SONG LIST 2 — Sheila Tequila

Song List 2 is not only a journey through heartbreak with others but also a failed quest for love with oneself—an unshakable reckoning with the self that leaves no room for denial or escape. Dead End, originally framed as advice to another, is actually a warning to the self—a mirror monologue where the narrator pleads with his past or future self to change course before it's too late. Alison's Airplane is a thinly veiled metaphor for Alcoholics Anonymous, where the author sits in the church basement reading slogans on the wall, grasping for something larger than himself to keep from sinking again. Warmer Waters maps a search for transcendence that spirals into addiction, betrayal, and disillusionment, until the narrator finally confronts himself in the mirror. The Light or the White pushes that reckoning further, casting "light" as clarity, purpose, or recovery, and "white" as cocaine—forcing a brutal choice between salvation and self-destruction. She paints a devastating portrait of a woman crushed by patriarchy and circumstance—her horses chained, her fate sealed, her soul never quite freed. Curves of Sorrow captures a man frozen in the amber of his own despair, staring into the bottom of a bottle while imagining a life he'll never live. Table for Two captures the ache of long-distance love, born from the author's real-life experience Skyping a woman in Denmark—close in heart, but oceans apart. Bottom of the Lake is where the narrator ends up—literally and metaphorically—tied to a symbolic boulder, declaring that even drowning is lighter than carrying the weight of a toxic relationship. Trash Can offers a funeral for a failed love, the narrator burning every remnant in a trash can in a final, desperate purge. Sandcastles sums up the futility of building anything lasting on unstable ground. And You Can Never Run Away From Yourself closes the set with a stark truth: no matter how far you try to escape, your own shadow and past will always catch up to you.

Songs here deal with the aftermath of loss, dealing with sadness and the chance of getting back to who you were. There's pain but also hope that healing is possible.