WARMER MIXTAPES #406 | by Pernille Pang of Tiger Baby

It was really difficult – almost impossible - to chose, but here are ten songs, that I love because they’ve either had a profound influence on me or bring back lots of beautiful memories.

1. Sinead O’Connor | Last Day Of Our Acquaintance
When I was a young teenager I earned money by handling out newspapers in a big apartment block in the small ghetto-like city outside of Copenhagen where I grew up. It was dead boring and the only comfort I had while doing it was listening to music or singing out loud. At the time I listened a lot to Sinead O’Connor’s I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got and I especially remember singing Last Day Of Our Acquaintance over and over again. That was when I started practising my singing, I guess, and even though her musical style is quite far from, what we are doing in Tiger Baby, her way of singing - the interaction between the gentle and the forceful - really inspired me.

2. Jeff Buckley | Last Goodbye
It’s the most perfect and beautiful break up song with simple and precise lyrics, and it always brings tears to my eyes. I was a huge fan of Buckley in the 90s and was really sad when he drowned in the Mississippi Rivers.

3. El Perro Del Mar | Change Of Heart
This song really fascinates me. Usually, when I listen to music, I mainly listen to the melody. Production and music technology in general doesn’t really absorb me much (that’s Benjamin’s and Nikolaj’s area). But this song somehow seems to have the perfect production and it’s so cool and emotional at the same time.

4. Saint Etienne | Only Love Can Break Your Heart (feat. Moira Lambert) (Neil Young Cover)
To point out one favourite Saint Etienne song is an impossible task, but they definitely have to be represented in this collection, because they are a common reference of all the members in Tiger Baby. This particular song might be a controversial choice – first of all because it’s from a time when Sarah Cracknell still hadn’t joined the band and second, because it’s not their own song but a cover of Neil Young. Anyway, I really like the immatureness of it, the early Saint Etienne sound.

5. The Smashing Pumpkins | Perfect
One of Smashing Pumpkins’ more poppish songs from one of their more poppish albums. It captures all the memories from a stay in Chengdu, China, when I was 22. I studied Chinese at the university and travelled around the southern provinces with open heart and mind. It was a very exiting, free and adventurous time of my life, where I met a lot of people that today still have a special place in my heart, even though I’ve lost contact with most of them.

6. Sambassadeur | Between The Lines
I came by this Swedish band by coincidence. I was working at a daily newspaper, and at the annual Christmas party all the cds that the music journalist didn’t bother taking home was handed out as presents to anyone who wanted them. I found Sambassedeur’s Sambassadeur lying in a pile of unwanted cds and chose it merely because of its simple cover that had an autumn leave on it. It instantly became a favourite, and I always listen to it during the Christmas holidays as a sort of alternative Christmas album because it’s got such a warm and sparkling vibe. I love the band’s ability to combine somewhat cheerful guitar melodies with melancholic lyrics and vocals.

7. Slowdive | 40 Days
This is another band that all of the members of Tiger Baby have in common from when Shoegaze was the bomb. Along with Mojave 3, My Bloody Valentine and Lush, they feature on the soundtrack of my youth, and 40 Days is the perfect combination of distortion and pure pop melody. Lali Puna has made a brilliant cover of this song, which is highly recommendable too.

8. Radiohead | Nude
I watched Radiohead performing this song at the Roskilde Festival 2008 while the Sun went down over the festival grounds, and it gave me the chills. This piece of music may quite possible be the pure essence of beautiful sound, and even if I’m in a brilliant mood, it makes me feel like bawling, in a good way, that is.

9. The Knife | Pass This On
The sound of this song is deeply original and has an indescribable, almost mystical feeling to it. The combination of the calypso drums and Karin Dreijer's strange vocal is quite disturbing and whenever I listen to it, a chaotic mix of emotions fills me up. It sort of confuses me, but what can I say, the song is brilliant.

10. Blur | Bad Day
Writing this list I’ve come to realize that a lot of my choices are based on nostalgia. And this song is a lucid example of that. Listening to it reminds of my teenage room, teenage heartbreak, getting ready to go out, and singing out loud with tipsy high school friends. A lot of things that I really miss, but at the same time I’m happy they belong to the past.