Members of our team are sharing their thoughts and observations from life at home at the moment; read extracts from Jake Elliot’s diary or Charlie Monaghan’s thoughts on home as refuge. Here, Prime Sales Manager Corey Hemingway has gone through her record collection to create a springtime playlist. Turn up the volume to celebrate the passing of seasons with this list of tunes, guaranteed to send good vibrations your way – listen here.

Corey Hemingway: I was asked to compile a spring playlist prior to the lockdown and have decided to stick with my choices in these strange, uncertain times we are in – music helps.

So here I am, back in early March selecting records on a Saturday morning, deciding on whether or not to clean my flat and which tracks could help. Clean up Woman by Betty Wright?

Three weeks pass. It’s one week into lockdown and I hear that Boiler Room are streaming a 24 hour isolation set by DJ EZ, raising money for foodbanks and giving clubbers the escapism we currently need. I started watching/listening to his set on Sunday morning – he was 12 hours in. I was enamoured by his endurance and then 12 hours later found myself still locked in and very sweaty. By this point I had shared a virtual dance on Zoom with a close friend and we’d reminisced about our club experiences.

I decided to take up running, an activity I’ve never enjoyed but now rely on to keep sane. After the first two attempts, distracted by my heavy feet and shortness of breath, I knew something was missing: music! So, I rummaged through that draw of tangled tech bits (you know the one) and found my iPod shuffle: the perfect companion for a beginner runner who wants to mask the sound of their extreme discomfort.

Fast forward five weeks, and we are now into our second month working from home: bound to the dining table alongside my partner, opposite records, a full fridge in clear view. Usually these would be distractions but The Modern House co-founders, Matt and Albert (hi!), wouldn’t be impressed if I was playing a lockdown soundtrack for my partner Monday to Friday would they now. I enjoy my job and work certainly hasn’t stopped so, despite temptations, I have adopted a temporary ritual – coffee from the percolator and, as soon as the clock strikes nine, NTS radio: an aural smorgasboard, currently being broadcast from selectors’ bedrooms, living rooms and, who knows, garages?

My phone buzzes: a weekly reminder (or gentle nag) from my dad in our family WhatsApp to ensure that we have all listened to his most recent upload on Mixcloud. This goes out to you Dad and thank you, Aldeia De Ogum by Joyce.

Shortly after: a message on Slack from a colleague- ‘anyone got a mix to listen to, something calm for now and a little heavier for the weekend?’

Music is my sanctuary and I’ll leave this playlist with you.

Cleo’s Apartment by Marvin Gaye
Spring Water by Alphonse Mouzon
Take Me Higher by Fertile Ground
Ele E Ela by Quinteto Tenura
Clean up Woman by Betty Wright
Morning Spring by Copeland Davis
Aldeia De Ogum by Joyce
Parev’ Ajere by Nu Guinea
Soca (it’s Soul Calypso) by Embryo
TED by Moses Boyd, Binker Golding, Simon Ratcliff and Ted Moses
Spring High by Ramsey Lewis
Dreamin’ by Greg Henderson
Music is My Sanctuary by Gary Bartz
Lovin’ You by Minnie Riperton
Aquas De Marco (Waters of March) by Elis Regina and Antonio Carlos Jobim Here Comes The Sun by Nina Simone