Feeling Blue and Eryka Badu

The setting is rain; a bold brush of grey on a darkening sky and the slight smatter of raindrops on a jutting windowpain. The mood is mellow; overcast, overhanging, overdone. Weaving through the droplets comes the smooth vibrations: melancholy melodies crooning an ode to the evening. Welcome to the Feeling Blue lair, take a seat and allow your woes to unravel.

It's no easy business having a tough day/week/long term. Concocting the soundtrack to blend your sadness with melody can be the crucial piece to a puzzle that feels jutting at every corner. In this headspace, our emotional spectrum can often only be mimicked in the spike of a chorus followed by a lulling bridge, or an erratic, yet strangely comforting, indie rock number. Our complex emotional landscape can find solace in something as unpredictable as our thoughts.

Sometimes, we seek the first thing that comes, grappling like a deep-sea diver gasping for air at the appearance of the first oxygen bubbles. A small hint of sadness and playlists of uncertainty and heartbreak reveal themselves in waves. Comfort is found in breathing the same air as already articulated emotions, felt by those decades before us and cemented in lyrics and song. Suddenly, they become less visceral, less hot to the touch. They burn bright like embers, the sting of fire removed.

Other times, careful foraging occurs. We burrow deep into our music collection, seeking the perfect solution to a perfect sadness that can be encapsulated only by one great poet. We dive deep, kicking with our heels, dirt piling up beside us, generating frustration alongside a seething desperation that will only be offset by....ah, release. The track is found. It's lyrics soothe and its melody anchors your emotions to the logic of a shared experience.

The knawing of guilt can chew at our mood with a loud scrape, scrape. It grinds to the tune of reminders of happiness, building to a din so loud that you can't hear a thing, least of all their positive encouragement. Here, we match the noise to the most upbeat we can find, attempting to cancel the intensity of mood with the lightness of a sunny, joyful beat and a soaring chorus. Sometimes, successful. Other times: less so. 'Happy music' here is the musical equivalent of going to a comedy show when the last thing you feel like doing is laughing. It can swing your mood-pendulum towards 'successful mood-improvement' or cascade in the other direction towards 'resolutely unbudging mood that now feels the true depth of its intensity in comparison to light, airy musical numbers.'

It is important to acknowledge when to appreciate and embrace your mood, and whether you should coax it, if possible, back to a more sunny disposition. In darker times, I find mellow soul music a softener, occupying the middle ground between the two. Eryka Badu's sweet crooning can be both heartbreaking and uplifting. It's nuance shape shifts to the intricacies of my mood, understanding my emotional tone better than I can. It feeds the dark and seeks the light with gentle, cajoling encouragement.

This is the power of the right music: find the melody for your mood, and you just might get your rhythm back.