My memories of Durham as a playlist

By Stella Fenwick

Music has been in my ears at every moment of my degree. From seasonal study playlists to riverside walk serenades, the music soundtracking my past three years of Durham has been finely tuned for every milestone and precious moment.

Durham’s serendipity handed back to me the song I thought I had lost

‘Made By Maid’ by Laura Marling

In the dark and cold first term of my first year at Durham, dwarfed by the looming old architecture of the city crowned with snowy peaks, this song (and indeed entire album) was the perfect companion. I was reading a lot of Medieval writing for my course, alongside the Medieval-set Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh. Laura Marling’s album took a lot of inspiration from Medieval writing, and it perfectly fit the atmosphere I felt in this new, Medieval-looking town.

‘By The Cathedral’ by Keren Ann

This beautiful song is perfect for walking along the riverside and realising, even after three years, you will never quite believe the beautiful view of the cathedral poking above the trees. It’s also the perfect nostalgia song when you’re missing the crown jewel of the city.

‘Crystalised’ by The XX

Sometimes Durham hits you with little moments that transport you back home. This was a song I heard a lot at home growing up, and I had it stuck in my head for years without knowing the name to it. I thought about the mysterious song a lot when I arrived in Durham, as if desperate to reconnect to a childhood that was slipping from me. One day, walking past Flat White café, I heard the familiar refrain that had been circling through my head for so long that I had stopped believing it was real. Durham’s serendipity handed back to me the song I thought I had lost, and it has been my flash of childhood and homeliness in this city ever since.

‘She Dances’ by Billie Marten

On my ‘Autumn studying’ playlist, I listened to this song constantly on my walks to and from the library. When I listen to it now, it reminds me of stretching my blurry eyes across Prebends Bridge after a long library session. I was deep in my autumnal 90s romcom music phase (Mazzy Star, The La’s, Sixpence None The Richer), and Billie Marten’s pretty, acoustic music was perfect for atmospheric, main-character-energy hours studying in the short autumn days at the beginning of my second year.

‘Some Are Lakes’ by Land of Talk

One summer, I worked in a bookshop in Durham. It was in an attic, up a winding, sloping staircase your bumping elbows grow familiar with. It’s not there anymore, but I still like to remember how on really hot days I opened the windows onto a Vennels-smelling breeze while I sat studying or reading D. H. Lawrence for my course. I had finely curated playlists for the few customers who stopped by, and this song was on multiple times a day. “The loving heat, softer than a chime” was a nice commentary to long summer days spent preparing for the start of the next Michaelmas term, surrounded by books, in the soft lull before the city picks up again.

‘Who Knows’ by Daniel Caesar

I found this song in the last few months of my degree. I was constantly terrified of what life would hold after graduating, and the lyric “lately I’ve been thinking about my precarious future” hit hard. It felt even more serendipitous when, as I was taking photos with my freshly-finished dissertation in the evening sun beneath the cathedral, two girls walked past me singing this song together. The song captures so perfectly the feeling of uncertainty, fear, doubt and simmering ambition that swells at the end of your degree. I will always associate it with this feeling I had beneath the cathedral: who knows what will happen next?

Image: Stella Fenwick