"Editorial abstract illustration evoking the emotional arc of a song titled "Cello Song" by Nick Drake. Modest rise and fall. layered composition, overlapping color planes. Mood: contemplative, dreamy, introspective, melancholy, serene. Visual style: 1969 vintage painting aesthetic, warm aged tones. Painterly, grainy film texture, muted palette with strategic accent colors. The composition should read left-to-right like a timeline — calm on one side, intensifying toward the other. Strictly no faces, no text, no logos, no literal objects, no band imagery. Pure color-field abstraction with emotional weight. 16:9 editorial format."
Easy, low-key calm, right in the middle of 19,209 measured songs — measures out best for dinner.
72
BPM
Cello Song by Nick Drake is 72 BPM — Adagio (slow).
Half-time 36 BPM · Double-time 144 BPM · released 1969
Fan image for "Cello Song"
An abstract illustration of what this song feels like. Each image is built from a prompt — the text description fed to the image generator. Listeners submit their own prompts, upvote the ones that fit best, and the top-voted prompt drives the next regeneration. After 100 image votes, we make a new picture.
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Song DNA
Notes: Ethereal and floating with intricate fingerpicking guitar creating a complex rhythmic foundation beneath Drake's dreamy vocals. The shifting metric emphasis creates subtle disorientation that enhances the song's contemplative atmosphere.
Misophonia Triggers
Recommended for: deep listening emotional release meditation relaxation
A delicate folk composition featuring sophisticated fingerpicking, cello arrangements, and rhythmically disorienting chord progressions that create a sense of emotional weightlessness.
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Moods: contemplative, dreamy, introspective, melancholy, serene
Traditions: folk, singer-songwriter
At a glance
"Cello Song" by Nick Drake
72 BPM, dynamic range 4/10, layered texture, soft vocals. Sits in the middle band — neither built for stillness nor pitched at workout intensity. Whether it works for a given moment depends more on mood and lyrical content than on the acoustic profile. The full sensory breakdown follows.
How this song sits on each sensory axis
A dynamic range of 4/10 is within the normal pop-mix band. There is variation between verse and chorus, but it's the kind of variation most listeners encounter routinely.
Sudden changes: present. This song uses surprise as a feature. For focus or background listening, it's likely to pull your attention away; for active listening, that's often the point.
Texture is layered — a full arrangement with clear separation between parts.
Predictability is low — this song does not follow standard verse-chorus form closely, and rewards active listening more than passive listening.
Vocal style: soft vocals.
Where this sits in Nick Drake's catalog
We have 26 songs from Nick Drake in the library. Of those, 20 are rated Safe, 6 Moderate, and 0 Intense. This song's dynamic range of 4/10 sits below the artist average of 4.2, making it the #9 most dynamic track of theirs in our library.
Other tracks from Five Leaves Left
We have 6 songs from this album. Overall, the album leans safe in sensory profile.
- River Man — safe DR 6
- Time Has Told Me — safe DR 3
- Day Is Done — safe DR 4
- Way to Blue — safe DR 4
- Fruit Tree — safe DR 5
1969 context
Released in 1969. We have 222 songs from that year in our library, averaging a dynamic range of 6.3/10. This track is quieter / less dynamic than the year average. Explore more from the 1960s.
Explore by mood and tradition
Guides that may help
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How fast is "Cello Song"?
72 BPM — Slow (downtempo / ballad)
For running
Too slow for most running; good for warm-up walks or cool-down.
For workouts
Warm-up, cool-down, yoga, stretching.
For daily life
Sleep, meditation, reading, focus work.
Browse more songs at 72 BPM.
When "Cello Song" works, and when it doesn't
Use-case verdicts computed from the song's tempo, dynamics, and sensory profile.
~
Focus / studying
Maybe — fine for routine work, but the mid-song changes may pull attention during deep focus.
✗
Running / workout
No — 72 BPM is too slow for sustained cardio.
✗
Sleep / winding down
No — contains elements that will keep an awake nervous system engaged.
✓
Driving / road trip
Yes — predictable enough for safe driving attention, interesting enough to stay engaged.
✓
Cooking / dinner background
Yes — sits in the background without demanding attention.
✓
Emotional release / catharsis
Yes — this is a song for actively feeling what you came to feel, not for background.
Related reading
Editorial guides that cover this song's use cases, moods, or artist.
Every Nick Drake album, ranked by how completely it disappears you
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From bedroom ASMR whispers to walls of distortion — a deep sensory dive into all three Billie Eilish studio albums and what each one actuall…
Nick Cave's albums ranked by emotional darkness — which one is your nervous system ready for?
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds made some of the most devastating music in rock history. But not all darkness is the same. This guide ranks his …
Why this rating
We rate this song Moderate because it falls between our Safe and Intense thresholds on at least one dimension. Moderate is the default for most well-produced music that has real arc but no surprise elements. Full rubric: methodology.
This song in the Music Studio
40/100 intensity
See how “Cello Song” sits against your own sensitivities, or use it as a waypoint in a calmer set.
Listen on
Spotify and YouTube links go direct to the track when we have the ID; otherwise they search for it. Embed this sensory profile on your site →
Rating last reviewed: 2026-04-14. Reviewed by the Music I Want editorial team against the documented methodology.
Think this rating is wrong? Contact the editor — every message is read and ratings get revised.
By the numbers: how this song compares
Computed from this song’s place among the 19,209 songs we’ve measured.
Where it sits in 19,000 songs
On our 19k-song scale this lands in the middle band — more energetic than 34% of songs, calmer than the other 66%. Its intensity reading of 40/100 comes from a dynamic range of 4/10, layered texture, moderate shifts, and soft vocals. It shares this stretch of the spectrum with thousands of other tracks, so the finer fingerprint below is what really separates it.
What makes it unusual
What stands out most about this song is an unusually steady, even volume: more extreme on that axis than 97% of everything we've measured. At the far opposite end of the library sit the songs built on full chaos — sudden changes, huge quiet-to-loud swings, and relentless energy — the kind of track this one is the counterpoint to.
Feels almost identical to
Sail to the Moon — Radiohead · 88%Crepuscule with Nellie — Thelonious Monk · 85%Nocturnes: III. Sirènes — Claude Debussy · 85%Golden Lady — Stevie Wonder · 84%
Closest matches by feel across all 19,209 measured songs — not by genre or artist, by how they actually move.
Dial the feeling up or down
What it’s good for
Sleep4/10
Focus7/10
Workout2/10
Dinner8/10
Party / hype3/10
Scored from this song’s tempo, intensity, dynamics and texture — not crowd votes.
1969 in context
The 222 songs we’ve measured from 1969 average a dynamic range of 6.3/10. At 4/10, this track is gentler and steadier than its year.
Mixes smoothly with
Within a few BPM and close in feel — they flow without a jarring transition.
The fingerprint
Intensity40
Dynamics33
Tempo18
Surprise50
Density33
Predictability100
Vocal force25
Trigger load38
The 8-dimension measurement behind every rating on this page.
Frequently asked about "Cello Song"
Quick answers pulled from the song's sensory analysis.
What is the BPM of "Cello Song" by Nick Drake?
"Cello Song" by Nick Drake has a tempo of 72 BPM (Adagio (slow)). At half-time that is 36 BPM, and at double-time 144 BPM.
What is the sensory intensity of "Cello Song" by Nick Drake?
"Cello Song" by Nick Drake rates as Moderate intensity. Dynamic range 4/10, moderate sudden changes, layered texture. Moderate is the default for well-produced music with real arc but no surprise elements.
How loud is "Cello Song" — what is its dynamic range?
"Cello Song" has a dynamic range of 4/10. Within normal pop-mix variation. Movement between verse and chorus but nothing dramatic.
Does "Cello Song" have sudden or surprising changes?
Yes. "Cello Song" uses surprise as a compositional feature. Expect unsignaled transitions.
What is "Cello Song" best for?
In our library "Cello Song" is recommended for: deep listening, emotional release, meditation, relaxation. These tags are assigned only where the song's sensory profile genuinely supports the use case.
When was "Cello Song" released?
"Cello Song" is from 1969, on the album "Five Leaves Left". It appears in our 1960s catalog.
What is the emotional mood of "Cello Song"?
We tag "Cello Song" as contemplative, dreamy, introspective, melancholy, serene. Moods are tonal descriptors based on how the song reads emotionally — separate from the sensory intensity axes.
What is the vocal style of "Cello Song"?
The vocal style is soft vocals.
Is "Cello Song" good for running?
Not really — at 72 BPM it's below most running cadences. Better for warm-up, cool-down, or walking. Recreational runners typically step at 140-175 BPM.
Is "Cello Song" good for studying?
Only partially. The song's dynamic range (4/10) means there will be loud moments that break focus during deep work.
Can I use "Cello Song" for sleep?
Not recommended for sleep. Contains transitions that will wake you up.
Should I listen to "Cello Song"?
"Cello Song" is Moderate intensity — fine for most listeners, but with enough dynamic activity that it works best as active listening rather than background.
Songs with the same DNA
layered texture, similar intensity — across any genre or era.
Safer alternatives with a similar feel
These songs share similar moods but with a gentler sensory profile.
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Where to next?
You know how this one feels — now go find the next one.