Travelmarx Music Picks - Winter 2024 - Harbor Mind

Composite image of 25 albums featured in the Travelmarx Winter 2024 playlist.

Our first post of the new year and it’s a playlist (Spotify link). Some thoughts about this playlist:

• Melody Nelson appears in two songs, the 13th Ward Social Club’s “Melody Nelson”, and Mick Harvey’s “Melody Nelson”. The name refers to the concept album “Histoire de Melody Nelson”, by French songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. Released in 1971, the album’s story follows the romance between the middle-aged narrator and a 15-year-old girl named Melody Nelson.
• The track "Social Roll” is from the second album “Social Limbo” from the Italian group Opez. (Really loving their music and they are Italian!) The album is a collection of eleven dreamy and haunting acoustic instruments. We like the idea of “Social Roll” as when you dive into the world of social media, you get rolled (taken advantage of). That’s our interpretation, not Opez’s.
• The harbor mind.
• This term describes a mindset or way of thinking that is influenced by the rhythms and transience of coastal life. This concept is often associated with the early Greeks, who lived near the sea.
• While this theme doesn’t appear directly in the playlist, it influenced us when selecting the tracks. Specifically, we had just finished the book “How to Be: Life Lessons from the Early Greeks” by Adam Nicolson where one of the central ideas is the harbor mind.
• In October, we had a chance to visit of the cities (Miletus, Priene, Ephesus) that are discussed in Nicolson’s book. (See 18 Days in Turkey, Postcards from Istanbul, Let’s Do the Pamukkale).
• What an emotional ode to Kate Bush by Pone. We include the track "Breathing - ICU". Read more.

13th Ward Social Club - "Melody Nelson"
Assaf Spector - Gitkin - "The Last Chuck"
Aze - "Sudoku"
BALTHVS - "All is One"
Benjamin Clementine – "Difference"

Beth Gibbons Rustin Man - "Romance"
Emiliana Torrini The Colorist Orchestra - "Racing the Storm"
Fabio Viscogliosi - "Camera"
Harry Paradise - "Slow Walk Mango Promenade"
Howe Gelb - "Running Behind"

Jay-Jay Johanson - "Cheetah"
Jeb Loy Nichols - "Big Trouble Comes in Through a Small Door"
Kid Local - "A Grand Love Theme"
Mick Harvey - "The Ballad of Melody Nelson"
Mieke Miami - "Cry Baby Cry"

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - "Breathless"
Nicolas Godin - "Team Vulcan"
Opez - "Social Roll"
Pone - "Breathing - ICU"
Quantic Alice Russell - "Travelling Song"

Spain - "Before It All Went Wrong"
The Good The Bad and The Queen - "History Song"
The Handsome Family - "Far from Any Road"
The Movers - "Give Five or More"
The Walkmen - "Red Moon"