Welcome to The Soundtrack, a column where we plumb the depths of our musical knowledge to bring you the best* (subjective) music to listen to for very specific life situations. This week, we bring you music to help you set the sexy-but-not-too-intense mood for your first Adult Sleepover with someone new and promising.
So, you’ve started seeing someone, hey? Good for you, putting yourself out there again. For a while there you were just focusing on yourself, which is also neat, but now you’re set on the idea of a buddy to cuddle while you sip cheap terrible wine and catch up on Luke Cage – and you reckon this new person in your life might be just the ticket. They’re charming, funny, down to earth, AND say “please” and “thank you” to waitstaff. So far, so good. Things are moving just a liiiittle slower than you’d like, so you’ve invited them over for a ~sexy~ dinner (if you’re cooking you might want to check out The Soundtrack from a couple weeks back). You’re keen to set the mood just right – relaxed but not too casual, sensual but not too obviously sexy, and you also really wanna impress them with how cool and eclectic you are BUT you definitely do not want them knowing you’ve chucked on a specific playlist just for this occassion. That’s why you’re here. Jesus christ, can’t you do anything for yourself? Just kidding. I have the goods for you. Happy to help.
Free Weed – High With Me
Let’s face it, you’re probably both a bit nervous. In all likelihood, both of you want this to turn into an Adult Sleepover, but neither of you want it to seem like you’re expecting anything. My recommendation is that you both relax, man. Just chill out. However you’re inclined to do that is up to you. I’m not condoning anything, but I am also not your mum. Regardless of how you reach maximus relaximus (but don’t go TOO far, you don’t wanna fall asleep without banging at least one out first), this song is a very Good and Nice complement to that. Shoegaze-y, reverb-y, underwater-y goodness with a touch of carefree rebellion. Plus chucking this on is a tried and true way to check if your potential paramour is a friend to the four-n-twenty (not the pies).
Portishead – Glory Box
Oh, come on now. Don’t pretend like you didn’t know this song was going to be here. FACT: there is no other track in modern memory with such a pinpoint sense of nuanced sensuality. This song belongs on every single damn playlist you have, actually, but especially ones you chuck on when you think you might get lucky. The one thing to watch with this one (while the person you’ve decided is probably the love of your life is there to impress), though, is the volume. Because turn that shit up and it’s practically obscene-sounding; wind it down to half-way or less and you have a gorgeous subdued dinner-appropriate song.
Little Dragon – Constant Surprises
I’m probably a tiny bit biased here because this track has personal significance, but honestly, it does such a bang-up job of walking that tumultuous line between omg I have feelings, isn’t this sweet and let’s get it on. This works for just about any stage of the night. You answering the door, looking adorably flushed from standing over a stove and them grinning at the sight of you. Them sharing some choice self-deprecating anecdotes about their week as they pour you both another glass of wine. You going to town on each other for the third time at 2am. It’s just so diverse that way. And let’s not ever understate the fucking incredible talent that is Yukimi Nagano. That voice could make anyone fall in love/take their clothes off (same diff).
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Tender Is The Neck
This song is best saved for a verrrry specific moment. You know the one. The delicious meal that you slaved over (or ordered on Deliveroo) has been well and truly polished off. The wine has been flowing freely for a few hours now. You’ve passed through the awkward small-talk right to the deep stuff and you’ve just stumbled upon some really significant piece of common ground that has left both of you somewhat breathless and starry-eyed. You kiss the kiss of people who have just started to think they could maybe, possibly, someday fall in love. RBCF begins to play, wistful and soft and ooooohhh, feel those goosebumps? Things are definitely still in PG-rated rom-com territory right now, but the winds are about to shift and you both know it.
Hiatus Kaiyote – Nakamarra
Well, they didn’t win a Grammy for not making sexy music. And, if your potential beloved is a music person, you’ll likely get a chance to bond over the amazing trajectory of the band too. Share stories of seeing them live. Nothing bonds people quite the way that can. And if your potential beloved is not a music person, it’s time to order them an Uber and tell them how nice it was to meet them. Kidding (sorta). That said, though, have this one queued up waaaaay at the tail end of your playlist so the repeated “I love you, love you, love you I do”s don’t leave a weird heavy feeling in the air. It’s just a song, my dudes. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, okay?
Image: YouTube/Fox Animation
travel: the act or a means of journeying from one place to another
Wanderlust is a magnificent thing. A passion for travel is something that many proclaim, but more often than not it is the act of arriving or being in a new location that people enjoy the most. While most stories and photos come from the destination, there is a lot to be said for the act of travelling itself. Transformations and lessons most often come in the process of getting from A to B, or in the unplanned waiting late night in airports or sweaty, dirty bus stations. There is a certain meditative state that is reached in the places we go between the places we plan.
Sometimes the enjoyment of a location is heightened by the effort taken to get there: 12 hours on a bus, three plane rides, an overnight boat. The sand between your toes and the sun on your face is somehow more pure in these instances than if you just hopped on a one-hour flight that departed and arrived on schedule. Your shoulders might sag beneath the weight of your pack and your neck might cramp from the awkward angles of sleeping on benches, but you also might find comfort in the best companions a traveller can hope for. Provided you can locate a stray power point tucked behind a seat and charge your devices, a quality playlist of dependable tracks can get you through just about anything.
When my passport got stolen in Malaysia, or when the smell of boiling blood sausage made me gag at 2am at a roadside cafeteria in Thailand, or when the air-conditioner broke in the cramped mini-van on a forty degree day in Laos, or when my flight flashed down and down the screen with seemingly endless delays in the Philippines, there have been songs that have held the threads of my sanity together.
Wherever you might find yourself, waking or sleeping, lost or found, happy or sad, excited or homesick, here are some friends to accompany you along the way.
IMAGE: Wikimedia
Portishead are one of my personal all-time favourites, and I, like many others, have been patiently waiting for new material from the trip hop legends for a really, really long time. This weekend saw the release of their first newly recorded track in six years. And it’s a cover of an ABBA song.
Yes, ABBA, the white-clad Swedish four-piece who went from winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 to unprecedented global domination, going on to become one of the most popular and successful groups in history.
Portishead have been busy touring and working on other projects (including soundtracks, intense Black Sabbath covers and Geoff Barrow submitting a remix for Meow The Jewels), but last year they announced they were going to start working on new music. Us fans have been let down numerous times by promises of recording sessions, so I don’t think anybody really held their breath. But now, it looks like that’s all about to change.
Last week, a short and sweet statement appeared on the band’s official website, which has brought glee, and perhaps a little confusion, to many.
“We have contributed a track to the new Ben Wheatley film High Rise which is the Empire Gala at London Film Festival on Friday 9th October at the Odeon Leicester Square.
The track is a cover version of Abba’s SOS.
High Rise stars Sienna Miller, Tom Hiddleston and Elisabeth Moss. It’s based on the JG Ballard book of the same name. An official release date is yet to be announced, but fingers crossed we’ll be able to both watch and listen soon.
We can only hope, nay, pray, that this is the start of new Portishead music. Their last album was 2008’s dazzling Third.
Here’s the ABBA original:
https://youtu.be/cvChjHcABPA
Now, here’s one of my favourite Portishead tracks. What do you think it’ll sound like?
Portishead – Strangers from Adam Wasowski on Vimeo.
Something of a trend right now, the news follows on from James Blake covering Simon & Garfunkel, and the newly-released Kurt Cobain cover of The Beatles.
By the way, no matter how much you think they’re lame, ABBA hold their own. When we put together a list of musicians who refused to sell out, we discovered that ABBA have turned down ONE BILLION DOLLARS to reunite and tour.