10 Songs You Need In Your Life This Week

This week we turned to music for different reasons. These are the songs that helped us heal and inspired us to get to work.

November 11, 2016
10 Songs You Need In Your Life This Week The xx: Jason Nocito; Lotic: Mustafah Abdulaziz; G.L.O.S.S.: Renate Winter; Shamir: XL

1. Things we're thankful for: A Tribe Called Quest, their new album We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service, and the smart, angry, inspiring "We The People...". "The fog in the smog of new media that logs/ False narratives of guys that came up against the odds/ We not just nigga rappers with the bars/ It's kismet that we cosmic with the stars."

2. Lotic's passionate edit of Bey's "Formation," "FORMATION (ELECTION ANXIETY/AMERICA IS OVER)," is necessary. Preceded by sirens, "I dream it, I work hard, I grind 'til I own it/ I twirl on them haters" sounds like a warning.

3. We need The xx to remind us about love, and the unity dancing brings, like "On Hold": "Young hearts/ All need love/ Call it a lesson/ The stars and the charts/ And the cards make sense/ Only when we want them to/ When I lie awake staring in to space/ I see a different view."

4. Shamir's acoustic "Breathe" is a direct response to the hate in this world: "It's hard to believe that we couldn't see/ The doom that we have ahead of us/ It's hard not to lie, harder to apologize/ Do you live to be a part of our demise?"

5. "Fear & Force" by Cameroon-born, Brooklyn-based songwriter Vagabon is about feeling lost and hurt: "I am dying to go/ this is not my home."

6. Not brand new but on loop this week, Solange's "Where Do We Go" feels good: "And I don't know where to go/ No, I don't know where to stay/ Where do we go from here?/ Do you know?"

7. St. Beauty's "Borders" is all soul, indignation, and power: "I'm sitting here alone and I'm thinking/ I'm not sorry/ I won't apologize for my freedom."

8. Autofac — The Juan MacLean and Shit Robot — layered 808 beats over Malcolm X's powerful words on "Soul On Ice": "The only way that the people can deal with this/ is to take it in the streets."

9. G.L.O.S.S.'s "Fight" is a rallying cry, angry and all-too-relevant: "Fascist scum/ expected a parade/ your welcoming committee/ was an Antifa brigade."

10. Weyes Blood is our Joan Baez, our Joni Mitchell. "Generation Why" is soul-strengthening melancholy: "Going to see end of days...Carry me through the waves of change/ I know my place/ It's a beautiful thing."

ADVERTISEMENT

Listen to Songs You Need in Your Life on Spotify:
Listen to Songs You Need In Your Life on Apple Music:
10 Songs You Need In Your Life This Week