Music Notion

Words: A. Murray.

I played “Sweet Magnolia” three times in a row yesterday and didn’t realize it until my roommate asked why I kept restarting the same song. That’s the whole thing right there.

Julia Thomsen made a piano piece that doesn’t announce itself. It just shows up, does its job, and leaves you wondering why you haven’t heard it before. No one’s trying to prove anything. There’s no moment where you think “oh here’s the clever part.” It’s just piano and it’s just good.

I had it on while working through emails that were stressing me out, and I genuinely forgot I was annoyed about half of them. That sounds dumb when I write it out, but it happened. The piece has this quality where it takes up just enough space that your brain stops spinning.

The weird part is how simple it actually is. Nothing fancy, nothing that makes you go “wow look what she did there.” Just something that makes you want to sit with it for a while. I keep recommending it to people and they keep coming back asking where to find it, which tells you something.

It’s on all the streaming platforms. Play it when you need to actually breathe for five minutes