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Here's what to listen to as you watch in awe.
Here's what to listen to as you watch in awe. (Photo: Clinton Naik)

How to Choose Your Solar Eclipse Song (Plus 10 Ideas)

It's only going to happen once in our lifetimes鈥攂etter make sure you don't screw up your soundtrack

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Here's what to listen to as you watch in awe.
(Photo: Clinton Naik)

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Just about everyone I know is talking about the August 21 eclipse. I鈥檝e also started exhibiting symptoms of ecliptomania, a term coined (I believe) in 1991, when an eclipse in Hawaii to the island. Like so many interstellar preppers, I鈥檝e armed myself with cheap paper shades and newfound , from 鈥渁nnularity鈥 to 鈥渦mbra.鈥 As the otherworldly overlap approaches, I鈥檓 making anxious internet searches and phone calls to friends, perusing Google Maps for two-lane back roads that my wife and friends and I might take to get ourselves into the eclipse totality area from聽the 99.5 percent occluded area near our home in Newberg, Oregon, exactly five miles from the edge of the approaching shadow of the moon.

There鈥檚 just one other detail that will make our once-in-a-lifetime experience complete: music. The hippest ancient philosophers Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle advanced the idea of musica universalis鈥攖he music of the spheres鈥攖hat the movements of the sun, moon, and planets thrum with interplanetary harmonies that we can鈥檛 hear but shape our reality. Hence, it feels necessary to consider the ten most fitting musical numbers for the core of the eclipse, which, like the greatest pop songs, is a few minutes long. Coincidence?

鈥淐osmogony,鈥 Bjork

Bjork鈥檚 music (and live shows) took a trippy, outer-spacey vibe with 2011鈥檚 Biophilia album, as evidenced by gorgeous tracks like 鈥淐osmogony.鈥 It鈥檚 a dreamy, woozy, gut-stirring lullaby, by turns searching, calming, and full of pathos: And they say back then our universe / Was an empty sea, until a silver fox / And her cunning mate began to sing / A song that became the world we know.

鈥淒on鈥檛 Bother They鈥檙e Here,鈥 Stars of the Lid

Stars of the Lid, a drone duo from Austin, Texas, weaves aural tapestries ringing with mesmerizing harmonies that are simultaneously tender and taut. Their entire 2007 double album, And Their Refinement of the Decline, would be a fitting soundtrack, but start with this track and 鈥淎 Meaningful Moment Through a Meaning(less) Process.鈥

鈥淒reamlove,鈥 The Bright Light Social Hour

The Austin-based psychedelic rockers released their second full-length album, Space is Still the Place, in 2015 after years of touring the United States and cranking tunes in their van. Inspired in name by Afro-futurism pioneer Sun Ra鈥檚 1974 film, Space Is the Place, the whole record鈥檚 blistering, tranquil, and futuristic harmonies rumble with a cavalcade of meaty riffs on Hammond organ and electric guitar. Spacing out like a desert mirage one second, pulsating like a house music DJ the next, 鈥淒reamlove鈥 is interspersed with dreamy synths and layered, eerie vocals that will have you bobbing your head as you watch the sky.

鈥淭he Planets,鈥 Opus 32, Gustav Horst

Written around 1916, this seven-movement suite for orchestra is a truly beautiful trip, especially the second movement, also known as 鈥淰enus, Bringer of Peace,鈥 a shimmering skyscape of harps, flutes, oboes, glockenspiel, and solos on violin. With its mournful ascending French horn intro, one can鈥檛 help but hear the influence on American composer John Williams鈥攕pecifically the first few bars of 鈥淏en鈥檚 Death and TIE Fighter Attack,鈥 and 鈥淟eia鈥檚 Theme鈥 from Episode IV: A New Hope.

鈥淎lso Sprach Zarathustra,鈥 Richard Strauss

A classic in many forms. Whether it鈥檚 a recording of Strauss鈥 eery, 30-minute tone poem written in 1896 (the version known from Stanley Kubrick鈥檚 1968 film, 2001: A Space Oddyssey), Deodata鈥檚 funky interpretation featured in the iconic Peter Sellars movie Being There, or one of jam band Phish鈥檚 improvisatory takes (like 聽recorded in 2010), the composition is an ideal soundtrack for celestial travels.

鈥淢oonbuilding 2703 AD,鈥 The Orb

The ambient house music pioneers led by Dr. Alex Paterson are best known for the early 鈥90s track 鈥淟ittle Fluffy Clouds,鈥 the first on their debut 1991 record, 国产吃瓜黑料s Beyond the Ultraworld. Some 25 years later, the Orb would release this spacey paean to lunar bodies, meandering yet crisp and skittering with staccato, upbeat rhythms.

鈥淧eace Piece,鈥 Bill Evans

From Evans鈥 1959 landmark jazz record, Everybody Digs Bill Evans, 鈥淧eace Piece鈥 is a pastoral soundscape of vivid, chirping notes overlaid on an ostinato, an oscillating two-tone background played on the bass keys with sedative tranquility, building the contrasting voices to a serene conclusion. Black Ray-Ban Wayfarers not included but recommended.

鈥淒ark Star,鈥 Grateful Dead

The music never stops. Fifty years since they formed, the band鈥檚 appeal lives and grows, as evidenced by Amazon鈥檚 recent, six-part Long Strange Trip documentary, Dead and Co.鈥檚 stadium shows, and more and more music remastered for fresh ears. Countless jams by the 鈥渂and beyond description鈥 would be apropos, but 鈥淒ark Star,鈥 the band鈥檚 famously long, searching fugue, is a good place to start.

鈥淓clipse,鈥 Pink Floyd

Could it be any other? Whether or not you believe in the urban legend that it鈥檚 a psychedelic soundtrack to The Wizard of Oz, Pink Floyd鈥檚 Dark Side of the Moon can be synced pretty perfectly as an eclipse soundtrack. The whole record鈥檚 lyrics, soaring guitars, sociopolitical dissection, and rousing choruses were spawned from the band鈥檚 haziest, most creative era. Turn it on 40 minutes before totality to hear 鈥淓clipse,鈥 Roger Waters鈥 grand, two-minute-three-second climax at the big moment. And all that is now / And all that is gone / And all that鈥檚 to come / And everything under the sun is in tune / But the sun is eclipsed by the moon.

鈥淗ere Comes the Sun,鈥 The Beatles

Inevitably, when the sun reemerges from behind the shadowing moon, eclipse watchers report rapturous feelings of oneness with Mother Nature, the cosmos, and our fellow humans. Then the party really starts. What better time to pump up George Harrison鈥檚 ode to optimism, recorded for Abbey Road in 1969 at Eric Clapton鈥檚 house. Here comes the sun. It鈥檚 alright!

Lead Photo: Clinton Naik

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