Like many people, whether they admit it or not, I like to soundtrack my own life as though I’m starring in a film that any day now someone is going to buy the rights to. There is rarely a moment in my life that I don’t think can be improved by music, and I’m quite keen for biotechnology to just hurry up to embed tiny speakers into my ears so I can enter every room to ‘Rock You Like a Hurricane’.

It was almost impossible to narrow it down to five, but here goes…

1. Dashboard Confessional – Hands down
I’m still an EMO kid at heart so some of the names on my Spotify would be the same ones teenagers handwrote onto recordable CDs back in the late 90s. The first few bars can instantly lift me out of any dark mood – it captures the angsty, excitable first phase of a crush so perfectly and makes me feel like I’m 16 again.

 2. The Gaslight Anthem – Old White Lincoln
The Gaslight Anthem are one of my favourite bands in the world and anyone who has heard of them if I tentatively bring them up in conversation gets instantly promoted to friend. This song, that Brian Fallon drawls in a deep southern accent, punctuated by Bruce Springsteen growls, sounds like summer to me – long sunny days in fields, outdoor gigs, it’s all here hidden in the bars.

 3. Don’t get me wrong – The Pretenders
I remember my parents owning the vinyl album this was on and it’s bouncy, happy beat and optimistic lyrics make it the perfect commute soundtrack. Brandon Flowers not only covered it on his tour last year, but brought Chrissie Hynde out as well, and I nearly combusted with excitement.

 4. Taylor Swift – Are you ready?
I’m an unashamed lover of pop and also a big fan of the Swift Back catalogue (it’s best we don’t cover off my complicated views on who she is as a brand and a person, or her association with ex-fantasy-husband Tom Hiddleston) Been waiting for something new from her for a long time and was not disappointed by this one – shades of the old, and something a bit new. I am currently attempting Couch to 5K and this song is firmly on my ‘Keep going’ playlist.

 5. Kanye West – Stronger
Feels a bit wrong to put him next to Taylor Swift (!) but before Kanye was a parody of himself, this song absolutely spoke to me. I was desperately trying to move from my stopgap job in a car insurance call centre to a career in PR and it was a song that would pick me up and put me back on the path again after the 10,000th polite rejection citing my lack of experience for the latest entry level PR role I had applied for.

PR Playlist by Vix Leyton, PR for technology firm Decision Tech