The musicto social network looks to the stars
Looking up at the the vast expanse of stars in the night sky can be an inspirational, if not magical experience, which is why our global musicto community has put together this playlist of ’10 Songs to Stargaze’. Whether you’re lying on the grass looking up through the Milky Way, gazing at nearby planets through your telescope, or dreaming about C-beams that glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate, let our playlist join you as you explore the stars!
10 Songs to Stargaze from our global musicto community
The Orb – Little Fluffy Clouds
There are many reasons why people might enjoy listening to music and stargazing.
Music can evoke emotions and memories and be a form of self-expression and creativity. For some people, listening to music is a way to relax and escape from the stresses of daily life, while for others, it is a way to feel connected to others who share similar musical tastes.
Stargazing, on the other hand, can be a way to connect with the universe and experience a sense of awe and wonder. It can be a reminder of how small we are in the grand scheme of things, and it can inspire a sense of curiosity about the universe and our place in it. Stargazing can also be a way to escape from the distractions of modern life and enjoy the beauty of the night sky.
Listening to music and stargazing can be personal and intimate experiences, providing a sense of peace and tranquility. Whether it’s through the rhythm and melody of a favorite song, or the vastness of the night sky, these experiences allow people to connect with something greater than themselves and find joy and inspiration in the world around them.
Sleeping Jesus – Cigarette Skies
Stargazing to me is just this relaxing and calming feeling — which obviously needs the right background music! I can’t recall the number of times “Cigarette Skies” by Sleeping Jesus calmed me down. But thinking about it now, I’ve never listened to this while stargazing, although I absolutely plan to and I bet it’ll be some experience!
Tasmin Archer – Sleeping Satellite
I’m 23, ride-sharing my morning commute to a retail unit in South London, hating my job, and dreaming about an alternative future. Radio had decided that this song was going to be a hit and I was always happy to hear it in the car. A classic one-hit wonder — Tasmin’s next most popular track has 52 million fewer streams — the song is an enigma. Lyrically, it’s kinda opaque. It could be a green anthem — “J’accuse Elon!” — and yet it never quite makes the case. I think it was the music and melody that captured people’s ears. The groovy little spacey sounds at the front end, the heavy instrument, and vocal effects, plus that great organ solo all felt very “spacey.” But what or who was the sleeping satellite? It always made me look up to the sky and wonder what the hell was going on up there.
Black Star, Weldin Irvine – Astronomy (8th Light)
It’s the third-eye vision, five-side dimension/equaling up to eight, light shine bright. The first Black Star album is one of the true classics from the backpack era, the greatest collaboration of two rappers (Mos Def & Talib Kweli) outside of Watch The Throne. But what exactly is the Black Star?
In the world of astronomy, a black star is a theoretical alternative to the black hole. If a black hole is nothing, Black Star is everything. What is the 8th Light? The title of this track is “Astronomy (8th Light)”, referencing the idea is that there are seven colors of light, as shown in the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet). The 8th light is supposedly the white light that splits apart to make these colors. Mos Def and Talib Kweli spend the length of this song celebrating Blackness (racially defined) and then tie it into science with this statement: You know the light, go from the dark/The other way is ass backwards, it’s absurd. They’re right. If you mix all the colors together, you get black. Not white. You can’t make any colors from white. Black is the real 8th light, the genesis of light, the opposite of void. And a great song.
B-52’s – Planet Claire
Matt Haimovitz, Christopher O’Riley – The Pyramid Song
“Pyramid Song” — an instrumental cover of Radiohead’s song of the same name — by Matt Haimovitz and Christopher O’Riley is pretty much my speed when I get out of bed, groggy and disoriented, make myself a coffee, and head out to my terrace before dawn.
Cloudless, the dark sky over the Atlantic is always breathtaking: a canvas of stars, twinkling and shimmering. This haunting instrumental melody is perfect for those quiet moments when I’m filled with a sense of timelessness staring into the cosmos.
Inevitably, life happens. A stork clatters. A car starts. A plane blinks against the backdrop of constellations.
And that’s when a song like “Planet Claire” by the B-52’s, accompanied by visions of kitschy space girls gliding through the expanse on a scooter, searching for trouble, comes into play.
Pink Floyd – Astronomy Domine
The Dark Side of the Moon was released exactly 50 years ago today! That’s probably what got me thinking about Pink Floyd this morning. I mean, even if you were to ignore their most iconic album, you’d still have tracks like “Interstellar Overdrive,” “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun,” or “Echoes,” so the connection between Pink Floyd and space, the cosmos, and stargazing was always there.
And when I say always, I mean from the very first track of their very first album. “Astronomy Domine” — the opening song of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967) — immediately takes you on a journey through swirling, otherworldly soundscapes that paint the night sky with stars, planets and galaxies. Plus, you can’t have a soundtrack for stargazing without some classic psychedelic rock.
Brian Eno – Under Stars
Led Zeppelin – No Quarter
“Under Stars” from Brian Eno’s album Apollo, was written as a musical accompaniment to the moon landing. Thus, it’s pretty perfect for stargazing and really has the same effect that looking up at a clear sky of stars does, making you feel quite small but part of a much bigger universe. The whole album has that same vibe so I’d definitely recommend putting it on if you’re ever stargazing or just wanna feel spacey!
The second song I chose is “No Quarter” from Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy. It has a very different vibe from Eno’s “Under Stars”, but something about it — potentially John Paul Jones’ excellent keyboards — always makes me think of a dark sky with tiny points of light and the occasional shooting star across it.
Brian Eno – An Ending (Ascent)
For this month’s musicto community playlist, Songs to Stargaze, I chose a very famous Brian Eno track: “An Ending (Ascent). This song helps me to stargaze by just connecting with the stars and the universe, and the feeling of oneness.
Love songs to stargaze playlists? Check out Music to Float Through Space and Music to Go to the Moon.
Want more collaborative musicto community playlists? Check out our previous playlisticles: 6 Songs for the Future, 7 Misheard Songs, Censored, 15 Great Songs for your Vampire Ball, 11 Powerful Songs in Flim, and 7 Top Cowbell Songs!