If you’re stumbled into this page expecting that my “Cooling Down” playlist involves tracks I listen to after a work out, you’re wrong. Quite sorely mistaken in fact. This playlist is about the tracks I listen to after having my balls busted all day, figuratively speaking of course. I know it’s overtly dramatic but damn, is fashion a fiery profession. Or as my previous mentor mentioned before to me, “this industry is an open air mental asylum where some people come with four or more personalities”. I thought it was hilarious and true but she also mentioned that “sometimes, you gotta get knocked out in the ring and come back to fight some more.”
I’m not entirely sure when she became an MMA fan (I think she’s more of a Wimbledon woman) but never the less, here, my four favourite songs that form my cooling down playlist.
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Akira Yamaoka — Prisonic Fairytale
I have said this time and time again but Silent Hill 2 is the greatest video game ever made. It combines the Aristotle concept of pathos, egos and logos so wonderfully and I’ve always been a fan of psychological horror. Akira Yamaoka is a scoring genius too because his songs are so open to interpretation. You’ll get a different one every time you listen to this track depending on your mood — helplessness, hopefulness or anguish.
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FKJ — Ylang Ylang Slowed Down
The original version by the French multi-instrumentalist already puts me to sleep but this version knocks me out like I’ve been hit by a ton of bricks. This is quite a controversial opinion but I think most songs sound even better when they are slowed down. Add a reverb to it and you’ll be in aural bliss — sort of like you’re floating on a cloud in Disneyland or something.
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Jake 25.17 — What Falling in Love Feels Like
I have no idea how this song appeared on my YouTube algorithm and neither can I relate to “falling in love”. On some days, it makes me feel like I’m a French aristocrat in the 15th century with a harem and on some days, it makes me feel incredibly nostalgic and sort of like I’m lying in a field of barley on a sunny day. Regardless, it restores my heart rate down to a calm and relaxed 80.
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Nobuo Uematsu — Wandering Flame
I have this theory that a video game track is only great if you pause the game just to listen to it. To be honest, I can’t listen to this track for so long without feeling some kind of existential crisis which is the genius of Nobuo Uematsu. I feel so relaxed and serene when I hear this because I know the exact tragic scenes in the game where they played it. Then…. Tidus goes and pickpockets the dead so then my emotions get really, really bipolar.
Once you’re done with my cooling down playlist, click here to catch up with our June/July 2021 issue!
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