"Editorial abstract illustration evoking the emotional arc of a song titled "The First Cut Is the Deepest" by Cat Stevens. Modest rise and fall. balanced composition. Mood: introspective, melancholy, reflective. Visual style: 1967 vintage painting aesthetic, warm aged tones. 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, gentler than 82% of our 19,209 measured songs — measures out best for focus.
86
BPM
The First Cut Is the Deepest by Cat Stevens is 86 BPM — Andante (walking pace).
Half-time 43 BPM · Double-time 172 BPM · released 1967
Fan image for "The First Cut Is the Deepest"
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: Gentle acoustic folk arrangement with steady strumming and emotive singing creates a soothing, introspective atmosphere without harsh elements or abrupt shifts. Predictable rhythm and melody promote emotional calm rather than overstimulation.
Misophonia Triggers
Recommended for: anxiety relief deep listening relaxation
A poignant folk-rock ballad about heartbreak from a first love, written by a 17-year-old Cat Stevens and featured on his 1967 album New Masters.
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Hear it the way it was made
The right gear changes everything.
Moods: introspective, melancholy, reflective
Traditions: folk rock
At a glance
"The First Cut Is the Deepest" by Cat Stevens
86 BPM, dynamic range 5/10, smooth texture, dynamic 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 5/10 is within the normal pop-mix band. There is variation between verse and chorus, but it's the kind of variation most listeners encounter routinely.
Sudden changes: none. Transitions are musically signaled — nothing will surprise you if you're only half-listening.
Texture: smooth.
Predictability is high — the song telegraphs what it will do next. A sensory-sensitive listener can usually guess where it's going without close attention.
Vocal style: dynamic vocals.
Where this sits in Cat Stevens's catalog
We have 22 songs from Cat Stevens in the library. Of those, 16 are rated Safe, 6 Moderate, and 0 Intense. This song's dynamic range of 5/10 sits above the artist average of 4.5, making it the #6 most dynamic track of theirs in our library.
1967 context
Released in 1967. We have 289 songs from that year in our library, averaging a dynamic range of 6.2/10. This track is quieter / less dynamic than the year average. Explore more from the 1960s.
Explore by mood and tradition
Traditions
folk rock · 224Guides 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 First Cut Is the Deepest"?
86 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
Morning coffee, deep work, commute wind-down.
Browse more songs at 86 BPM.
When "The First Cut Is the Deepest" 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 — 86 BPM is too slow for sustained cardio.
~
Sleep / winding down
Maybe — calm overall, but tempo is a bit high for deep sleep. Better for winding down than falling asleep.
✓
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
Yes — this is a song for actively feeling what you came to feel, not for background.
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
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Not all loud music is unsafe. Not all quiet music is safe. How doom metal, drone, and sludge rock score better for sensory sensitivity than …
Nick Cave's albums ranked by emotional darkness — which one is your nervous system ready for?
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds made some of the most devastating music in rock history. But not all darkness is the same. This guide ranks his …
Why this rating
We rate this song Safe because its dynamic range stays within our low-variance band, there are no unsignaled changes, and the texture and vocal style are both in the low-fatigue range. Our methodology uses an AND rule for Safe — a song has to clear every dimension to earn the rating.
This song in the Music Studio
28/100 intensity
See how “The First Cut Is the Deepest” 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: 2026-04-14. 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
This sits near the calm end of everything we've measured — gentler than 82% of the 19,209 songs in the library. Its intensity reading of 28/100 comes from a dynamic range of 5/10, smooth texture, no sudden shifts, and dynamic vocals. Relatively few songs occupy this exact corner of the spectrum.
What makes it unusual
What stands out most about this song is an unusually steady, even volume: more extreme on that axis than 88% 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
Holiday — Bee Gees · 99%City of Dreams — Talking Heads · 99%Heard 'Em Say — Kanye West · 99%I Was Here — Beyoncé · 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
Sleep7/10
Focus9/10
Workout1/10
Dinner8/10
Party / hype2/10
Scored from this song’s tempo, intensity, dynamics and texture — not crowd votes.
1967 in context
The 289 songs we’ve measured from 1967 average a dynamic range of 6.2/10. At 5/10, this track is gentler and steadier than its year.
Mixes smoothly with
Within a few BPM and close in feel — they flow without a jarring transition.
The fingerprint
Intensity28
Dynamics44
Tempo26
Surprise0
Density0
Predictability0
Vocal force75
Trigger load0
The 8-dimension measurement behind every rating on this page.
Frequently asked about "The First Cut Is the Deepest"
Quick answers pulled from the song's sensory analysis.
What is the BPM of "The First Cut Is the Deepest" by Cat Stevens?
"The First Cut Is the Deepest" by Cat Stevens has a tempo of 86 BPM (Andante (walking pace)). At half-time that is 43 BPM, and at double-time 172 BPM.
What is the sensory intensity of "The First Cut Is the Deepest" by Cat Stevens?
"The First Cut Is the Deepest" by Cat Stevens rates as Low-Intensity. Dynamic range 5/10, no sudden changes, smooth texture. Our Low-Intensity rating means no single dimension triggers the higher-intensity thresholds.
How loud is "The First Cut Is the Deepest" — what is its dynamic range?
"The First Cut Is the Deepest" has a dynamic range of 5/10. Within normal pop-mix variation. Movement between verse and chorus but nothing dramatic.
Does "The First Cut Is the Deepest" have sudden or surprising changes?
No. "The First Cut Is the Deepest" has no sudden unsignaled changes. Every transition is musically telegraphed.
What is "The First Cut Is the Deepest" best for?
In our library "The First Cut Is the Deepest" 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 First Cut Is the Deepest" released?
"The First Cut Is the Deepest" is from 1967, on the album "New Masters". It appears in our 1960s catalog.
What is the emotional mood of "The First Cut Is the Deepest"?
We tag "The First Cut Is the Deepest" as introspective, melancholy, reflective. Moods are tonal descriptors based on how the song reads emotionally — separate from the sensory intensity axes.
What is the vocal style of "The First Cut Is the Deepest"?
The vocal style is dynamic vocals.
Is "The First Cut Is the Deepest" good for running?
Not really — at 86 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 First Cut Is the Deepest" good for studying?
Only partially. The song's dynamic range (5/10) means there will be loud moments that break focus during deep work.
Can I use "The First Cut Is the Deepest" for sleep?
Not recommended for sleep. Dynamic range is too high — quiet moments will be ambushed by louder ones.
Should I listen to "The First Cut Is the Deepest"?
If you want gentle, low-arousal music, "The First Cut Is the Deepest" is a solid pick — Low-Intensity across every sensory dimension.
Songs with the same DNA
smooth texture, similar intensity — across any genre or era.
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Where to next?
You know how this one feels — now go find the next one.