Building the new dad playlist

 One key role in being a new father, as we all know, is putting together the ultimate dad playlist. I mean. It's not. But that did not seem to stop the generation before us. I seem to have been raised on stories of bands who'd stopped producing music before I was born, who wore weird outfits and did not have a single rap interlude. This Bob Dylan chap seemed nice but I was neither sure what he was saying, nor exactly what he was rebelling against. 

It is against this backdrop that I turn to creating my own dad playlist. A list of tracks I love which evoke special turn of the century vibes but that will engender groans and shrugs when it is selected on a long car journey. A list which speaks of a simpler time, with only four TV channels and dial up internet. Of Look In! magazine and overt sexism barely raising an eyebrow. 

Thankfully I have some legendary assistance on this quest in the form of two chaps from church. Both are the same age as me, but one is father of three. The other is expecting his first with his wife. Both settled on much the same music genre - late nineties guitar rock featuring a lead singer with an abnormally low voice. Dad Brian, as we shall now call him, even pointed out that 'With Arms Wide Open' was about new fatherhood, which was an added bonus. The only exceptions to those rather simple rules are (1) Placebo, where the lead has a somewhat nasal voice and (2) Deftones, which I dare say the youngest we are to adopt will absolutely love. 

So below is my playlist, both as a static image which I know will not disappear on a whim, and a live Spotify embed which I'm sure will work now but who knows for how long. Please do leave a comment as to what you'd add or change, and whether this has inspired your to undertake this important rite of passage for your children. 

The live Spotify embed -