a lot of stuff and nonsense from eclectech

Apologies for the girl talk, but my job for the day is to put together a play list for my upcoming hospital trip. It turns out to be a rather unusual task; what music do you want to listen to when you're trying to squeeze out a baby? One possibility of course is that when the moment comes I won't care, which makes my job for the day decidedly easier, but on the off-chance I get picky I want the right selection. It's making me listen to music with a very different ear.

I've ruled out masses of music I like (and part of me feels would be highly appropriate) for being too shouty or dancey. If I came away from anything from the physiotherapy antenatal class it's that managing stress and controlling breathing should help; picking music designed to make one shout and jump probably isn't wise. So no California Über Alles or I Can't Decide then.

The problem with quite a lot of my more laid back and mellow music is that they have very emotional lyrics. I keep finding tracks, thinking "that'll be perfect", listening to a little and realising in my current slightly hormonally challenged state it makes me want to weep. Again, maybe best to avoid.

Current list is a strange and unexpected subsection of our music collection. Lots of instrumentals or lyrics I don't understand due to being in another language. Sigur Rós, Buena Vista Social Club, the soundtrack to Amelie, the Penguin Cafe Orchestra... not what I expected to choose but they feel right.

Some old favourites as well of course. Tom Waits is essential, but I've selected older, croonier material rather than the more chaotic, shambolic albums of recent years. Some Nick Drake because he's associated so strongly with days when I was doing little other than relaxing, and Spiritualised for the same reason (to be honest Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space is on the verge of the 'making me cry' category, but is too lovely not to include).

Hmm. Nine albums and a few selected tracks. That should do it. I suspect I won't notice if it starts to loop.

I should probably apologise in advance to the midwife though.

Labels: blether