Years ago, I used to love to reflect on playlists. My end-of-year epilogues used to be a homage to them. But nothing has felt as significant in many years as the soundtrack to my wedding in May. Six months to the day, to that I turn, with some passing thoughts about the music choices that contributed towards a memorable day.

---

Ceremony

Arrival of the Birds (2008)

Bridal march

My wife’s suggestion of the Cinematic Orchestra was inspired. ‘Arrival of the Birds’ is from the soundtrack to the 2008 movie The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos, and was released as a single four years later. It’s a wonderful string-led piece that is both passively soundtrack and dramatically immediate. It begins unassertively and soars, before fading again to quiet. The perfect opening.

---

La Ritournelle (2004)

Signing of the register

My wife’s choice, from Sébastien Tellier’s 2004 album Politics, and highly rated by NME. At over 7 minutes in full, this choice was guided in part by our need for longer pieces during the ceremony. An up-tempo piano track with strings and Afrobeat drums gave us something characterful as well as an element of continuation from the Cinematic Orchestra.

---

Hopes and Fears (2012)

Signing of the register

Soaring electronica from Ryan Farish, who I’ve followed for 20 years. I love the ethereal melody over heavy percussion and the beautiful hush through the ending. I listened to Life in Stereo a lot in early 2014, often on wintery, sunny afternoons from the top of Leicester’s Attenborough Tower, where the view almost resembled the album’s cover art. It was a time of transition, uncertainty, and family calamity. Ten years on, it got a new watermark on a special day.

---

Amor Fati (2011)

Recessional / Departure

My ‘something new’ of the wedding. It came up on a Spotify playlist at the beginning of this year, and I was instantly hooked. It’s hazy dream pop with lo-fi, reverb, barely-audible vocals, and lyrics loosely based on the Stoic acceptance of one’s fate (re: Nietzsche). People who hear me play this say it’s ‘totally Keith’, so what better way to end our ceremony?

---

Pre-event playlist

1. Tinuviel, Amethystium
2. On My Way Home, Enya
3. Skies on Fire, The Green Children (TGC)
4. Sovereign Light Cafe, Keane
5. What I Love About Rain, Art Garfunkel
6. Let it Happen (Radio Edit), Tame Impala
7. Gratitude, Above & Beyond feat. Marty Longstaff
8. Wir Sind Groß, Mark Forster
9. Führ mich ans Licht, Xavier Naidoo
10. Always, Erasure
11. The Impossible Dream, Alphaville
12. Peculiar Paradise, Lonely Benson
13. Answer, Thirteen Senses
14. Runaway, Grace Mitchell
15. Skimming Stones (Sirénes Mix), Sleepthief feat. Kirsty Hawkshaw
16. Faded (Restrung), Alan Walker

---

Dances

Heartbreaker (2003)

First dance

This elegant cosmic-themed ballad is piano-led, as much of the best of the limited edition Crazyshow is. This isn’t available on streaming channels, so our DJ found it online, but it turned out to be a badly-labelled cover, so we ended up with a poor version. The band protects its limited edition releases, but that does mean that the best must remain (to some degree) a well-kept secret.

Flame (1997)

Couples dance

There are unofficial ‘genres’ of Alphaville fan, and ‘Flame’ is the bedrock of one of them. I’m a ‘Flame’ guy, along with some of the Scandies. This lush synth / string pop ballad fell off the set-list for around 15 years, but returned by fan request in 2019 and has stuck around since. It might have been the song that hooked me to this band for good. It’s so good to share.

---

Disco

The disco was my evening indulgence. My only parameters were a few openers that I wanted to celebrate before the rest of the night took its own route.

Big in Japan (1984)

Disco opener

What else was it ever going to be? The buildup, the anthemic clapping, and the ever-underrated diamond that is Big in Japan. My fondness for the longer album version comes from the additional background melody on keys (1:03-1:21) which really elevates the verse. I love that this song has practically nothing to do with Japan – it’s all metaphor and idiom and greatness.

Dresden (2013)

Disco opener

I took up OMD in earnest during my PhD years. Then they released Electric English, with this amazing ‘sequel’ to their most famous hit, Enola Gay. ‘Dresden’ is probably about Andy McCluskey’s divorce, which would make it odd for a wedding, but all my favourite OMD songs are catchy melodies about slightly grim topics. You just enjoy the music, as they do.

Sinéad (2011)

Disco opener

When I first moved to south-west London in 2009, I started getting into northern European symphonic metal, notably Nightwish, Amaranthe and Within Temptation. There’s something special about Sinéad. It follows Sharon del Adel’s successful collaboration with Armin Van Buuren, and you can hear the EDM/trance influence at the start. Purists tend to rubbish it, but I think it’s got everything.

Burn (2016)

Disco opener

The Pet Shop Boys’ best attempt at EDM came with ‘Axis’ in 2013. ‘Burn’ is the same length and same tempo but has older sounds – the favoured tymp drums, the keys arrangement sliding in and out of key – which make it quite unique as a dance track. The single release was cancelled due to a deadly fire in the US engulfing a venue used for an electro concert – otherwise this might be known better than it is.

---

Forever Young (1984)

Closing

The signature song that started it all back in 2000 marked the end of my wedding day. The ubiquitous, anthemic, omnipresent aria. A canvas of the lyrics hangs on the office wall at home. Universally joyous, hopeful, optimistic, nostalgic, poetic, musical and timeless. It’s getting a lot of celebration this year, and by nobody more than me.