Indie Fuel: The perfect summer jog playlist
The late, great, madcap writer Hunter S Thompson once said, “Music has always been a matter of Energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel”. The Rum Diary writer continues: “On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio”. I’ll be damned if that’s not also true of jogging.
Alas, the greatest season for jogging is almost upon us. In the hot heat of summer – or in the case of my native Newcastle, temperate 17°C – the rewards come literally dripping off you. The challenge of making it through the test of the sun prevents any of the tedium of trudging along in cold, wet October from setting in. Meanwhile, the rays blasting down amplify the effectiveness of your chosen fuel.
In some ways, I would wager that recorded music approaches its pinnacle when listened to on a summer jog. The cerebral effects that it has on the body are heightened; rather than letting it drift into the background, you are forced to notice and appreciate its effects. In fact, you can positively measure its impacts; science has literally done so.
A study published in the Journal of Human Kinetics found that listening to music while running led to a 10% increase in total distance covered and a 14% increase in speed over the course of the same run. Moreover, lactate levels in the blood – that’s the stuff that makes your muscles burn – were 8% lower in those running with the backing of music.
The science suggests that this is due to music shifting your focus. Therefore, your body doesn’t tense up as easily and you literally run in a more relaxed fashion, making you more efficient and, as Hunter S. Thompson accidentally suggested, leaving you to burn clean fuel. Music also releases a range of other hormones to help you overcome struggles, pushing you further.
On a personal level, I have often found enjoying a spell being ‘content free’, away from screens or noise for a moment, to be a great benefit of running, but there are times when the benefits of music are a necessity. Contrary to what you might think, the tranquillity of classical music goes down a storm on a jog, but that’s a playlist for another day.
Instead, inspired by the video at the foot of this piece, we’re focussing on the indie and alternative anthems that make you glide. We’ve curated it to match the waxes and wanes you experience in the long run, designed specifically to be played in full, easing you to a great 10k.
Enjoy the playlist below.
Perfect jogging anthems:
- ‘All My Friends’ – LCD Soundsytem
- ‘Red Eyes’ – The War on Drugs
- ‘There She Goes My Beautiful World’ – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
- ‘Take Back the Radio’ – Katy J Pearson
- ‘Dreams’ – Fleetwood Mac
- ‘Somebody to Love’ – Jefferson Airplane
- ‘Wolf Like Me’ – TV On The Radio
- ‘Speedlumps’ – Luna
- ‘Agoraphobia’ – Deerhunter
- ‘Loops’ – Gnoomes
- ‘How Deep Is Your Love?’ – The Raptures
- ‘Could Heaven Ever Be Like This’ – Idris Muhammad
- ‘Don’t Change’ – INXS
