Tunes to Listen To in the Tub

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I was always a shower-person; baths seemed pointless, boring and a waste of water. This was a while back: before I discovered Lush bath products and started working full-time. Now, I'm converted and I love a good bath.

While they can come with their struggles - downing ice-cold water to prevent overheating, having to wash away the mass of glitter left behind from your bath bomb afterwards etc. - the relaxation of having a soak in a candle-lit bathroom and basking in the comforting heat is one of my favourite ways to spend the odd weekday.

I've found that listening to some of my favourite chill-out tunes also adds massively to the ambience, and can lead to me staying in there until my fingers and toes resemble prunes -  bit gross, but very much worth it.

Today I'm sharing my list of Tunes to Listen to in the Tub, which ranges from the obvious singer-songwriter choices to some you may not expect.

I'll start with the latter; I started listening to The Neighbourhood just last year and absolutely love their stuff, The Love Collection EP in particular. It's only three songs, my favourite being West Coast, which is one I can only describe as a clever indie rap song with hints of hip-hop thrown in.



The 1975 are a band which I'm a huge fan of; I started with just liking the upbeat singles but then went to really invest myself in their music in their self-titled album and their fantastically long-named recent album I Like it When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It. My bath-picks are mostly from the recent album; If I Believe You is one of my all time favourite songs, and is insanely relaxing with the saxophone solo and gospel-like vocals in the choruses. Lostmyhead, A Change of Heart and Somebody Else also make the cut.



The bands EPs are also insanely good, with Undo and You from the Sex EP, and Fallingforyou from IV being firm bath-favourites alongside the album songs.



I'm also a huge fan of PVRIS' Acoustic EP, which consists of 16 minutes of stunning vocals from Lynn Gunn; Only Love is my favourite.  The alt-rock three piece is a band I absolutely love and this EP and Lynn's voice is one I could listen to forever. Their Empty Room Sessions are also amazing; St. Patrick is available on Apple Music as a single I've found, and the others - toned down versions of My House, Holy, White Noise and Eyelids - can be found on YouTube. I'm hoping PVRIS record Empty Room Sessions for some songs from the new album - I know they'd definitely make the playlist, and they don't even exist yet.



A band many compare PVRIS to is Paramore, who is another female-fronted band I've loved for years. While the heavier punk/pop-punk/rock songs like Misery Business and Ignorance aren't so suitable for a relaxing tub soundtrack, their newest album After Laughter has a more poppy and electro-pop feel with some softer and slower-tempoed tunes amongst the upbeat ones. 26 - a ballad in the centre of the album which sings of heartbreak and hope - is beautiful with an uplifting message amongst the lower tones also expressed in the song.



When Harry Styles' album was announced earlier this year, I wasn't sure what to expect, but being a huge One Direction fan in my early teens (I'm still a fan now if I'm honest, purely for the nostalgia...obviously), I was keen to listen. The Brit-pop album is full of powerful rock songs which I really love; Kiwi is a fantastic upbeat number. There's also a lot of soft rock tracks on the album which I find especially calming to listen to; Two Ghosts, Meet Me in The Hallway, Woman and Sweet Creature are beautiful songs that have really separated Harry from his boy-band-tween image which sprung from his 1D days.




My final two artists fall under the singer-songwriter category.

Ben Howard reins supreme in the relaxing, acoustic, suitable-for-the-tub genre. Both the Every Kingdom and I Forget Where We Were albums could make up the perfect bath-soundtrack alone. The songs are beautifully ambient and Ben's voice is one I could listen to for hours. Favourite tracks are hard to pick, however Black Flies, Keep Your Head Up and All is Now Harmed are ones I particularly enjoy.



Lastly, Ed Sheeran was obviously going to appear in this post. While I love a majority of his songs, I've pinpointed two that I particularly love for this playlist; Kiss Me from Ed's debut album + is a beautifully written love song which I've adored since the first time I heard it.



Ed's third studio album, ÷, took a poppier genre with a lot of upbeat, fun songs thrown in. However, amongst these fast-tempoed numbers there are some slower tracks similar to his earlier stuff. On my first listen of the album, Dive stood out to me immediately as one of the most powerful and soulful songs on the track-list, and it still remains to be my favourite. It's more of a belter than Kiss Me, with the chorus quite strong and forceful lyrically, which I love.



So, if on the off-chance you were looking for a bath playlist, there's my recommended compilation of songs. If you're a bath-person wanting to up your 'me-time'-game, I hope this prompted you to run to your nearest Lush and stock up on bath bombs and tealights.

Here's a handy link to my Tub Tunes playlist - there's a few extras thrown in for good measure too.