To the surprise of no one, I was a stressed out, asocial high schooler with an unfortunately dorky and fairly undiscerning musical taste. I basically liked the widest range of music one is capable of liking, but not in an awesome way.
That horrible 1990s-era party game of flicking through the booklets of CDs people used to have (where are they now!) while commenting on the contents was always like the worst kind of torture. In my shame, and in the hopes of never being found out, I was in the habit of storing the most offending items (not to be named) behind the "cool" CDs (primarily: the entire discography of Kate Bush, Björk's Debut, and Shostakovich cello concertos). (See, I'm still doing it!).
The point of letting you in on this sad little bit of high school history is to get to the point of this month's undeniably oddball SLEEP-focused playlist: for most of tenth grade, I couldn't fall asleep unless I was listening to either - big breath - a collection of James Taylor's Greatest Hits, played so quietly it was almost imperceptible (the sound of my CD player / alarm clock whirring to rotate the disc was louder than the soft stylings of James and his guitar) or, more disturbingly if you think about it, medieval music of literally any kind.
Though I was eventually cured of my strange addiction (CDs always eventually started skipping, or maybe there is just a finite magic to sleep aids), to this day I still feel pleasantly soporific at the opening of Something In The Way She Moves.
Anyway, guys, in honor of our high school selves, in the name of going back-to-school and having stress-related sleep problems, and because maybe you're having some sort of seasonal type of anxiety right this moment (I know I am!), here's an oddly restful but definitely not cool mix for you to (secretly, please) enjoy.
First up are two on-topic Strauss songs you just can't argue with, as a front to the rest of the mix, but then it's time to put your Spotify on the "Private Session" setting and just close your eyes.
ZZZzzz,
Lydia