night nurse

from the album l’ avventura by dean & britta

dean & britta are like the indie serge gainsbourg and jane birkin of our day (except britta can actually sing). you may know dean from galaxie 500 or luna, and britta from her work on morel orel or wait for it: jem and the holograms! yep! she was the singing voice for jem. i love their music together, and the hazy, warm, tones of this song should soothe you into a happier place.

moonchild

from the album in the court of the crimson king by king crimson

i first heard this ethereal song on the soundtrack to one of my favourite films, buffalo 66. all i previously knew of king crimson was extremely prog rocky and not my cup of tea but this album has quite a few tracks i’ve come to really enjoy.

kathy’s song

from the album sounds of silence by simon and garfunkel

this song makes me so nostalgic for when my boyfriend and i lived an eight hour drive apart. i would get the overnight bus to visit him and because i was too excited and lovesick to sleep, i’d compile epic bittersweet playlists to pass the time. its amazing the depth songs take on when you’re curled up in a bus seat, watching the dark countryside speed by, and pressing yourself against the cold glass to try and stargaze. who knew traveling the greyhound could be romantic? listen and imagine you’re drawing closer to your favorite person.

good night

from the album the white album by the beatles

how could i not include this?! when i was little my parents would play the beatles for me to go to sleep to. i think this might have created some kind of pavlovian narcoleptic response in me, but even if you weren’t conditioned when you were young i think that this is a soothing late night listen. it might just be the aural equivalent of a mug of warm milk, being tucked in, and getting a kiss on your cheek.

i like the sunrise

from the album you could be born again by the free design

its so funny that i rarely talk about music on the draw! pilgrim blog, and yet in reality it plays a very big part in my life. since i was about 13 i’ve been quite obsessive about music. expanding my tastes and finding new favorite bands are one of my life’s greatest pleasures. as a teenager i’d spend all my time in my room making mix tapes (when there were tapes) for long suffering friends. curating each playlist, carefully charting the arc of the tape’s mood, hand making covers and cases and most importantly making sure there were no bits of songs cut off at the end of the tape.

i longed for the time when i’d be finished with school for good and could spend the rest of my adult life making mixtapes, i mean, that’s a job right? well, alas, real life intervened with my grand plans for full time professional mixtapery and though i enjoy throwing together a playlist and whipping up a cover in illustrator it just isn’t the same, is it? ten years ago i sent my boyfriend a lovingly minted david bowie mixtape that think i might owe our whole relationship to!

when i’d run out of school friends to make mixes for, i went further afield. i made mixes to post to new found internet friends, friends who lived in exotic and exciting locations like hull, in england (when visiting hull later, i discovered it wasn’t nearly as exotic or exciting as i’d dreamed) and in return i’d get mixes back from them. on the whole it was mostly bands i listened to already, i poured over uk music magazines like they contained hidden clues to the secret of life, so by that point i felt like i’d exhausted the britpop /post punk/etc. just as i was about to move onto avant garde jazz or grindcore metal, my friend dominic sent me a tape. he told me it was made by his flat mate, and he thought i’d like it. it didn’t have a name and it didn’t have a case.

‘like’ is probably the greatest understatement possible. i’m not sure i listened to anything but that tape for at least 6 months. it was like being ushered into a radio station of my favorite music that i’d never heard before. i took it to school and listened to it secretly in class. i slept with it on repeat. the tape got jammed in my player, and so i took it to the audio studio and bribed the technician with custard tarts until he agreed to magically restore its life. this tape was the lynch pin of my adolesence. it was the seed from which all current musical taste has grown. am i making myself clear enough? i really loved the tape!

i can’t send every one of you a mix tape – postage and law suit costs make it kinda prohibitive (remember kids: home taping is killing music!) – but i want to share some of my favorite music with you. so, i guess consider this part one of an (in)frequent mixtape feature. part one, my teenage bedroom top five, part inspired by that precious mix tape. if you’re interested in any of the songs, click the link below the album covers to find out more.

album: london weekend by another sunny day

song: i’m in love with a girl (who doesn’t know i exist)

i hope you enjoy this modern day mix tape. we don’t even have a tape player anymore, except in the car – which i can’t drive, but i still have my precious tape. there’s a jump in the middle of two of the songs where the tape got chewed, then healed by ron-the-magic-technician. the label i put on it has faded to a barely readable pink smudge, and still i love it. adolescence is a miserable, confusing time. there’s crazy hormones and you’re trapped for a while in that lonely chasm between childhood and adulthood, but this tape made it just that bit better. so dom’s flatmate from ten years ago, where ever you are, i owe you one magnificent mix tape.