Right now, we’re staring down that last three-week dragging period between the reprieves of Fall Break and Thanksgiving. With the passing of Halloween and all its requisite festivities, there’s nothing to look forward to for the foreseeable future other than work and gloomy weather. It’s times like these that Ithaca really starts to feel isolated — from family, from friends, from the rest of civilization. Cornell can feel like a bubble sometimes, separated from the rest of the world. So, here’s a playlist for when you want to wallow in that feeling while waiting for happier times (i.e. Thanksgiving break) to arrive. It’s about homesickness, missing your family, yearning for your childhood, and the feeling of being so far away.
1. Noah Kahan: “The View Between Villages”
There’s something about Cornell that screams Noah Kahan to me. And this song in particular (“a minute from home but I feel so far from it”) just fits so perfectly.
2. Bon Iver: “00000 Million”
This song encapsulates the season’s general melancholy.
3. Fleetwood Mac: “Landslide”
It’s a classic for a reason, and perfectly encapsulates that bittersweet feeling of growing up that college is all about.
4. The Head and the Heart: “Rivers and Roads”
I think the lyrics speak for themselves here. “A year from now we’ll all be gone / All our friends will move away / And they’re going to better places / But our friends will be gone away … Been talking ‘bout the way things change / And my family lives in a different state.”
5. Gregory Alan Isakov: “Big Black Car”
I’d pretty much call this wistfulness in song form. Yearning, if you will.
6. Mt. Joy: “Younger Days”
Childhood was an easier time, back when we didn’t know what prelims were.
7. Lord Huron: “Meet Me in the Woods”
This is one of the more uptempo songs on the playlist, but don’t be fooled; the lyrics are still pretty somber. Plus, there’s plenty of woods around here to meet someone in.
8. The Lumineers: “Angela”
A song about leaving home, “Angela” is very apt to the homesickness some of us are feeling at the moment. But it’s also a happier song — maybe Ithaca could be home?
9. Hozier, Bedouine: “That You Are”
“Maybe I have yet to venture out / See the places that I hear about” This song fits that isolated, separated feeling you get being so far from any big cities. It is also such a soft, pretty song to close on. There’s a little positivity in there; you want to be where your favorite people are.
Melissa Moon is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at [email protected].