11 Songs That Make Me Feel Like I’m Tripping on Acid
I’ve been trying to subscribe to or follow a lot of people on here who are equally as interested in music as I am. It’s honestly made me feel a little out of my depth. However, it’s also allowed me to learn about so many bands and songs in just a few days while also getting to talk to a lot of really cool people.
One of those people is this girl, Bella on Shuffle. She texted her Substack chat a few weeks ago asking for songs that make you feel like glitter, and it made me resurrect an old playlist of mine. It was quite literally at the bottom of my Spotify profile.
It’s called “acid trip sensations.” Mind you, I’ve never even seen acid, let alone done it.
Butterfly Boy by Balu Brigada
I had this song on repeat for about 12 hours a couple of days ago, and it’s one of my favorites right now. I was so close to going to All Things Go DC in September just to see this New Zealand duo. Their album “Portal” is a top 20 album for me. I debated replacing this pick with their newest single BedHead, but I think this fits the vibe better and isn’t solely a song I love.
Nightclub (Waiting for You) by Bad Suns
I could listen to the progression in the first three seconds of this song on repeat for hours. This track very specifically reminds me of the vividly mundane memory of hopping on a Virginia Breeze bus to James Madison University during my freshman year of college. I discovered this whole album after seeing them open for The Band CAMINO in 2023 at my very first concert. I had known about them and Daft Pretty Boys, but I had never truly explored them. Now I actually like them more than The Band CAMINO — which is saying something. Their song Swimming in the Moonlight was the first glitter-reminiscent song suggested in the chat, which is one of many Bad Suns songs that could fit the bill.
Robbers by The 1975
There are so many songs by The 1975 that I debated putting on here — Lostmyhead, Bagsy Not In Net, Paris. Honestly, I could make an entire playlist of just songs by this band that fit these intoxicating parameters. Maybe I will.
SunKissing by Hailee Steinfeld
I don’t really listen to Hailee Steinfeld, and I genuinely don’t know much about her musically, but I discovered this on Thanksgiving in 2023. I’ve been attached to it ever since. It’s one of my songs that I put in every playlist just because I want to listen to it.
IN A DREAM by Troye Sivan
This EP had a chokehold on me when it came out during COVID. I had lost my phone when both my mom and my dad (child of divorce for context, by the way) were moving houses, so for two months I had to use my computer to listen to music. I was subjected to the surprising limits of my memory of the 3,000 songs I had downloaded on Apple Music (before I made the big switch) and YouTube autoplay. This track and Rager teenager! are iconic to that barely analog summer of mine.
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If You Want Me by Sports
When I started getting into music — on the level that would push me to start this whole venture, anyway — last November, I had just seen The Backfires at Black Cat for $25. I didn’t realize how many really good artists had shows for such a good price, and also a good experience. So, I did a deep dive. I checked every small venue I had heard of — Pie Shop, Comet Ping Pong, Pearl Street Warehouse — and looked at any upcoming shows they had. In this obsessive episode of mine, I listened to more than 100 bands. Sports was one of them. Their song “Nice 2 Meet Myself (Bang Bang Bang)” also very much fits this vibe.
Chateau (Feel Alright) by Djo
I feel like this doesn’t even need an explanation. I sent the highlighted songs here to my friend Wade to judge, and he said it felt like “one of those songs that The Beatles wrote when they were high out of their minds.” I think that sums it up perfectly.
Winona Ryder by Boo Seeka
This song is proof that Instagram ads do work, which, of course, is how I found this track. It’s very wispy in a way that tickles my spine. The song has a visceral effect with its wispy vocals and is just generally entrancing.
Paranoia by The Marias
Everything by The Marias feels ethereal and airy in a way that makes me want to stare at the ceiling and feel the world spinning around me. This track has a very light pop sound that makes it no different.
August by Johnny Orlando
I know anyone reading this who recognizes the name is probably living in shock that Johnny Orlando is no longer in his “What If I Told You I Liked You” era. The 23-year-old has moved to a more dynamic pop output, which includes his 2024 album The Ride — which houses “August” — and his newest release, Songs for Young Lovers.
The Other Side of Paradise by Glass Animals
Wade got scared listening to this song. This 10-year-old track is less about feeling like you’re on acid and more about being concerned for whatever psychedelics Glass Animals were on when they put it together. It’s one of their more popular songs, which honestly I’d attribute to the track being so atypical. They’ve capitalized on this trippy, experimental sound with songs like “Heat Waves” that broke into the mainstream through TikTok virality and Netflix features.
If you like these picks, check out the full playlist here.
