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  • ejg054
    • Jan 14, 2018
    • 5 min read

Music to quad set by


To completely misquote Jane Austen/Pride & Prejudice, ‘It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a person with degrees in classical music must have terrible taste in popular music.’ It is also a truth universally acknowledged that all gym music will drive you insane and any ‘running trax’ album you buy will be the last thing you actually want to listen to when you finally hit the treadmill.

Over the last couple of years, there have been multiple occasions when I have needed the headphones to get me through a physio or gym session so, while acknowledging that as a result of the first misquote, my taste will be terrible (what I choose to listen to in the gym bears little resemblance to what I’d choose to listen to ‘for pleasure’ and, with the best will in the world, Shostakovich 5 or Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem is never going to cut it when you’re working out), I thought it might be fun to share a few tracks that have become favourites, whether it has been quad setting away, whiling away time on the static bike or getting back into the groove with a running or gym session.

If you’re looking for a new soundtrack to your own physio/workouts, look them up. If you have any suggestions to get me through my next sessions (don’t have to be similar to these, I’m game for listening to most genres), I’d love to hear them.

If there’s one thing I can’t abide, it’s music snobbery so don’t hold back in your recommendations. Music is fun. It’s entertainment. In some cases, it’s art. Play it, listen to it, like it or loathe it. If it speaks to someone at any given moment in time, it has done its job so don't slag it off, that just makes you look small minded...

Rudimentals

Home (album),

Like the whole album but Not Giving In has become a bit of an anthem (what else would you listen to stepping up onto and down from a box for the 10,000th time?)

Sky

Not broken (I first heard this track four days after having my little girl, the first three of which had been spent hosting friends and family at our house and the fourth of which had been spent travelling to see more family two hours away. Not doing that again! The sentiment of the lyrics remains pretty apt for the ACL journey.)

Billy Joel

Piano Man album (Cheese. On a stick. But sometimes it’s just necessary)

Black Eyed Peas

I can’t go any further than this (I first heard this on a Running Trax album. It came on about four miles into the run. Brilliantly motivational planning that, no, really….)

Basement Jaxx

I see you baby, shaking that ass (this was on the playlist for my first half marathon at the four mile mark and always gets me going. The musical equivalent of ‘belly’s gonna get ya’)

Where’s your head at? also good.

Groove Armada

Song 4 Mutya

The Cure

Lovecats (No explanation, I just like it)

Harry J Allstars

The Liquidator (It’s a West Bromwich Albion thing…)

Ibrahim Maalouf

Red & Black Light (album). The whole album’s a good listen but Essentielles is my current favourite

Stevie Wonder (featuring Ariande Grande)

Faith

The Killers

Human (A party track and I’d rather be at a party than in the gym, let’s be honest)

The Jacksons

Shake your body down

Scissor Sisters

I don’t feel like dancin’ (in fact, any three tracks of their album, after that it’s all the same. But, much like Billy Joel, sometimes, just sometimes, it’s necessary)

Nitin Sawhney

Not really running music but surprisingly good for the tedium that is cycling

Migration (Whole album worked really well for cycling, personal favourite is River Pulse, Rain Mix)

Philitre (Whole album again, personal favourites are Noces en Vela Pt.2, Brainwaves and Footprints)

Other albums worth a listen too (although can’t vouch for gymability!)

London Underground

Human

Prophesy

Rag ‘n Bone Man

Human (album and track)

Skin

One of the rare albums I could happily listen to at home or the gym

The Wonder Stuff

Anything really – you can take the girl out of Stourbridge but you can’t take the Stourbridge out of the girl…

Prodigy

Can’t beat a bit of Prodigy for running. Particularly when you’re tired and/or hacked off. Channel the energy!

Pendulum

As per Prodigy

Chicane

Another running one, particularly when you just want to zone out for distance and a bit hypnotic

Michael Jackson

MJ passed away a week before my wedding. Never been a major fan but downloaded the 'Best of' album at the time to include a couple of tracks in our playlist. I'd have thought it would have made a good gym album but, to be honest, it usually makes me want to dance in a cheesy nightclub under a glitter ball, rather than run on the treadmill. May it be more successful for other readers!

Calvin Harris

18 Months (reliably up beat and varied enough to get you through an hour)

Mark Ronson

Version (as per Calvin Harris)

Pink

Greatest Hits, ideally Get the Party Started or Stupid Girls (must make sure my little girl listens to the latter)

Muse

Black Holes and Revelations album, guitar solo on Invincible usually fires me up if I’m struggling

Afro Celt Sound System

Almost any of their albums, particularly like Mojave when it just happens to kick in at the point in a session I’m thinking of jacking it in or struggling to get to the end. It’s a very filmy, sense of arrival, everything’s going to work out fine kind of track

Tinie Tempah

Disc-overy, particularly Pass Out and Written in the Stars. Good for quad setting and step up/downs

Dizee Rascal

Bonkers

Gorillaz

Demon Dayz

The Safri Duo

The Bongo Bongo Song (reminds me of driving around the back streets of Merseyside in an old BMW in my 20s - don’t ask! I love the track, just don’t listen to the whole album)

Kill Bill Soundtrack

This has got me through many a run. Don’t let me be misunderstood is great to run to when it builds back up from the breakdown, roughly at the same point I’m dying a death and trying desperately to keep going.

Ozzy Osbourne

Crazy Train (No other explanation other than it’s my song and fires up the energy. Happy memories of being pleasantly drunk, lying on a bench on a campsite in Llanthony after a rough few months, staring at the stars and just thinking, ‘fcuk it!’)

Kai Tracid

Life is too short (one for children of the 80s, no need to say more)

NB: A word to the wise: If you have small children, don’t stick the iPod on shuffle. Nursery rhymes are great for calming cranky babies in the car but lousy, just lousy, for running/working out to!

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