On my wavelength

Earlier this year, I bought tickets for a film because the poster made me smile:

"For anyone who’s ever tried to make someone fall in love with them by making a compilation CD."

Now I’m showing my age here: in my day we made tapes. On everyone’s eighteenth birthday wish list, right at the top, was radio cassette player. This was back at the time when bigger was better when it came to technology, so if your boom-box had detachable speakers, and was heavy enough to pull your arm out of its socket when you carried it around, you were cool. (In today’s topsy turvy world, you’d have your music on something as small and light as possible, and you’d be hot). In order to make compilations you needed an additional feature: tape-to-tape. If you didn’t have this, you had to tape your music from the radio. We listened mostly to Laser 558. My tapes are probably a valuable archive of this long-sunk pirate.

I still have all my tapes. I don’t listen to them, the quality is unbearable. But I do look at them, and think about the tracks and the memories they hold. Inevitably it will prompt me to put a CD on. I was conscientious and wrote on the card sleeve - gave them all titles, too. Party (1-8, although seven is unaccountably missing). Dancing. Romantic. Sad. The sad ones feature Phil Collins a lot. The romantic ones major on Sade. Music to screw to. Your love is king, baby.

I reckon people are divided into two groups: music matters or it doesn’t. For me, everything has a soundtrack. There are songs playing in my head the whole time. I’m not welded to my iPod when I’m out and about (well, only sometimes) but in the car, in the house, music is always playing. Selection of the CD is just as important as selection of the wine, sometimes more so.

I don’t like buying downloads, I prefer to have the CD. It’s a hangover from vinyl (yes, still got that too, still played) I like to see the covers. I like the process of choosing, looking across the neat spines (CDs are so tidy, I love that about them) choosing for mood, vibe, time of day. Sometimes I’m thinking all the way home about what to put on when I get home, an anticipatory buzz. Often I’ll sit in the car outside the house, waiting for a song to finish on the radio before I go in.

All my CDs are in alphabetical order by band or artist. Then there are separate sections beyond the main collection: smaller sections for jazz, classical, Christmas. All the compilations are together, but I’ve sorted them by theme. There should by rights be a couple of hundred more classicals, but I let the ex-husband have all the CDs because I felt guilty about leaving. Big mistake: I missed the CDs more than I missed him. Still now, I will go to put something on, and realise with a pang I don’t have it any more. I’m replacing every time I do this, but it’s taking me a while.

The house is usually very untidy, but never the CDs. Alphabetising has thrown up some interesting dilemmas. The Cure, The Cult, The Strokes, The Thrills, The Killers, The Kaisers, The Fratellis, The Police, I’m disregarding “the”. Van Morrison, Def Leppard, Led Zep, Bon Jovi, I’m not sure. I probably need expert professional advice from my librarian posse. I have such an eclectic selection, whatever you fancy will be in there somewhere. The only music I don’t like is gospel, rap, country & western, folk (although I can edge quite close to C&W, at times). The records, I decided to do them the Nick Hornby way, the way that only I can do them: in the order that I got them. That means my records are not allowed to be mixed with his records. (And believe me, another time guilty or not, I would be taking my CDs with me).

I think the people that wrote the film poster don’t understand what they’re messing with there. Making the right mix-tape can have enormous significance. I’ve definitely fallen in love with people based on their ability to make up a compilation that pressed my buttons.

My friend Katy and I, we reckoned that the quality of a boy's mix-tape told you everything you needed to know about whether they'd be any good with you in bed. Either you get me or you don't. Get the soundtrack right and everything else is easy. Music is a sure-fire way to my heart - and other parts of me too.