RNE Radio

RNE PLAYLIST #1 : Relief, Joy, Inspiration & a nod to Female artists

I’ve been thinking about music and running for a while now; I value both tremendously as singular sources of power and energy however I’ve always considered them to be entirely disconnected. For a while this proved a source of mild philosophical discomfort to me. How can these two things, that mean so much to me fail to coexist? I’ve never been able to combine them; when I run I’m generally trying to do one of two things; tune IN, to my environment, breathing, effort level and form or tune OUT, to allow my mind to relax to a point where I can process thoughts I can’t during the rest of the day when I’m generally bombarded with information. Music would prove a distraction in both these instances and so whilst I’m comfortable acknowledging I will never be able to connect music and running on a practical level, I still felt the desire to identify a more philosophical, emotional connection. And so, I started to dig deeper to try to understand why it was that these seemingly entirely disconnected elements of my life felt in some way intrinsically linked. After a fair amount of soul-searching (mostly done whilst running); this is what I came up with;

Both have a similar, singular emotional effect on me;

Both can fill my heart with hope and joy

Both can reduce me to tears

Both can make me feel like a bad ass

Both have proved hugely effective in terms of processing grief

Both are a continuous source of inspiration, strength and motivation

I’ve celebrated these little revelations, which have provided me with a certain amount of peace, with a playlist – one that, unsurprisingly has not been curated “to run to” (although feel free of course) but, I hope, one that will provide some joy, relief and inspiration. Whilst I wasn’t aiming to include a theme, it felt natural to dedicate my first RNE playlist to female artists to celebrate their genius, especially considering the amount of inspiration I glean from women runners, athletes, artists and creatives on a daily basis.

Hope you enjoy.

Rhian.

TRACKLIST

1. The Weather Station – The Robber

2. BEA1991 – Filthy Believer

3. Marie Davidson – Work It

4. ESG – Dance

5. Charlotte Adigéry – Paténipat

6. Tina Turner – Proud Mary

7. Vashti Bunyan – Train Song

8. Lucinda Williams – Jackson

9. Moonchild Sanelly – Thunda Thighs

10. ANOHNI – Drone Bomb Me

11. Tori Amos – Cornflake Girl

12. Grace Jones – Slave To The Rhythm

13. Tune-Yards – Heart Attack

14. The Blessed Madonna – He Is The Voice I Hear

15. Robyn – Don’t Fucking Tell Me What To Do

16. SAULT – Let Me Go

17. Cat Power - Free

18. PJ Harvey – Shame (demo)

19. Christine and the Queens – Je disparais dans tes bras

20. Warpaint – Billie Holiday