feels like we have all been feeling during this election cycle from hell.
A few weeks ago, I had to take Leo to the vet for a checkup. After a few minutes of putting up with a soundtrack of yowling and crying, my Uber driver started playing this YouTube video of a boys’ choir singing the jokey Rossini homage “Duetto buffo di due gatti” (“Comic Duet for Two Cats”), which consists of nothing but mellifluous meowing. It was hilarious. And I shit you not, Leo calmed right down and shut up for the rest of the ride.
If it worked for him, it can work for us, right? On a day like today, we could all use some silly, unexpected, cat-related fun, yes?
Jillian Mapes: Stevie Wonder - “Don’t You Worry ‘bout a Thing”
Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions is one of those albums that just sounds like America, in times considered “for better” and others “for worse.” “Don’t You Worry ‘bout a Thing” is the better; “Living for the City” is the worse. Both are about as extreme as it gets, one beaming with love where the other exposes a hateful reality. “Don’t You Worry ‘bout a Thing” is so routinely synonymous with focused joy, it’s what Olivia Pope uses on “Scandal” to dance her way out of a funk (or you know, a major political scandal). Sometimes, the classic, albeit kinda cliched, song just does its job. You can try to resist, but what reels me in every time is the syncopated Latin percussion, mixed at the forefront. At its lowest, this election has felt like the worst of our country on display. Today I choose to believe in the better, with an assist from national treasure Stevie Wonder.
Stacey Anderson: Seu Jorge - “O Astronauta De Marmore (Starman)”
Surely not least because a hateful cheese puff has steadily devalued our national discourse, and arguably language itself, I’ve found myself gravitating towards an album that translates English into universality: The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions, Seu Jorge’s Portuguese-language collection of David Bowie covers. The Brazilian samba star originally performed them in Wes Anderson’s 2004 twee odyssey The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, but these tracks glow alone without the visuals. Jorge has a joyous facility with these familiar melodies, parsing glam-rock production into slight, evocative acoustic guitar strums, and purring Bowie’s starry lyrics with hoarse, nimble inflections. (He is currently touring the material.) Bowie himself said Jorge’s takes helped him hear a “new level of beauty” in his songs; tumbling into them now delivers the specific sensation of feeling heard, being part of an optimistic whole. It’s downright democratic.
Quinn Moreland: Krill - “Purity of Heart”
“Purity of Heart,” off the late existential rock trio Krill’s 2013 album Lucky Leaves, is a wonderful tune to lean on in stressful times. The track’s title and body pull from Søren Kierkegaard’s sermon Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing, which was written as a plan for Christians to dispel uncertainty and have pure faith. Krill remove the religious context, simply asserting that through earnest focus and a unified mind, contentment can be reached. While no amount of willpower will affect the outcome of this election, I think Krill’s encouraging words are a reminder to look after oneself as much as possible, even when everything seems awful. I use singer Jonah Furman’s jagged words—“Purity of heart/Is to will one thing/Today I will/Take a walk”—as a mantra to remind myself to do one positive thing for myself today, just as a means of having some control in this whirlwind of a world.
Matthew Strauss: Tame Impala - “The Less I Know the Better”
“The Less I Know the Better” is sweet and naïve and petty and funky. Kevin Parker finds out that his ex is now dating the nefarious Trevor, and he goes from calmly dealing with heartbreak, to total mush who’s willing to wait a decade to win his love back. And while Parker slowly unravels, he acts pretty zen about the whole thing: Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, life goes on, I’ll never get what I want but that’s OK, who cares. Then there’s the chorus, where Parker says enough is enough–information is overrated. So as two years of turmoil come to a climax, take a page out of Tame Impala’s book and relax because things could definitely be better but they could also be worse. Essentially: worry, but let existence flow. If all else fails, the bassline is lush as hell.
Sam Sodomsky: Lil B - “Gon Be Okay”
At his peak in the early ’10s, Lil B aimed to be the voice in your head–sometimes banal, sometimes nonsensical, sometimes ignorable. But, at his most potent, Lil B had uncanny access to the things we laugh at when we’re alone, the base-level reassurances we need to hear but no one will say. His 2011 album I’m Gay (I’m Happy) stands out, right alongside 2012’s God’s Father, as Lil B’s crowning achievement. Recorded during Obama’s first term, I’m Gay’s centerpiece, “Gon Be Okay,” reflects the hope that arrived with the time period. “Change is what’s happening in America,” Obama’s voice proclaims in the opening seconds. “We made history,” Lil B ad libs in response, “Things will never be the same.”
But something strange happens as “Gon Be Okay” goes on. After starting off so positive, Lil B challenges his optimism with a series of visions. The “change” from the song’s opening moments starts to feel less like a declaration of victory and more like a dive into unfamiliar waters. But Lil B is not afraid. “This song is depressing,” he drawls, “but it’s uplifting.” Both statements are true, and they’ve made more sense in the years since.
Kevin Lozano: Talking Heads - “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)”
David Byrne has written very few songs about love. When he does, it comes out a joyful, Dadaist mess, like on “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody).” A classic earworm with a goofy melody, a disjointed sweetness, and striking non-sequiturs as lyrics, the song is one of the Talking Heads’ most famous, and perhaps their corniest. In a way, it’s empty of specific content but full of sensations, shifting honestly from tentative to sure and evoking the familiarity within a word like “home.” We’ve been told a lot this election season that certain actions from candidates are “just words.” What Byrne knew was that words are never just words: they’re feelings, experiences, affectations lodged in our brains. There has not been much room for love this election cycle, and lots of toxic words have mired all aspects of 24-hour coverage. If there is one eternal truth that I cling onto no matter the outcome of tonight, it’s that words really do matter, and so does love. We can only hope our next leader will believe in the power of both.
Noah Yoo: Red Velvet - “Russian Roulette”
With their bright outfits and brighter hooks, K-pop girl group Red Velvet are the current “it” girls of the South Korean pop industry. The title track off their latest EP is a gleaming, neon synthpop tune with enough playfulness to make you almost forget about its namesake’s darker undertones. And while you might not understand any of the lyrics, the charming nature of “Russian Roulette” may also be enough to take your mind off of the (terrifying) gamble that our country is undertaking with this presidential election.