When I’m writing, I usually turn to music to drown out the world around me (small apartment, everyone working from home, pesky cat, noisy neighbours, busy street…you get the idea).
That being said, song lyrics can be too distracting. Writing down the story that lives in my head is challenging enough, but trying to do it when someone else is crooning their story into my ears? Yeah, that’s a nope.
But give my brain some clever beats or a good melody? Bazinga! That musical magic is a solid distraction tactic that drowns out my inner critic (currently calling itself Frank), my impostor syndrome (as yet unnamed), and the myriad of other thoughts that insist they need me to deal with them RIGHT NOW!!
Sadly, while some magic burns hard and bright, it isn’t destined to burn for long.
Such was the case for the Propellerheads, the English electronic music duo of Will White and Alex Gifford.
Their debut album Decksanddrumsandrockandroll swaggered onto the big beat music scene in 1998 with a brash electronic sound, reworked samples from movie soundtracks, and, on the epic track “History Repeating,” the staggeringly awesome vocals of the one and only Dame Shirley Bassey.
It also turned out to be their last album <sob>.
There’s a cleverness to their music–a sly cheek–that makes it one of those albums that I never get tired of and one of my go-to albums for writing.
So, if you’re looking for some action-packed James-Bond-on-the-dance-floor-type magic for your next writing sprint, check out the 20th Anniversary Propellerheads Decksanddrumsandrockandroll double album.
Frank says you’ll like it.
Learn more about the Propellerheads here!
Full track listing for the double album:
Disc 1:
- “Take California” 7:23
- “Echo and Bounce” 5:29
- “Velvet Pants” 5:49
- “Better?” 2:05
- “Oh Yeah?” 5:28
- “History Repeating” Knee Length Mix (featuring Shirley Bassey) 4:05
- “Winning Style” 6:00
- “Bang On!” 5:57
- “A Number of Microphones” 0:48
- “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” 9:23
- “Bigger?” 2:22
- “Cominagetcha” 7:07
- “Spybreak!”
Disc 2:
- “Dive” 7:05
- “Ron’s Theory” 6:39
- “Lethal Cut” 7:27
- “Go Faster” 6:10
- “Big Dog” 5:43
- “Clang” 5:27
- “Bring Us Together” 6:32
- “History Repeating (Ankle Length Mix)” (featuring Shirley Bassey) 5:49
- “History Repeating (Hip Length Mix)” (featuring Shirley Bassey) 4:14
- “Props Vote of Gratitude” 5:07
- “360˚ (Oh Yeah)” (featuring De La Soul) 4:27
- “You Want It Back” (featuring Jungle Brothers) 5:59
- “Crash!”
WoodvineWrites 