I do my best writing when I listen to music. 

There’s something about the endless noise that triggers metaphors in my brain and helps me string together eloquent sentences.

And because I write an absurd amount, I have listened to an absurd amount of music.

I’ve spent nights listening to Taylor Swift’s entire discography while I write my Editor’s Columns, and I enjoy listening to my playlist, titled “Pure, unfiltered rage,” while writing my profiles. Somewhere along the way, I stumbled upon FINNEAS and his new album, which ironically is titled Optimist.

Everything about the album—from its album art to its lyrics—can be described as eerie. 

One of the first songs, titled “Love is Pain,” expands on the eerie feeling of the album. The slow, therapeutic playing of the piano paired with FINNEAS’ voice causes feelings of sorrow to wash over you. You can hear the pain that he carries as he vocalizes nightmares and fears he has about his parents and friends. 

And while most people seem to have a hard time explaining exactly what it means to be in love, FINNEAS has written lyrics that state that love isn’t always soft and heartfelt. It is also worrying about those that you care about and thinking about their emotions. 

My personal favorite song on the album, “Medieval,” has a slightly stronger beat behind the words. My one complaint, however, is that part of it seemed to resemble an Imagine Dragons song; something about the way his voice sounded in certain parts was comparable to both the lyrics and the overall sounds sang by Dan Reynolds—Imagine Dragons’ lead singer.  

An aspect of this album that I don’t see very often is an instrumental piece midway through the album. “Peaches Etude” breaks up the album almost exactly in the middle of the 13 songs and seems to act as a palate cleanser, preparing listeners for the second half of the album. It refreshed the senses and made the songs after—“Medieval” and “Hurt Locker”—stand out in my memory even more.

My second favorite song on the album, “Only A Lifetime,” preached the philosophy that we shouldn’t let life pass us by; this is an attitude I’ve been trying to live by more often. I’ve been trying to fill every second of my life with happy memories that I’ll fondly look back upon, and I found myself adoring this song simply because it helped further that mission of mine.

In an Instagram post, FINNEAS said, “I hope you carry this record around with you and listen to it in your cars and on trains and planes and sitting in the park and cleaning your room. I hope you listen to it when you’re down and when you’re at an all-time high.”

This album seemed to accomplish FINNEAS’ goal of wishing to create an album to listen to while performing everyday tasks. The eerie vibe of the album put me in the perfect headspace to write and ultimately had lyrics that I envied.