Precious Things Playlist
Precious Things features
a lot of Depeche Mode songs in the story, and while most of them are named in
the novel, a few are not, so I thought it might be helpful to put together an
official Precious Things playlist! I also have to admit that I am not much of a Depeche Mode fan—I really
only started to listen to their music while I was thinking about this book,
mulling over the idea of a story set around an electronic music production
class. (Like Isabelle, I also took an
electronic music class at a community college; however, I was already a college
graduate at the time and the class wasn’t for credit.) Also like Isabelle, there are a lot of
Depeche Mode songs I don’t like, but
I have found a few that I really love, and the mood and tone of them had a huge
influence on the writing of Precious
Things. So here are the songs, in
the order they appear in the book:
1
“Enjoy the Silence”—For the record, I hate this
song almost as much as Isabelle does.
It’s one of Depeche Mode’s earlier hits.
2 “Waiting for the Night”—This is the song
Isabelle listens to after reading the Robert Frost poem “Acquainted with the
Night,” and the combined effect of the song and poem prompts an unexpected
emotional reaction.
3 “I Want It All”—Evan plays this song for
Isabelle the first time they’re alone together.
In other words, the almost-kiss sexual-tension song.
4 “Halo”—The soundtrack to Evan and Isabelle’s
first date. The “girl with a famine in
her heart” song.
5 “Goodnight Lovers”—This song foreshadows some of
the troubles Isabelle and Evan will face in the last part of the book.
“Precious”—This one is my favorite too.
And if you want more Depeche Mode, here are some other songs
that inspired me, but didn’t make it into the book: “Ghost,” “Useless,”
“Stripped,” “One Caress,” “Suffer Well,” “The Things You Said,” and
“Shine.” Happy listening!
