Musical therapy
Traditionally, music associated with spas runs the wire-thin gamut from Enya to Zamfir to the occasional cringing intrusion of Michael Bolton. But soothing doesn’t have to be soulless. The fact is, it’s your home and you get to be the DJ. Here are some suggestions for your playlist.
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Milk White SheetsIsobel Campbell(V2 Ada) These psychedelic lullabies are so light and airy that they verge on octaves only registered by pixies. Campbell spent her formative years as the cellist and sometime vocalist for Glaswegian critical darlings Belle and Sebastian, and in this, her second solo album, she looks back to the 1960s British folk scene for inspiration. The result is a Nick Drake album, if Nick were both alive and a girl. |
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Anita Sings the MostAnita O’Day(Verve) It was surely one of the signs of the apocalypse last November that O’Day’s death received scant coverage while the crackerjack media directed their focus on the latest Branjelina vacation. O’Day was the West Coast chanteuse with Ella’s voice and Billie’s soulful vices, and this reissue captures her greatness. |
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Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives EPVoxtrot(Cult Hero) There are few joys greater than discovering a brilliant song overlooked by the hoi polloi. The title track of Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives is that song, and you’ll be getting in on the ground floor of the next big thing. |
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Matthew & SonCat Stevens(Deram) Go back—back before the current Yusef Islam iteration, even back before the sensitive “Peace Train.” In 1967, Stevens released this, his first album, and it was full of catchy, fun songs with great hooks and a groovy vibe. Ah, the old days. |
Books for your zen den
The ideal home spa is an antidote to our fast-paced lifestyle, a sanctuary from the freneticism flitting just outside our door. In this refuge, people still actually put down their BlackBerrys, turn off their cellphones and indulge in that increasingly rare pastime—reading.more
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