Music

20 Serene Songs to Soothe Your Election Day Stress

If you’re like me, you’ve probably thought about setting your laptop, phone, and all nearby electronics on fire more than once today. Election season fatigue is real, and more than anything, many of us are waiting gleefully for 561 days of Hispandering, email babbling, and Trump’s demagoguery to come to a long-awaited close. To that end, we’ve put together a playlist to soothe your Election Day stress and carry you through the remaining hours of the season finale of America.

Take the edge off with the quiet intensity of Barrio Lindo’s “Fogust,” a sonic sketch of a nighttime Sausalito desert, or float with the featherless pop of NOIA’s “Nostalgia del Futuro.” To relieve my anxiety, I often turn to the sounds of nature – artists like Kaleema and Lucid Picnic build shelters of peace from whispering wind, bird calls, and running water. If that’s not enough to calm you, we’ve included electronic reimaginings of folclór ecuatoriano in Maria Usbeck’s “Llámame” and Nicola Cruz’s “Sanación.” And of course, we couldn’t close out the playlist without a little shoutout to Helado Negro, whose “Young, Latin & Proud,” a cut from his prismatic new album Private Energy, has become a mantra of peace against Trump’s racist and sexist rhetoric over the course of the campaign season.

Press play, vote, and cross your fingers, fam.