"Editorial abstract illustration evoking the emotional arc of a song titled "Nothing Is Keeping You Here" by a-ha. Noticeable climb from quiet to loud. balanced composition. Mood: melancholy, reflective. Visual style: 2000s digital editorial aesthetic. 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."
Balanced energy, right in the middle of 19,209 measured songs — measures out best for dinner.
120
BPM
Nothing Is Keeping You Here by a-ha is 120 BPM — Allegro (fast).
Half-time 60 BPM · Double-time 240 BPM · released 2009
Fan image for "Nothing Is Keeping You Here"
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: Smooth synth-pop production with a gentle guitar riff opener transitioning to rousing choruses, featuring Morten Harket's emotive and ranging vocals over a relaxed verse-chorus structure. Easy-listening texture with piano, bass, drums, and subtle electronic elements keeps it accessible and non-overwhelming.
Misophonia Triggers
Recommended for: focus relaxation
A synth-pop track from a-ha's 2009 album Foot of the Mountain, characterized by traditional pop instrumentation, heartfelt melancholy lyrics on transience and restlessness, and Morten Harket's praised vocal performance.[1]
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Hear it the way it was made
The right gear changes everything.
Moods: melancholy, reflective
Traditions: synth-pop
At a glance
"Nothing Is Keeping You Here" by a-ha
120 BPM, dynamic range 6/10, 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 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: 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 a-ha's catalog
We have 20 songs from a-ha in the library. Of those, 6 are rated Safe, 13 Moderate, and 1 Intense. This song's dynamic range of 6/10 sits below the artist average of 6.3, making it the #16 most dynamic track of theirs in our library.
Other tracks from Foot of the Mountain
We have 2 songs from this album. Overall, the album leans safe in sensory profile.
- Foot of the Mountain — safe DR 5
2009 context
Released in 2009. We have 219 songs from that year in our library, averaging a dynamic range of 6.4/10. This track is about average than the year average. Explore more from the 2000s.
Explore by mood and tradition
Traditions
synth-pop · 396Guides that may help
Why Post-Rock Works for Focus — The Logic of Slow Builds
Why post-rock holds attention that slides off everything else: long builds, few sudden changes, and …
How to Build the Perfect Focus Playlist for Work — A Sensory-Rated Approach
How to Build the Perfect Focus Playlist for Work — A Sensory-Rated Approach — A guide for sensory-se…
Why Video Game Soundtracks Are Perfect for Focus and Study
Why Video Game Soundtracks Are Perfect for Focus and Study — A guide for sensory-sensitive listeners…
How fast is "Nothing Is Keeping You Here"?
120 BPM — Upbeat (dance-pop / running warm-up)
For running
Slow jog or recovery run pace. Matches a 120-140 stride-per-minute cadence.
For workouts
Steady cardio, power walking, light weights.
For daily life
Driving, getting ready in the morning, light party.
Browse more songs at 120 BPM.
When "Nothing Is Keeping You Here" 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
Yes — 120 BPM sits squarely in the running / cardio band. Matches natural stride cadence.
✗
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
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.
Why Post-Rock Works for Focus — The Logic of Slow Builds
Why post-rock holds attention that slides off everything else: long builds, few sudden changes, and enough happening to occupy the part of y…
A Sensory Guide to Every Radiohead Album — From Safe to Intense
A Sensory Guide to Every Radiohead Album — From Safe to Intense — A guide for sensory-sensitive listeners on musiciwant.com
Classical Music for Sensory Sensitivity: What's Safe, What's Intense, and Why
Classical Music for Sensory Sensitivity: What's Safe, What's Intense, and Why — A guide for sensory-sensitive listeners on musiciwant.com
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
41/100 intensity
See how “Nothing Is Keeping You Here” sits against your own sensitivities, or use it as a waypoint in a calmer set.
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Rating last reviewed: 2026-04-15. 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 35% of songs, calmer than the other 65%. Its intensity reading of 41/100 comes from a dynamic range of 6/10, smooth texture, mild shifts, and dynamic 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 an unusually steady, even volume: more extreme on that axis than 79% 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
Gypsy — Fleetwood Mac · 99%Cleaning Windows — Van Morrison · 99%My Hair — Ariana Grande · 99%Fly Me to the Moon — Frank Sinatra · 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
Sleep4/10
Focus8/10
Workout5/10
Dinner9/10
Party / hype5/10
Scored from this song’s tempo, intensity, dynamics and texture — not crowd votes.
2009 in context
The 218 songs we’ve measured from 2009 average a dynamic range of 6.4/10. 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
Intensity41
Dynamics56
Tempo44
Surprise25
Density0
Predictability0
Vocal force75
Trigger load0
The 8-dimension measurement behind every rating on this page.
Frequently asked about "Nothing Is Keeping You Here"
Quick answers pulled from the song's sensory analysis.
What is the BPM of "Nothing Is Keeping You Here" by a-ha?
"Nothing Is Keeping You Here" by a-ha has a tempo of 120 BPM (Allegro (fast)). At half-time that is 60 BPM, and at double-time 240 BPM.
What is the sensory intensity of "Nothing Is Keeping You Here" by a-ha?
"Nothing Is Keeping You Here" by a-ha rates as Low-Intensity. Dynamic range 6/10, mild sudden changes, smooth texture. Our Low-Intensity rating means no single dimension triggers the higher-intensity thresholds.
How loud is "Nothing Is Keeping You Here" — what is its dynamic range?
"Nothing Is Keeping You Here" 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 "Nothing Is Keeping You Here" have sudden or surprising changes?
"Nothing Is Keeping You Here" has mild sudden changes — one or two transitions worth knowing about, but they are musically resolved rather than surprise-driven.
What is "Nothing Is Keeping You Here" best for?
In our library "Nothing Is Keeping You Here" is recommended for: focus, relaxation. These tags are assigned only where the song's sensory profile genuinely supports the use case.
When was "Nothing Is Keeping You Here" released?
"Nothing Is Keeping You Here" is from 2009, on the album "Foot of the Mountain". It appears in our 2000s catalog.
What is the emotional mood of "Nothing Is Keeping You Here"?
We tag "Nothing Is Keeping You Here" as 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 "Nothing Is Keeping You Here"?
The vocal style is dynamic vocals.
Is "Nothing Is Keeping You Here" good for running?
Yes — at 120 BPM it sits in the running-cadence band (120-180 BPM). Match your stride to the beat and it keeps pace with most recreational runners.
Is "Nothing Is Keeping You Here" 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 "Nothing Is Keeping You Here" for sleep?
Not recommended for sleep. Contains transitions that will wake you up.
Should I listen to "Nothing Is Keeping You Here"?
If you want gentle, low-arousal music, "Nothing Is Keeping You Here" 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.