Songs for Sound Minds are our picks of the best music that uplifts, inspires and boosts mental health. Songs written as an anthem to overcoming the storms of life. The songs that give hope in those times when we are struggling.
Yes – David McAlmont & Bernard Butler
Yes was the debut single from the partnership between David McAlmont and Bernard Butler. Peaking at number 8 in the UK charts the song was written by Butler following an acrimonious split from his former band, Suede. Similarly vocalist David McAlmont had left his former band Thieves, paving the way for one of the most uplifting and liberating songs of the 1990s. The simple but rousing chorus ‘Yes I do feel better’ will chime with anyone who has come through a difficult time in their life and reached the other side.
“It was the first piece of music I wrote after I left Suede. I wrote it as an instrumental. Everything was in place, but it didn’t have the voice… Everything I’d done in the past six months had been really dark.
I’d come out of a very sad situation and lost a lot of friends, so it was a very liberating song. I met David at the Jazz Café in Camden and said, ‘I’ve got this song, do you want to try it out?’ He came back to me two days later and sang the first verse. He had no second verse, so I just said ‘Sing the first one again’… I wanted it to be like a great piece of ’60s vinyl.” Bernard Butler.
