Everybody knows that when you sit down to study or do something productive, that’s when all those distractions start to crawl out of the woodwork. The dog next door decides to bark at every moving cloud in the sky, your house mates in the next room yell at incalculable decibels when someone scores a goal in FIFA, or you suddenly realise you’re three hours deep in a YouTube hole, wearing nothing but socks and singing Pen-Pineapple Apple Pen. So here’s a small list of albums (because we don’t want to become one of those distractions) that will surely keep or get you in the mode of study.
5. Earth – The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull
Early Earth recordings featured heavy drones and distortion, but this album is more like an homage to old western films with its slow hypnotic drums and repetitive guitar riffs that will keep you in a study trance. It’s also a great study companion as it is as easy to listen to as it is beautiful, while also possessing a bit of raw power that will keep you awake during those 3 am cramming sessions.
4. The Caretaker – Everywhere at the End of Time
The Caretaker used samples of old records on this album, with the intention to evoke nostalgia in his audience. The results are simply stunning. You’ll make your way through swooning brass melodies and piano ballads that are intertwined with soft static that sounds like nothing but the past. Plus there’s no better album to study with than one that’s main objective is to stimulate memory.
3. Goldmund – The Malady of Elegance
An album filled with piano compositions that are as delicate as butterfly wings. Each note seems as if it has the potential to fall apart before you even have a chance to hear it. Studying can be arduous and painstaking, but this album will help you relax and find that softness you need to remember not everything is hard. With this album your assessments will soon be completed.
2. Hammock – Raising your voice…Trying to Stop an Echo
This album sounds like it’s galaxies wide. The vastness of each sound and drone will make you feel like you’re not cooped up in a confined room devouring a semester’s worth of information, but rather in an infinite space, where your mind can expand to its full potential.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4oSlLuE-wQ
1. Stephan Micus – Listen to the Rain
Instrumental guitars and flutes are weaved together with Middle-Eastern scales that give this album a wild and exotic essence. It’s just what you need to take you to a destination far away, for the times when your eyes are blushing red from staring at a screen all day and constantly telling yourself: “Just one more cute dog video, then I’ll continue with my essay”. It’s a great album to motivate you to get through this semester so can go on that well deserved holiday somewhere exotic.
And that’s it. I hope these albums give you the much needed inspiration to knuckle down and finish those looming assessments. Just remember to take breaks, don’t overexert yourself and step outside every now and then to flush the darkness out from your lungs. And if you still find yourself in utter despair, here’s that video of He-Man singing What’s Going On, that will definitely bring you back to the light.