Today I arrived home, and as planned (thanks to Amazon’s late estimate) I found my box of birthday gifts, half of which were paid for by a gift card. Inside I found four items, of which at least half should be familiar to Speculative Faith readers:

• Nonfiction: Don’t Call It a Comeback, edited by author/pastor Kevin DeYoung. One of the essays within is written by Ted Kluck, whose views on writing and “young restless Reformed” readers will be featured in this Friday’s guest spot.
• Nonfiction: Reflections on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis. After hearing this work of his quoted so often, I wanted finally to read it for myself.
• Fiction: The Resurrection by a certain up-and-coming author named Mike Duran (who has written for Speculative Faith and often stops by for discussions).
• And finally, audible musical majesty by composer Murray Gold: the two-disc (!) soundtrack from Doctor Who Series 5.

A future column may reveal my thoughts on The Resurrection, which I haven’t begun to read yet. Here I’ll instead ask what kinds of music you, as a writer or reader, absolutely love — music that transcends pop-culture stuff (some of which can be good) to point to worlds of exploration and wonder.

Murray Gold’s music is among the best elements of the revived Doctor Who program: all at once complex yet simple, thematic but not predictable, classical and contemporary, hilarious one moment (think Warner Brothers cartoons) and poignant the next.

Many of you may be familiar with the classic Doctor Who electronic theme tune. Gold has so far scored three versions of it.

Such as the following remix of the Series 5 version, which actually was performed live and in concert last year:

Just wow. And this is among my current rotating “playlist” before I delve back into novel work. My current project is fully pre-outlined, but often it takes a boost of energy to get me restarted — and music like this is like caffeine for my mind.

What about you? What artists and music do you enjoy, especially if you’re attempting to induce creative energy?