Finetuning Your Shelf: The Song of Achilles

Musicality and Madeline Miller’s Song of Achilles go hand in hand, and not least because of the title. Here’s a couple of selections for you to relive your Miller-induced sobbing as you finish the final page; a couple to wallow in self-pity to, a couple to make you smile and yeah, a couple to make you believe in love. If you haven’t already read the masterpiece, put this playlist on while you do. 

‘Mystery of Love’ — Sufjan Stevens

Ah, to be in the sun-drenched Italian countryside with your lover… we can but dream. Stevens’ song might be permanently tied to that other queer classic, Call Me By Your Name, but the escapism that it induces is perfect for Miller’s novel. Pretend you’re in Italy in the 80s, or Homeric Greece — here are two textual and musical spaces that will take you away from everything that currently surrounds you. With its raspy tones combined with the romantic melody and plucked strings this is one for those days when you’re the main character in your own film. As Sufjan says, both protagonists are ‘cursed by the love they receive’. Something tells me that Patroclus would really get into this song.

‘A Trick of the Light’ — Villagers

Again, another great one for Patroclus to muse to. The cool synth-like waves of sound mixed with the slightly broody tempo create a perfect mood to sit and listen. With the juxtaposition of its hopeful message with the indulgent heavy beats of the bass, this single from their 2018 album ‘The Art of Pretending to Swim’ provides the listener with a perfect set of contradictions all to the backdrop of frontman Conor O’Brien’s brittle and soft lead vocals.

‘At Last’ — Etta James

A sweeping introduction with the typical 1950s luxuriant string sections and soulful pace, you just know this is going to be good before it starts. The deep, sensuous voice of Etta James melds perfectly with the higher floating lines of the orchestra all created with a lightness of touch that makes ‘At Last’ such a timeless song.

‘There is a light that never goes out’ / ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’ — The Smiths

Now we couldn’t do this list without a bit of the dirge-like, raw and ever so earnest tunes from David Morrissey himself now, could we? With the line ‘to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die’ we just know this had to make the top 10. In fact, the plaintive and brutally honest strains of Morrissey combined with the somewhat morbid lyrics really let one wallow in self-pity, and then see red, just like Achilles when he goes full road rage on Hector.  

‘The Sun is in your Eyes’ — Jacob Collier

With its simple melodic and accompanying line, Jacob Collier’s 2020 song will make your soul feel so pure and then deliver a sucker punch that will leave you feeling all the emotions at once. Pure, clean and unpretentious in its delivery, this must be love.

‘The Water’ —Laura Marling

With Laura Marling’s folksy and heart-felt vocals alongside a gorgeous accompaniment from Johnny Flynn, this duo conveys the frailties and ties of a relationship with lyrics that will pack everything into a single line. Like Jacob Collier, the unfussy, simple words sung so beautifully by Marling in her tremulous and focused delivery only serve to increase the beauty of this song. With its final lyrics including ‘the water can’t drown me | I’m done with my dying’, you feel the echo of Miller’s closing pages closing around you.

‘Gold Rush’ — Taylor Swift

Queen Taylor delivers once again. This song could easily be the description of a modern Achilles, with the question ‘what must it be like to grow up that beautiful?’ seeming all too apt for a modern-day version of Miller’s epic retelling of the Trojan War. Of course, even though his beauty clearly precedes him, so too does his swift emotions and ‘contrarian shit’. But with eyes ‘so inviting’, and whose life is turned ‘into folklore’, it’s not too hard to imagine the fearsome beauty and clamour that surround the hero of both Swift’s song and Miller’s work.

‘Boys’ — Lizzo

If we had to be crude about the meaning of Miller’s sensational work, we could bypass the thorny topics of temporality, memory, legacy and the meaning of beauty and go straight to Lizzo’s 2019 hit song. In a place where the heat of battle and the nearness of death is ever present, Troy has the effect of making beauty, especially the male, all the more stunning and ephemeral. With its up-tempo beat and 80s work-out opening chords, we’re pretty sure this would have been a hit with the Ancient Greeks.  

‘Detectorist’s Theme’ — Johnny Flynn

Johnny Flynn’s distinctive folk-like, earthy sound seems a perfect way to end. All about finding a long-buried treasure, the Detectorist’s Theme encapsulates how whilst beauty may remain hidden, its potential never leaves and never fails to affect its beholders. For Achilles and Patroclus, although separated by death and in the incomprehensible world of the after-life, Flynn’s nuanced lyrics and delivery weaves its story through the earth and suggests the possibility of a life lived on after death, one only waiting to be recovered.  

Written by, Bea Bennett