NEW SINGLE ' FAKE PLASTIC TREES' OUT NOW
W: Karl Watson
Stripped of the noise, the lights, and the labels, what remains is the music that truly matters. The Lifeboat Playlist is a raw deep dive into the sonic DNA of the artists we love, forcing them to choose the ten definitive tracks they’d carry into isolation.
In this edition, we explore the world of Poesie. For her, this is a survival kit built on gut-level resonance—a collection of anthems, heartbreaks, and high-octane riffs that define a lifetime. From stadium-sized roars to vulnerable late-night confessions, these are the songs that keep the fire burning when the horizon feels endless.
These ten tracks aren’t just influences—they’re blueprints. They represent the standards Poesie measures herself against and the kind of songwriting that sparked her own creative journey. Each one captures something essential—whether it’s ambition, atmosphere, melody, or sheer conviction—and together they form the foundation of how she approaches writing and performing today. Thanks for reading – now go forth and listen!
1: Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill
Kate Bush has had such a profound influence on me. The totalness of her artistry, the lavish melodrama, camp and sincerity of her music, the way she is both herself and a thousand characters all at once. This song is haunting, perilous and urgent. When I first learnt what it was about in my early teens, it was like a jigsaw piece falling into place: the feeling of always knowing something which you haven’t been able to name. I absolutely love the drums, which give the whole thing this relentless charge, and I think the bridge, for its chanting simplicity, is one of her best. I’ve always admired how she loves repetition in her lyrics, but equally isn’t afraid to be strange and poetic with her choices of words. The three final phrases of the chorus are a perfect example of this deftness.
2: Madonna - Like A Prayer
This song is a masterpiece. It manages to be both riotously joyful and kind of foreboding: I’m obsessed. It revels in its excess, whilst also not being overly busy instrumentally, and I love the contrast between the sparse intimacy of the verses and the more funky choruses. The swooping echoes and refrains of the choir again bring that camp quality which I adore. I love the squelchy bassline, which makes the whole thing so much more danceable. As my artistic output will continue to reveal, femininity, faith and the divine are my constant preoccupation. Blame Kate and Madonna, I guess.
3: Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance with Somebody
This track is nothing but a gift to the world. It’s so full of fun and sparkle and captures in essence of Whitney which is so playful. The synth sound is to die for – Narada. Michael Walden really outdid himself with that one. For me, it’s the outro from 3:44 onwards which makes this song. The laughter, the vocal acrobatics, that male voice commanding ‘DANCE’, and that sweet sweet cowbell which just refuses to give in. I challenge anyone to not dance to this absolute banger.
4: Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend
From once dancefloor filler to another, Call Your Girlfriend is definitely up there with the songs I have listened to the most ever. There is no low mood it can’t lift. I’m always returning to Robyn as one of my influences: there’s a euphoria, a freedom and a sensuousness to all her work. And now, the new oeuvre! Mother, welcome back.
5: Wolf Alice - Leaning Against The Wall
Wolf Alice are one of my favourite bands. I am so inspired by their sheer creativity, by how much they love and trust one another, and by how this all comes through in the way they tell stories with their music. As I’m taking tentative steps to learn the electric guitar, I’m spurred on by their incredible guitar parts, which has ignited me with my own spirit of invention and trusting my gut. It was so hard to pick a track, but I think Leaning Against the Wall encapsulates so much of what I admire about them: they’ll choose a sound which feels right for a mood, which makes them artistically bold but never pretentious. I love the breakbeat chorus, the lilting acoustic guitar of the pre, and the high drama, gated vocals of its concluding bars. I can’t wait to see them again this July on their homecoming tour!
6: Patrick Wolf - Augustine
I fell in love with Patrick Wolf when I was nine and I’ve never looked back. He inspired a lot of my early song writing – mostly love lorn ballads, if you’re wondering –and helped me embrace the artist within myself. I’ll never forget meeting him aged fourteen, blinking in disbelief; book-ended by a more recent encounter, aged 29, on the brink of releasing my first song, Hunter-Gatherer. Augustine is from his third studio album, The Magic Position, which is one of my favourite albums for its fusion of sounds, moods, ideas, and for Patrick’s persistently gorgeous voice. Augustine kind of feels like a short film, it’s so lyrically immersive and painterly. The balance of guitar, piano and percussion, all rolled up in his husky, booming vocal make this a spinetingling piece of art.
7: Carole King - You've Got a Friend
This song is very close to my heart. When I was a teenager, me and a friend made music together. He was a great pianist, and I’d just started playing the cello. He learnt the piano part overnight so we could perform in a school show later that week. There was something so apt about the song, our nascent relationship, about music making everything flow. We’re no longer in touch, but I’m grateful for being able to get to know the nooks and crannies of You’ve Got a Friend, which my Mum first introduced me to. I idolise Carole King’s song writing and regularly return to Tapestry as a reminder of what a brilliant melody can do.
8: Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi
It’s almost impossible to choose just one Joni track. This one rose to the top of my mind first and foremost for its message: ‘Don’t it always seem to go / That you don’t know what you’ve got / Till it’s gone?’ – never were more timely, yet prescient, words set to music. A trailblazer for singing about our planet, Joni reminds me to keep banging my drum for her. What a perfectly formed thing is this track. Joni can be so introspective, but I admire how the choice, despite the subject matter, is to be upbeat, triangle and all. The slightly mad laugh at the end sums it all up: if we didn’t laugh, we’d cry.
9: Jeff Buckley - Lilac Wine
A mesmerizingly beautiful song. I enjoyed looking up its history to write this piece – I knew that Buckley’s cover was after Nina Simone’s brilliant version, but I didn’t realise how long the line of inheritance was. Lilac Wine was first performed in 1950 by Hope Foye in the Broadway musical ‘Dance Me a Song’. Next to do it was Eartha Kitt in 1953 (legend), then Nina Simone in 1966, and lastly (for now) Jeff Buckley in 1994 I performed Lilac Wine on my thirtieth birthday: it has the feeling of an end of an era/the start of a new one – ‘unready’, ‘unsteady’ and ‘heady’. The chord changes and when they fall have this stumbling quality, form matching content. Grace was the first album my Mum got me. What a choice! I am in debt to it.
10: Muse - Upraising
I love how hyperbolic and operatic this track is. The moody guitars, the overblown lyrics, chanting at an unnamed, tyrannical overlord – it’s fantastic. I remember stomping around, listening to The Resistance on repeat on my Walkman, brooding on my enemies. Simpler times. Let’s just say that somewhere between the first track on this list and the last, you’ll find my next single, Curious Eve.