A Spy on a Plane Early in the Morning
- francescagelet
- Feb 1
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 21
A skilled and self-aware spy has a controlled understanding that what they’re doing – whether it be lies, manipulation, seduction, or worse – is wrong. They also have the unalienable belief that these actions are made right, made clean by their necessity. But the ends don’t always justify the means, and you can run from your past, but you can’t run from yourself. As they say, no matter where you go, there you are. This playlist the captures a dark, moody, sultry vibe of a spy on a plane early in the morning and tries to understand the mystery of where they are going, where they are coming from, what they are up to, and how it feels to live so much of life concealed in shadow and intrigue and misdeeds.
The vibe begins with alt-J’s, ‘Hunger of the Pine’ which quietly embodies a sense of longing tinged with desire and regret. The song is sensual. Soft vocals build on each other and over powerful underlying beats. Here the spy is still in control…the lyric, “I’m a female rebel,” is perhaps too on the nose, but whatever.
Then comes a transition to the inarguable sensation of anticipation born of intrigue with ‘Hush’, the theme song from the AMC show about the start of America’s first spy ring, sung by Joy Williams and Matt Berninger. The imagery of the song is full of ropes and blood and snakes in the garden. Williams’ lilting vocals and Berninger’s baritone marry beautifully to create a canny, spine-tingling atmosphere. The spy knows that what they’re doing is wrong, but the moment is so pregnant with danger and possibility that they can’t proceed any other way.
Then comes, ‘My Baby Shot Me Down,’ originally by Nancy Sinatra, masterfully remade by Cher, but performed here live by Murder by Death. The rendition is simple – deep vocals reminiscent of Johnny Cash delivered by a man who almost certainly has a mustache over a single guitar. This song oozes betrayal and regret…“She didn’t even say good-bye, she didn’t take the time to lie.” And the live recording allows for the tantalizing line, “This next song is about the overwhelming power of guilt” to finish the song, allowing for a powerful tonal shift to…
‘Criminal,’ a sultry banger of an anchor song. Fiona Apple’s deep, feminine voice scrapes the edges of desperate desire, but there’s too much power in her lyrics and in the chaotic layering of her musical backing for the song to truly slip into that territory. In an echo of ‘Hush,’ this song explores the feelings of someone who knows that what they are doing is wrong, but can’t help themselves.
This robust explosion is followed by a sparse but sensual, ‘I Put a Spell on You’ sung by the classic powerhouse Zooey Deschanel. The song is an exploration of dark feminine power. There’s rage and desperation, but the singer maintains – or thinks she maintains – control. The musical simplicity of the song allows for the emotional lyrics to shine through.
She & Him pave the way for London Grammar’s only slightly more sonically layered, ‘Nightcall.’ Piano, guitar, and deep, powerful female vocals are this song needs to paint a picture of fixation and need. This song is at once full of feeling, and also stark and almost empty. It progresses like a series of heavy breaths and a heavily beating heart. What do we ultimately lose as a result of the choices we make?
The opening music in ‘Vertigo’ builds a sense of anticipation that is answered by whispered, enticing vocals…“Oh, you want me, that’s all you need to know.” These, in turn, build to a powerful chorus and Alex Turner’s delicious verse. His vocals and winding poetic lyrics evoke a psychadellic series of images: a deceit, a heist, a drop, an accord all wrapped up in a sexual fantasy. This is the true punctuation of the song, “I thought I wasn’t but I was losing my mind when she showed me how the night was ‘sposed to sound I realized.” This song takes full advantage of the record flip, shifting the tone of the playlist from desperation to urgency and foretelling the fate of our spy in the process.
Next up, Miles Kane and Alex Turner trade lyrics back and forth that are evocative of a more muted and aroused early Beatles. They are naughty boys who are reckoning with their own misdeeds and their lyrics are paired with a full band of lilting and suspenseful strings. “’Cuz we’re just following the flock around and in between before we’re smashed to smithereens like they were, and we scramble from the blame” reeks of hollow desperation and urgency. The song’s title says it all…'My Mistakes Were Made for You.'
And then the vibe sees the return of the deep, feminine vocals in, ‘Je fais le mort,’ (or ‘I play dead’) which tell the story of a figure meant for sunshine and summer time putting on a light coat and moving through a chilly and overcast winter with a confidence that was earned through hardship. This song seems to capture a rare moment of weakness where that person straddles the line between regret and longing in thinking about the past. Only a harpsichord maintains a sense of whimsy here, which is immediately followed by…
‘Sculptures of Anything Goes,’ and an ominous, synthetic sound over which an older, more mature Alex Turner, this time of the Arctic Monkeys, wonders if your mother ever thinks of him. There’s a kind of exhaustion in both the music and the lyrics here that is underpinned by an insistence on carrying on. This sentiment is punctuated by the lyric, “Is that vague sense of longing still trying to cause a scene?” Somehow this song offers the perfect runway to the end of the playlist.
‘Tusk’ is an uncharacteristic fever dream from the typically jam-band adjacent Fleetwood Mac. The song creates an almost amphetamine fueled sense of urgency that leads to sheer abandon by the end. Our spy…or perhaps their lover…is wondering, “why don’t you tell me what’s going on, why don’t you tell me who’s on the phone.” The base and percussion, joined by a horns section, drive this song to a hysterical pitch. Whispered lyrics are punctuated by urgent demands. Our spy is being followed and driven by voices. Whether they are real or imagined is anyone’s guess.
The final song on the official playlist is a classic. In ‘Sinnerman,’ percussion and piano are layered with Nina Simone’s deep vocals build a sense of urgency and desperation, but as the song progresses these dissolve into abandon. They spy gives in to what they’ve done in the end, as we all must do.
The bonus track is a palate cleanser for the rest of the playlist. ‘Moonlight and Vodka,’ by Chris de Burgh is literally a song about an American spy trapped in Moscow, we assume, during the Cold War and lamenting his position in life. “Espionage is a serious business,” he says. Isn’t it just.
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