LeAnn Rimes wants you to vent

So I was in a bit of a fragile mood yesterday, PopWatchers: My hometown of Houston has been thwacked by that stupid hurricane, and while my parents are safe and sound (and even have electricity), I can’t stop thinking about the destruction; David Foster Wallace, one of my biggest inspirations as a writer, committed suicide, and I can’t stop thinking about why; the election is making me legitimately sick to my stomach, and I can’t stop feeling powerless w/r/t the future; etc, etc, etc. Wah wah wah.

Suddenly, my inbox dinged with an email from LeAnn Rimes’ publicist, plugging her new single, “What I Cannot Change,” and encouraging me to go to WhatICannotChange.com, and get all that stuff off my chest. Hmm, I thought. That’s certainly cheesy. But the publicist attached the single, and I started listening to it…and I started crying, just a bit. (REPEAT THIS TO ANYONE AND I’LL CALL YOU A LIAR.) Hmm, I thought, as I sniffled. How strange for your cynical Aunt Whittlz to totally buy into (a) what a press release is selling and (b) to get all weepy about said thing. Yet how wonderful, I thought, to be granted a sort of catharsis when I least expected it. Also, this confirms what I’ve always suspected: that I’ve always been a total sucker for LeAnn Rimes.

She explains the project in a video on the front page of her site; meanwhile, here’s the song, embedded below, and the link to the site is above if you want to take advantage of the opportunity to vent, or just read some heartfelt stuff from strangers. (It reminds me a little of the great PostSecret.com.) Please do not use the message board here to confess your personal pain — it really might put me over the top — but while we’re on the subject, I’d love to hear suggestions for the songs you PopWatchers listen to when you need a good cry. Then I can download all of them and do some more sobbing, because really, I didn’t need to get any work done this week or anything. Okay.

addCredit(“Leann Rimes: Leon/Retna”)