Blog — Half Mystic

& I'll Cry If I Want To: A Selection of the Sad Girl in Music

We all have our Sad Girl songs—the ones that hit right at the center of our biggest shames, our runny mascara nights, our whispers from the alleyway.

Art, Music, SelectionsLexi CovalsenSeptember 11, 2019Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Lana Del Rey, Audrey Wollen, Lesley Gore, Marina and the Diamonds, Sky Ferreira, Lorde, SZA, Donna Tartt

Singing While Rome Burns (A Selection of Music for the Apocalypse)

I’ve found a catharsis in musicians’ emotional responses to the strife in the world right now, and in their visions of what might spring from the ashes.

Selections, MusicAmrita ChakrabortyJuly 30, 2019Hozier, Mavis Staples, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, James Brown, Janelle Monáe, Cage the Elephant, Sufjan Stevens, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bastille, Florence + the Machine, the 1975, Donald Trump, St. Vincent, Leonard Cohen, Richard Siken

That Summer Feeling (a selection, a remembering)

The summer of 2016 belongs to “Self Control,” white brick walls, the rumble of the MARTA train—to the warmth and the horror of being alone in a city.

Selections, MusicLexi CovalsenJuly 15, 2019Richard Ayoade, Matt Berninger, Alex Turner, the National, St. Vincent, Sylvia Plath, the Front Bottoms, Frank Ocean, Lorde, Rostam

Cinematic Spring (a selection)

For this languid, near-summer day, a selection of standout songs to ease you into the world of Bengali musical cinema.

Film, Music, SelectionsAmrita ChakrabortyJune 25, 2019Bishwajeet Chatterjee, Lata Mangeshkar, Tanuja, Uttam Kumar, Suchitra Sen, Rabindranath Tagore, Sandhya Mukherjee

The Aubade Letters (a selection)

I have chosen to submit to Half Mystic because it is the only press that has thought to ask what music means to me.

Music, SelectionsTopaz WintersJune 2, 2019Lester Bangs, Mary Oliver, Joyanna M., Frederic Chopin, The Deftones, Saint-Saens, MILCK, love letters

Songs for the Aubade Issue (a selection)

In the space where spring & song intersect, we’re thrilled to share a small playlist the Half Mystic team is spinning as we work to curate Issue VII.

The Interlude Letters (a selection)

To me, music means breath and expansion. It is unifying and freeing at the same time.

Music, SelectionsTopaz WintersDecember 9, 2018love letters

Songs for the Interlude Issue (a selection)

A playlist of our fondest & most aching interludes, the music the HM team is spinning on repeat as we compile this issue.

Music, SelectionsTopaz WintersNovember 2, 2018Ben Howard, M83, Dean Lewis, Graham Coxon, A Fine Frenzy, The Hush Sound, Perfume Genius, Bon Iver, The Young Romans, Moto Boy, Coldplay, Daughter, The Cranberries, Diet Cig, Florence + the Machine, Mitski

The Fool's Journey (a selection)

September is road trip season, always a time of travel, of movement, of flux.

The Cadenza Letters (a selection)

I love jazz the way I love empty riverbeds and I love my girl's morning breath and I love the street after it's just rained.

Music, SelectionsTopaz WintersJune 4, 2018love letters, Duke Ellington