Anton Kubikov, "North"

Give me something pretty to make me forget.

Do you remember what it was like to wake up happy? I myself do not. Of course, I have always been this way. Even as a child I was suffused with a sense of sadness so steadfast that the rare occasions of joy I experienced struck me as worrisome signs of incipient danger. So I am unable to recall the feeling of opening my eyes and being excited for what the day would bring. But I’m not like you. I expect your life has been a run of pleasant mornings, an endless stretch of days where you bounced out of bed ready to take on whatever came at you, confident that once it was in your embrace it would love you back. I bet it even worked for a while. But now… well, you know. I don’t need to tell you what it’s like now when you wake up and realize where you are — where we all are. As someone who has felt this way virtually his entire life I can offer both sympathy and empathy, but also confirmation that this is about as bad as it has been. Does that help? Probably not. You know what might? This absolutely delightful track, which will make you happy enough for seven minutes that once you come back to reality there will still be a little bit of a warm feeling wrapped around your brain. It’s not a lot but it’s all I’ve got, and I don’t know that anyone else has anything better. Enjoy.