Recovery Songs

“I’m going to be honest with you,” the doctor says, pausing for emphasis. “It’s going to be a long, uphill battle.” Might as well have some musical balm to soothe the soul while medicine and time mend the body, then. R.E.M.’s gorgeous ballad “Everybody Hurts” is a self-explanatory slow-burner, “Hurt” is a calloused country spin on the Nine Inch Nails heroin ballad, delivered with exquisite pain by Johnny Cash, “The Drugs Don’t Work” from the Verve is both gorgeous and painfully honest . . . and “Beautiful Day” is an instant, feel-better shot in the arm.

There’s more sonic medicine, in Next Steps.

So, you’re starting to feel a little better, and a hint of color is starting to return to your chalky cheeks, but still you have a ways to go. In the meantime, your rickety range of emotions can be met with the appropriate music: a honky-tonk rave-up from the able hands of Bonnie Raitt (“Thing Called Love”), Neil Young bent over an aged acoustic in agony (“The Needle and the Damage Done”), a sunshine promise from Jimmy Cliff (“Better Days Are Coming”) and Bob Dylan toasting the promise of a “New Morning.” This tonic is really starting to work. . .

Now, complete your convalescence in Deep Cuts.

One more week — just seven more days — until you’re out of this prickly, prison-grade bed and ready to start afresh with a clear head and healthy body. Some things to remember before you’re out, though: hit the sauce too hard and it becomes the devil’s brew (“Demon Alcohol”); a life of lies is a life removed from reality (“Wall of Denial”); and the first step to recovery is realizing you have a problem (“Under the Bridge,” “Starting Over”). However bitter the pill you’re swallowing, stay strong with help from Freddie Mercury, and Queen’s poignant, operatic pulse-quickener, “The Show Must Go On.”

Let’s see what they have on the TV in this ward of the hospital: CNN, CNN and, um, CNN. That’d be great if you were home and soaking up headlines along with a chocolate chip muffin and coffee, but you’re not — you’re bed-ridden, hurting, and hankering for a fix of sound. Good thing a friend just plunged some headphones into your ears, piping in a playlist of songs that are sometimes sobering, but always therapeutic. Songs that skip genres while speaking of dependency on, or weeks away from, glistening white lines, mind-numbing needles, and bottomless bottles. Worry not, our careworn friends, we’ll have you right in no time.