If you’re in a bad mood, feeling like a loser, contemplating your future and finding it lacking, then it’s easy to fall into a sulking spiral. That’s valid, of course, and the first three rock songs here will helpfully facilitate that. Crank them up loud and sulk away. But there’s a treat at the end of the list for when you’re ready for the pity party to end. You’re welcome.
“Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” by The Smiths
The Smiths’ 1984 track “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” is the OG song for moping and sulking. It’s also typical early Morrissey fare, lamenting a depressing existence and expressing general misanthropic sentiment. On one hand, it may seem overly self-indulgent, a pity party for one. But on closer inspection, “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” is a rock song with a kernel of truth. Why would you bother with people who don’t care about you? Also, Morrissey was right when he said, “I was looking for a job, and then I found a job / And heaven knows I’m miserable now.” Truer words have never been spoken.
“Longview” by Green Day
As the lead single on Green Day’s 1994 breakthrough album Dookie, “Longview” caught the attention of the bored, stoned, and horny demographic. Early-90s youth found illicit excitement in the overt masturbation references, but “Longview” was about more than cranking your hog all day. It’s about being so bored and depressed that everything loses its fun. Days that blend into each other, hazy with pot smoke, not knowing what time it is because you never open the blinds. Finally leaving the couch to find a permanent imprint of your butt in the cushions. As a rock song, “Longview” is a reminder of how easy it is to slip into a self-sabotaging cycle of just lying around and moping about your bad mood.
“No Future Part III: Escape From No Future” by Titus Andronicus
On the 2010 track “No Future Part III: Escape From No Future”, Titus Andronicus frontman Patrick Stickles detailed his own college experience with depression and medication. Stylistically, maybe it’s not a cut-and-dry rock song, featuring more folk-punk elements. But lyrically, “No Future Part III” is a raw wound continuously opening up for five minutes. Stickles poses some big questions with this song. For example, what if who he is when he’s depressed is his more authentic self?
In that case, who does he become when he’s on medication? It’s the age-old dilemma of mental illness. You desperately hope antidepressants will make you love life again, but sometimes they just make you feel nothing at all. Here, though, there’s a little glimmer of hope at the end. Even with an entire outro of an inner voice repeating “You will always be a loser,” the very last line turns that all around with three words: “And that’s okay!”
“Low Self Opinion” by Rollins Band
“Low Self Opinion” appeared on Rollins Band’s 1992 album The End of Silence. With the last of these rock songs, we’re taking a turn away from the self-pitying, sulking, bad-mood party. The mood is valid, but there’s also a light at the end of the tunnel. There’s a slippery slope involved with sulking for too long, essentially. One wrong step will send you right into victimization land.
As the chorus goes, “You sleep alone at night / You never wonder why / All this bitterness wells up inside you / You always victimize / So you can criticize yourself / And all those around you.” In the second verse, Henry Rollins offers up some valuable advice. “Get yourself a break from self-rejection / Try some introspection / And you just might find / It’s not so bad, and anyway, at the end of the day / All you have is yourself and your mind.”
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