If you’re looking to relax, “Nod,” by Louie Zong is the album for you. With each song being more unique than the last, new and old listeners will finds themselves quite content with this album.

  Louie Zong is perhaps most well known for his single called, “Ghost Duet,” a simple song that is mostly composed of whistles, went viral on social media for its catchy tune and chill vibes.

  However, Zong’s music quality doesn’t stop with “Ghost Duet.” In, “Nod,” I feel like there is a variety of songs that everyone can enjoy.

  “Starting Again,” gets the eight-song-long album rolling, with a gentle beat that sets the tone for the whole album. A relatively similar song, “Polaroid,” follows, and feels almost magical, with a twinkly tune.

  This is a common trait in Zong’s music. His songs often have a subtle beat or instrument that evokes strong emotion, likely due to the lack of lyrics. The majority of Zong’s music contains no lyrics, in fact, and instead relies on the beat and tone of each song to rely the feeling intended by each song.

  “Nod,” is no exception. In fact, there is only one song on the album with words to sing along to, which is, “Burning Me Down.” The rest of the songs are simply composed of beats and melodic instruments, which I find quite enjoyable.

  However, for the listener who is looking for something to sing along to, “Burning Me Down,” is quite a good song. It begins relaxed and slow, but quickly picks up the pace as it builds up to the chorus. The chorus demonstrates Zong’s wide range of abilities on this album. He is able to create catchy tunes that anyone could sing along to, as well as smooth jazz pieces that one can relax to.

  In all of his music, I have found that I can immediately relax as soon as a song is turned on (especially with, “Arithmetic,” the last song on the album).

  In my opinion, a large portion of music today has little substance, or is unoriginal. Many popular (or unpopular, for that matter, it’s the same across the board to me) songs rely on a fast-paced beat that is repetitive in nature and does nothing but make someone want to move.

  There is certainly nothing wrong with that of course.

  However the reason that I enjoy Zong’s music so much (including, “Nod,”) is that the beats of each piece must have substance to capture the listener’s attention. In that way, I have found that this album is a game changer for me and for my personal music taste, as it does what I feel a large portion of other music cannot do — make listeners feel something, even if it’s just relaxation.