"Editorial abstract illustration evoking the emotional arc of a song titled "Hanging on a Star" by Nick Drake. Modest rise and fall. balanced composition. Mood: contemplative, introspective, melancholy. Visual style: 1970s editorial print aesthetic, sun-faded color. 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, gentler than 85% of our 19,209 measured songs — measures out best for focus.
80
BPM
Hanging on a Star by Nick Drake is 80 BPM — Andante (walking pace).
Half-time 40 BPM · Double-time 160 BPM · released 1972
Fan image for "Hanging on a Star"
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: The song features gentle guitar strumming and soft, soothing vocals that create a calming atmosphere. The overall sound is delicate and introspective.
Misophonia Triggers
Recommended for: meditation relaxation study
A calm, low-key track. This one has a moderate quiet-to-loud range and never jolts you — a smooth track with gentle vocals riding over it at an unhurried mid-tempo. It’s easy enough to follow without going flat. Against the 19,209 songs we’ve measured, it reads gentler than 85% of everything we’ve measured.
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Moods: contemplative, introspective, melancholy
Traditions: folk
At a glance
"Hanging on a Star" by Nick Drake
80 BPM, dynamic range 5/10, 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 5/10 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 medium — conventional structure overall, with one or two moments that deviate from what you'd expect.
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 5/10 sits above the artist average of 4.2, making it the #8 most dynamic track of theirs in our library.
Other tracks from Pink Moon
We have 11 songs from this album. Overall, the album leans safe in sensory profile.
- Pink Moon — safe DR 3
- Which Will — safe DR 3
- Things Behind the Sun — safe DR 3
- Road — safe DR 3
- Place to Be — safe DR 3
- From the Morning — safe DR 3
- Parasite — moderate DR 4
- Know — safe DR 3
- Rider on the Wheel — moderate DR 6
- Black Eyed Dog — moderate DR 6
1972 context
Released in 1972. We have 269 songs from that year in our library, averaging a dynamic range of 6.0/10. This track is quieter / less dynamic than the year average. Explore more from the 1970s.
Explore by mood and tradition
Traditions
folk · 879Guides that may help
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Lo-fi hip hop is the default focus soundtrack for millions, but the science is messier than the mark…
How fast is "Hanging on a Star"?
80 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
Morning coffee, deep work, commute wind-down.
Browse more songs at 80 BPM.
When "Hanging on a Star" 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 — 80 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.
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 …
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 …
Songs with no drums that still hit like a truck
Why drumless songs — Jeff Buckley, Nick Drake, Max Richter — devastate harder than a full band: with no beat, there's no handrail to hold on…
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
23/100 intensity
See how “Hanging on a Star” sits against your own sensitivities, or use it as a waypoint in a calmer set.
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For focused listening
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Rating last reviewed: 2026-04-17. 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 85% of the 19,209 songs in the library. Its intensity reading of 23/100 comes from a dynamic range of 5/10, 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 88% 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
Thumbing My Way — Pearl Jam · 99%Goodbye — Eddie Vedder · 99%The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived — Taylor Swift · 99%Cold As You — Taylor Swift · 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
Workout1/10
Dinner7/10
Party / hype1/10
Scored from this song’s tempo, intensity, dynamics and texture — not crowd votes.
1972 in context
The 269 songs we’ve measured from 1972 average a dynamic range of 6.0/10. At 5/10, this track is gentler and steadier than its year.
Mixes smoothly with
Back to December — Taylor SwiftThe Smallest Man Who Ever Lived — Taylor SwiftCold As You — Taylor Swift
Within a few BPM and close in feel — they flow without a jarring transition.
The fingerprint
Intensity23
Dynamics44
Tempo22
Surprise0
Density0
Predictability50
Vocal force25
Trigger load13
The 8-dimension measurement behind every rating on this page.
Frequently asked about "Hanging on a Star"
Quick answers pulled from the song's sensory analysis.
What is the BPM of "Hanging on a Star" by Nick Drake?
"Hanging on a Star" by Nick Drake has a tempo of 80 BPM (Andante (walking pace)). At half-time that is 40 BPM, and at double-time 160 BPM.
What is the sensory intensity of "Hanging on a Star" by Nick Drake?
"Hanging on a Star" by Nick Drake rates as Low-Intensity. Dynamic range 5/10, no sudden changes, smooth texture. Our Low-Intensity rating means no single dimension triggers the higher-intensity thresholds.
How loud is "Hanging on a Star" — what is its dynamic range?
"Hanging on a Star" has a dynamic range of 5/10. Within normal pop-mix variation. Movement between verse and chorus but nothing dramatic.
Does "Hanging on a Star" have sudden or surprising changes?
No. "Hanging on a Star" has no sudden unsignaled changes. Every transition is musically telegraphed.
What is "Hanging on a Star" best for?
In our library "Hanging on a Star" is recommended for: meditation, relaxation, study. These tags are assigned only where the song's sensory profile genuinely supports the use case.
When was "Hanging on a Star" released?
"Hanging on a Star" is from 1972, on the album "Pink Moon". It appears in our 1970s catalog.
What is the emotional mood of "Hanging on a Star"?
We tag "Hanging on a Star" as contemplative, introspective, melancholy. Moods are tonal descriptors based on how the song reads emotionally — separate from the sensory intensity axes.
What is the vocal style of "Hanging on a Star"?
The vocal style is soft vocals.
Is "Hanging on a Star" good for running?
Not really — at 80 BPM it's below most running cadences. Better for warm-up, cool-down, or walking. Recreational runners typically step at 140-175 BPM.
Is "Hanging on a Star" good for studying?
Only partially. The song's dynamic range (5/10) means there will be loud moments that break focus during deep work.
Can I use "Hanging on a Star" for sleep?
Not recommended for sleep. Dynamic range is too high — quiet moments will be ambushed by louder ones.
Should I listen to "Hanging on a Star"?
If you want gentle, low-arousal music, "Hanging on a Star" 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.