"Editorial abstract illustration evoking the emotional arc of a song titled "Barton Hollow" by The Civil Wars. Noticeable climb from quiet to loud. layered composition, overlapping color planes. Mood: intimate, melancholy. Visual style: contemporary editorial aesthetic. 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."
Barton Hollow
The Civil Wars
Barton Hollow (2011)
Balanced energy, right in the middle of 19,209 measured songs — measures out best for focus.
80
BPM
Barton Hollow by The Civil Wars is 80 BPM — Andante (walking pace).
Half-time 40 BPM · Double-time 160 BPM · released 2011
Fan image for "Barton Hollow"
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: melodic harmonies
Recommended for: deep listening emotional release
Right in the middle of our energy scale. It lurches between soft and loud with the occasional gentle turn, over a layered texture. Soft, gentle vocals on top, at an unhurried mid-tempo. It’s fairly predictable, with a shape you can follow. Against the 19,209 songs we’ve measured, it sits more energetic than 35% of songs, calmer than the rest.
Cultural Context
Reflects themes of love and longing.
Listening Prompt
Focus on the interplay of vocals.
What to Expect
Starts softly and builds in emotional intensity.
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Hear it the way it was made
The right gear changes everything.
Moods: intimate, melancholy
Volume Warning
"Barton Hollow" climbs hard.
Dynamic range 7/10 places this in our upper band. The opening volume that feels comfortable will not be comfortable at the climax. If you are setting this up for a focused listen, anchor your volume to the quietest section, not the loudest. The arc is the point of the song; if you blunt it by riding the volume knob, you lose what makes it work. The Civil Wars built the dynamic shape on purpose. Plan around it.
How this song sits on each sensory axis
A dynamic range of 7/10 means this song moves. Expect a real volume climb between quiet sections and the loudest part of the arrangement — enough that you may want to set the initial volume below where you'd normally land.
Sudden changes: mild. There are one or two transitions worth knowing about, though they're musically resolved rather than surprise-driven.
Texture is layered — a full arrangement with clear separation between parts.
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 The Civil Wars's catalog
We have 10 songs from The Civil Wars in the library. Of those, 2 are rated Safe, 7 Moderate, and 1 Intense. This song's dynamic range of 7/10 sits above the artist average of 6.8, making it the #3 most dynamic track of theirs in our library.
Other tracks from Barton Hollow
We have 7 songs from this album. Overall, the album leans moderate in sensory profile.
- Poison & Wine — moderate DR 8
- The One That Got Away — moderate DR 6
- 20 Years — safe DR 5
- Dust to Dust — moderate DR 7
- I Had Me a Girl — moderate DR 6
- Same Old Same Old — moderate DR 7
2011 context
Released in 2011. We have 373 songs from that year in our library, averaging a dynamic range of 6.4/10. This track is about average than the year average. Explore more from the 2010s.
Explore by mood and tradition
How fast is "Barton Hollow"?
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 "Barton Hollow" works, and when it doesn't
Use-case verdicts computed from the song's tempo, dynamics, and sensory profile.
✗
Focus / studying
No — too dynamic or too many surprises. Save for active listening.
✗
Running / workout
No — 80 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.
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Why minor keys aren't actually sad — the music theory lie everyone repeats
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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
41/100 intensity
See how “Barton Hollow” 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: 2026-04-05. 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 35% of songs, calmer than the other 65%. Its intensity reading of 41/100 comes from a dynamic range of 7/10, layered texture, mild 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 a slow, unhurried pace: more extreme on that axis than 85% 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
The Only Living Boy in New York — Simon & Garfunkel · 99%Simple Twist of Fate — Bob Dylan · 99%Last Request — Paolo Nutini · 99%Wild Roses — Of Monsters and Men · 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
Sleep5/10
Focus10/10
Workout2/10
Dinner8/10
Party / hype3/10
Scored from this song’s tempo, intensity, dynamics and texture — not crowd votes.
2011 in context
The 372 songs we’ve measured from 2011 average a dynamic range of 6.4/10. At 7/10, this track is louder and more dynamic than its year.
Mixes smoothly with
Firth of Fifth — GenesisLovely — Billie Eilish & KhalidThe Only Living Boy in New York — Simon & Garfunkel
Within a few BPM and close in feel — they flow without a jarring transition.
The fingerprint
Intensity41
Dynamics67
Tempo22
Surprise25
Density33
Predictability50
Vocal force25
Trigger load0
The 8-dimension measurement behind every rating on this page.
Frequently asked about "Barton Hollow"
Quick answers pulled from the song's sensory analysis.
What is the BPM of "Barton Hollow" by The Civil Wars?
"Barton Hollow" by The Civil Wars 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 "Barton Hollow" by The Civil Wars?
"Barton Hollow" by The Civil Wars rates as Low-Intensity. Dynamic range 7/10, mild sudden changes, layered texture. Our Low-Intensity rating means no single dimension triggers the higher-intensity thresholds.
How loud is "Barton Hollow" — what is its dynamic range?
"Barton Hollow" has a dynamic range of 7/10. Noticeable climb from quiet sections to loudest point. Set opening volume slightly lower than your preferred peak.
Does "Barton Hollow" have sudden or surprising changes?
"Barton Hollow" has mild sudden changes — one or two transitions worth knowing about, but they are musically resolved rather than surprise-driven.
What is "Barton Hollow" best for?
In our library "Barton Hollow" is recommended for: deep listening, emotional release. These tags are assigned only where the song's sensory profile genuinely supports the use case.
When was "Barton Hollow" released?
"Barton Hollow" is from 2011, on the album "Barton Hollow". It appears in our 2010s catalog.
What is the emotional mood of "Barton Hollow"?
We tag "Barton Hollow" as intimate, melancholy. Moods are tonal descriptors based on how the song reads emotionally — separate from the sensory intensity axes.
What is the vocal style of "Barton Hollow"?
The vocal style is soft vocals.
Is "Barton Hollow" 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 "Barton Hollow" good for studying?
Only partially. The song's dynamic range (7/10) means there will be loud moments that break focus during deep work.
Can I use "Barton Hollow" for sleep?
Not recommended for sleep. Contains transitions that will wake you up.
Should I listen to "Barton Hollow"?
If you want gentle, low-arousal music, "Barton Hollow" is a solid pick — Low-Intensity across every sensory dimension.
Songs with the same DNA
layered 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.