Ah, so revision season has come around again, quicker than the previous and even more menacing. There are few things that can make it bearable, but something I've found is that a good soundtrack can make all the difference. Now, I'm super specific with my music: I can't listen to pop (too distracting) and hard-core classical makes me wanna dance (don't judge me too much ok!).

However, there are some genres and Spotify playlists I have been LOVING recently, so today I thought I would impart my musical wisdom with you all, giving you back that half hour you use to browse for the perfect album when you should be making flashcards (guilty 🙈)...

- Sombre Tunes -

When I'm doing causal reading, or writing out notes that don't require much thought, I can just about deal with having lyric-music being on in the background. When I'm in this mood, I often opt for mellow, indie tracks - nothing too uplifting or high energy. Here are a few of the artists that make the cut, to give you a good idea about what I'm going on about:

• Passenger
• Birdy
• Ben Howard
• Tom Odell
• Salvador Sobral (yes, the guy who won Eurovision last year!)
• Mree
• Billie Marten
• Charlie Cunningham

- Experimental Beats -

This week I've discovered fun, experimental 'sub-genres' such as low-fi hip-hop - think stereotypical travel vlogger music. Apart from it making you feel like you're filming a 'study with me', they are fab for note-making due to their lack of lyrics, whilst the scatty nature of them makes it hard to tap or jig along to. However, a word of warning, the hectic-ness of some of them does mean that they could be too distracting for work that requires high-concentration, such as essay writing.

Here's a couple of playlists to get you started:

• Jazz Vibes
• Chill Beats 

- Smooth Jazzzzzzz -

I've found myself recently reaching for chill, smooth jazz whilst writing the lovely 3,000 word essays uni decided to give me. What can I say? There's nothing like recreating the vibe of artisanal cafés in your bedroom to get you in the writing mood!

It all comes down to one playlist for me, with the Spotify Chilled Jazz playlist being the reason I just about survived second term 😂 It's also a double win if you love a good ABBA cover, cause boy is this playlist filled with them!



So there you have it, the tunes that will be getting me through my second year history exams - yeyyyyyy....... 😩

Good luck to all of you taking exams soon!

What's your favourite music to work to?

June xx