Spring Mix Salad

Above: Atlanta’s Silver Lakes; photo by Jody Fausett

With the weather here in beautiful Decatur (and my home base of East Atlanta) warming up, with warm breezes, plus pollen choking the air (until a wonderful, blessed thunderstorm arrives to wash all that junk down) the thoughts of a music geek turn to, well, a soundtrack. So here’s my soundtrack. I take the following albums from my iTunes library, chuck ‘em onto my iPod, create a playlist (which I’ve dubbed “Spring Mix Salad") and just shuffle play. Here are about the most Spring-welcoming things I own:

Silver Lakes The Great Pretenders
XTC Mummer (three songs: “Great Fire,” “Wonderland” and “Love On A Farmboy’s Wages")
XTC Oranges & Lemons
XTC Skylarking (yes, the detection of a trend would be appropriate here)
Tahiti 80 Wallpaper For The Soul
Tahiti 80 Fosbury
Softlightes Say No! To Being Cool, Say Yes! To Being Happy
I’m From Barcelona Let Me Introduce My Friends
Bebel Gilberto Momento
Jill Cunniff City Beach
The Bird & The Bee [self-titled]
Keane Under The Iron Sea
Sam Phillips The Indescribeable Wow
The Ocean Blue Davy Jones’ Locker
The Ocean Blue Beneath The Rhythm And Sound
Roger Joseph Manning Jr. The Land Of Pure Imagination
Jellyfish Bellybutton
Jellyfish Spilt Milk
The Sundays Blind
The Sundays Reading, Writing & Arithmetic
The Sundays Static & Silence
The Incredible Moses Leroy Become The Soft.Lightes
Sasha Dobson Modern Romance
Brian Wilson Imagination (Am I cheating into summer here? Perhaps I am)
Umajets Demolotion
Cocteau Twins Four-Calendar Café
Cocteau Twins Heaven Or Las Vegas (one of the best album titles ever, in my humble opinion)
Annie Anniemal
Poole Alaska Days
Poole Among Whom We Shine

and finally…
Love Tractor’s immortal cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Got To Give It Up” (I searched long and hard for this rare track)

So a little Brazilian, some ethereal sounds and lots of wistful pop. Lather, rinse, repeat and please, put the top down.