[mks_dropcap style=”letter” size=”48″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]A[/mks_dropcap]s of April 2020, the new coronavirus causing COVID-19, has most of the world on lockdown and quarantine. For some people, the thought of being single and alone on top of this is even more agonizing. Although we appreciate the alone time, seeing everyone else self-isolating with their significant others on social media can make us jealous and resentful. In this situation, you need the right music to purge all your bottled-up emotions, whether it’s about the prospect of nearing the apocalypse with this pandemic, being single and lonely, or both.

Therefore, this short but iconic list of albums will remind yourself that you don’t need anybody, so you can stream it at home alone. These albums define what it means to be on your own and what it means to use escapism as a way to cope in the year of 2020 under worldwide quarantine.

Future Nostalgia by Dua Lipa (2020)

Dua Lipa’s highly anticipated second album was released earlier than planned last month, and we all know why. This album is to get us through an apocalyptic spring to the summer of the century that we hope liberates us all. Its 80s and 90s disco music mixed with electro- and dance-pop sounds, mark it a truly timeless masterpiece to make us nostalgic anywhere in the future. In addition, the album talks about break-up, empowerment and being independent, which is all the more ideal for pop-consuming single people.

Future Nostalgia is car-drive in the shining sun and disco floor at midnight

Get your daily dose of summertime nostalgia with the stand-out tracks ‘Cool’, ‘Levitating’, and ‘Good In Bed’, where you can yearn for that relationship that has nothing to it but sex. It’s carefree and cheeky, but also empowering to be on your own, no strings attached. Move on from wanting a relationship so bad in the disco-pop track ‘Don’t Start Now’, where we can dance the night away by ourselves and forget about the current pandemic. Future Nostalgia is car-drive in the shining sun and disco floor at midnight, and the best thing is we can enjoy this all inside our homes. Be glad your only relationship right now is with food and Netflix, so don’t hook up and don’t come out (just yet)!

thank u, next by Ariana Grande (2019)

While her 2018 record ‘Sweetener’ was all love and happiness, ‘thank u, next’ is about break-up, emancipation, and self-care (and also snubbed at the Grammys!). It’s the best Ariana album to blast on your speaker all alone and the title-track explains it all: Single and quarantined? Next. R&B and pop, ‘thank, u next’ – stylized in all lowercase like most of the songs on there – is unapologetic and perfect for your single self-quarantine.  

This album exudes all the different emotions we’re alternating between one day and another. You can fantasize about that one person you want to be with on the stand-out album opener ‘imagine’, admit that you need attention on the track ‘needy’, and then say you need space to your imaginary boy/girlfriend on the track ‘NASA’. On top of that, empower yourself with the pour-yourself-some-champagne and dance-on-your-bed tracks of ‘7 rings’ and ‘break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored’.

Melodrama by Lorde (2017)

Even though Lorde’s sophomore album was robbed at the Grammys, it doesn’t mean it can’t save us from this quarantine. Melodrama screams heartbreak and is an album for the stressed college kids, for the nostalgia-addicted, and most of all, for the loners who don’t need nobody.

Pour your heart out on the lyrically beautiful break-up songs of ‘Green Light’ and ’Supercut’, or at least pretend you just broke up with someone to cope with the agonizing Quarantine Crush Culture you see on social media. It is the perfect pop album to reminisce about the good times with the mature tracks ‘The Louvre’, ‘Sober’, and ‘Perfect Places’. The great production and lyrics on all of these songs will enable you to fully immerse yourself in a state of mind where you are able to just see the green light at the end of this lonely locked-down street.

Kid Krow by Conan Gray (2020)

The person that gave us ‘Crush Culture’, where he basically slammed couples and relationships, has released his debut studio album. Kid Krow is a strong coming-of-age and indie pop album, which should fit your mood accordingly as someone who’s coping with being happily single in these trying times.

You can instantly relate to it if you only feel at ease with a certain person or people on the album opener ’Comfort Crowd’. Imagine you are at parties, hanging with friends, and going on dates before you had to sit at home alone on the tracks ‘Wish You Were Sober’, ‘Maniac’, and ‘Checkmate’. All classic break-up songs we can pretend to relate to as if it actually applied to our (imaginary) exes. Escapism is key for coping with moments of self-doubt and yearning, and this album – like all in this list – is the perfect catharsis for the bright young visionaries finding their place in this tumultuous world. 

Pop 2 by Charli XCX (2017)

Officially a mixtape, ‘Pop 2’ is – and I can’t stress this enough – ahead of its time and has fantastic production fitted to blast on your speaker to forget about the present. This futuristic pop album features mostly LGBT themes and icons like cupcakKe, Pabllo Vittar, Dorian Electra, Kim Petras, etc., but everyone with a taste for innovation, experimentation, and anti-capitalism can bop to this. 

For the ultimate loners, we have the contender ‘Backseat’ featuring Carly Rae Jepsen, where you can scream the simplistic chorus ‘’all alone, all alone’’ 50 times in your shower. We also have the iconic collaborations with multiple underrated artists on the tracks ’I Got It’ and ‘Unlock It’, which are the highlights that do not get the mainstream praise it deserves. Charli XCX is the definition of pop perfection and Pop 2 gives us a dazzling optimistic vision for the future in this time of doubt and modern loneliness.

Cover: Victrola Record Players