Music

I'm not at all musical. Living, as I do, surrounded my professional musicians, this has become something of a mantra. I consider myself to be a civilian.

But I am musical, of course, in the sense that I have spent my life absorbing it, as we all do. I listen, I hum, I mull, I (God help me) might even do a little dance if nobody's looking.

And of course I am aware, as we all are, that there are songs, pieces of music that prise us open and leave us vulnerable or exuberant or bewitched. When they materialise from the depths of a playlist I become transfixed, transported... but, agh, I am invariably alone when this happens and thoughts, if not shared, either wither or fester. And if I write them down here, it doesn't feel so much like I am talking to myself, which is an important consideration too.

Rather than limit myself to the paltry eight tracks that are allowed by the fabled Desert Island Discs ("Yes Kirsty, my luxury item is the Internet.."), I'm going to start jotting down the important ones as they occur to me. Where possible, I'll include links to Spotify, which you can get for free in the US and UK. Sometimes I'll be trying to safeguard a powerful memory against accidental deletion, sometimes I'll just want to share something special, or rant momentarily.

I won't loftily dangle the promise of esoteric gems and eclectic range before you - there'll be a depressing amount of '90s Britpop I expect - but hopefully what I can do is demonstrate my own connection with each piece, the thing which makes it mine. I don't know where we'll end up, but it'll be more than eight and less than everything.

(You're probably not allowed to take the Internet, but someone (Nick Hornby?) took his iPod. My luxury item would actually be Salisbury Cathedral, which poses other problems I suppose..)