🥀🌬️The Sensual World 🌬️🥀

Sounds of emotional stability lol jk

I think I’m mostly happy and satisfied with my life (minus the occasional rage blackout, but those can be quite generative). That said, I think a casual observer of my Spotify history would diagnose me as suffering from very big feelings. Maybe that casual observer would be right. To quote Taylor Swift, “I’ll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror.” Here’s what I, a completely emotionally stable woman, have been listening to.

Joni Mitchell: Hejira (1976)

I loved Blue in my 20s like every other bitch in her 20s but I hadn’t spent much time with the rest of Joni’s incredible and massive discography until recently. Her ninth studio album Hejira was written mostly while she was traveling across the U.S. after ending several relationships. It’s accordingly emo, sprawling, and—like everything Joni puts her voice to—incredibly beautiful.

Kate Bush: The Sensual World (1989)

I’d obviously listened to English art pop queen Kate Bush before but this is the first year I’ve fully listened to her albums start to finish. At the beginning of the year, I wrote about her very wintry and devotional 50 Words for Snow. And now I’m deep in her romantic and orchestral sixth studio album The Sensual World. The title track was originally conceived as a musical adaptation of Molly Bloom’s soliloquy from James Joyce’s Ulysses. Literary It Girl!!

Charli XCX: Wuthering Heights (2026)

Ok we’ve gone high and now we’re going low brow! Jk I honestly think Charli is a genius and an Arist with a Capital A, despite that I’ve talked shit about her on Sample Sluts (I must have been on my period that day). I am in a large but persecuted group of people that loved Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights, which I mostly just saw for Charli’s score, which I also love. “Chains of Love” has quickly become one of my fave Charli songs. “House” and “Funny Mouth” show she can score films with the best of them. “Dying for You,” “Out of Myself,” and “My Reminder” are classic Charli candy. I think its an incredible album, filled with moody strings, minor chords, and big feelings—my shit—and it will surely end up on my best albums of 2026 list.

Björk: Vulnicura (2015)

More moody strings! Pitchfork said Charli’s “Funny Mouth” sounded like it belonged on this album, which made me happy because I immediately heard Björk too. I am on a real Björk kick this year, and I like her best when she’s leaning into her Scorpio stellium i.e. emoooo. Vulnicura is her breakup album and it’s devastating and stunning.