Blood Type by Cautious Clay

by Lana Fleischli

So, I think I can speak for everyone when I say that panic attacks really suck. Am I wrong? I doubt it. Anyway, I was having a rough week, and I was having constant anxiety or panic attacks. I was in my online class, and trust me, I know that the pandemic is mentally draining for all of us, but the one upside is that if you have a breakdown during school, work, or whatever, you can just turn your camera off or leave! So, I just pretended to get water or whatever so my classmates didn’t see my red face that either looked like I was crying or was really embarrassed. In this case, it was both. 

I texted my friend in desperate need of some calming down, something that she is very skilled at. She told me to listen to some music. Honestly I was very skeptical, because for me, I actually think a lot more when I listen to music, but my excuse to get water was running out, so I went back, and I asked her what I should listen to, she said Cautious Clay.

I introduced her to Cautious Clay’s music, so she knew I would like it. Her idea resonated with me, because his music is full of different sounds, but is also pretty calm. I turned on the EP, “Agreeable”, because I really like that song, and I just let his music shuffle. 

Then the song “Stolen Moments” from Blood Type came on, and I had never heard it before. It really did the trick! Suddenly my breath began to slow, my face became less red, and I started to focus on my class again. 

I listened to that song over and over again just to bring myself back to a sense of calm. After it ended, however, more songs from Blood Type came on, I slowly started wanting to listen to those songs over and over until I went through the whole album. It started with “Stolen Moments”, then I got into “Juliet and Caesar”, then “Silos” and “Cold War”, then “Joshua Tree”, “Blood Type”, and “Elsewhere”.

I listened to it over and over, because it shifted my mindset. Obviously if you are stressed, you’re stressed. I know. But if you can find something that makes you think about something else for two or three minutes, it’s worth it. I hope I keep finding more and more albums and songs that can calm me down even the slightest bit. Blood Type is a seven-song album. It’s exactly twenty minutes, but that’s what makes it easy. My stressed self just tells me to take twenty minutes to calm down. I guess the moral here is, find ways to take care of yourself. Find the album that you can listen to that makes you calm, even if it’s just a little bit.