...Go Bowling To

1) The Longest Time - Billy Joel

2) Up on the Roof - The Drifters

3) Earth Angel - The Penguins

4) Queen of the Hop - Dion and The Belmonts

5) Come Go With Me - Del Vikings

For some reason I associate bowling with doo-wop. I love these early "barbershop quartet" style songs, and these are just five of my favorites.  Interesting factoid; Billy Joel recorded all of the vocal tracks for "The Longest Time" by himself. Check out the rest of the "An Innocent Man" album for similar songs - he has called it a homage to the music of his childhood.

...Watch the Rain To (Part B)

1) Holland – Cynthia Dall

2) Amsterdam – John Cale

3) Five String Serenade – Mazzy Star

4) The Captain and the Hourglass – Laura Marling

5) Kimbie – Jackson C. Frank

Well it’s still raining, and with the rain comes another 5 songs; mostly mellow, shoegaze folk. Hope you enjoy.

...Watch the Rain To (Part A)

1) Bleecker Street – Simon and Garfunkel

2) Homesick – Kings of Convenience

3) Early Mornin’ Rain – Peter, Paul and Mary

4) Famous Blue Raincoat – Leonard Cohen

5) If You’re Feeling Sinister – Belle and Sebastian

It has been raining here. About five days ago I wasn’t able to sleep because it was too hot, and now the mercury has dropped a few cm, and I find that I’m pulling the doona down from the top shelf (where I had put it away a couple of weeks back). Typical July weather has begun – cool days and nights, punctuated by dogged, methodical rain. I love this weather, and I love sitting in my loungeroom, where more than half the walls are big glass windows, and look out over the valley, and clouds drift occasionally through the gum trees, and I can curl up under a blanket with a mug of chai and a good book, with a playlist of songs like this on the iPod. I’ve decided to make multiple playlists for this scenario; I really have a good selection of songs for this mood and I cannot possibly cull it down to five. 

Simon and Garfunkel would definitely be my favourite musical artist of all time. You know that band that you have listened to since you were 10, and regardless how much your music taste has fluctuated through the years, you still can come back and enjoy them just as much as that first time you heard them? Well Simon and Garfunkel are that band for me. Kings of Convenience seem to be an attempt at reproducing the Simon and Garfunkel sound – the mellow, intricate finger-picking, with the tight harmonies created by just two pairs of vocal chords. They don’t quite manage to get the melodies just right, in my opinion, but Homesick is certainly a noble effort, and I have grown to love this song. Peter, Paul and Mary were a folk "supergroup" that become popular in the 60's, and covered a lot of classics - including this number. I find it hard to describe Leonard Cohen. He’s a poet first, and a songwriter second, which makes the songs he writes that much better. Belle and Sebastian are a fantastic band from Scotland who sound like something you feel you’ve heard maybe once before, coming from window a couple of stories above your own, while you were meant to be asleep. Anyway, music is what you make of it for yourself, so take a listen, and build your own opinions.

...Ride Across the Plains To

1) Fare Thee Well Northumberland - Mark Knopfler

2) Highwayman - Hoffmaestro and Chraa

3) Se A Cabo - Santana

4) Freedom - Richie Havens

5) In Our Talons - Bowerbirds

These are five songs to have playing while you ride across the plains; preferably while an omnipresent camera zoom out to reveal the vast, untamed wilderness surrounding you. Desert landscapes are much more about textures than colours.

...Throw Caution to the Wind To

1) My Body - Young The Giant

2) Waiting For My Chance To Come - Noah and the Whale

3) Squealing Pigs - Admiral Fallow

4) Shifts - Thurso

5) Crank Resolutions - Meursault

This is a rather cryptic title, but to describe this situation takes a little more than a sentence. Whether it’s after the fifth or sixth corona, when you make up your mind to approach that girl, or an argument with your best friend, and you decide that you’re better off without them. After you make a decision you’ve been tossing and turning over for what seems like forever, there’s that feeling of euphoria that comes with committing to something, for better or for worse. These are the songs for that moment. I hope I’m not the only one.

...Fall Asleep To

1) Night Swimmer – Beth Jeans Houghton 

2) On My Way Home – Enya

3) Autumn’s Child – Devendra Banhart 

4) Rivers of Gold – Bry Webb

5) Sleeping Giant – Jonsi and Alex 

These songs are guaranteed to send you to the Land of Nod; the harmonies and music box style of Night Swimmer, the mellow synth of On My Way Home, the trembling of Autumn’s Child, the minimalism of Rivers of Gold, and finally the ambience of Sleeping Giant. 

"The Woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep" - Robert Frost

...Escape from the Police To

1) Paranoid – Black Sabbath 

2) Coming into Los Angeles – Arlo Guthrie

3) The Width of a Circle – David Bowie 

4) Immigrant Song – Led Zeppelin

5) Run Like Hell – Pink Floyd

I’ve never had to run from the police, but if I were planning on doing so I would definitely want to have this playlist on my iPod ready to listen to. Plenty of classic rock in here – remember these songs need to be played LOUDLY, especially the Pink Floyd. There’s a live version of Run Like Hell from 1980 which is definitely worth checking out.

...Swim Underwater To

1) La Petite Fille de la Mer – Vangelis 
2) Sleeping Lessons – The Shins 
3) Us and Them – Pink Floyd 
4) Truman Sets Sail – Burkhard Dallwitz 
5) Daniell In The Sea – Jonsi and Alex 

The difficulties of swimming underwater while listening to music do not escape me. However, both possessing a scuba license and recently having come back from a week long spearfishing trip in Cooktown, have prompted me to muse over what music would be ideal for exploring the colourful and populated reefs along the Australian coast. If I could listen to music underwater. Cousteau would have been proud.