Monday Mixtape: Jago Rackham

"I don’t like listening to music when I cook. I have to watch TV or listen to a podcast - I find cooking quite boring."

Monday Mixtape is another path towards music discovery, featuring people whose taste I admire answering a series of questions and prompts with songs (which might change from time to time).

Jago Rackham is a London-based cook and writer, and also genuinely one of the funniest and most interesting people I’ve ever met. He recently wrote his first book, To Entertain: Instructions for a Dinner Party, which I believe (in the way you believe in god or aliens, sight unseen) is fabulous, though annoyingly it’s not yet available in America (something to do with Brexit probably? I don’t know a lot about international trade).

Even though I haven’t read the book per se, I HAVE attended dinner parties that Jago has helmed, eaten his incredibly delicious food (I’ve thought about this trifle he made for our friend Issy’s birthday every day for the last six months) and most crucially, spent time delighting in his warm, inviting presence and acerbic wit. When I was in London with my family over the holidays, he came over for Persian food and brought my mother some sort of artisanal preserves from his hometown of Cornwall (okay charm overload), and my brother still brings up a joke he made about how they don’t allow Northern people on TV (a testament to his delivery as obviously my brother does not actually understand centuries old regional British prejudice).

Anyway, one thing I actually didn’t know much about was his music taste, but you know what, I had faith, and it paid off.

Here is Jago’s Monday Mixtape:

Jago Rackham
Gemini
London

How do you find/discover music?

What Spotify recommends...catchy Gen Z Instagram reels…occasionally a movie.

What was the first song you put on when you woke up this morning?

I listen to an audio book first thing, when I wash up, make coffee, feed and water my wife. Today it was the 14th John Rebus book¹, but the first song I listened to today was “Tusi” by Judith. It’s very fun.

What song have you listened to more than once this past week?

“You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by The Rolling Stones.

What is a recent song you think everyone should know about?

“did i tell u that i miss u” by adore (ed note: okay I love this)

A song off your work-out playlist:

“Big Strong Boss” by Swans²

What song can you do at karaoke without looking at the tv screens?

“Tequila” by The Champs

What’s a song you like to put on when you’re cooking?

I don’t like listening to music when I cook. I have to watch TV or listen to a podcast - I find cooking quite boring.

Song you associate with being 13 years old:

“Helena” by My Chemical Romance. I also associate it with being 32 (my current age)

What song do you listen to when you want a lobotomy?

“Starship Hyperdive White Noise” by Relaxing White Noise

What song do you use to indulge your wallowing?

“Organ Concerto in G Minor” by GF Handel

What song do you use to renew your spirit?

“Frog on the Floor” by 100 Gecs. It’s really sweet.

What is your favorite cover song?

There’s a cover song of “Brown Eyed Girl” by Green Day I must have downloaded from Limewire circa 2009, but I can’t seem to find it. (ed note: okay so actually as far as I can tell Green Day never covered “Brown Eyed Girl” but Lagwagon did in 1994 and I think people wrongly attributed it to Green Day during peak filesharing/mislabeling days)

What song would you like to hear just before you die?

“Overture to the Barber of Seville” by Rossini, obviously. (ed note: obviously)

All the songs on Jago’s Monday Mixtape live here

1. Detective Inspector John Rebus is the protagonist of the Inspector Rebus series of detective novels by the Scottish writer Sir Ian Rankin. The 14th book in the Inspector Rebus series is A Question of Blood - it follows Rebus as he investigates the murder of two students at an Edinburgh boarding school by a former soldier.

2.