Since the 1990’s, Ryan O’Neal has been making music under the name Sleeping At Last. Initially with his brother, Chad O’Neal, and Dan Perdue, but continued under the moniker after O’Neal and Purdue’s departures in 2008 and 2011 respectively. Sleeping At Last as a project is famed for its many compilations and EPs based around central themes of life, time and space. Since 2013, the Atlas series has looked at nearly every aspect of what makes us human, including the Enneagram 1-9 personality types.
The Atlas: Enneagram EP (released in 2019) is quite possibly one of my favourite things ever made. The concept itself intrigued me when I found out about it, how does one compress an entire Enneagram personality type into a single song? Well, if the person is Ryan O’Neal, then using a piano and some of the most profound lyrics ever written. If O’Neal hadn’t done his research, the EP could easily have come off cheesy and reliant on stereotypes, but when I first heard my type’s song, I felt as though I’d been slapped in the face (in the best way possible)!
The first song I heard from this EP was Nine (funnily enough, the last song on the tracklist) and as soon as I heard O’Neal’s voice accompanied by soft piano chords, I knew I’d adore it. I must have listened to it on repeat for an hour or so before sending it to my best friend and screaming down the phone at her to listen to it and marvel at the sheer beauty and brilliance of its composition and lyrics. After doing a little googling about the song, I found out that it was part of a collection based on the Enneagram types and Nine was O’Neal’s own type. It intrigued me, so I took the test and found out my type.
The moment I heard the opening lyrics of Two, I felt a pang in my chest (as dramatic as that sounds, I was being serious). I felt understood. Those lyrics flowed into my ears and nestled themselves somewhere deep in my heart and haven’t budged since. O’Neal perfectly describes the extreme selflessness to the point of self-neglect of a type Two, and the soft piano that transitions into graceful strings just finishes it off to make a perfect song.
One thing I adore about O’Neal as a singer is how emotive he is. Even in the songs that he might not relate to, he sings the lyrics with such power and emotion. He clearly cares about this project so much and it shows in how every song in every EP or compilation he releases is so delicately and lovingly crafted.
The EP also contains what O’Neal refers to as ‘fingerprints’ from his friends. Each song contains these little elements put there by people of each type, which I find really fun. It’s almost as if there’s a little bit of communication between people of each type, saying ‘Hi! I’m like you, you’re not alone’.
I also love how each song can be enjoyed separately from the whole Enneagram thing. I listen to the EP regularly just because it’s lovely music. The songs aren’t so obviously about the types that you can’t listen without thinking of that.
I can only speak for myself and the friends I’ve made take the test and listen to their song, but O’Neal perfectly describes each type through this EP which makes it a wonderful album to listen to and helps the listener form a kind of kinship with his music.
Overall, I adore this EP and really urge anyone reading this to find out their type and listen to their song! Sleeping at Last’s music as a whole is insanely lovely and I’ll most likely write another article on it in the future, but for now all I’ll say is give it a listen! You won’t regret it!
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