Soothing music
Coming away from 12 hours at work might just be the time for classical piano pieces. Reinbert de Leeuw's take on Erik Satie'sGymnopedies is as languid as a Horlicks and diazepam cocktail
Your girlfriend's favourite tunes
Olly Murs, Florence and the Machine or the Moulin Rouge soundtrack are both the price of love and the raison d'etre for the 'skip' button
Your weights-room playlist
No one ever benched 80kg listening to Mumford & Sons. You need ROCK! Audioslave and Rage Against the Machine are essential. But if Lard's Drug Raid at 4AM doesn't push you through those last three reps, nothing will.
Something inspirational
Big meeting, annual review or presentation? Keep some rousing oratory to hand. Barack Obama’s 2008 victory speech, or Samuel L Jackson’s Ezekiel 25:17 from the Pulp Fiction soundtrack ought to do it.
The "difficult" album
Try Nico’s The Marble Index, Scott Walker’s Tilt, or Miles Davis’sBitches Brew. Even if you conclude they’re atonal bollocks you’ll be able to say so with some degree of erudition.
Your dance floor song
Because there is no situation too desperate to be improved by a blast of The Aztec Mystic's Knights of the Jaguar. Or indeed a quick bogle to Boombastic. Shake what yo' mama gave you. Discreetly, mind.
Something funny
But not too funny – you don't want to end up being sectioned mid-commute. Jerry Seinfeld's I'm Telling You for the Last Time is a stand-up masterclass: gentle wit with just the faintest whiff of cyanide sarcasm.
Your first single
And no cheating, it wasn't really The Smiths was it? Just be thankful that the dawn of the MP4 era means you don’t have to trawl the charity shops searching endlessly for that elusive copy of Rat Rapping
Your middle-age album
Ideally recorded by Californians at some point between 1973 and 1980, entirely free of punk or reggae influences but over-reverent to either jazz or country. Rumours really makes sense when you hit 40
Something to educate
For long journeys, take your pick of improving e-books, or download the BBC's In Our Time podcasts as the imperiously adenoidal Melvyn Bragg makes history his bitch. Your brain is like any muscle: use it or lose it.
