Once // Pearl Jam
I’m known to be a sucker when it comes to procrastinating, and being at university on a course that is just coursework – no exams – that means a lot of reading. And I mean a lot. The only way that I’m able to actually focus on anything is when I’m listening to music. It’s like I go into a trance and just do the work and am surprised with myself when I’m done. Much like with typing this out.
Whatever music I decide to listen to, it almost always starts out with listening to Pearl Jam’s ‘Once’. This track is such a perfect combination of tempos and genres that it manages to get me into that zone that I need to be in straight away. Whether it be from the Peter Gabriel-esque introduction or the segment of the song that always gets me pumped – “Backstreet lover on the side of the road, I got a bomb in my temple that is gonna explode, I got a sixteen gauge buried under my clothes, I play…” – it makes me lose myself in my work or in my reading.
To be honest, the record that ‘Once’ is the opener for – Ten – is a motivational tool in itself.
Words by Sophie McEvoy