Medical Grade Music

If I was a character in Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, I’d definitely be a female version of Rob, the record store owner and compulsive list maker who relishes making ‘top five’ lists of everything from music, movies and pop culture to his top five break-ups. So when the latest Vocal challenge arrived, requesting to share your Zen music playlist, I was ecstatic with the opportunity to channel my inner obsessive.

While for some, Zen may be taken quite literally i.e., waterfalls, buddhist chanting or flotation tank music (not knocking these) the music that centres me and makes me feel most calm and at peace is more of an eclectic brew.

At times, I’ve found calm reassurance in the steadiness of a meditative drumbeat or bass, my spirit has been lifted by the sound of a vocal harmony or I’ve been chilled out by a fuzzy synthesiser or guitar. Sometimes it is the structure and composition of a song in itself that has helped me find my Zen. So this is why my selection features everything from electronic, folk, shoe-gaze dream pop, rock, indie, classical to soul.

Some of the tracks have a calming, ethereal or meditative quality and lower the heart rate. I’m a nervous flyer so a couple of them are my go- to gin & tonic/Xanax (don’t do drugs kids). Some are great for an introspective run or a rousing yoga flow. More than half of them are what I call ‘road trip’ songs. This is my happiest place to be. Music loud, with a breeze coming through the window, the pressures of everyday life behind you and an opportunity for reflection.

Unfortunately, unlike High Fidelity’s Rob, I have not got my list making compulsions fine - tuned to a concise top five, but here’s 15 tracks that may save your life, lockdown or provide a tonic for a calm mind and a happy heart.

1. Neil Young, Harvest Moon

Neil Young was definitely my most played artist during lockdown. I even bought a harmonica during the pandemic (which I still have not learned how to play). The harmonic melodies and wistful dreaminess of songs on iconic albums like 1972’s Harvest, hark back to simpler times and make my heart happy, offering escape from the anxieties of modern life. But it is the title track on sequel Harvest Moon (1992) which is the most subtle, innocent and gentle song and a great antidepressant. It celebrates longevity in relationships and love affairs and was written as a tribute to Young’s then- wife, Pegi.

This Nashville-produced Americana track sounds like it should have come out 20 years earlier, not in 1992 which was dominated by the alternative music scene. Rolling Stone magazine hit the nail on the head when it said it sounds “...as if it was made for lazy hammock-swinging afternoons. But beneath its placid surface are the craggy scars of middle age, when holding onto and cherishing love is a lot more difficult than finding it.”

2. The XX, Intro

This is my go-to aeroplane song, which has soothed many an uneasy ride and anxious mind. One hit of the drums, fuzzy keyboard, simple guitar riff and wordless chanting and everything melts away as I look out of the window, feeling protected by the little white fluffy clouds.

The extended versions (from 1 up to 10 hours) have often rocked me to sleep. Intro is from the 2009 debut album XX, and pretty much all of the songs on it do a similar job, but for me Intro is unusually the best song. Often intro’s serve as short teasers on albums and are immediately skipped or tossed aside, but this 2:08 minute version serves as a great set up to this album, leaving you wanting more. It has a building effect until it reaches its climax and gently explodes, only for a short while before the chanting rouses to take us into the fade out.

3. Sufjan Stevens, Death with Dignity

Carrie & Lowell is the seventh studio album from American indie folk artist Sufjan Stevens, which was inspired by the death of Stevens’ mother Carrie (Lowell was her second husband). Stevens had a complicated and somewhat estranged relationship with his mother which is reflected in the heart-breaking lyrics of many of the tracks. See Death with Dignity for instance:

I forgive you mother I can hear you, and I long to be near you

But every road leads to an end

Yes every road leads to an end

Your apparition passes through me, in the willows and five red hens

You'll never see us again

Death with Dignity and other tracks such as Should Have Known Better and Fourth of July are a great example of how music can ease grief. The lyrics are profoundly sad, yet the music has an ethereal quality, There is also something calm, reassuring and reflective about the grief, with Steven’s gentle voice fluttering in and out like a butterfly.

4. The Smashing Pumpkins, 1979

‘Nostalgia bottled’, is how I would describe this song. The perfect ode to childhood and coming of age, it kicks off with the heart -soaring lyrics:

Shakedown 1979

Cool kids never have the time

On a live wire right up off the street

You and I should meet

Junebug skippin' like a stone

With the headlights pointed at the dawn

We were sure we'd never see an end

To it all

There’s something calming about the melancholy ‘shoegaze’, ‘dream pop’ and downbeat sound of this song. It’s like that particular mixture of sadness and happiness when you recollect feelings and experiences from the past which now trigger the senses and make you feel the pain of separation from those joyful times.

Perhaps one of the most joyous music videos ever too, which has the effect of being filmed on a camcorder from the time and sees a day in the life of a group of disaffected suburban teenagers driving around in a 1972 Dodge Charger.

5. Lou Reed, Walk on the Wild Side

It’s all about the distinctive mellow meditative bassline sound played by jazz musician Herbie Flowers, which is described as “twin interlocking basslines played on a double bass and overdubbed on a stacked knob 1960 fretless Fender Jazz bass”, which is of course complimented by the female vocalists famous ‘Doo, doo-doo’ hook.

It has a distinctive robust, reassuring sound which was later sampled in A Tribe Called Quest’s 1990 hit Can I Kick It? It certainly calms me and has nods to the epic road trip with a bit of New York poetry and glam thrown in.

While the lyrics have raised a few eyebrows over the years with references to transgender people, drugs, prostitution (and references to “giving head” and “coloured girls,” being edited out of some radio play) the song is an epic masterpiece in storytelling, that takes you on the journeys of various characters who travel to New York City and become superstars of Andy Warhol’s Factory. Each verse introduces a new character. There is Holly, Candy, Little Joe, Sugar Plum Fairy, and Jackie.

6. The War on Drugs, Under the Pressure

From the 2014 album Lost in the Dream, Under the Pressure is pure ecstasy- tinged psychedelic rock for almost nine minutes. It feels like you are about to embark on a really exciting long summer road trip, escaping to new pastures and the track builds from the anticipation of that trip and takes you on a journey through it and out the other side.

A Pitchfork review articulated it in the best way:

“A stuttering drum machine sounds off like an alarm clock, coaxing you out of bed and prodding you out of the door. And if the steady-pulsed melody that initially positions Under the Pressure as the most placid song about anxiety ever, by the third chorus run – at which point it’s amassed a swirl of duelling guitar solos, starburst synths and brown-note saxophone swells – you feel the full weight of this nine- minute track bearing down on your chest.”

7. The Eagles, One of These Nights

Released in 1975, One of These Nights was destined to forever live in the shadow of The Eagles Hotel California which came out a year later, however it is probably my all-time favourite track from the band. A departure from their trademark country rock, it was a foray into an RNB and disco sound, featuring the most dreamy harmonies and that certain seventies sound which evokes nostalgia and seeing things in a sepia haze.

It reminds me of road tripping as a child in my Dad’s yellow car which we called ‘the yellow submarine,’ listening to what was on the radio and cassette deck. It also makes me feel wistful about California landscapes and wanderlust, the road trips that I’ve taken and the ones that are yet to come.

The prettiest bits of the song are the harmonies and it also has some nice blues-based licks in a guitar solo by Don Felder. The band were sharing a studio with the Bee Gees at the time of recording and said the four on the floor bass drum pattern is also a nod to disco.

Bandmate Glenn Frey said it was a song about putting things off. "We've all said, 'One of these nights I'm gonna do something --get that girl, make that money, find that house.' We all have our dreams – a vision we hope will come true someday. When that 'someday' will come is up to each of us."

8. Ludovico Einaudi, Nightbook

Nightbook is the title track from the beautiful 2009 album from this Italian pianist and composer. It makes me feel like I am on a long journey into the darkness, then it suddenly rouses and you are suddenly stepping into the light. The ethereal sound breaks you down, then rebuilds you back up again, offering redemption and hope.

Einaudi’s contemporary classical sound is so evocative that he has been a natural choice for many advertisers and filmmakers’ soundtracks, composing the scores for a number of productions, including, most recently the 2021 Oscar nominated Nomadland. See also: This Is England, The Intouchables, I'm Still Here, Doctor Zhivago (TV miniseries).

9. Chromatics, Running Up that Hill

You can’t get past the sheer sensuality of this iconic track. The original Kate Bush version from her 1985 album Hounds of Love is obviously a masterpiece, essentially about the perceived differences between men and women and in understanding the other sex.

While you obviously can’t beat the original, I particularly like this cover from Italian electronic band Chromatics from their 2007 album Night Drive. It’s a stripped back synth wave version which has made use of electronic drums, synthesizers and breathy vocals, effectively reimagining the song in the style of Italo disco. Both versions have featured on my running mix, dance mix and yoga mix. (I wouldn’t be surprised if its on some people’s sex mix). I also have a great memory of listening to this version on a long and winding car ride through Sardinia.

10. Hall & Oates, She’s Gone

Another song I remember from sitting in the back of Dad's ‘yellow submarine,’ this heartbreak soul song wafts out of the car window, allowing in a cool summer breeze. This is also the sound of a lazy Sunday mornings, drinking coffee, reading newspapers and playing vinyl.

American Songwriter says: “The song begins with a floating keyboard and a light snare. A thumping bass line quickly comes in next – bum-bum, bum-bum.

An electric lead guitar and a wa-wa rhythm enter to back up the growing melody. Now the stage is set, the mood is open. Soon, two pretty voices come in together, unified. But all of this build up is a preface to the beautiful, soaring chorus, which acts as much as a release of strike as it does a song’s hook: She’s gooooooone! Ooooooooh why! I better learn how to face it!”

11. Erykah Badu, Cleva

The neo soul movement in the late 90’s/early 2000’s spawned amazing artists that (aside from Badu) included Maxwell, D’Angelo, Lauren Hill, Jill Scott and The Roots. Cleva is from Badu’s second album Mama’s Gun which came out at the end of 2000, and her Billie Holiday jazzy tones are just the perfect tonic for unwinding on a night in or in a long bubble bath.

The lyrics of this song are also great example to young women, especially in the social media age, which really say something about self- worth, the importance of intellect and how having something to say as a woman is much sexier than how you looked when you were saying it. A great tonic when you might be feeling insecure.

Cleva is one of those songs you just have to belt out and saaaaang:

This is how I look without makeup

And with no bra my ninny's sag down low

My hair ain't never hung down to my shoulders

And it might not grow

Ya' never know

But I'm cleva when I bust a rhyme

I'm cleva always on ya' mind

She's cleva and I really want to grow

But why come you're the last to know?

12. Arcade Fire, Modern Man

This is a beautiful stripped back song from Arcade Fire. I don’t often hear a lot of love for this song from The Suburbs album but its definitely one of my favourites. The guitars and bass are so beautiful in it and bass is something I always seem to respond positively to. It has notes of Tom Petty and also nods to a Peter Hook (New Order/Joy Division) solo. It ends in a gentle and piercing guitar lead.

If you listen to the lyrics of this song, and you will hear the line ‘Like a record that's skipping,’ describing the singer's unsettled feeling as he describes the modern state we live in and what it means to be a product of this culture. Listen to the music of this song, and you will hear a 9-beat time signature creating an odd skip that perfectly emulates the same feeling.

13. Portishead, Roads

Roads is the kind of song you want to listen to when the rain is beating down on the windscreen of your car and you want to wallow in the gloominess and be introspective. From the Dummy album, it’s essentially about the many roads, opportunities, choices and bets one can take in life and the consequences of dealing with the twists and turns once you choose that road.

Lead singer Beth Gibbons’ voice is a key instrument in this song, haunting, despondent, vulnerable and fragile, backed up by a 60s sounding electric guitar and a gorgeous emotional string section.

I particularly like listening to the live versions of this song. A song about individuality, loneliness and separation, yet the audience brings an interesting dynamic. As Gibbons sings “I got nobody on my side”, a whole crowd cheers her on. Sometimes these sorts of songs can bring the most beauty.

14. José González, Heartbeats

The original, by Swedish electronic duo The Knife, was hailed by several as one of the top songs of the 2000’s. This cover by Argentinian-Swedish singer González, features only acoustic classical guitar and its simplicity has a hypnotic quality, stripping down the electro pop to an indie folk lullaby, evoking nostalgia, love and regret. González obviously knows a hit when he hears one, he has created covers from Joy Division to Kylie Minogue and over the years this track has featured prominently in tv, movies and ads.

15. Michael Kiwanuka, Cold Little Heart

This sleeper hit became notorious after HBO’s Big Little Lies. A beautiful epic that reminds me of that 70s soul sound characterised by the likes of Isaac Hayes, Bill Withers or Bobby Womack, infused with a touch of folk. It’s an unusually long track, with the full version around 10 minutes, characterised by haunting choral ooohs at the beginning and a long guitar led intro.

The songs builds really slowly and Kiwanuka’s ragged vocal doesn’t come in until after about five or six minutes. You don’t realise this as all of the instruments are so beautifully arranged. The song seems to be about love and past mistakes with the hope of change and reconciliation. A song to make your 'cold little heart' bleed and heal at the same time.