Late December is a rock critic’s dream. A time to reflect and dig up the treasures from this year’s new music releases and dissect them with a fine toothed comb. Yep, Christmastime is also the time for year-end Top Ten lists. And The Bipolar Addict has a list this year in no particular order.
Even though I wouldn’t have called myself a fan of Linkin Park or the band’s music, I was an admirer of frontman Chester Bennington’s lyrics and so was distraught to learn about his suicide yesterday.
Aimee Mann is a modern-day folk heroine who has cranked out nine studio albums, including her brand-new release, Mental Illness. She’s pulled a black dog out of her hat with a deluge of melancholy gems that give subtle nods to mental health.
Today is World Bipolar Day. Sixty million people worldwide live with bipolar disorder, and each and every one of them is unique and passionate. In fact, passion is the theme of the day this year. The official hashtag for today is #MyBipolarFuelsMyPassion4 _____. Let’s get it trending on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!
Moody to be sure, Beethoven was many things: depressed, manic, euphoric, prolific, arrogant, unkempt, financially reckless, egotistical, suicidal, self-centered, a hypochondriac, and an alcoholic, to name a few. But his music — some would argue — is the best ever written.
Subjects in the study were randomly assigned to go on a 90-minute walk through nature in a quiet, leafy area of the Stanford campus. Or on the flipside, next to a noisy highway in Palo Alto, California. The nature walkers experienced lower levels of rumination and showed reduced activity in an area of the brain linked to risk for mental illness.
The darkness creeps in at 5:37PM today. It just makes me want to go to sleep. I get home from work around 6:30, eat dinner, then go to bed most nights not long after. My gift to you this winter is this mix. It’s made up of songs that are either about happiness or that sound happy. A cure for Seasonal Affective Disorder.
Stan Getz and João Gilberto are the debonair and dynamic duo of bossa nova. I can think of no album that inspires more tranquility than Getz/Gilberto, the 1965 Grammy winner for Best Album of the Year.
Soft and sensational, Belle & Sebastian’s The Boy With the Arab Strap tranquilizes the listener with its amalgam of subtle instrumentation. Belle & Sebastian are a Scottish twee-pop band with nine albums under their belt. Twee pop is sensitive and romantic. With its jingle-jangle guitars, it has the feel and idealism of ‘60s pop.
Music — a soothing force — can be extremely therapeutic in cases of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, autism, PTSD, dementia, asthma, speech impairment, and acute pain.
