Libby's Odyssey

I believe that music is one of the most valuable art forms that we can experience in our everyday lives. Like all art, music is up for interpretation; what a song means to one person might have a completely different meaning to another. Music has a magical way of weaving itself into the fabric of our lives, serving as a soundtrack to our most profound emotions and memories. I’m sure we all have a collection of songs that take us back to certain periods of our lives, whether that be the good times or the bad. Chances are, you listen and reminisce regardless of what emotions come up, it can be incredibly cathartic. I would love to share some of my favourite songs with you, as listed below, but choosing just these few songs was quite a challenge. I have resonated deeply with many songs throughout my life, with their notes and harmonies transporting me to places I’ve never been, and understanding emotions I have never felt. I will take you through each song, in no particular order, exploring the themes and lyrics that have left a mark on my heart. Using the app Stats.fm, I have been able to gather my lifetime statistics for each song, so this information will also be included. Whether they have made me cry, reflect or simply just feel alive, these songs have assisted in making me the person I am today.

Song: Agnes by Glass Animals

Album: How to be a Human (2016)

Minutes Listened: 564

First Streamed: 29/12/18

Lifetime Ranking: 13

Themes: Grief, loss and emotional vulnerability. Explores the pain of losing a loved one to mental illness, and the enduring sadness and self blame that stems from this. Expresses great love for a person while also feeling hopeless when trying to help them.

Standout Lyric: “Guess life is long when soaked in sadness / On borrowed time from Mr. Madness.”

Captures the heaviness of mourning, as well as the complex thoughts and feelings that come from losing someone to mental illness.

Personal Meaning:

This song came into my life at just the right time, with almost divine timing. When I first heard this song, I was in the car with my cousins roughly a month after losing my mother to mental illness. It immediately struck a chord with me, encapsulating the feelings of hopelessness that I had felt in her last days. It was the first song I remember enjoying after she had passed away. Nothing quite compares to missing someone that you cannot bring back, and feeling as though there might have been something you could’ve done to avoid their tragic fate.

Additionally, as someone who has struggled with my own mental health throughout my life, this song also resonates with the feelings I get towards myself when I feel as though I have lost myself. The lyric “I’m lost but I don’t know why” that defines the climax of the song is strongly emotionally loaded, expressing what I have often felt when I’m struggling. Often, when the mind is playing tricks on us, the repercussions placed on personal relationships and life goals leave us feeling lost and out of control.

Song: Class of 2013 by Mitski

Album: Retired from Sad, New Career in Business (2013)

Minutes Listened: 277

First Streamed: 29/05/23

Lifetime Ranking: 175

Themes: Highlights the struggles of growing up, independence and longing for parental guidance. Mitski addresses her mother, expressing her feelings of loneliness and uncertainty as she transitions into adulthood. It’s a raw and intimate cry form guidance and comfort, symbolising the universal struggle of growing up.

Standout Lyric: “Mom, am I still young? / Can I dream for a few months more?”
This lyric encapsulates the yearning to hold onto one’s youthful innocence, combined with the fear of moving forward in life.

Personal Meaning:

The rawness and vulnerability of this song is unmatched. At a short 1 minute and 50 seconds, I almost feel like I pass through all the stages of grief. The song begins with a series of questions directed at Mitski’s mother, asking her for her love and care as she grows older. There is a sense of anger woven through the lyrics, almost as if Mitski is hurt with her mother’s lack of involvement as she ages.

This song really hits home for me, having lost my mum in my teen years. The lyrics and delivery capture a very unique feeling of yearning, a very visceral piece.

Song: First Love/Late Spring by Mitski

Album: Bury Me at Makeout Creek (2014)

Minutes Listened: 804

First Streamed: 02/03/21

Lifetime Ranking: 3

Themes: Captures the bittersweet nature of love and growing up. The inevitability of time passing is approached with fear. Its an ode to both the beauty and heartbreak of young love, exploring feelings of abandonment and avoidance. 

Standout Lyric: “and I was so you when I behaved twenty five / Yet now I find ive grown into a tall child”

An expression of vunerability, highlighting the dichotomy of strength and fragility that comes with growing up. Grieving the childhood that could’ve been.
Personal Meaning:

As many Mitski songs do, this song seems to highlight parts of the human psyche that are hard to express with words alone. The vulnerability that is required when choosing to love someone is a scary thing. If you open your heart to someone, you are trusting them to treat it with care. The use of “First Love” suggests a sense of purity and innocence, a juxtapostion to the use of “Late Spring”, which suggests the beginning of the brutal realities of a hot summer. Wear sunscreen, or you will be burnt.

This song also speaks to the ugly truths of healing. The journey towards healing oneself is tumultuous, but work must be done to reach inner peace with the hauntings of the past. It is a hard road, but it’s a road we must take regardless.

Song: Take Care by Beach House

Album: Teen Dream (2010)

Minutes Listened: 563

First Streamed: 15/05/21

Lifetime Ranking: 14

Themes: Love, support and the comfort of being there for someone else. A gentle reassurance that someone has your back, through it all. A celebration of fulfilling one’s dream of being unconditionally loved and supported.  

Standout Lyric: “I’ll take care of you if you ask me to.”

A simple but deeply moving proclamation of devotion and selflessness. An assurance of trust, but maintaining the other person’s autonomy by ultimately leaving the decision up to them.
Personal Meaning:

I have always been one to wear my heart on my sleeve, there are very few things that I wouldn’t do for the people that I love. There’s a sense of pleading woven throughout the song, both for a partner’s recognition of the effort she invests into the relationship, and longing for someone to “take care” of her in the ways that she extends her love. When we give up too much of ourselves, it becomes harder to recall what we were fighting for in the first place.

While caring for others is wonderful, we must ensure that we don’t neglect our love for ourselves in the process.

Song: Something to Believe by Weyes Blood

Album: Titanic Rising (2019)

Minutes Listened: 494

First Streamed: 20/09/24

Lifetime Ranking: 20

Themes: The search for meaning and purpose in an increasingly chaotic world. An exploration of existential doubt and a plea for purpose amidst the chaos and uncertainty of this overwhelming world.   

Standout Lyric: “Give me something I can see, something bigger and louder than the voices in me.”
Reflects the universal human need for guidance and clarity, and the longing to escape one’s own mind. 
Personal Meaning:

I feel as though this song encapsulates a unique absence felt within our modern day society, a space that would’ve previously been filled by things like religion, community or familial values. The beginning of the song highlights the lack of motivation felt as a direct cause of having nothing to believe in. When the perception of existence ends with the self, we have no where to get motivation to carry on with the trials of everyday life, and we fall into a depression as our view of life becomes nothing more than a journey towards death.

Recently, I have been contemplating what it truly means to exist in this realm of reality. There have been times in my life where I feel truly lost and alone, feeling as though I had nothing to hold onto when what I believed to be the material truths of my world crumbled. I have found great solace in exploring my relationship with God and the world around me, as well as who I truly am and what I really want out of life. This song really captures the emotional labour and suffering that sometimes must happen in order for someone to align with their true meaning and purpose.

Song: Soapy Water by Wolf Alice

Album: My Love is Cool (2015)

Minutes Listened: 264

First Streamed: 20/12/24

Lifetime Ranking: 180

Themes: An exploration of detachment and disillusionment, as well as deep self-reflection in an attempt to save oneself.

Standout Lyric: “Choose a religion, choose a goddamn sport / Go find something to eradicate these thoughts.”
Reflects attempts to find existential meaning through religion, hobbies or human connection. 
Personal Meaning:

This song for me encapsulates what it feels like to be paralysed by your own thoughts and fears. The general theme of this song circles around being in a dark place mentally, and knowing that you’re not okay, but somehow not being able to mediate that. Rather than framing a negative headspace as an area of destruction and chaos, Wolf Alice portrays a picture of disassociation and numbness – and the despair that often comes hand in hand with this level of self awareness.

I really like how Wolf Alice incorporates themes of religiosity in their works. This song in particular frames religion as a tool that can be used for improving one’s headspace – a topic I have previously discussed on here. The fear of losing touch with oneself and others is prevalent here, and with searching for oneself, the vocalist also conveys a sense of trying to find meaning beyond the self as well.

This song is majorly underrated in Wolf Alice’s discography – I highly recommend giving this one a listen!

Song: Silk by Wolf Alice

Album: My Love is Cool (2015)

Minutes Listened: 419

First Streamed: 20/12/24

Lifetime Ranking: 35

Themes: frustration and alienation with the world and others, poetic lyrics paint a vivid image. 

Standout Lyric: “I’m tired of feeling like I’m fucking crazy.”

This line encapsulates the raw and powerful desperation for clarity in times of hardship and mental turmoil.

Personal Meaning:

When I discovered this song, I feel like it came to me at just the right time. Talk about divine timing. During this time period, I was in a relationship that was not the healthiest, and it left me feeling isolated from the world and second guessing my own feelings and beliefs. During this time period, I was asking “why?” quite a lot. I felt like I needed to know why I was being mistreated, so I could make sense of this situation and almost justify it to myself in my head, because everything I was doing was out of love, and I naively believed that motivation was reciprocal.

Throughout the song, the hypnotic, haunting vocals suggest feelings of being trapped and suppressing emotions in an attempt to gain acceptance from others. The vocalist yearns for acceptance; acceptance in a way where she is loved, and she is safe to love back.

Choosing these just these songs was tricky, and I fully intend on writing a part two (or three, or four) at some point. Music isn’t just about what sounds good, its also about the emotions they bring to the surface, what resonates with your own personal story, and what transcends the ordinary nature of life, making it into something beautiful. Music, in its many forms, has the ability to transcend time, reminding us of who we are, where we’ve been, and what we aspire to become. I have always felt as though parts of my identity are attached to music, each song telling a story of who I am and what I’ve experienced. The beautiful thing about music is it brings us all together; one song can tell the story of countless lives. Thank you for reading, I would love to know what songs you hold near and dear! Let me know!