Spectrum

It's Friday night, the train is rushing through the darkness; Amason sing Ålen, fading the day away beautifully. It's been a tough, intense week. And a busy weekend lays ahead. I feel that my batteries are drained. Yet, there's the music.

I close my eyes, everything around me, the drunk teenagers, the exhausted late-shift workers, the lonely and the party people, they all disappear. And I feel the melodies vibrating through every fibre of my body.

Curating the Weekly5 is, no matter how exhausted, my weekly highlight. Of course, it's also a complicated process as every second week, I could actually in good consciousness recommend ten songs. But dedicating time to something that not only gives me joy but feels like an essential part of survival is incredibly important. I hope you have a similar thing that recharges you in such a way, no matter what it is.

Moving on to today's selection, it's a spectrum of every facet of music I love. There's the epicness that makes you feel small and insignificant; there are emotions that crawl under your skin. The curation features catchy melodies and weird, artistic gems; there's lightness and heavyweight.

Best wishes,

Moby – Extreme Ways – Reprise Version (Edit)

In all fairness, I have to admit that I'm slightly too young to have experienced the height of Moby's career. His breaking record Play was released in 1999. However, I remember hearing Find My Baby and Extreme Ways on compilation CDs we used to buy back then. The latter track obviously gained a wider audience as the title track for the Bourne films.

Nevertheless, it wasn't enough for me to keep up with Moby. So I didn't acknowledge the release of his latest record, Reprise, back in May. Until this week. It's a best-of that wasn't only praised. However, critics weren't too pleased with the bombast of his classical interpretations. Too much pathos, too much bombast. And it might even be true for some of the reprises. Well…

Oh baby, oh baby
Then it fell apart, it fell apart

The NYC-based artist lately released an edit of his Reprise Version of Extreme Ways, shortened and condensed. The song starts subtly; an acoustic guitar and a piano, accompanied by strings. And Moby, who's more telling a story than singing. It brings out the essence of Extreme Ways, which simply remains a melancholic, self-doubting hymn without the electronic trickery. And yes, it shortly erupts in a lot of bombast in the end.