The soundtracks of our lives

A little silent this week, I know. Why? A heavy dose of work, a sore throat, ill-advised whiskey macs (advised as an antidote to the impending cold), a variety of things...

So what's been on mind this past week that I want to share? In a word, music.

My way to and from work is soundtracked. I put in the mp3 player's earbuds the moment I open the door, right until I get to my desk, and when I walk out of the office the buds are in before the doors are open and don't come out until my front door closes behind me.

Maybe it's the city - it demands music, a means of sensory organisation, to fathom the lyricism of its streets and sweeps. Music, and particularly song, can be listened to and felt like a dialogue. We are sung to, sung for, we sing along... I read somewhere that music lovers are people who hate being alone. Yes, even the guy or girl who sits in their room, listening to music in self-imposed isolation. The music conjures up an interlocutor.

Music is also about moods - expression of feelings, motivation, thought. Mimicry, too, plays a part - see how we love to seek out the "theme from..." to relay ourselves into situations so performed. The top selling compilation albums are invariably the "music from ", or a movie OST.

What happened before the walkman? Before the discman, minidisc, mp3, iPod? I mean, what did the 19th century 28-year-old guy, walking down the street, "hear" in his head? Was that string recital from the previous night playing simulated as he treads cobbles and avoids the horse shit on the road? Or did people then simply not think of it in this way? I cannot imagine how things for me would be without the soundtrack - I feel terrifyingly alien when my battery dies and I have to listen to the batter of rails or the rumbling hum of the bus as it lunges forward and heaves back.

So, without shame, I leave you with what's on my player for the morning march tomorrow - some cool, some coy, some old, some new, some shamefully square, some unabashedly brazen:

John Legend - Ordinary People
The Pretenders - Back on the Chain Gang
The Christians - Words
Dusty Springfield - The Look of Love
Keisha Cole - I Changed My Mind
ELO - Mr Blue Skies
Nile Rodgers - Rock Bottom
Nina Simone - Try A Little Tenderness
Outkast - Hey Ya!
Pharrell & Jay-Z - Frontin'
Stina Nordenstam - Little Star
PJ Harvey - Good Fortune
Smashmouth - All Star
St Etienne - Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Curtis Mayfield - Kung Fu
Flaming Lips - Fight Test
Spritualised - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
De La Soul - Eye Know
R Kelly - Happy People
Travis - Love Will Come Through
Liberty X - Got To Have Your Love
Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah