Music for a hangover

A hangover is a niche listening environment, but a common one. The body is fragile, the head is a mild bell, and nothing tolerates being asked to feel anything. Most music sounds too loud at any volume.

What helps is music that doesn't surprise you. Nothing dynamic. Nothing bright. Nothing fast. Nothing with a key change that wants you to land somewhere specific. The whole point is to keep the room small and the day undemanding.

The wellness room is closest, but a little too slow — a hangover needs faint movement, not full stillness. Lo-fi at low volume works because the dust already on top of the music absorbs the edges. The sleep playlist is good if you're going back to bed, which is often what you should be doing anyway.

There's a kind of music made specifically for this, though nobody markets it that way — Sunday-morning records, recovery records, slow soul. Almost none of it is on the site, because almost none of it quite fits a room. But if you find an album that gets you through one, keep it. It will be useful again.