Solipsistic Songs

The iPod makes for strange new listening habits. Gone are the restraints of listening to an entire album because you only have a couple of CDs in your backpack. But in giving us complete free reign over what we can listen to on walks, we’ve developed odd habits and in my case, surprising obsessions with specific songs.

Case in point: for the past year, I cannot stop listening to Nine Inch Nails’ “Right Where It Belongs“. If the sun has gone down and I’m alone, I get this cosmic urge to put on my iPod and blast Trent’s masterpiece. Yeah, masterpiece. That’s tall praise for the man who brought us “Hurt”, which makes my top 10 songs of all time. But this song is nothing less than mindblowing. And it’s the only solipsistic song I know.

Solipsism: the fancy, pretentious word for “all that I know exists is my mind”. The “brain in a vat” theory, which gave The Matrix it’s mindblowing early twist, as well as the kick ass 400-year-old Spanish play La Vida es Sueño. Reality is actually a dream.

In other words, this song will completely fuck your shit up if you let it. And while I haven’t been an enormous fan of Trent’s very recent deluge of work (though he’s a marketing genius), this song owns.

I don’t want to give too much away, but you’ve got to listen to this song with headphones on. Trent pulls this ridiculous audio-engineer trick 2/3rds of the way in, where he opens your skull and creeps into your head, in essence allowing you to become him.

Enough from me- check it out HERE.

And let me know what you think. Are there any other solipsistic songs out there?