As we approach the last week of classes, things can feel overwhelming, and the temptation to drop everything in favor of rotting away in the forest is immense. Maybe that’s just me. My favorite way to rejuvenate my motivation is usually a walk in nature, but as the weather gets colder, that prospect is discouraging. Still, we all need to lock-out sometimes, so here’s a short list of songs that provide that freeing, dissociative feeling without having to freeze your fingertips on a real walk.
1. Hozier feat. Karen Cowley: “In a Week”
A love song in a sense, Hozier’s lyrics yearn for a peaceful, eternal rest amongst the natural world. “We lay here for weeks or for hours … So long, we’d become the flowers,” he sings alongside Irish musician Karen Cowley. There is a primal heartbeat in this song, and instills in me the very unique desire to be a mushroom nestled within the forest vegetation.
2. Olivia Rodrigo: “Can’t Catch Me Now”
These haunting lyrics were written to accompany the new Hunger Games movie, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, but are just as effective in accompanying a walk (or even a wild run) through the woods. The gentle guitar intro is deceptively calm, disguising the pent-up rage that the song contains. Both an anthem of total freedom and a promise of vengeance, the vibe of this song can be visually compared to the dark stain of blood in the snow.
3. The Lumineers: “Flowers in Your Hair”
I can only describe this song as the feeling you get from looking at the mountains: the ineffable understanding that you are part of something much larger than yourself. The Lumineers, a folk band that gained immense fame from their titular album, is popular for this free, woodsy feeling. It makes you wonder just how easy it would be to drop everything, Thoreau-style, and spend some time in the woods.
Though Gigi Perez gained fame from her single, “Sailor Song,” a song about yearning from afar, “Fable” is the numbness of the realization that life offers no restart. “I dream of eternal life,” she sings, lamenting the singular and finite qualities of living. If you’ve ever looked up at the stars and realized how little space you take up on the universal timeline, this song can encapsulate that feeling.
5. The Crave Wives: “The Moon Will Sing”
This song best accompanies a drive upstate, leaving stress and worries behind without a second thought. Lead singers Emilee Petersmark and Kate Pillsbury sing in crisp harmony about the emptiness left behind after a breakup, and the escape one finds in the natural world. Altogether, the contemplative lyrics and lazy bass line convey a simmering resentment, one cooled only in solitude.
6. Lana Del Rey: “Video Games”
Though this is certainly a shift from the more obscure indie bands in this list, Lana’s hypnotizing voice and angelic string accompaniment make this song fit in just fine with Hozier. This song creates a peaceful environment with the harp acting as a fairy-like brook, the synth creating swelling gusts of wind and the lyrics an ethereal serenade that makes you pause to draw a deep breath.
7. AURORA: “Running with the Wolves”
With a steady, earthy beat, this song ascends into a higher state of mind. Primitive and freeing, AURORA’s starkly recognizable voice resonates deeply in the soul, sighing through lyrics as smoothly as an alpine stream. The image that she paints with her words is vivid, a perfect “forget everything” song to play after flunking a final.
8. The Oh Hellos: “Pale White Horse”
The Oh Hellos are an indie folk rock duo consisting of siblings Tyler and Maggie Heath, whose songs are reminiscent of epic poetry. This song’s chorus follows the lilting swirls of the wind, swelling in quiet intensity like the gales that sweep through the mane of a horse. If you close your eyes, you could almost believe that you’ve been sent back to the Renaissance era, fleeing on horseback in favor of a nomadic life.
Though the shortest on this list, this song is the most poignant, expressing the exhaustion of watching things continually fall apart around you. No forest-rot is complete without spiraling into the possibilities of the downfall of society (we’ve all been there), a spiral that Mitski fully embraces in the final song in her 2016 album Puberty 2.
To finish on an upbeat note, “Mykonos” has an uplifting, spiritual feel, painting an image of the beauty that waits just beyond today’s shadows. The song breaks at the bridge, dropping suddenly into an unaccompanied chant that allows the listener to contemplate the lyrics, “you go wherever you go today,” on a more internal level. This song encourages you to make every choice intentionally, living each day to the fullest.
You can find the playlist here.
‘Solar Flare’ is a weekly playlist column where Sun contributors spotlight a slice of musical taste with the campus community. It runs every Monday.
Gia Lish is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at gml223@cornell.edu.
