Five Songs that Lend me Perspective

Let's be real. Music is God's gift to mankind. Funnily enough, I'm a Christian, so I do believe that in its literal sense, but regardless of your religious bent I think that we can agree that songs are one of the easiest and most effective ways to channel emotions and express sentiments that are somehow simultaneously grounded in our circumstances and extending beyond what we immediately experience. In line with that, here are five songs that help me to maintain perspective on bad days and good days alike.

1. "Be Thou My Vision (Lord You Are)" by Shane and Shane

Yeah, yeah, a Christian putting a hymn as his #1 song that helps him keep perspective...huge surprise there. Try and limit yourself to one eye roll during this section.

Though it may be evident by the title, the song Be Thou My Vision is all about what a Christian's perspective ought to be. It's a challenge to see past the challenges of our (very) temporary lives and toward Christ: our Savior, God, and Friend.

Especially attending a university that, while it is undeniably accepting of all beliefs, is a secular institution, I can feel oftentimes led astray from what I know is true, exchanging Biblical truth for something I learn in the classroom or "noise" I hear elsewhere. In times like that, where my convictions are threatened, this song in particular is one I run to to see that I have something beyond myself to live for...a "great Father", as verse 2 puts it.

Favorite line: "Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise. Thou mine inheritance, now and always."

2. "Art Exhibit" by Young the Giant

This song. Wow. Let's just say that if somehow there's an apocalypse, and if somehow aliens discover the ruins of our society, along with this song, and somehow the aliens have access to some sort of alien-Spotify Premium, and they play this song, they will get a four-minute, all-encompassing tour de force of what is beautiful about music.

That was a lot of trouble just to say that this song is awesome. Oh well.

Basically, the song is a direct monologue of a guy speaking to someone, probably an ex-lover or something cheesy like that, and telling them that his thoughts retreat to them constantly, but that the way he recollects them is as a photograph one day, or as a movie another: works of art. This song helps remind me that art isn't a mere reflection of life: life is artistic of its own accord. The emotions I experience, the people I love, the trials I have, are contributing to some grand tapestry of what I've done and what I've felt. The largest, most life-changing events and the smallest moments of appreciation all have beauties about them inherently: they're all pictures, paintings, and movies in the art exhibit of my life.

Now how's THAT for cheesy.

Favorite line: "I watched a movie of you today. Silver screen, adapted from my thoughts on Broadway."

Don't worry, don't worry, it DEFINITELY won't get more sentimental than that...

3. "Leave the City" by Twenty One Pilots

HOOOOOOOOLY WOW YOU GUYS. This song. Wow. Right in the ol' feels. Twenty One Pilots has been my favorite artist for a long time, and this song coming out during the fall quarter of my freshman year of college was perhaps the best-timed release of a song I've ever experienced.

The song has a complicated explanation with the storyline of the album as a whole, but the song's theme in and of itself is very simple: "I'm tired". It's the first lyric of the song and a feeling that the track perpetuates in general throughout.

Really uplifting, right? K, next one.

KIDDING, kidding...this song may feel tired throughout, but in reality it spreads a message of hope within that exhaustion. The singer is someone who feels that he's given all he has to an impossible goal; that all of his effort has been futile and that "they know that it's almost over" (a vague and ominous line repeated throughout). Yet, he assures himself that "in time, I will leave the city" and break free into a world of hope, exchanging exhaustion for belonging, surrounded by those he loves.

"mAsOn YoU SaiD yOU wEreN't GOinG to gEt mORe SenTimEntAL." WE BOTH KNEW THAT WAS A LIE JUST BEAR WITH ME.

Point is that last year 'I'm tired, but I know that this struggle is temporary' was a reassurance I desperately needed, being a scared and lonely freshman who didn't see too much hope in the first month of a dark and dreary university education.

Reading back through that I'm kinda seeing how many words that was to say that this song gives me hope, but what is music if not mystical and difficult to convey in words.

Maybe that's what's making this so much fun. For me, at least...not sure if you're having fun yet but NEXT!

Favorite line: "I'm tired of tending to this fire. I've used up all I've collected. I have singed my hands."

4. "Sober Up" by AJR

Okay let's look at a happy song now.

"Sober Up" is a call to escape the metaphorical intoxication of adulthood in all of its seriousness and attractions to things that, let's face it, don't really matter: namely, wealth, fame, and success. It's a call to leave it all behind and revert to the simplicity of childhood by investing in people, not things; it's no accident that he's talking to somebody in the chorus when he begs "Won't you help me sober up?".

This song is about not being deluded into following the world's model of what a "good life" should look like. It's about reorienting yourself around sincerity, joy, and love.

This is a great song for me and anyone entering adulthood, but it's also a great song for any adult who just wants to "feel something again". Simple as that.

Favorite line: "All my new friends, we smile at party time, but soon we forget to smile at anything else. Won't you help me sober up? Growing up, it made me numb, and I want to feel something again"

5. "The Long Road" by Passenger

This is a song that just makes me think big thoughts. The kind of song that leaves you thinking "wow, I'm gonna die soon". But like...in a good way. Ya know?

Probably not. Let me try again:

"The Long Road" is basically the SparkNotes version of a life: it describes the trials, the lonelinesses, the adventures, the triumphs, the tears, and at the end of it all is...well, just a lot of time that's slipped through your fingers. And that's inescapable.

But it's also reassuring. The inevitability of the accumulation of memories is a burden in knowing the experiences will slowly pass us by, one by one, but an encouragement in realizing they're all small pieces in the beautiful life we're living. The joys are temporary, but so are the pains. It's all contributing to the grand tapestry of life, like we heard about in "Art Exhibit". And in any grand tapestry, there's room for mistakes, in fact, that might just be what makes my tapestry stand out from the others.

In that way, this song has the power to make me happy or sad, depending on what I choose to dwell on.

Favorite line: "You've walked the long road and you've worn it well; you stitched yourself up when you fell. Keep your memories in jars, carry secrets in scars beneath your shell."

Maybe that's what I find beautiful about music (these five songs in particular, but also many, many more): the ability to project myself onto them, yes, but also their ability to project themselves into me.

These are songs I try to internalize. From the big, existential life lessons to the momentary reminders to find joy in the little things. From an encouraging push to trust God above the world to a gentle nudge to be a child again.

Gah. Wow.

Music is God's gift to mankind. Let's be real.