INFP/Enneagram 4 Music — Shrines
That’s right. Apparently, I fit in the description of an INFP and/or Enneagram Type 4. If you’re reading this, it’s likely that you already know what those terms mean and there’s no need to explain (if that’s the case, you might just want to skip to the subheadings). You also probably know that there are variations within the personalities, so it’s not like all natives of a type have the same tastes. Either way, I welcome you!
So let me explain what this is.
I’ve done some reading…hm…and I found these personality types that really capture me. From what I can tell from others’ comments, it looks like we love discovering what our type is and the sensation that we’ve “finally found our tribe,” so to speak — at least, we don’t feel as uniquely weird as before. And we’d know a thing or two about feeling uniquely weird.
That said, one of the plethora of things that always made me feel like an outcast growing up was my musical interest. Sure, I love some mainstream music, but I’m very open-minded, and there was always a subset of songs that I felt kind of guilty of yet mesmerized by. It’s music that others often considered moody, depressing, cringe or over their head. I call it INFP/Enneagram Type 4 music!
But not all moody, unconventional music qualifies in my book; it’s a bit more specific than that. Hopefully you’ll see what I mean.
Purity Ring. They’re an electronic pop duo from Alberta, made of Megan James and Corin Roddick. I would say most of their discography fits the musical personality I’m discussing. For now, I want to look at their album Shrines.
Shrines is my Personality
Many of the songs “bleed” into each other on this album to make a sort of coherent story. The openings are great at throwing you into the world of the song, feeling like you’re entering another realm. The mix of electronic with hip-hop and pop beats adds a unique feel to it. Also, the lyrics are highly imaginative and creative, often using uncommon or old-fashioned verbiage or made-up compound words. You’ve got to use your noggin a bit.
The songs included here feel poetic, though they can get graphic and discomforting. With this, the stories in the lyrics can seem cartoonish while being sentimental at the same time. Plus, the repetition of certain phrases or sound patterns with up-and-down rhythms evokes rapidly changing emotions, somewhere between wonder and grief.
I’m no music expert, i.e. I’m sure I’ll mix up terms like “beat” and “rhythm.” The point of this post is to identify why I feel each song is emblematic of an INFP or Enneagram 4 personality. So, it’s only fitting that we look at what are, in my opinion, the best four examples from the album. Each song has a short list of reasons why I included it, along with a sample from the trippy lyrics.
1. Crawlersout — dancing buffalo in the sky
- Opening has a starry, spaced-out vibe
- Low boom comes in announcing with a pounding bass that adds emotion — drum-clap beat makes you feel cool
- Fun lyrics leading up to the chorus or bridge
- Fantasy feel; dark and mysterious but hopeful
- Several moments to sit with the bright sounds and feel the energy
Sea water’s flowing from the middle of my thighs
Wild buffalo are dancing on the clifftops, in the skies
Adorn me in feathers from dead birds
And contemplate the size of leather pelts to wind me in
Put shutters on my eyes-
They’ll cover the hills with their sweet flesh and soft nails
They’ll cover the doors with the screams that their minds dispose
They’ll weave their long souls
Into the frame to grow their foliage in
They’ll sew their long hairs
Into their beds to keep them crawlers out
2. Amenamy — thy scalloppèd breastbone
- Another extraterrestrial opening with the feel of going through clouds, breathing in a spacesuit or coming to life
- That bass and hip-hop beat kick in hard
- I love how it opens with “somberly, somberly,” then makes up the word “longerly”
- The dings and bells add brightness to the deep mystique
- Fun pace; up-and-down beats conjure an emotional ride
- Wormholes
- Some of the word choice sounds like an artsy speech from the 1700s — besides “wormholes”
And broil and toil and foil
Thy scallopped breastbone
Roll and toll and fold
The long winter in it
Think not what the season’ll become
Reap fruitfully at the gardendom
That grew masterfully over your withering son
3. Saltkin — sweating lips and inner cults
- “There's a cult inside of me” — What?! — and the repetition of that line throughout
- This song leans a lot more into the dark and slow sentiment, more earthy and dirty; it feels like curling up in the middle of a dark wood
- The music before, in and after the bridge is so impactful
- The end explodes and whirls with emotion
Sleep is a welcome gadget in our headbondhood
The crawling animals will seek
All things warm, all things moist
And I will relentlessly shame myself
In rest, in wake, in front of
My truly born beloved
For here I lie in wait
Hush little heart
Steal my sweating lips
Wield my starving hips-
There’s a cult, there’s a cult inside of me
Form the salt, sprinkle it around me
4. Lofticries — collect your liquids off the floor
- Hypnotic, also very dark and mysterious
- Repetitive strutting feels like a rise and fall, like climbing a circular stairwell; ends on the perfect notes
- Beautiful, almost violent lyrics
- Crying, rain and sadness with a near-death reference
- The end is drawn out long enough to hold you in its encapsulating mood
Let it seep through your sockets and ears
Into your precious, ruptured skull
Let it seep, let it keep you from us
Patiently heal you, patiently unreel you-
Beat weighty tests with lofty cries
Lofty cries with trembling thighs
Weepy chests with weepy sighs
Weepy skin with trembling thighs-
You must be hovering over yourself
Watching us drip on each other’s sides
Dear brother, collect all the liquids off of the floor
Use your oily fingers, make a paste, let it form
That’s my list and I’m sticking to it! Of course, no personality type likes all the same things all the time (to my knowledge). To mix things up, here’s a more traditional extroverted song I imagine some other types might have fun with too. WARNING: It’s still Purity Ring, so level those expectations.
