Tunes for Tuesday #4





Tunes for Tuesday is a feature which gives us the chance to listen to the songs which influenced authors while writing their books.
As we know, each author is different so this feature has no set rules and it's up to an author how they wish their playlist to be featured.

I'm R.J. Anderson, an author of speculative fiction for older children and teens.

This [playlist] is dedicated to links relating to my forthcoming YA paranormal thriller Ultraviolet, which will be published in the UK by Orchard Books and in the US by Carolrhoda Lab in 2011.

Here’s a sampler of the songs I listened to while writing Ultraviolet, arranged roughly in order of their place in the book’s narrative:

[As usual click song title to listen]

“Ambulance” by Eisley - “I need an ambulance / I took the worst of the blow…” 

“Serotonin” by Nine Horses - “My mind’s hallucinating lucidity / It’s over sensitized / And something’s moving on the periphery…”

“Measuring Cups” by Andrew Bird - “Come to the front of the class / And we’ll measure your brain / We’ll give you a complex and we’ll / give it a name…”

“Another Little Hole” by Aqualung - “No need to tell her / she knows that there’s another little hole in her heart / ‘Cause she feels it happen…”

“Basic Space” by The xx - “I’ve suffered shipwrecks / right from the start…”

“Every Colour You Are” by Rain Tree Crow - “Feel like crying / the joke’s gone too far / you can be anything you want / every colour you are…”

“Fingers of Love” by Crowded House - “Colour is its own reward / the chiming of a perfect chord…”

“X and Y” by Coldplay - “I dive in at the deep end / you’ve become my best friend / I want to love you but I don’t know if I can…”

“Faster than Light” by Neil Finn - “And praise will come to those whose kindness  leaves you without debt / and bends the shape of things that haven’t happened yet…”

“Four Walls” by Charlotte Martin - “Grow accustomed to the darkness / and see what you’re supposed to see…”

“The Big Music” by the Waterboys - “I have heard the big music / and I’ll never be the same…”

“How the Day Sounds” by Greg Laswell - “Thank you for opening the window / The sky is clear as my mind is now / I was a long, long way off / Join me in welcoming the sun in…”


Unfortunately I was unable to include some of the songs that most inspired me at the beginning stages of the novel, most notably Peter Himmelman’s “Synesthesia” and “Name” and Cock Robin’s “I Don’t Want To Save The World” (though the latter can be found via Deezer here).
The songs in the playlist have a lyrical as well as a musical connection to the book, but for simple mood-setting I also listened to a lot of ambient music by Talk Talk/Mark Hollis, David Sylvian, and Kevin McCormick.

Midnight Reads would like to say a massive thank you to R J Anderson for allowing her playlist to be featured this week. We were all ready looking forward to reading the book but this has made us want to read all the more.

Find out more about Ultraviolet here where you can also view the book trailer.