Building the Perfect Playlist

Back when I first got my Ipod, I became completely obsessed with the idea of playlists, and I tried to categorize everything I own within Itunes. I’ve calmed down a bit, but I still make a new playlist several times a month.

My Ipod is an essential part of my walk to work (it helps keeps my pedestrian rage in check), and I like to have playlists that are good for commuting. My walk to work takes about 45 minutes, so an ideal playlist will have 10 to 12 songs, depending on length (or 20 to 24 songs, if I want to continue listening to the playlist on my way home). The songs should be fast and/or upbeat as I find that I walk faster to those kinds of songs. The occasional slower song is ok as long as it’s bookended by two perkier songs. Depressing songs don’t work at all. (I put “Lay Me Down” by the Connells on a playlist recently and found myself walking at a snail’s pace. And wanting to cry. Not the best way to start the day.)

This my latest playlist. I’m still not 100% satisfied with it, but it keeps me pretty happy during the walk to work.

1. Ring of Fire – Social Distortion
2. Manifesto No. 1 – Shooter Jennings
3. Throw Your Arms Around Me – Hunters and Collectors
4. Handsome Man – Robbie Williams
5. Spirit Boy – Kane
6. The Funeral – Band of Horses
7. Ruby – Kaiser Chiefs
8. Paperweight – Joshua Radin and Schuyler Fisk
9. Better to Be – Liam Finn
10. Shade and Honey – Alessandro Nivola
11. Always Something There to Remind Me – Naked Eyes

(Two songs were cut from my original version of this playlist: “Pour Le Monde” by Crowded House, which was cut for not being peppy enough, and “You Make My Dreams” by Hall and Oates, which apparently made it onto the list during a temporary loss of sanity.)

Here’s one that I’ve been listening to for the last couple of months:

1. Crimson and Clover – Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
2. Rest in Peace – James Marsters
3. 4th of July – X
4. Don’t Cry Out – Shiny Toy Guns
5. More Than a Feeling – Boston
6. Pictures in an Exhibition – Death Cab for Cutie
7. Here Comes My Baby – Cat Stevens
8. Rootless Tree – Damien Rice
9. Bonnie and Clyde – Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot
10. How Soon Is Now – Love Spit Love
11. Thrown Away – Vast

This playlist is pretty awesome because it starts off with oneof my favorite songs ever, hits a bitchen 70s note in the middle, and ends on a gothy note, with some good stuff in between.

And for days when I’m feeling a little angry or really don’t want to go to work, I have the perfect punk playlist. Yes, it gets me all riled up, but in a good way.

1. Career Opportunities – the Clash
2. EMI – the Sex Pistols
3. Steppin Stone – Minor Threat
4. I Wanna Be Sedated – the Ramones
5. What Do I Get? – the Buzzcocks
6. Warsaw – Joy Division
7. The Modern World – the Jam
8. Psycho Killer – Talking Heads
9. Teenage Kicks – the Undertones
10. X Offender – Blondie
11. Love Song – the Damned
12. I Don’t Like Mondays – Boomtown Rats
13. Mannequin – Wire
14. Shot by Both Sides – Magazine
15. Adult Books – X
16. I Love a Man in Uniform – Gang of Four
17. New Rose – the Damned
18. Out of Step – Minor Threat
19. Roadrunner – the Modern Lovers
20. Search and Destroy – the Stooges
21. Ready Steady Go – Generation X
22. Hong Kong Garden – Siouxie and the Banshees
23. Train in Vain – the Clash
24. Down in the Tube Station at Midnight – the Jam