Why Everyone Keeps Returning to the Same 3 Albums Whenever Life Falls Apart
· Vice
When life comes apart at the seams, a lot of listeners turn to albums like Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory, and Frank Ocean’s Blonde. These highly emotional and intuitive albums serve as familiar comforts for many. Maybe even as reminders that they’re not alone. Music can be stability in an unsettled time, and these three albums are just a select few favorites.
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But why do they remain favorites? Why do fans come back to them time and time again? It’s more than just nostalgia listening, which can become a roadblock to getting out of one’s comfort zone. Rumours, Hybrid Theory, and Blonde are comfort zones without suffocation. Albums that are worth repeating during stressful times, reserved for mental and emotional catharsis.
These albums were cathartic for their makers as well. On Blonde, Frank Ocean delved into childhood memories and wrote about experiences he’d never explored before. Making that album was deeply personal, as it dealt with aspects of his identity, sexuality, masculinity, and emotional experiences.
The album was initially titled Boys Don’t Cry, which is a much more obvious title for the concept. It was further inspired by a photograph of a blonde girl in a car with her hands covering her face. Ocean saw himself in this photograph, putting himself in the girl’s position and experiencing a claustrophobic, trapped scenario. Writing about the project on Tumblr at the time, he revealed some of those emotional connections.
“Boys do cry, but I don’t think I shed a tear for a good chunk of my teenage years,” he wrote. “It’s surprisingly my favorite part of life so far. Surprising, to me, because the current phase is what I was asking the cosmos for when I was a kid. Maybe that part had its rough stretches too, but in my rearview mirror it’s getting small enough to convince myself it was all good. And really though… It’s still all good.”
Fans Return to These Emotionally Raw Albums Because They Prove We’re Not Alone
Listeners return to Blonde for its raw expressions of heartbreak, exploration, and memory. One user described it on Album of the Year as “The Sistine Chapel of R&B.” Another user described it as “The feeling that takes you through this piece of nostalgia can only be compared to when you are in the pool, and you let yourself float, and suddenly you feel at peace as if you were in a bubble of euphoria, you don’t think about anything, and you let yourself flow. Blonde is that feeling made album in its maximum expression.”
Others return to Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory for a more aggressive catharsis. Where Blonde is nostalgia in sonic form, Hybrid Theory is a purge of emotional toxins. Of course, the album is colored by late co-frontman Chester Bennington’s personal struggles. Substance abuse, childhood trauma, and depression plagued him for many years, and it all comes through on Linkin Park’s first couple of albums.
Hybrid Theory, their 2000 debut, puts a lot of Bennington’s pain on display. His vocals are shredded from screaming, his delivery aggressive, and his lyrics become raw wounds that seem like they’ll never heal. By 2007, Bennington had addressed much of his trauma, and the positive changes in him can be heard on Minutes to Midnight. But Hybrid Theory remains like a catalogue of his struggles.
And yet, it’s a comfort for many fans who have similar experiences. Hybrid Theory is one of those albums that says, “You’re not alone.” Some might consider it counterproductive to listen to painfully emotional music when life is falling apart. But sometimes that’s exactly what’s needed. Validation, reassurance, familiarity, and catharsis.
Photo by Christina Radish/Redferns
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