By Setareh Sanaei
This playlist is mostly just an eclectic compilation of my favorite songs, but be prepared for trippy vibes, chill vibes, and relatable lyrics. For legal reasons, I am high on life. Of course! But these songs are amazing in general and give me all the feels, and they would be even more amazing to listen to if you were, say, high on something else, in a place where said something is legal to be high on. I assume. I haven’t tried it, because for me, life is enough of something. Please enjoy! I will be adding more songs to the Spotify playlist, but these are the best ones.
Wave // Beck
"Wave" is an ethereal combination of slow and celestial violin and Beck’s angelic voice. I honestly can’t tell what he’s saying the whole time, but I feel warm and fluffy inside and I feel like I am walking around amongst “How TV portrays heaven”-like clouds. I feel like he’s coming down from above trying to tell me something. All that, and I don’t even believe in God.
Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? // Arctic Monkeys
A fun feel good song with a story and lyrics that bite. Reminds me of driving around the empty downtown with the windows down in the summer. The beginning feels like we’re in a ‘90s detective show. The stretchy-smoothness of his voice feels like a really attractive guy is flirting with me at a bar but I’m not awkward about it and this is the song playing at the hipster bar we’re at (which hasn’t actually happened to me so maybe this isn’t even like that).
Skulls // Bastille
While this song has a good instrumental background, the real attraction is the rhythmic and hypnotizing vocalizations in between lyrics. This is one of my favorite songs of all time, and it never fails to give me the feels. “When all of our friends are dead and just a memory // And we're side by side it's always been just you and me.” Morbid, perhaps, but an intriguing thought nonetheless. And once again, a weird vibrating outro. I live for it apparently.
Bloodstream // Ed Sheeran
I haven’t done MDMA in Ibiza, which is what this song is really about, but I somehow always feel this song, even while sober. Throughout the song, Sheeran describes his feelings during his ecstasy trip, and he later recalled, “I felt anxiety, I felt love, I felt warm, I felt a bit weird.” So it makes sense that I can relate — these are words I use to describe my feelings daily! The music is trippy and ethereal, and the way he collides both lyrics and music together in the outro is immaculate. Finally, if I had to pick just two lines of lyrics to listen to high, it would most definitely be All the voices in my mind // Calling out across the line.
Novacane // Frank Ocean
We all know this summer classic right? A good repeating beat is crucial to a nice trippy song, and this song accomplishes that like no other. Ocean has been a great storyteller his entire career, and "Novacane" is no exception. The song recalls an encounter between the protagonist and a girl he met at Coachella, in which they were under the influence of novocaine. While the song is somewhat influenced by his personal experiences, it is highly dramatized with added imagery and satire in lyrics like Cocaine for breakfast, yikes. And we can’t blame him. The combination of his vocal harmonization, the trippy music, and storytelling lyrics creates the ultimate sad-song-hidden-in-upbeat-trippy-music song and I am always here for it.
Day ‘n’ Nite (nightmare) // Kid Cudi
An elevated song for the ages! Literally, “Day ‘n’ night \\ The lonely stoner seems to free his mind at night.” The beat is a perfect repetition that feels like it’s pumping blood through my arms to the rhythm, and then the “vm vmmm” pumps the blood back the other way. Like opposite currents in bodies of water. Lastly, the outro gives way to a relaxing few moments after the quick beat and rapping of the song, and I honestly feel like an ever-peaceful yogi or something.
New Person, Same Old Mistakes // Tame Impala
Again, a trippy repetitive bass line, and then a ghostly divine voice grabs hold of my entire attention. During the verses, I feel like he is looking me in the eyes and directly speaking to me. And then the transition to the chorus he starts talking to everyone and I feel like I’m in a pit of people all vibing. And of course, it’s hard to make it onto this list without having a crazy switch up in the bridge or outro.
FEAR. // Kendrick Lamar
Most of my friends know how crazy I go for DAMN. by Kendrick Lamar, when it came out I spent about two weeks listening nonstop. The way Lamar encapsulates different feelings within the lyrics of this album is immaculate. This song tells a full story of the different instances in Lamar’s life when he felt intense fear, and his attempts to smoke it away. “I don't think I can find a way to make it on this earth.” His lyricism is captivating, as always, and the bridge consists of a tragically peaceful verse. The song ends with a philosophical voicemail from Lamar’s cousin, something he has been known to incorporate into his music for a while.
Female Energy, Part 2 // WILLOW
Cons: I’m envious Willow and I are the same age and maybe I’ll never make art this beautiful.
Pros: Everything else.
Again, ethereal. I discovered Willow’s music via Twitter recommendations in late 2019, and I’ve been blessed since. She says all the things I didn’t know I wanted to say the whole time. The music is like a warm blanket wrapping me all around. Her voice is both comforting and truth-telling, “I am human, I am woman, \\ Drifting down my life \\ Light up this time, light up this time.”
Wish You Were Here // Pink Floyd
Firstly, I'd like to say that the guitar strum “drop” in this song will always and forever run chills down my body. Second, the emotion in David Gilmour’s voice can be felt during this entire song and there is honestly nothing better than screaming along, How I wish you were here // We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl. As the song comes to a close, the guitar and vocalization fades and blends into a wind noise, and again, chills.
Find the whole playlist here.
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