I call a song provoca­tive when it pro­vokes you to think about or do some­thing. The best ones even evoke some sort of emo­tion or mem­ory, but those are rare and vary depend­ing on the per­son. In this long over­due post, I out­line some of my favourite provoca­tive tracks. These usu­ally get my juices flow­ing — be it for work or for play — I tend to do bet­ter after lis­ten­ing to these. Lame sound­ing, I know, but it’s true.

There’s a lot of gen­res here, and one of them is prob­a­bly going to spike some of your inter­est… just take a peek inside.

Clas­si­cal & Jazz

1. Assassin’s Tango by John Pow­ell from Mr. & Mrs. Smith
   
2. Pruit Igoe by Phillip Glass from Koy­aanisqatsi
   
3. What­ever Lola Wants (Gotan Project remix) by Sarah Vaughan from Verve Remixed
   

Elec­tronic & House

1. 4AM (Adam K & Soha Remix) by Kaskade from Stro­belite Seduc­tion
   
2. Moan (Trentemøller Remix Radio Edit) by Trentemøller from Moan
   
3. Beau­ti­ful Things by Andain from Beau­ti­ful Things
   
4. Light The Skies (Retrobyte’s Clas­sic Elec­trobounce Mix) by Jaren/Matt Cerf/Shawn Mitiska from Light the Skies
   
5. Days Go By by Dirty Vegas from Dirty Vegas
   

Rock & Alternative

1. To Get Down by Timo Mass from To Get Down
   
2. They by Jem from Finally Woken
   
3. Brand New Day by Ryan Star from Lie to Me*
   
4. Take a Bow by Muse from Black Holes and Rev­e­la­tions
   
5. Breathe Me by Sia from Six Feet Under
   

Trance & Ambient

1. Xtal by Aphex Twin from Selected Ambi­ent Works 85–92
   
2. Walk­ing on Clouds by Tiësto from Just Be
   
3. 1.618 by BT from This Binary Uni­verse
   
4. The Oh of Plea­sure by Ray Lynch from Deep Break­fast
   
5. No Turn­ing Back by Gui Boratto from Take My Breath Away