Staring at the Sun: a Solar Eclipse playlist

As you probably know, there’s a solar eclipse today, the first one visible in North America since 1991 and if you’re in the Path of Totality you’ll get to see a total eclipse. Here in NYC, we’re getting about a 75% eclipse and it will be visible from 1:23 PM to 4 PM with peak coverage at 2:44 PM. In celebration of this rare celestial event, people are putting together playlists. Ours is now on Spotify. It includes some obvious choices, and more than a few less obvious ones, too. Klaus Nomi’s “Total Eclipse,” unfortunately, is not on Spotify, but you can watch his classic performance from Urgh! A Music War, below.

And while there are four songs titles that have variations of the phrase “stare at the sun,” you don’t actually want to look at look at it without proper vision protection. (Though good luck getting those eclipse glasses last-minute today.) For lots more on the eclipse, visit’s NASA’s dedicated site.

For a more immersive, far-out experience, Pitchfork has a playlist loaded with ambient, new age and prog, that soundtracks the eclipse’s path across the entire United States and supposedly will sync up with the sky going dark in certain cities. Check that out here.