What do these tracks have in common?
Zombie, the Cranberries
Two Shoes, The Cat Empire
Torn, Natalie Imbruglia
Throw Your Arms Around Me, Hunters & Collectors
Say Goodbye, Hunters & Collectors
Rocket Man, Elton John
One Week, Barenaked Ladies
Butterflies and Hurricanes, Muse
Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman, Britney Spears
Never Never Never, Shirley Bassey & Groove Armada
That’s Entertainment, the Jam
Lose Yourself, Eminem
Light My Fire, Shirley Bassey & Twelftree, (The Remix Album: Diamonds Are Forever)
It’s a Sin, Pet Shop Boys
In Your Eyes, Kylie Minogue
I Need a Man, Grace Jones
I Love New York, Madonna
I Don’t Care About Nothing Anymore, Beasts of Bourbon
Hey Now Now, The Cloud Room
Tusk, Fleetwood Mac
Shout to the Top, Style Council
Blister in the Sun, Violent Femmes
Gone Daddy Gone, Gnarls Barkley
Glycerine, Bush
The Verve, Bittersweet Symphony
I Want You Back, Hoodoo Gurus
Don’t Stop, Brazilian Girls
Don’t Sleep in the Subway, Petula Clark
Devil’s Haircut, Beck
Bittersweet, Hoodoo Gurus
Californication, Red Hot Chili Peppers
Buy Me a Pony, Spiderbait
Beautiful Day, U2
Baggy Trousers, Madness
Walls Come Tumbling Down, Style Council
Dreamer, Supertramp
Children of the Revolution, T. Rex, Elton John and Ringo Starr
Burn for You, INXS
High, Lighthouse Family
What do they have in common? I’m sick to death of them. They’re the tracks on my iPod’s “Gym Playlist”; the tracks that I’ve been working out to … serious interval training on a wretched stationery bike, the infernal cross-trainer, a creaky rowing machine…
OK, I’m really hesitating to confess this, but I think I’ve found "the zone". Always was confounded by the concept that there are people out there who actually enjoy working out but I may have seen the light, a good thing given how much I like to eat. The music certainly has helped me find that zone — from the list above, Cat Empire’s Two Shoes, Eminem’s Lose Yourself and High from the Lighthouse Family have a very particular capacity. But damn, I’m getting fed up with them. Suggestions please?
Anthemic is good; motivating lyrics helpful (who would ever have thought I’d be inspired by a rapper’s “You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow ... This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo”); big guitars, accelerando, crescendo — they’re all good.
Give me names… names, I beg!
