I started this blog in August, 2009 and a few months later, embarked on a mission to honor a different Halloween-appropriate song each day of October. Ones you could use for a party playlist or just chill out to while listening through headphones at home. Over the years, I’ve aimed for a mix of previously posted songs and a few new ones. Here’s one I originally posted in 2021.
Sometimes in the course of researching a potential Halloween song, I discover it’s not as scary as I thought. Particularly, after reading the lyrics. Such is the case with “Sky Musings” by Wolf Alice. The band enjoyed loads of favorable press in its native U.K. and a fair amount here in America for its 2021 album Blue Weekend. “Sky Musings,” though, comes from Wolf Alice’s 2017 album Visions Of A Life.
The rampaging arrangement (like Pink Floyd’s “Run Like Hell,” only faster) and such lines as “Fear inducing/Tears producing” conjure a desperate need to escape. The situation vocalist-guitarist Ellie Rowsell describes so intensely starts simply with a passenger watching a film on a redeye flight. The opening lines, “How high do planes fly?/40,000 feet in the sky’s how high.” offer a bit of foreshadowing, but initially the woman is just watching a romantic drama.
The flick’s star-crossed lovers trigger some soul-searching on the viewer’s part. “And now I think of all the people I’ve cared for/Did love pass me by when I had feelings I was scared of?” She fights off her sorrow, thinking, “Look out of your window you’re on top of the world/23 years old and you’re acting like it’s over.” That’s when her mood takes a harrowing turn. “Only over if we crash./Hit the ground down below./As if we’d crash./Imagine that./If we crash.”
Eventually, the passenger gives in to a full panic attack, being asked by the flight crew to fasten her seat belt and settle down. The situation ends peacefully, with the passenger praying for guidance. Not exactly vampires and zombies, but I doubt I’ll ever listen to “Sky Musings” while I’m flying.
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