List #15: The five tunes that kickstart my soul

That lifting feeling, when it seems as if my entire soul is as light as a feather and I can't wipe the smile off my face, is largely brought on by the combination of music and circumstance.  All I need to feel perfectly happy is the perfect tune + sunshine + good company (sometimes just my own).  So today, list number 15 is a playlist of songs that have kickstarted my soul.  None of them are necessarily my favourite or most cherished songs, but I love to listen to them because they remind me so strongly of those moments when I heard them and everything felt brilliant.

1. After a massive thunderstorm the night before, the sun is shining and we're sitting on the grass at Latitude festival.  I have a pint of cold cider in my hand, I have my friends around me, school broke up a few days ago and the entire summer holiday stretches ahead of me like a promise.  The Mummers are on stage, and when they launch into their lovely, fairground-tinged This Is Heaven (Glow) all I can think is, "Yes, this is heaven."

2. It's a gloriously sunny Saturday morning in spring, and I'm walking into Leicester, on my way to a second date with a guy I've met online.  Lone Wolf  by Eels shuffles onto my iPod and my spirits lift.  Instead of the usual pre-date nerves, I'm singing along with gusto (internally, at least.  I'm not quite that mad that I'd walk along singing aloud).  The choice of song seemed fateful, somehow: a reminder that I was a lone wolf and I liked it that way.  Internet guy was not the one for me, I already suspected, but hearing this song made it feel ok that he wasn't.  I stayed single - a lone wolf - for years and I'm glad I did, because when I met The Boy I was ready for him.

3. I'm standing on a street corner in Portland, Oregon.  My brother and I have spent the day apart - me in an extremely rewarding trawl through the vintage and book stores, Richard with a cultural day at the museum - and I'm waiting for him to come and meet me so we can go to the pub.  The sun is shining, I'm in the best city I've ever visited, and when Fleet Foxes' Grown Ocean starts playing on my iPod, I experience one of those perfect moments, when everything comes together to lift my spirit and put a huge grin on my face.

4. Grizzly Bear are absolutely incredible live, and when I saw them play in Nottingham a couple of years ago their final song, While You Wait For The Others, was one of the most perfect gig moments I've ever experienced, beautiful harmonies washing over me in waves of sound.

5. I didn't 'get' Sigue Ros until I went to Iceland, where suddenly their music made perfect sense.  Se Lest reminds me of watching the eerie, volcanic, strangely beautiful Icelandic countryside pass by the window of the bus.