58. Mount Eerie - “Dragon”

There’s something intensely intimate, yet profoundly universal about Mount Eerie’s Sauna. It’s an album that gives voice to the clutter of all the half-spoken thoughts we feel throughout the day, and it’s this quality that makes it so relatable. But it’s relatable in a way few albums are, with an introspective beauty that’s so brittle and stark you can’t help but be moved by it. You feel it and recognize it as if it were your own. Almost as if your subconscious went behind your back and recorded an album with all the thoughts and feelings you keep hidden on a daily basis. And it’s this utter honesty, this patient earnestness, and beautiful vulnerability that made it one of my favourite albums of 2015.

This song in particular encompasses that whispered poetry of the subconscious, giving voice to all the tiny droplets of thought that eventually gather and build upon one another to create the torrential downpour of anxiety. It’s the deep breath before the storm, the heightened clarity of knowing too much, yet being too far removed to make a difference. It’s being drowned by yourself. Where the inconsequential suddenly becomes ominous, and you find the world reversing onto its head as you fall into open space. You feel numb despite your fear, unable to make a difference despite your struggle, so instead you acquiesce. You accept it, floating there watching the world from outside of it. It’s chaotic yet silent, serene despite the madness, and there’s a beauty to the terror that surrounds you.