Slow Time Down
When things go to shit and you cannot understand how or why you’ve ended up in the situation your in, you’ll find as I did, that you still need to be able to switch off and unwind between bouts of wild panic and misery. For this exact purpose I created this playlist loaded with sonic painkillers. Opiates for the soul.
this correlation between hunting, soul soothing sonic aesthetics and mental illness intrigues me deeply and I find myself wondering often at the strange liminal spaces these artists and writers inhabited.
Usually when my life implodes its got a lot to do with the state of my metal health and I was interested to read about the correlation between these particular songs and the themes of alcoholism, depression and general ennui that dogged their writers. Emmylou Harris wrote The Good Book during a crisis of faith triggered by intense grief. Jessica Pratt struggled with feelings of alienation, pushing up against music industry norms like sand paper. Nick drake felt disconnected from the world and his relationship with his mental health was turbulent; he spent long periods feeling very low. Jackson C frank lost everything and everyone… not the most uplifting bit of curating on my part but this correlation between hunting, soul soothing sonic aesthetics and mental illness intrigues me deeply and I find myself wondering often at the strange liminal spaces these artists and writers inhabited. Their words resonate in the way old religious songs do; I cant help admiring all the beauty locked up in that suffering.
There’s another interesting correlation to be discovered here; nearly every track on the list was a commercial flop that only later received critical acclaim. A fair few of them even went on to become cult classics; Nick Drake in particular has been cited as one of the most influential folk artist of his time despite Pink Moon’s disastrous commercial failure.
So what is it that makes a record creep under our collective skin? These songs are like mosses or ivy; softly and subliminally winning you over with the pace and weight of earth and stones… Reflecting on this I decided that difficult emotions, like grief, need strong pain killers and in this case those pain killers were made by people who genuinely understood what emotional pain is and how it works.
difficult emotions, like grief, need strong pain killers
So sit back, relax, and be soothed by the warm and tender voices of some talented, troubled people who made music that helps heal the broken hearted, unfold the crushed and console the defeated.
