Playlist | LOVE AND OTHER PARADOXES by Catriona Silvey

For Me This Is Heaven - Jimmy Eat World

LOVE AND OTHER PARADOXES is set in the early 2000s, when aspiring poet Joe finds his life – and his love life – upended by the arrival of Esi, a time traveler from the future. Jimmy Eat World is a band that defines the era for me, and I love how the syncopated drums and guitars in this song sound like a clock going backwards. The lyrics also make me think of Esi, torn between her mission to change the past and her growing feelings for Joe: ‘If I don’t let myself be happy now, then when?’

The Wrote & the Writ - Johnny Flynn

At the beginning of the book, Joe is so focused on writing the perfect love poem that it gets in the way of his actual relationships. This song, about a lover who writes beautiful letters, but can’t communicate honestly with their partner in the here and now, is the ultimate anthem for him, and for anyone who tends to channel their feelings into books and writing:

If you’re born with a love for the wrote and the writ

People of letters, your warning stands clear:

Pay heed to your heart and not to your wit

Don’t say in a letter what you can’t in my ear

Stay - Rihanna

Every romance needs a passionate, lighter-waving ballad, and “Stay” is the ideal one for LOVE AND OTHER PARADOXES. I hear it as the story of two people, each with their own deep-seated issues, who know they shouldn’t be together, but can’t help longing for each other anyway. It fits perfectly with the slow burn and mutual pining that defines much of Joe and Esi’s romance.

Laurel Wreath - Bear’s Den

This song’s central image, borrowed from Tennessee Williams, is a laurel wreath with its leaves withering and falling. It sums up Joe’s journey, from craving future glory to accepting failure and vulnerability, and coming to understand the importance of letting someone see you and love you for who you are, not for your external achievements. As a bonus, lead singer Andrew Davie, like Joe, has Scottish roots, and the band’s songs often reference places in Scotland.

Overture - Patrick Wolf

I love how joyful this song is – a triumphant hymn to overcoming your past traumas and letting your creative light shine. As the name suggests, “Overture” is the first track on Wolf’s album The Magic Position, but in my LOVE AND OTHER PARADOXES playlist, it comes at the end. That’s because it expresses where Joe and Esi find themselves at the end of the book, which is also a beginning: this part of their story may be finished, but their futures are still wide open.