How to Survive Social Distancing (A Selection)
It was a bright clean day in March when they called the semester off. I was sitting in my English classroom on the top floor, back to the window, wind on my neck. It hurt worse than I thought it would, the email. Like nearly every school and university across the U.S., my college was shuttering its doors for the rest of the semester and migrating all classes online in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just like that, my senior year was over.
Now the sky is grey and the air is muggy and there’s nowhere to go, really. As of March 19th it’s officially spring, and I’m sitting alone in my apartment yearning to wring the world clean like a kitchen towel. When I first set out to write this selection, I wanted to bask in the changing of the seasons; I wanted to celebrate the arrival of the flowers and make a playlist of the most sun-dried, joyride-ready music of 2020. Now, I don’t know how to write about the spring without writing about the sickness. It’s a tricky and selfish thing.
But between Zoom class sessions and anxiety-fuelled Twitter scrolls, I believe that keeping ourselves sane through music has become more important than ever. While catching up on your movie watchlist or that growing pile of books on your desk is a great way to pass the time, nothing can quite compete with the feeling of discovering a new favorite song—and although cities around the world are slowly but surely declaring widespread lockdown, that hasn’t stopped the rollout of some of our favorite artists’ much-anticipated singles and albums. Here, a playlist of some of the best new releases of 2020 to get you through these cabin fever days:
“Can’t Cool Me Down” by Car Seat Headrest
In their first release since 2019’s electric live album, Commit Yourself Completely, Car Seat Headrest return with the single “Can’t Cool Me Down.” The track is more aloof than their previous work but frontman Will Toledo’s lyrics still simmer underneath, hot with hurt and anxiety. He sings, “I am dripping with sweat, my hands / I can’t hold anything in my hands”, and later proclaims, “I’ve only made one mistake in my life”. Coffee-drunk on my couch, shot through with the bitter tinge of failure, I can’t help but declare “Can’t Cool Me Down” a senior year anthem.
“Karma the Knife” by Angelica Garcia
Bombastic and angry, both “thoughtful'' and “bumpin’”, “Karma the Knife” is the lead single from Garcia’s 2020 album Cha Cha Palace. In the second verse, she sings, “I fucked up last week / and I’ll probably fuck up the next / the universe is cyclical / everything comes right back around”. It’s that intertwinement of carefree optimism and manic energy that makes “Karma the Knife” the perfect song for a quarantine spring.
“Anxious Butterball” by Boyish
In the first single from their latest album Garden Spider, Boyis.h intimately encapsulates the feelings of smallness and guilt that have marked so much of the spring for me. They sing, “I’m still young but I feel like shit / is everybody just full of it?”. Later: “I’m so stupid but so are you / am I crazy, can you tell?”. Like Car Seat Headrest and Angelica Garcia, Boyish funnels the crushing sense of youth in these times into their music, boiling the huge weight of existential dread into a single catchy earworm.
“Evergreen” by Ryan Beatty
Everything about our lives is uncertain at this moment. On “Evergreen” from Ryan Beatty’s 2020 album Dreaming of David, Beatty repeats over and over the phrase “if there’s nothing else around the corner / if there’s nothing else around the corner”. The refrain imbues the song with yearning, ambiguity, and all the meaningless sadness of a sunset. As day bleeds into night with only me and my roommates and the leaves that float through the empty streets, it’s artists like Beatty who keep us company, crooning steady and gold through our speakers.
”On the Floor” by Perfume Genius
Trapped inside and aching for the outdoors, there’s something rather cathartic about watching Mike Hadreas writhe around in dirt for six straight minutes. “On the Floor” is the second single from Perfume Genius’s upcoming album, Set My Heart on Fire Immediately, and the music video features a stunning performance from Mr. Perfume Genius himself alongside choreographer Tate Justas. Hadreas sings, “the constant buzzing / all through the night / the fighting / rips me all up inside”. A livewire love song, “On the Floor” hums with the pent-up energy I’m feeling so deeply right now.
“Rose/Lotus/Violet/Iris” by Hayley Williams
Branching out from her roots in the band Paramore, “Rose/Lotus/Violet/Iris” is Hayley Williams’s sixth and latest solo release, a soothing feminist jam alongside the women of boygenius (Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker, and Phoebe Bridgers). Williams sings to the importance of self-care: “I myself was a wilted woman / drowsy in a dark room / forgot my roots / now watch me bloom”. It’s a pertinent reminder as I struggle to bloom instead of wilt in the devastatingly new environment of COVID-19, a dark room in the middle of the first reaches of spring.
“Poolside” by THE ANXIETY
Just because the public pools are closed for business doesn’t mean we can’t fantasize about the summer 2020 of our dreams—pool days, parties, and all. On this track, WILLOW and Tyler Cole team up to sing about the shallowness of popular culture and the “racist whites” who run it. The duo tap into the modern anxieties that persist throughout the pandemic, singing, “ego strikes, these are scary times”. Later they continue, “I don’t even try, I just live my life / I don’t wanna die but I’ll die for my rights”.
“BERNIE SANDERS” by Trace the Prophet
The only thing you need to know about this song is that Trace the Prophet sings “let's go vote for Bernie” no less than 16 times. Why does it belong on a COVID-19 quarantine playlist, you ask? Three words: Medicare for All.
“The Steps” by HAIM
HAIM’s Women in Music, Pt. III album may be postponed, but we still have the first four singles to keep us company during what feels like a never-ending isolation. Staying at home all day, permanently dressed in pyjamas, can get to your self-esteem after a while—but thankfully, the voices of the Haim sisters singing confident break-up songs like “The Steps” are a foolproof boost. In the most fitting reminder of how to reach the power in aloneness, Este, Alana, and Danielle kick their man to the side: “I can't understand why you don't understand me / and every day I wake up and make money for myself”.
“Summertime” by Orville Peck
The queer cowboy is back! Although the weather is healing and the flowers blooming, it can be hard to excavate optimism in the midst of a pandemic. The new Orville Peck single is an ode to the long summer days that await us on the other side of this struggling spring. “Summertime” belongs on everyone’s quarantine playlist for the simple fact that it catapults you outside of your living room, into the sun and a sleepy summer day in which you’re right there alongside Orville, “chasin' the horizon / nothing holds me down / askin’ where the time’s gone”.
“Take Yourself Home” by Troye Sivan
The first single from Troye Sivan’s upcoming third album is undeniably a song about place. For many of us, trapped in empty college towns away from our families or in suffocating hometowns away from our friends, “I'm tired of the city, scream if you're with me” is not just a lyric but a motto. “Take Yourself Home” is the perfect cleansing bop for these COVID-scourged days.
“Where U At?” by Madi Sipes & the Painted Blue
Madi Sipes & the Painted Blue are known for their ‘80s-infused bops, and their latest release is no different. For anyone’s who’s sent a “u safe?” text in the middle of night, “Where U At?” will feel a little like being heard or coming home. Backed by trumpets and synth beats, a lovesick Madi Sipes sings, “been drinking like a dog / not so proud of this behavior / late at night, I hit your line”. It’s a pining anthem for lovers separated by spring 2020, remembering better nights behind them.
“Susie Save Your Love” by Allie X and Mitski
A highlight from her latest album Cape God, “Susie Save Your Love” is Allie X’s homage to women who love women everywhere. It tells the story of a woman in love with her straight best friend: a song for every era, every year, yet all the more relevant since the distance between unrequited lovers became less metaphorical and more physical. Mitski’s crooning lyrics add an element of mystery to this track—the quick-dose, out-of-body-out-of-home daydream that we all need right now.
“Drive” by Cub Sport
One of the things I miss most about existing in the world as the world used to be is cruising through expensive neighborhoods on lazy Sunday afternoons, radio up, my best friends crowded next to me. This latest song from the upcoming Cub Sport album Like Nirvana is a eulogy for those days and that flavor of happiness. In this sleepy track, Tim Nelson sings “I’m driving in our car / I am looking over and you’re looking at me / baby, I feel happy / baby, I feel happy”—a reminder that we too will one day have those happy days back again.
“Search for Life” by Dirty Projectors
It’s important to have optimistic pop songs on any quarantine playlist, but equally important are the introspective indie tracks like “Search for Life”. Although it reads as a love song on the page, this latest release from Dirty Projectors is filled with so much nostalgia and so much longing that it easily functions as a love song to life itself. With lyrics like “all over are the days / when we wandered through the world / together in the clay / and together in the plane,” this track rings achingly immediate, the truest and most bittersweet end to your Social Distancing Survival playlist.