Simon and Garfunkel, BB King and the Macbeth OST: On this week's Firstpost Playlist

It’s the weekend! You know what this means right? It’s time for us to bring out our playlist, and for you to bring out your headphones. And what do we have this week for you? Why, some crowdpleasers, to be sure. Here you’ll find some BB King and Simon & Garfunkel, some melancholic music from Macbeth (you know, to brood to) and a mantra for all tired souls to band together, courtesy Crumb. So let’s get on shall we? As always, tune in to tune out. ’So Tired’ by Crumb After a long day at work and especially after reading the words “surgical strikes” one too many times, you really have to take a breather to clear your head or just stimulate sleep without possible nuclear attack nightmares coming your way or perhaps avoid thinking of your imminent death. That’s where ‘So Tired’ (which can easily be the movie title to the story of our lives) comes in and envelops you in its sweet comforting sound — it’s like a tranquiliser sedating you enough till you’re ready and raring to go the next day. — An exhausted member of the Firstpost newsdesk ‘The Thrill Is Gone’ by BB King

‘The Thrill is Gone’ is one of BB King’s biggest hits. The way King manages to get controlled yet highly tense notes from his guitar is what makes this track beautiful. If you haven’t heard this song, you probably don’t know what falling out of love feels like — it tears you apart, even though ‘The Thrill Is Gone’. — Hassan M Kamal ‘Night’ by Ludovico Einaudi

In his brilliant and hilarious book Three Men in a Boat (To say nothing of the dog), Jerome K Jerome describes night in one of the beautiful ways you can imagine: “It seems so full of comfort and of strength, the night. In its great presence, our small sorrows creep away, ashamed. The day has been so full of fret and care, and our hearts have been so full of evil and of bitter thoughts, and the world has seemed so hard and wrong to us. Then Night, like some great loving mother, gently lays her hand upon our fevered head, and turns our little tear-stained faces up to hers, and smiles; and, though she does not speak, we know what she would say, and lay our hot flushed cheek against her bosom, and the pain is gone.” If these words were translated into music, this song is what it would probably sound like. — Anshu Lal ’Sound of Silence’ by Simon & Garfunkel

This song is one of the most peaceful and meaningful songs I have ever heard. The lyrics start off with: ‘Hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again’. Written by Paul Simon, it is so beautifully enunciated by Simon and Garfunkel that you can feel the emotions they are feeling. “And the people bowed and prayed/ To the neon god they made/ And the sign flashed out its warning/ In the words that it was forming/ And the sign said ‘The words of the prophets/ Are written on the subway walls/ And tenement halls/ And whispered in the sounds of silence’.” I get goosebumps whenever I hear this song. It’s open to interpretation, almost like the Robert Frost poem about the two roads diverging in the woods. — Ankita Maneck Macbeth (OST) by Jed Kurzel

If you love Ramin Djawadi’s score for Game of Thrones, then you’ll like this one for sure. Jed Kurzel scored the track for the Michael Fassbender-Marion Cotillard starrer, which was directed by his brother Justin Kurzell. For a character and story as ominous as Macbeth, the melanchonic, filled-with-doom-and-foreboding, almost monotonous score is perfect. It is drawn out tensely, almost like a wail at times. That may not sound wholly pleasant (and to be honest, pleasant really isn’t the adjective one would be looking for here), but on a stressed out workday, with a deadline to meet, and piles of work to finish, this helps you focus on the task at hand. Bonus: It can even tune out bickering in the background. — Rohini Nair