Music as Medicine [spotify]

The Mountain Goats — Half Dead 
The Smiths — Still Ill
Rocky Votolato — Suicide Medicine
Leftover Crack — With The Sickness
NOFX — Take two placebos and call me lame
Health — Glitter pills
Friendly Fires — Lovesick 
Phoenix — If I ever feel better

The idea for this Playlist Club mix saved me from the tail-end boredom of recovery as I was finishing off two duvet days spent sick from work. 

When in good health, everyone wishes that they could spend the odd extra day in bed after the weekends. But when you're forced to spend a day in bed, it rarely comes with that soothing feeling of rest and relaxation and the welcome sigh of relief at not being a slave to the alarm never arrives. No, instead those anticipated feelings of deliciously taking a day off whilst the whole world works takes the form of cold bathroom tiles on hot knees and hours spent twisting and turning to keep your head afloat in a turbulent sea of bedsheets. 

These songs have all ended up coming from artists that I've had brief, intense love affairs with over the years (some more than others) and maybe the intensity and frequency with which I listened to these bands somehow reflects the brevity of the bug I had, turning my world upside down for a couple of days then leaving me feeling slightly worn-out and ready to get back to normal.  

When illness strikes, any good doctor would prescribe lots of rest and plenty of medicine. I'm sure that, had I not been advised to never darken the doors of the GP's surgery for fear I would strike down the whole of West Leeds with my illness, my doctor would have provided me with a 'script for these eight tracks as a cure. 

About Playlist Club-er: Gemma Critchley (@GemStGem)

Gemma works in advertising by day and writes stories by night. When she's not doing that, she tinkers around with digital bits and bobs, writes her blog for the one a day project or drinks tea whilst daydreaming of adventures far away from Leeds.

Image: Potions and Lotions by Kath Harding at Behance Network