Hope everyone’s had a great summer! I may make a writeup for summer music (we’ll see, in the meantime there’s https://mattyberman.com/music/summermusic.html), but I’ve really found myself gravitating towards music that for lack of a better term I’d describe as “ethereal”, so here are 4 “ethereal” songs!
17. Cocteau Twins – Cherry-Coloured Funk
The only song appearing on both my summer list and this list, I just love it so much. The lyrics aren’t discernable—at all—but I could write a TOK essay on how the song is able to disseminate “emotional” knowledge, specifically the calmness of the human experience. It’s the first song I heard by the band and I was immediately captivated. The high-pitched vocals along with the dream-like instrumentals are such a joy to listen to.
18. Solange – Losing You
This is such a perfect pop-like song. The yelling sound of the instrumental is almost jarring at first, but then the beautiful synths are introduced and we hear Solange detail this really beautiful story about falling out of love. The vocal layering present in this song is such a spectacle, and this is just a great song to play right before sleeping (or at least for me it is).
19. Grouper – Heavy Water / I’d Rather Be Sleeping
This song feels like it would be in the soundtrack of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I think this is the biggest show of “etherealness” so far. I discovered this song by pasting a music playlist into ChatGPT and asking for similar songs (would recommend btw, it was VERY helpful to find new music), and am so happy I did. The vocals are very light and almost feel like going in and out of consciousness. Grouper is an artist I’d previously never heard of and I am excited to explore more of their catalogue.
20. Vampire Weekend – Flower Moon (feat. Steve Lacy)
I’m not sure how “ethereal” this is (compared to the previous songs), but it still evokes this sense of wonder (now I’m really getting into TOK titles…). This is a song that my dad used to always play in the car, and I never really cared about it until recently when I just got in the feel of it. It’s just a fun, groovy song. I have not told my dad yet that I do like this song (I fear he may send me way too many more music-related Instagram Reels if I do), but this song is great!
20.5 (BONUS SONG!!) Grimes – REALiTi (Demo)
The summer was so long that I just had to add another ethereal song. I’d categorize this under “TTC” songs. After a long day, sitting down and looking out the window with this song playing somehow makes me feel like a child. I’d like to note that I’m recommending the demo version of the song rather than the finished one—I love both, but this one feels so much more like a dream.
The Blue and White 