Three Songs for the Cleansing

Before whatever reckoning descends—and something always descends—there is music. Strip down, dance around the apartment at an unreasonable hour, let the week’s accumulated filth burn off through volume and movement. Better than confession. Cheaper than therapy. Nobody needs to know what you were doing when the third track came on.

The current sacraments: The Hundred in the Hands, a Brooklyn duo making synth-dark post-punk that sounds like it was written for rooms where the bad decisions are still in progress and everyone’s made their peace with that. Ellie Goulding, who was barely a known quantity when this mix came together—her voice does something airy and slightly spectral over production that had no business sounding that clean, like catching someone in the exact moment before they become overexposed. And Sarah Jaffe from Texas, writing songs so intimate you find yourself checking the room for witnesses.

Whether any of this actually clears the soul is above my theological pay grade. It does make the soul feel like a lighter object for the duration of a playlist. On a Wednesday, that counts.