1.
2. Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak
3. The Smiths - Hatful of Hollow
4. Drake - Take Care
5. How To Dress Well - Total Loss
How To Dress Well makes some intricate break-up music. Not only does Tom Krell alternate between distant whispers and choruses that could fill cathedrals, but he does so while speaking of love in myriad forms; this extends from the maternal love on "When I Was In Trouble" to the celebratory love on "Running Back." It's all kind of sad, but it's uplifting and inspiring in a 'this too shall pass" way. In the end, "& it was u" offers a beautiful statement on the endurance of love be it romantic or platonic.
Put your sweats on and open a couple of bottles of cheap wine. Write some poetry that'll never see the light of day.
6.
7. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
8. Burial - Burial
9. James Blake - James Blake
Before his BBC residency and before he was making tracks with the RZA and Chance the Rapper, James Blake took center-stage on his own debut album. It's all very British in its melancholy.
You might hear one or two of the songs at a rave and pensively stare into the middle distance. Or you could go out and walk around in the rain wearing your dopest peacoat and faking a British accent if anybody tries to talk to you.
10.
11. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
12. Future - Beast Mode EP
This may not be an album per se, but it's definitely the musical equivalent of the "you cannot sit and wallow in your singlehood forever" talk. Get off the couch, wash the base-notes of Ben & Jerry's out of your favorite alphet, and hit the club with your fellow singles. Follow Future's example. Bump literally any of the tracks on the way to the function, listen to the whole tape 36 times while you're partying and then listen to "Just Like Bruddas" on the way home, if you're petty.