Chumbawamba circa 2000. Photo: Jill Douglas/Redferns.

Thanksgiving is behind us for another year. For some that’s a sad thing, since Thanksgiving is a time of togetherness, family bonding, boundless gluttony and football. To those people, I’m glad you enjoyed your day.

Of course, there’s another group, too. Those people are still bitter they had to spend hours upon hours cooking for a bunch of people they don’t see more often for a reason, or who found out which of their relatives have become antivaxers since 2019, or who watched the Lions and Bears attempt to play football in the morning game.

The former group has gotten plenty of attention, so let’s give a little something to the latter group. Here are some songs to cheer you up a bit. And yes, Chumbawamba is part of the answer.

Lizzo — “Good as Hell”

Maybe it’s just because I’m less than a month from seeing Lizzo at possibly the best performance Outside Lands has ever seen, but I am still on a Lizzo kick. If you’re feeling worn out or otherwise down, you should be on a Lizzo kick, too. She solves everything.

It honestly doesn’t even have to be this song! I’m just pretty sure I’ve already used “Juice” and “Truth Hurts,” but feel free to plug in one of those, or anything else by her, really.

Deee-Lite — “Groove is In the Heart”

Lizzo is uplifting not just for the music but for the message. The lyrics to her songs just put you in a better place. Deee-Lite—that’s three E’s, no more no less, I checked—is not that deep. I’m pretty sure the lyrics don’t mean anything at all. But go ahead, try to listen to this song and be in a bad mood.

You can’t do it.

The song is simplistic, the video is incredibly cheaply made, it’s all basically just a funhouse-mirror version of the ’60s with a slide whistle, but it’ll brighten your day.

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes — “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard”

The last time I did a column of songs to improve a bad mood—it was right at the beginning of COVID-19 and I thought that we needed cheering up them, it was adorable—I included “Straight Up,” my favorite song by the world’s greatest cover band. This time I’m going with a song of which I like the original.

What I said last time is true, though. Pick a song by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes and listen to it, and your mood will improve instantly. You can’t help it. It’s science.

Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars — “Uptown Funk”

I’m still not 100-percent sure who Mark Ronson is other than the less cool guy in the YouTube preview image up there, but man did he write a catchy song. It’s amazing! It’s not the first time I’ve marveled about it, but this song is supernaturally catchy. It’s like it was created in a lab to make people move then lodge itself in their heads.

In fact, I have this very song on in the background while writing these words, and I can’t stop my shoulders from moving to the beat. My shoulders! Tapping foot, sure, but shoulders is some advanced catchiness. If this doesn’t at least make you crack a smile slightly, you might be legally dead.

Chumbawamba — “Tubthumping”

I almost hate to do this to you, but it’s time to thump tubs.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t recommend drinking a whiskey drink, a vodka drink, a lager drink and a cider drink to combat a bad mood. It’s profoundly unhealthy physically and mentally to use alcohol as a coping mechanism. But other people singing about it? I recommend it highly.

Also notable is the video, which always throws me off because the female vocalist who sings my name looks like someone’s mom. Right? Like, not a mother, but the mother of someone you knew as a kid, who probably worked as a librarian or in a bookstore. Something with books. Right? It’s not just me?

It’s definitely not just me.

Follow editor Daniel J. Willis and tweet column ideas to him at Twitter.com/BayAreaData.