Henry Mancini: Return To Paradise (RCA, 1957)I've been playing this album every single morning for about three weeks now. Rain, grey or bright sunshine it sets the day up perfectly being, in turns, a bit odd and discretely adventurous, but never less than dizzingly melodic. This track in particular is gently amazing in ways that it's just not possible to be anymore. How can you make music that suggests the silky push and pull of waves on a half-dreamed of exotic shoreline in an age where, should the mood take you, you can just pull it up on Google Earth (or flickr) to see if it's really that nice?
