I’ve made another mix which, thematically and musically, is the diametric opposite of this one.

There was a time when I’d deal with midwinter doldrums by trudging down the hill with Neil to Selena’s apartment, where we’d drink cheap wine and she’d play her guitar and Neil and I would write screenplays for films that never got made or watch stupid ones that did. Occasionally we’d go a little further down the hill to the Kum & Go for more wine or beer or the new shipment of Krispy Kremes, which arrived every night at 0200 hrs. Once Neil shoved a giant plush bunny, which the store was selling for some reason, under his coat, and we walked back up the hill to Selena’s, to drink until we were jovial, then maudlin, then sleepy. And that’s how we made it to spring.

Some of these songs I was already listening to back then; the rest of them I’ve built up as a kind of arsenal against the same indistinct lethargy I had back then, but can no longer deliquesce with cheap booze or otherwise dispatch with Neil and Selena’s help.

Ladyfriend - North Pole Transmission (.zip)

(Or, listen to an mp3 of the entire mix.)

Tracks:

1. Hood: The Lost You
2. FC Kahuna: North Pole Transmission
3. Odd Nosdam: Up In Flames
4. Engineers: Let’s Just See
5. Cepia: Braille Wounds
6. Subtle: Island Mind
7. The Grid: Crystal Clear (The Orb: Clear, Like an Unmuddied Lake)
8. Massive Attack: Joy Luck Club
9. Lamb: Five
10. Ed Harcourt: From Every Sphere
11. St Vincent: We Put A Pearl in the Ground/Land Mines
12. Nine Inch Nails: La Mer
13. Underworld: Faxed Invitation
14. Gabriel Yared & Underworld: Happy Toast
15. Roland Orzabal: Maybe Our Days Are Numbered

(Warning: Don’t listen to track 10 while alone or holding sharp implements. That one’s a doozy.)