In which we talk little and listen a lot.

I've noticed that my blogs have been sneakily getting longer, and I think it's definitely time to put a stop to that. Short and sweet is the name of the game for April. No unnecessary verbosity here.

Since Christmas I've been playing a game with Spotify and a couple of friends. The rules are as follows: 20 songs, all of them must mean something special to you. I'm not going to publish the whole list here, nor am I going to explain each choice - I tried it and, frankly, it was a miserable experience. I will, however, give you a couple of selected highlights. Apologies for the rubbish videos - I tried to find proper versions where possible. Enjoy.

We used this song as part of my final GCSE drama performance. That whole year was a brilliant one, it was when I learnt to actually talk to people and make proper friends and stuff. This song brings back all the many joyous memories.

Another song that reminds me of happy times and my best friends in my last year of school. That’s when I first came across this band, and this song makes me feel so wonderfully content. Happy times.

This is almost definitely a song about God, and an absolutely cracking one. It conjures all sorts of happy feelings, but mostly just makes me feel absolutely delighted to be alive and part of God’s creation. I love it.

Such an honest, realistic description of love, and more romantic than so many ‘love songs’ that are bandying about the place. No poetry, no pretension, just ‘I want to spend my life with you’. It’s beautiful in it’s simplicity. Contains both the best and worst line in the world in “What if, what if, what if, what? // If it’s not perfect then it’s not”.

It would be wrong to compile a list of songs I love without popping some Killers in there, but I couldn’t choose. This one isn’t an obvious choice, but has some wonderful lines and is about asking a bunch of the important questions that I ask myself on a reasonably regular basis. “Am I strong enough to be the one? // Will I live to have some children?... If I only knew the answer I wouldn’t be bothering you, Father” It’s a prayer about insecurity, strength and dependence on God, and I sort of love it for that.

That's me done. Happy spring, all. Go and enjoy the sun.