"Editorial abstract illustration evoking the emotional arc of a song titled "The Tide Is High" by Blondie. Noticeable climb from quiet to loud. layered composition, overlapping color planes. Mood: introspective, reflective, warm. Visual style: 1980s editorial aesthetic, neon accents against moody ground. Painterly, grainy film texture, muted palette with strategic accent colors. The composition should read left-to-right like a timeline — calm on one side, intensifying toward the other. Strictly no faces, no text, no logos, no literal objects, no band imagery. Pure color-field abstraction with emotional weight. 16:9 editorial format."
Easy, low-key calm, right in the middle of 19,209 measured songs — measures out best for focus.
70
BPM
The Tide Is High by Blondie is 70 BPM — Adagio (slow).
Half-time 35 BPM · Double-time 140 BPM · released 1980
Fan image for "The Tide Is High"
An abstract illustration of what this song feels like. Each image is built from a prompt — the text description fed to the image generator. Listeners submit their own prompts, upvote the ones that fit best, and the top-voted prompt drives the next regeneration. After 100 image votes, we make a new picture.
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Song DNA
Notes: The song features a smooth blend of reggae and pop elements, with soft yet confident vocals from Debbie Harry. The instrumentation creates a warm and inviting atmosphere.
Misophonia Triggers
Recommended for: anxiety relief deep listening relaxation
A calm, low-key track. It’s fairly predictable, with a shape you can follow. The track has a moderate quiet-to-loud range with just a little movement, layered in texture, with soft, gentle vocals on top at an unhurried mid-tempo. On our 19,209-song scale, it sits more energetic than 25% of songs, calmer than the rest.
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Moods: introspective, reflective, warm
Traditions: pop, reggae
At a glance
"The Tide Is High" by Blondie
70 BPM, dynamic range 6/10, layered texture, soft vocals. Sits in the middle band — neither built for stillness nor pitched at workout intensity. Whether it works for a given moment depends more on mood and lyrical content than on the acoustic profile. The full sensory breakdown follows.
How this song sits on each sensory axis
A dynamic range of 6/10 means this song moves. Expect a real volume climb between quiet sections and the loudest part of the arrangement — enough that you may want to set the initial volume below where you'd normally land.
Sudden changes: mild. There are one or two transitions worth knowing about, though they're musically resolved rather than surprise-driven.
Texture is layered — a full arrangement with clear separation between parts.
Predictability is medium — conventional structure overall, with one or two moments that deviate from what you'd expect.
Vocal style: soft vocals.
Where this sits in Blondie's catalog
We have 20 songs from Blondie in the library. Of those, 0 are rated Safe, 19 Moderate, and 1 Intense. This song's dynamic range of 6/10 sits below the artist average of 6.2, making it the #17 most dynamic track of theirs in our library.
Other tracks from Autoamerican
We have 3 songs from this album. Overall, the album leans moderate in sensory profile.
1980 context
Released in 1980. We have 257 songs from that year in our library, averaging a dynamic range of 6.3/10. This track is about average than the year average. Explore more from the 1980s.
Explore by mood and tradition
Guides that may help
Jazz for Anxiety Relief: Which Subgenres Help and Which Overwhelm
Jazz for Anxiety Relief: Which Subgenres Help and Which Overwhelm — A guide for sensory-sensitive li…
How fast is "The Tide Is High"?
70 BPM — Slow (downtempo / ballad)
For running
Too slow for most running; good for warm-up walks or cool-down.
For workouts
Warm-up, cool-down, yoga, stretching.
For daily life
Sleep, meditation, reading, focus work.
Browse more songs at 70 BPM.
When "The Tide Is High" works, and when it doesn't
Use-case verdicts computed from the song's tempo, dynamics, and sensory profile.
~
Focus / studying
Maybe — fine for routine work, but the mid-song changes may pull attention during deep focus.
✗
Running / workout
No — 70 BPM is too slow for sustained cardio.
✗
Sleep / winding down
No — contains elements that will keep an awake nervous system engaged.
✓
Driving / road trip
Yes — predictable enough for safe driving attention, interesting enough to stay engaged.
✓
Cooking / dinner background
Yes — sits in the background without demanding attention.
~
Emotional release / catharsis
Not really — it's pleasant but doesn't hit hard enough for cathartic listening.
Related reading
Editorial guides that cover this song's use cases, moods, or artist.
Jazz for Anxiety Relief: Which Subgenres Help and Which Overwhelm
Jazz for Anxiety Relief: Which Subgenres Help and Which Overwhelm — A guide for sensory-sensitive listeners on musiciwant.com
Every Big Thief album ranked by emotional excavation
From Masterpiece to Dragon New Warm Mountain — every Big Thief album rated by how deep it digs into your nervous system, plus where Adrianne…
PJ Harvey's discography ranked by emotional pressure
Five PJ Harvey albums stacked by how hard they press on your nervous system — from the warmest entry point to the heaviest, with a listening…
Why this rating
We rate this song Moderate because it falls between our Safe and Intense thresholds on at least one dimension. Moderate is the default for most well-produced music that has real arc but no surprise elements. Full rubric: methodology.
This song in the Music Studio
37/100 intensity
See how “The Tide Is High” sits against your own sensitivities, or use it as a waypoint in a calmer set.
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Spotify and YouTube links go direct to the track when we have the ID; otherwise they search for it. Embed this sensory profile on your site →
Rating last reviewed: 2026-04-17. Reviewed by the Music I Want editorial team against the documented methodology.
Think this rating is wrong? Contact the editor — every message is read and ratings get revised.
By the numbers: how this song compares
Computed from this song’s place among the 19,209 songs we’ve measured.
Where it sits in 19,000 songs
On our 19k-song scale this lands in the middle band — more energetic than 25% of songs, calmer than the other 75%. Its intensity reading of 37/100 comes from a dynamic range of 6/10, layered texture, mild shifts, and soft vocals. It shares this stretch of the spectrum with thousands of other tracks, so the finer fingerprint below is what really separates it.
What makes it unusual
What stands out most about this song is a slow, unhurried pace: more extreme on that axis than 96% of everything we've measured. At the far opposite end of the library sit the songs built on full chaos — sudden changes, huge quiet-to-loud swings, and relentless energy — the kind of track this one is the counterpoint to.
Feels almost identical to
The Ways to Love a Man — Tammy Wynette · 99%Fourth of July — Sufjan Stevens · 99%Lullaby for My Insomniac — James Blake · 99%Katy Song — Red House Painters · 99%
Closest matches by feel across all 19,209 measured songs — not by genre or artist, by how they actually move.
What it’s good for
Sleep6/10
Focus10/10
Workout2/10
Dinner8/10
Party / hype2/10
Scored from this song’s tempo, intensity, dynamics and texture — not crowd votes.
1980 in context
The 257 songs we’ve measured from 1980 average a dynamic range of 6.3/10. At 6/10, this track is right in line with its year.
Mixes smoothly with
Within a few BPM and close in feel — they flow without a jarring transition.
The fingerprint
Intensity37
Dynamics56
Tempo17
Surprise25
Density33
Predictability50
Vocal force25
Trigger load25
The 8-dimension measurement behind every rating on this page.
Frequently asked about "The Tide Is High"
Quick answers pulled from the song's sensory analysis.
What is the BPM of "The Tide Is High" by Blondie?
"The Tide Is High" by Blondie has a tempo of 70 BPM (Adagio (slow)). At half-time that is 35 BPM, and at double-time 140 BPM.
What is the sensory intensity of "The Tide Is High" by Blondie?
"The Tide Is High" by Blondie rates as Moderate intensity. Dynamic range 6/10, mild sudden changes, layered texture. Moderate is the default for well-produced music with real arc but no surprise elements.
How loud is "The Tide Is High" — what is its dynamic range?
"The Tide Is High" has a dynamic range of 6/10. Noticeable climb from quiet sections to loudest point. Set opening volume slightly lower than your preferred peak.
Does "The Tide Is High" have sudden or surprising changes?
"The Tide Is High" has mild sudden changes — one or two transitions worth knowing about, but they are musically resolved rather than surprise-driven.
What is "The Tide Is High" best for?
In our library "The Tide Is High" is recommended for: anxiety relief, deep listening, relaxation. These tags are assigned only where the song's sensory profile genuinely supports the use case.
When was "The Tide Is High" released?
"The Tide Is High" is from 1980, on the album "Autoamerican". It appears in our 1980s catalog.
What is the emotional mood of "The Tide Is High"?
We tag "The Tide Is High" as introspective, reflective, warm. Moods are tonal descriptors based on how the song reads emotionally — separate from the sensory intensity axes.
What is the vocal style of "The Tide Is High"?
The vocal style is soft vocals.
Is "The Tide Is High" good for running?
Not really — at 70 BPM it's below most running cadences. Better for warm-up, cool-down, or walking. Recreational runners typically step at 140-175 BPM.
Is "The Tide Is High" good for studying?
Only partially. The song's dynamic range (6/10) means there will be loud moments that break focus during deep work.
Can I use "The Tide Is High" for sleep?
Not recommended for sleep. Contains transitions that will wake you up.
Should I listen to "The Tide Is High"?
"The Tide Is High" is Moderate intensity — fine for most listeners, but with enough dynamic activity that it works best as active listening rather than background.
Songs with the same DNA
layered texture, similar intensity — across any genre or era.
Safer alternatives with a similar feel
These songs share similar moods but with a gentler sensory profile.
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Where to next?
You know how this one feels — now go find the next one.