The best albums to study to this summative season

If you’re anything like me, you can’t work in silence. I always need some sort of music to drown out distractions, whether that’s people breathing annoyingly loudly in the library or my own wandering mind. While there are plenty of study playlists out there, sometimes you just want to listen to an album all the way through – and here are some albums that’ll make you so productive the essays will write themselves!

Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works 85-92

Known for pioneering IDM in the 90s, this ambient techno album by Richard D. James, better known as Aphex Twin, is the perfect soundtrack for deep-focus study sessions. I’m almost certain there’s something about the pulsating drums or hypnotic synths that make me type faster.

Nujabes – Modal Soul; Luv(sic) Hexalogy; Metaphorical Music

Japanese producer Nujabes is so good at sampling hip-hop, soul and jazz that I’ve included not one but three of his albums here. If you’ve ever listened to the ‘lofi hip hop radio beats to relax/study to’ livestream on YouTube then you’ve got Nujabes to thank for basically inventing this entire genre.

Fishmans – LONG SEASON

So technically this isn’t an album, it’s actually just one song, but it is 45 minutes long! This psychedelic, dream-pop adjacent mammoth of a track is perfect for getting long stretches of work done – I’ve known people who have done the ‘pomodoro’ method using this album instead of a timer – and the live version is even better if you find yourself getting tired of the studio version.

Super Mario Galaxy Soundtrack

I’ve always been a firm believer that video game soundtracks are some of the best music to work to. They’re designed to be background noise: nothing too distracting, yet often beautiful pieces of classical music in their own right. The Mario Galaxy soundtrack is a personal nostalgic favourite of mine, but the Skyrim soundtrack is also high up on my list (except I have to skip all the battle music because it stresses me out).

I’m sure there are many more good study albums out there, so feel free to comment your favourites down below! My one requirement is that as long as it’s instrumental (or near enough), it’s probably worthy of soundtracking my essay writing. And if I end up repeatedly ramming my head against the library desk in frustration, at least I’ll have a good song playing while I do it.

Photo by Ivan Samkov

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