Playlist Part 1
Dear readers…since we have reached the end of the very long first day of our investigation, I thought I’d give you all a little respite with a musical interlude. That is, a playlist. Initially I thought this would be the kind of thing I’d do for paid subscribers only, but I feel strongly that this is the kind of thing that completes the world of The Spring and I’d like it to be available to all my readers. I recently read another Substack that suggested that the paid option is more of a “tip jar” for the work, which is something I really like, especially as all of my chapters will always be available for free. If you need to catch up, click this button below to go back to the beginning:
The Spring Part 1 Playlist - public playlist on Spotify
I suppose I have always thought of The Spring in filmic terms. Because of this, I want to build its world and atmosphere which of course means music. I’ve been working on this initial playlist for The Spring since the very beginning — throwing in tracks willy-nilly and finally taking time to arrange them and put them into some sort of sequence that makes sense to me.
Why, you ask?
To be entirely honest, I think it goes back to some of my main inspirations in writing The Spring in the first place, which probably needs to be its own post. Sufficient to say, I have always admired the way Sofia Coppola brings in music tracks to her soundtracks that are both entirely on-point and appropriate but also often incongruous to the era of her story. And yet, it all works. If you’ve ever seen a Sofia Coppola film or listened to one of their soundtracks you’ll know what I mean. While I’m not after a Young Adult audience, I appreciate high school movies, especially looking at them on a time scale. Teen angst is eternal and the angst-y songs of our teen years have their teeth on our hearts. Therefore songs from teen films or high school movies from the 80s and 90s and early 2000s have such a strong sensibility that they immediately trigger the visual from the film they’re in. Just as everyone is inclined to raise a fist in the air when they hear Simple Minds sing Don’t You Forget About Me, everyone thinks of Phoebe Cates in a red bikini when they hear The Cars’ Moving in Stereo. (Didn’t catch that deep cut? Okay, if you haven’t seen Fast Times at Ridgemont High you really need to get that done. Written by Cameron Crowe and directed by Amy Heckerling, it created the high school movie genre and basically EVERYONE is in the thing. Consider it your homework assignment.)
Because teen angst is eternal, I wanted to think of what kinds of music our three investigators may have been into when they were in high school. For Jeannie it would have been early aughts, while Paco and Mark are a bit older so it would have been more 90s music. As these characters move through this world, what musical memories would be triggered for them?
Also, the story of The Spring is set in a specific time and place: San Francisco in 2014. I’ve tried to incorporate a few artists local to Northern California, so those will be popping up, as well as some songs inspired by this part of the world. (We live in a mysterious, sexy place.) Some of the top albums of 2014 informed this playlist and the others still to come, and luckily for me, a lot of them seemed to have a bit of that 1990s-era grungey darkness that is perfect for the story. These albums will have a few tracks that come up as The Spring builds its soundtrack: Ultraviolence by Lana Del Rey, Ceremonials by Florence + The Machine, The Suburbs by Arcade Fire, Cerulean Salt by Waxahatchee, Days are Gone by Haim, channel ORANGE by Frank Ocean, AM by Arctic Monkeys, Pure Heroine by Lorde, as well as others. Thankfully a lot of the original grunge-era tunes are darkly perfect too. There was a lot of violence and despair in the music of the 1990s and we’re all in therapy over it.
Did I say darkness? Yes. In case you’re a new subscriber (welcome!) The Spring is pretty dark. I blame it on watching Unsolved Mysteries and Twin Peaks far too young and being completely obsessed by both. As I got older this turned to a love of CSI and Dateline, but Twin Peaks is in my very soul and it fits in very nicely with Sofia Coppola’s overall retro-feminine aesthetic in its own way as well.
I tried to keep the song selection from 2014 and before, but there will be a few thrown in here and there that may be more recent in which case they were brought to the list because they are just too perfect.
One final thing: I’m no Taylor Swift, but I love the idea of easter eggs. You bet these playlists are going to have them. My hope is that as the story continues you’ll come back to this playlist (as tracks are added), think about the lyrics, think about where you’ve heard them before (and where in life you were), and how they might relate to the story. I recommend playing it straight through the first time and then hitting shuffle for subsequent plays.
1. Down By The Water - PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
2. West Coast - Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence
3. Leave My Body - Florence + The Machine - Ceremonials
4. Intro - The xx - xx
5. Pieta - St Vincent - St Vincent
6. Lips and Limbs - Waxahatchee - Cerulean Salt
7. Sea, Swallow Me - Cocteau Twins, Harold Budd - The Moon and the Melodies
8. Super Rich Kids - Frank Ocean, Earl Sweatshirt - channel ORANGE
9. Catching the Butterfly - The Verve - Urban Hymns
10. Cherub Rock - The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
11. Stupid Girl - Garbage - Absolute Garbage
12. Hurricane - MS MR - Secondhand Rapture
13. San Andreas Fault - Natalie Merchant - Tigerlily
14. Wasting My Young Years - London Grammar - If You Wait
15. Hold On, We’re Going Home - Drake, Majid Jordan - Nothing Was The Same
16. 6 Underground - Sneaker Pimps - Becoming X
17. Do I Wanna Know? - Arctic Monkeys - AM
18. Go Walking Down There - Chris Isaak - Forever Blue
19. Somebody’s Baby - Jackson Browne - The Next Voice You Hear
20. Jennifer’s Body - Hole - Live Through This
21. Buzzcut Season - Lorde - Pure Heroine
22. A Forest - The Cure - Seventeen Seconds
23. Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around the World - U2 - Achtung Baby
24. The Killing Moon - Echo & the Bunnymen - Songs to Learn & Sing
25. The Nightingale - Julee Cruise - Soundtrack From Twin Peaks
26. I Follow Rivers - Marika Hackman - Deaf Heat
I had this down to 25 to start, but I heard Marika Hackman’s cover of Lykke Li’s I Follow Rivers on one of the episodes of True Detective season 4, and knew it was the perfect addition.
Let me know if you have some song suggestions in the comments and I will be sure to check them out!
Love this addition!