"Editorial abstract illustration evoking the emotional arc of a song titled "Day Is Done" by Nick Drake. Modest rise and fall. balanced composition. Mood: introspective, melancholy, reflective. 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."
Deep calm, gentler than 93% of our 19,209 measured songs — measures out best for focus.
90
BPM
Day Is Done by Nick Drake is 90 BPM — Andante (walking pace).
Half-time 45 BPM · Double-time 180 BPM · released 1969
Fan image for "Day Is Done"
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: Gentle violin weaves mournful melodies around airy, fragile vocals that float ethereally, creating a serene and introspective atmosphere with smooth, autumnal textures. Minimal dynamics and no harsh elements make it calming for sensitive listeners.
Misophonia Triggers
Recommended for: anxiety relief deep listening relaxation
A haunting, melancholic folk ballad from Nick Drake's debut album, featuring delicate guitar, swirling strings, and poetic lyrics meditating on life's frailty and endings.
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Moods: introspective, melancholy, reflective
Traditions: folk
At a glance
"Day Is Done" by Nick Drake
90 BPM, dynamic range 4/10, smooth 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: none. Transitions are musically signaled — nothing will surprise you if you're only half-listening.
Texture: smooth.
Predictability is high — the song telegraphs what it will do next. A sensory-sensitive listener can usually guess where it's going without close attention.
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 #10 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
- Cello Song — moderate 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
Traditions
folk · 879Guides that may help
Jazz for Anxiety Relief: Which Subgenres Help and Which Overwhelm
Jazz for Anxiety Relief: Which Subgenres Help and Which Overwhelm — A guide for sensory-sensitive li…
How fast is "Day Is Done"?
90 BPM — Medium (midtempo / pop 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
Morning coffee, deep work, commute wind-down.
Browse more songs at 90 BPM.
When "Day Is Done" works, and when it doesn't
Use-case verdicts computed from the song's tempo, dynamics, and sensory profile.
✓
Focus / studying
Yes — low-variance volume, no surprises, steady tempo. The ideal study-music profile.
✗
Running / workout
No — 90 BPM is too slow for sustained cardio.
~
Sleep / winding down
Maybe — calm overall, but tempo is a bit high for deep sleep. Better for winding down than falling asleep.
✓
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
Five Leaves Left, Bryter Layter, Pink Moon — three records, three different vanishings. A passionate ranking by how deeply each one absorbs …
Jazz for Anxiety Relief: Which Subgenres Help and Which Overwhelm
Jazz for Anxiety Relief: Which Subgenres Help and Which Overwhelm — A guide for sensory-sensitive listeners on musiciwant.com
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 Safe because its dynamic range stays within our low-variance band, there are no unsignaled changes, and the texture and vocal style are both in the low-fatigue range. Our methodology uses an AND rule for Safe — a song has to clear every dimension to earn the rating.
This song in the Music Studio
17/100 intensity
See how “Day Is Done” sits against your own sensitivities, or use it as a waypoint in a calmer set.
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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
This sits near the calm end of everything we've measured — gentler than 93% of the 19,209 songs in the library. Its intensity reading of 17/100 comes from a dynamic range of 4/10, smooth texture, no sudden shifts, and soft vocals. Relatively few songs occupy this exact corner of the spectrum.
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
Present Tense — Radiohead · 99%Still Crazy After All These Years — Paul Simon · 99%Joe Hill — Phil Ochs · 99%If You Say the Word — Radiohead · 99%
Closest matches by feel across all 19,209 measured songs — not by genre or artist, by how they actually move.
What it’s good for
Sleep9/10
Focus10/10
Workout0/10
Dinner7/10
Party / hype1/10
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
The Boy with the Arab Strap — Belle and SebastianHeart of Gold — Neil YoungNothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby — Cigarettes After Sex
Within a few BPM and close in feel — they flow without a jarring transition.
The fingerprint
Intensity17
Dynamics33
Tempo28
Surprise0
Density0
Predictability0
Vocal force25
Trigger load0
The 8-dimension measurement behind every rating on this page.
Frequently asked about "Day Is Done"
Quick answers pulled from the song's sensory analysis.
What is the BPM of "Day Is Done" by Nick Drake?
"Day Is Done" by Nick Drake has a tempo of 90 BPM (Andante (walking pace)). At half-time that is 45 BPM, and at double-time 180 BPM.
What is the sensory intensity of "Day Is Done" by Nick Drake?
"Day Is Done" by Nick Drake rates as Low-Intensity. Dynamic range 4/10, no sudden changes, smooth texture. Our Low-Intensity rating means no single dimension triggers the higher-intensity thresholds.
How loud is "Day Is Done" — what is its dynamic range?
"Day Is Done" has a dynamic range of 4/10. Within normal pop-mix variation. Movement between verse and chorus but nothing dramatic.
Does "Day Is Done" have sudden or surprising changes?
No. "Day Is Done" has no sudden unsignaled changes. Every transition is musically telegraphed.
What is "Day Is Done" best for?
In our library "Day Is Done" is recommended for: anxiety relief, deep listening, relaxation. These tags are assigned only where the song's sensory profile genuinely supports the use case.
When was "Day Is Done" released?
"Day Is Done" is from 1969, on the album "Five Leaves Left". It appears in our 1960s catalog.
What is the emotional mood of "Day Is Done"?
We tag "Day Is Done" as introspective, melancholy, reflective. Moods are tonal descriptors based on how the song reads emotionally — separate from the sensory intensity axes.
What is the vocal style of "Day Is Done"?
The vocal style is soft vocals.
Is "Day Is Done" good for running?
Not really — at 90 BPM it's below most running cadences. Better for warm-up, cool-down, or walking. Recreational runners typically step at 140-175 BPM.
Is "Day Is Done" good for studying?
Yes — low dynamic range (4/10) and no sudden changes means the song stays in the background without pulling focus.
Can I use "Day Is Done" for sleep?
Not recommended for sleep. Dynamic range is too high — quiet moments will be ambushed by louder ones.
Should I listen to "Day Is Done"?
If you want gentle, low-arousal music, "Day Is Done" is a solid pick — Low-Intensity across every sensory dimension.
Songs with the same DNA
smooth texture, similar intensity — across any genre or era.
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Where to next?
You know how this one feels — now go find the next one.