10 Of The Best Songs For November
Start writing a post
Entertainment

10 Of The Best Songs For November

10 songs for that most melancholy of months.

1215
10 Of The Best Songs For November
YouTube

Ah November.

It's the first official month of winter, where everything fades and turns to grey, a time of remembrance in the Catholic tradition, too far away from Christmas yet just off the heels of the spooky delights of Halloween. It's a grim time, and thus requires some grim tunes to embrace that overall grimness.

If October was plastic fangs and cat ears, this is a month for horn rimmed glasses, big coats and looking to the gloomy side of goth.

1. Gorillaz: November Has Come (feat. MF Doom)

Chosen more for the title and it being a flat out banger than real gloom, nonetheless it is a quite grim track, taking on dissatisfaction with the current state of hip hop among the litany of sources of ire and discomfort on Demon Days. It's a quite minimal number, leaning on the trip hop of their debut album, a simple beat, moody guitar line, Damon giving us a sorrowful hook, and rap's premier super-villain MF Doom sending for any shit rapper acting like a big shot with his trademark deadpan flow packed with similes and deep, cutting bars. Though I'm not a fan of the old-head mentality, this is a massive tune.

2. The National: Mr. November

From their breakthrough album, Alligator, "Mr. November" is a reminder that Brooklyn via Ohio miserablists, The National, can drop tracks that have quite a bit of punch to them. The lyrical perspective is quite interesting, the title referencing the US presidential election. The lyrics convey both the insecurity felt right before going onstage and the forced bravado one delivers, mirrored in the build the song takes with Matt Beringer practically screaming the choruses. What a song.

3. Tyler, The Creator: November

Traditionally representing grim times, on this cut off Scum Fuck Flower Boy, "November" represents better times for Tyler. On this track he tackles his insecurities with where his life is at, where he's going musically, what his friends will think of him, longing for a time when things were simpler. The edge that often disguised the deeper issues discussed in his music is gone. Here's a simple tale of a wish for better times, when we didn't feel so scared or so tired or so done with everything.

4. Opeth: Dirge For November

Though metal still has the reputation of just being horrible, unintelligible noise, which it very well can be and all the better for it, there's a number of bands who've sought to challenge that idea by making music that balances brutality and beauty on a knife edge. Opeth do so masterfully on this track from 2001's Blackwater Park, beautifully merging their ferocious death metal with beautiful prog noodling, a perfect track to look out your window at the rain and desolation to.

5. Chelsea Wolfe: Feral Love

Chelsea Wolfe is a singer songwriter who creates some beautifully disturbing music, "Feral Love" being a great example of this. An anthem of impending doom, it builds from a throbbing set of notes into an onslaught of drums, voices and innumerable layers, fading out with that same set of notes. It blurs the lines between folk, goth and metal into something truly strange yet darkly compelling.

6. Red House Painters: Katy Song

The experimental spirit of the 1990s brought forward many new breakthroughs in sound, including slow-core, tender indie rock played at the lowest of tempos by bands like Low and Codeine. San Francisco's Red House Painters took it a step further, giving us sad-core, featuring Mark Kozolek before he became the beloved grumpy old man of indie folk with Sun Kill Moon. This track plods along at 8 minutes and 22 seconds, yet tugs at your heartstrings all the way. "Glass on the pavement beneath my shoe, without you is all my life amounts to" seem like quite cringy lyrics on paper, but with Kozolek's delivery they become something quite powerful.

7. Godspeed You! Black Emperor: East Hastings

An instrumental track inspired by one of the roughest and most hopeless neighborhoods in Vancouver, hopelessness and sheer terror are emotions brought to the fore by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The eerie samples, that haunting, repeated guitar motif, those strings, the way it all coalesces into that crescendo -- it's no wonder it would be used to soundtrack Jim's waking moments in the film 28 Days Later. I could spam endless words to describe it, but honestly, just listen to it.

8. Grizzly Bear: Don't Ask

Off their first record when they were essentially one person making lo-fi folky indie in their bedroom, the melancholy is brought with this track. It has early murmurings of the beautiful vocal harmonies they'd go on to deliver, but the track is dominated by Ed's soft crooning, a wish for his lover to not ask those questions, to not disturb that perfect moment.

9. The Saddest Landscape: The Temptation That Is You

Screamo as understood by the mainstream is basically anything teenagers like with harsh vocals. The actual genre is far different, the most emotionally raw and tortured strain of hardcore punk, with both the frantic blasts of Orchid and pageninetynine and the sprawling epics of Envy and City Of Caterpillar. This cut from The Saddest Landscape errs towards the latter, building from that single guitar line into startling blasts of noise, heartbroken lyrics buried under vein bursting shrieks.

10. Have A Nice Life: Holy Fucking Shit: 40,000

Have A Nice Life have become somewhat of a meme in indie circles for just how oppressively miserable their sound is, as exemplified on the startling Deathconsciousness. This track takes a quieter acoustic tapered with synthetics approach at the start before giving us some industrialized shoegaze. It fades out with some fully organic guitar parts, lyrically themed around the idea of cybernetics, what it means to be human and recover with the instrumentation mirroring those same themes. The whole album is a real modern classic but I urge you to check out this track.

Report this Content
This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
Student Life

Waitlisted for a College Class? Here's What to Do!

Dealing with the inevitable realities of college life.

58891
college students waiting in a long line in the hallway
StableDiffusion

Course registration at college can be a big hassle and is almost never talked about. Classes you want to take fill up before you get a chance to register. You might change your mind about a class you want to take and must struggle to find another class to fit in the same time period. You also have to make sure no classes clash by time. Like I said, it's a big hassle.

This semester, I was waitlisted for two classes. Most people in this situation, especially first years, freak out because they don't know what to do. Here is what you should do when this happens.

Keep Reading...Show less
a man and a woman sitting on the beach in front of the sunset

Whether you met your new love interest online, through mutual friends, or another way entirely, you'll definitely want to know what you're getting into. I mean, really, what's the point in entering a relationship with someone if you don't know whether or not you're compatible on a very basic level?

Consider these 21 questions to ask in the talking stage when getting to know that new guy or girl you just started talking to:

Keep Reading...Show less
Lifestyle

Challah vs. Easter Bread: A Delicious Dilemma

Is there really such a difference in Challah bread or Easter Bread?

38012
loaves of challah and easter bread stacked up aside each other, an abundance of food in baskets
StableDiffusion

Ever since I could remember, it was a treat to receive Easter Bread made by my grandmother. We would only have it once a year and the wait was excruciating. Now that my grandmother has gotten older, she has stopped baking a lot of her recipes that require a lot of hand usage--her traditional Italian baking means no machines. So for the past few years, I have missed enjoying my Easter Bread.

Keep Reading...Show less
Adulting

Unlocking Lake People's Secrets: 15 Must-Knows!

There's no other place you'd rather be in the summer.

959532
Group of joyful friends sitting in a boat
Haley Harvey

The people that spend their summers at the lake are a unique group of people.

Whether you grew up going to the lake, have only recently started going, or have only been once or twice, you know it takes a certain kind of person to be a lake person. To the long-time lake people, the lake holds a special place in your heart, no matter how dirty the water may look.

Keep Reading...Show less
Student Life

Top 10 Reasons My School Rocks!

Why I Chose a Small School Over a Big University.

195592
man in black long sleeve shirt and black pants walking on white concrete pathway

I was asked so many times why I wanted to go to a small school when a big university is so much better. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure a big university is great but I absolutely love going to a small school. I know that I miss out on big sporting events and having people actually know where it is. I can't even count how many times I've been asked where it is and I know they won't know so I just say "somewhere in the middle of Wisconsin." But, I get to know most people at my school and I know my professors very well. Not to mention, being able to walk to the other side of campus in 5 minutes at a casual walking pace. I am so happy I made the decision to go to school where I did. I love my school and these are just a few reasons why.

Keep Reading...Show less

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Facebook Comments