The agency music spacelist for bright stars at Laika

Photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash

Do you want to take a trip into space without leaving the comfort of your own home? You don’t need much (and no, we don’t mean hallucinogens). All it takes to rocket yourself into orbit is a bit of good music, some solid headphones, a comfortable sitting position, and you’re ready for takeoff.

Here are Laika’s personal Top10 songs about the cosmos. Ten songs that, for a brief moment, will allow you to float through space, feeling weightless - minus the dizziness.

1. Space Oddity - David Bowie
This song is perfect for any creative moment, when you completely lose your grip and float through the galaxy of ideas - of course, we have to come back to planet earth eventually. Don’t be like Major Tom. The tale of Major Tom floating ‘round his tin can was Bowie’s first Top 20 hit in the US and was inspired by Kubrick's masterpiece ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’. You can go on the video trip here.

2. Walking on the moon - Police 
There’s always a moment, when you have to get up from your desk and just have to take a walk to get your writing juice flowing. This reggae-flavored tune came to Sting after a long night in the infamous city of Munich drinking schnapps: “I was drunk in a hotel room… when this riff came into my head. I got up and started walking ‘round the room singing, ‘Walking ‘round the room, walking ‘round the room.’ But ‘Walking ‘Round the Room’ was a stupid title, so I thought of something even more stupid, which was ‘Walking on the Moon.’” Check out the music video here.

3. Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going to Be a Long, Long Time) - Elton John
Sometimes you need to get inspired by other people’s ideas, stories and wisdom. Lyricist Bernie Taupin, who wrote Rocket Man, credits sci-fi master Ray Bradbury’s short story ‘The Rocket Man’ as the chief inspiration for Elton’s celestial story of an astronaut lost in space. “It's common knowledge that songwriters are great thieves and this is a perfect example,” Taupin admitted. Elton’s ‘Rocket Man’ is a little bored with his gig like the rest of us sometimes: “And all this science, I don’t understand / It’s just my job, five days a week / A rocket man.” Play this song when the routine feels a bit too heavy and you need to launch your head into space for a second.

4. Magic Fly - Space 
"Magic Fly" is a wonderful flight through the creative space. It landed #1 in Germany in 1977 and remained on the charts for 32 weeks; this instrumental single has likely taken more people into space than any space program. A perfect disco beat with lucent and epic synth pads on top, a futuristic touch, and a genius keyboard melody. Extra nerd fact: The Jackie Chan movie “Snake in the shadow of the eagle”. used the song for the intro of their kung fu flick.

5. Intergalactic - Beastie Boys 
Did you watch Godzilla and King Kong movies as a kid? We love the "Intergalactic" video from 1998, as it was inspired by exactly those great Japanese Kaiju films. It was directed by Beastie Boys frontman Adam Yauch under a pseudonym. With Intergalactic the Beastie Boys won a Grammy for the best rap performance by a duo or group and the video won the MTV Video Music Award for best hip hop video in 1999. If you have to save your client from the intergalactic tribunal or some random shit storm, put your robot suite on and play this song.

6. Out of Space - The Prodigy  
This great track came out in 1993. The chorus hook, “I’m gonna send him to outer space, to find another race”, was taken from roots reggae godfather Max Romeo’s ‘I Chase The Devil’. It also samples "Critical Beatdown" by the Ultramagnetic MCs, with the Kool Keith line "I'll take your brain to another dimension, pay close attention." The video features Keith Flint wearing raver gear along with footage of ostriches, sniffing Vicks VapoRub and setting the standard in trippiness. A great song to party and celebrate  a client win or great pr campaign success with. 

7. Cosmic Girl - Jamiroquai 
This track will take you on a smooth journey. Fun fact of this music video: In an interview, Jay Kay explained that before shooting, one of the cars seen in the video had a broken windshield - therefore most of the video was filmed without the windshield. You can find the video here.

8. Sally Ride - Janelle Monáe
A beautiful tribute to the dearly departed first American woman in space doesn’t need much explanation. It involves the preparation for heading into space while under pressure from all sides. If this is not a great metaphor for your day-to-day agency life then what is? Just enjoy this simple, plaintive song from a woman who's taken on the Sun Ra mantle of science fiction weirdness woven with her own brilliant mix of sci-fi, R’nB and pop. 

9. Black Hole Sun - Soundgarden
Once again welcome back to the 90s! And what are the nineties without grunge? Lead singer Chris Cornell said about writing “Black Hole Sun” that it was a stream of consciousness and a dreamscape brought to life. When you feel like everything is absorbing you like a black hole, stay focused and play this tune! Check out the epic video here.

10. Cat on Mars - Yoko Kanno and The Seatbelts feat. Gabriela Robin
If you ever watched the iconic anime show Cowboy Bebop on MTV you might remember this song. It’s played when Edward - the most vicious hacker in the universe - and his super smart corgi dog Ein meet MPU, an AI and defense satellite (a tribute to HAL-9000 from Kubrick’s 2001: Space Odyssey) and learn why the artificial intelligence re-creates land carvings from space on earth. We had to include this odd piece of music because of this meeting of minds between a smart dog and a lonely AI in space.If you ever feel  lonely, you might want to try this song.. (btw Cowboy Bebop is getting a Netflix adaptation soon… yaaay)

BONUSTRACK: Neighborhood 2 (Laïka) - Arcade Fire
What would this playlist be without Laika from Arcade Fire? The song tells the tale of a mythical older brother who left home to set off on a great adventure. The simple musical motif carries a sound of menace and foreboding while keeping a gentle tone. Just like us.

You can find the free to subscribe playlist for your universal listening pleasure here.

Did we miss any of your favorite space theme jams? Let us know, we would love your thoughts!