Coming in just ahead of I Am A Rock with 230 listens is Pie Jesu from Faure’s Requiem.

This one was in my head a lot way back in 2009 and 2010. The first time a heard a boy singing like this was when I watched Empire of the Sun in 1987 I think it was. The song was Welsh but sounded Japanese. It was transportive, taking me to the time and place of the movie, but also to a place of liminality. What does it mean to grow up? How do we become the thing we’re fighting against? How does the thing that imprison us make us whole?

The Welsh have some of the most powerful tunes ever. Pie Jesu is not Welsh, but it struck me at the time as powerfully as Suo Gan.