WARMER MIXTAPES #530 | by Gabrielle Fröden of Foreign Slippers

1. The Hot Club Of Cowtown | Pray For The Lights To Go Out (Will E. Skidmore Song)
I think this song is so funny and so well played that it has to be on my playlist. You want to dance when you hear it and you can sing along drunkenly. I wish I could play like these guys. I wish we lived in a time when people generally played like this. Makes me think of nicer clothes and nicer clubs and red lipstick and a good night out in the old days.

2. The Jayhawks | Two Hearts
I remember when I first heard the Jayhawks and I was too young to get what was good about it. Later I returned to it and found that I really loved it. What a cool band.

3. The Shins | Sea Legs
Melodically these guys are so brilliant, I love this song. It is so cool and well arranged and really works when I run, which is a rare thing, but still. I think it feels a little trippy. I used to live in a house with too many people and if I put my headphones on and listened to the Shins, I could kind of forget that I had to deal with a lot of crazy folk later.

4. Allan Edvall
One of Sweden’s most celebrated actors. He also wrote poetry and here he is singing the poems. This breaks my heart in a way because I get really homesick and I realise I love Swedish and when it is sung this way it is really funny but also incredibly moving. He manages to sing about the beauty of the seasons as well as what it is like to be on the dole and have nothing to do and all the little things that are very Swedish. He dares to be rude and funny and vulnerable. Quite impressive.

5. Lucinda Williams | Still I Long For Your Kiss
To me this is the ultimate Americana. Slow raspy voice and brilliant guitars. When I hear this I want to sit in some diner and stare out at a small town street. This song has the perfect amount of heartbreak in it. It isn’t too much. You can tell that she is a bit angry, which is never bad when you write a song.

6. The Felice Brothers | Frankie's Gun!
This makes me think of my best friends back home. Around Christmas we always go out to our cabin by the lake and drink and hang out. One year we went out in the wintery frosty cold forest and made a fire and ate buns and I filmed it and this is the song I put on the footage. So it makes me think of Staffan carrying a fallen tree, he and Johanna in a red hat laughing and Frej keeping the fire going, like a boy scout.

7. Henryk Górecki | Symphony No. 3
When I went to music school we always performed with symphony orchestras and Classical musicians. I remember standing in the choir listening to the orchestra and loving it but sometimes wondering why I didn’t feel anything. This symphony has emotion enough for a life time.

8. Destiny's Child | Survivor
Come on! I love Beyoncé. I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t.

9. Elvis Presley | Guitar Man (Jerry Reed Cover)
I want to be able to play like this! A little story told by the King. I love this so much! This sounds like so much fun. I wish I could go back in time and go see Elvis. How brilliant would that be!

10. Explosions In The Sky | Greet Death
As a young teenager I used to listen to my older brother’s records and this one set my heart on fire right from the start. I think it is nice to have some Instrumental Music now and then. I can hear whatever I want in it, there are no guidelines apart form the title. And nobody does it like Explosions In The Sky. It is heavy and beautiful. When I was young and could spend hours with headphones on, I used to listen to this and fall asleep. I don’t know if I could do that now.

+11. Loney, Dear | Sinister In A State Of Hope
Sweden’s pride. I think. How brilliant isn’t this? I remember seeing Emil play in a very early band what feels like hundred years ago. And at that time we still thought that he was amazing. Since then it just keeps getting better and weirder in a very good way.

+12. Pavement | Stop Breathin'
My teenage obsession. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. I spent the summer when I was turning fifteen, at a friend’s summer house. It was one of those glorious summers just by a lake and we both loved music, so it was OK to put your headphones on and not talk. I listened to this record that whole summer and I wasn’t the same in the autumn.

+13. Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers | Refugee
I am such a fan of Tom Petty. He keeps writing songs that breaks me. Again, when I first heard Tom Petty, on MTV, when I was about 11, I didn’t get it. Years later I understood. I wish I could write like Tom Petty and if I was a man, I would want to look like him. He looks amazing with a beard.

+14. Stina Nordenstam | And She Closed Her Eyes
This takes me back to being 16. Me and my best friend used to go and see bands play and then go back to someone’s house and hang out all night. It was a good time, even if you didn’t know it at the time. Whenever we slowed down and lied down we used to play Stina Nordenstam and turn off the lights, kind of hoping someone would make a move but also being quite scared they would. This makes me think of that feeling. The pain in your chest, the wanting.

+15. Gillian Welch | I Dream A Highway
These guys know how to write a good tune and how to play it so perfectly together! Such a perfect last song on a record. I fell in love with someone and this song was written for the relationship at that time. He was far away from me and I felt like I wanted to dream myself to him. This song goes on and on, which could be annoying but it isn’t. It could go on forever and I wouldn’t mind.