Rainy Day Blues, ft. Elliot Smith

If you live anywhere near Massachusetts, you were probably teased with a few days of deceptively spring-like weather, only to have the past few days break that sad, hopeful dream with gray skies, rain and gloom. And not the "aw, I love the smell of rain" rain, the "why the fuck is it not snowing" rain.

So, if you're lucky enough to live near me, this post will be relevant.

Just as there's a difference between the "smell of rain" rain and the "why the fuck" rain, there's a distinct difference between the type of music that suites it. This ain't gunna be Jack Johnson, folks.

So, the crème de le crème of rainy-day misery would have to be the music of Elliot Smith. For background, he stabbed himself in the heart three times.

My favorite album of his would have to be Either/Or. It's a depressingly sad but just as beautiful project. Many of its songs were featured in the movie Good Will Hunting.

The most rainy-day track, in my book, is "ballad of big nothing."

Just picture having to schlep back from work, where you've been for eight hours. It's cold, it's dark and it's raining. Now you have "throwing candy out to the crowd/dragging down the main/the helpless little thing with the dirty mouth who's always got something to say" playing in your headphones. Wonderful, right?

Well, that's kind of what Elliot Smith is all about. You wont feel wonderful listening to it, but that's not the point. The music is really a passage into his soul. You feel for him when listening, at least I do. Almost every song on Either/Or gives me the chills.

Songs with the similar depressing-but-beautiful, rainy-day effect:

"Blue In Green" - Miles Davis

"What Sarah Said" and "Transatlanticism" - Death Cab For Cutie

"The Summer Ends" - American Football

"The Scientist" - Coldplay

"You Should Do It Now While It's On Your Mind" - Owen

I think that with all these songs, you'll find sadness without a trace of anger; more a calm acceptance of something the writers' wish they didn't have to accept. Same thing with a rainy day: no sense getting angry about it, there's nothing you can do. But good luck trying to keep it from getting you down.

Happier posts to come when the weather is happier.