Today is Friday the 13th, and tomorrow Valentine’s Day, so what better theme for this week’s mixtape than ANTI-love songs. I know, it’s not a terribly original theme, and I’ve done it before, but it just seemed to fit so well, with the F13-V14 setup and all.
Some of these are obvious: Elvis Costello’s I hope You’re Happy, Stephen Kellogg’s You’ve Changed pretty much sum it up in the title. GNR/VR’s Used To Love Her is a favorite of a good friend of mine- we hear it a lot on the juke in our local. Some, are anti-love songs thinly disguised as love songs: The Cure’s Pictures Of You and REM’s The One I Love (covered here by Rosie Thomas, because I love Rosie Thomas).
Others still are less obvious: The Mountain Goats’ No Children is my favorite track from Tallahassee, chronicalling John Darnielle’s fictional Alpha couple’s journey through a failed marriage. The lyrics of this track are also some of the bleakest in reference to love: You are coming down with me / Hand in unlovable hand / And I hope you die / I hope we both die. Wow, that’s not love- it’s what’s left after love.
Another non-obvious, but awesome anti-love song is The Rake’s Song from The Decemberists forthcoming Hazards of Love album. The song has become a favorite of mine, due to my own fascination with folklore, and it’s perfectly sinister descriptions of how the Rake went from being burdened with a wife and children to living “easy and free”.
I’m sure you’ll figure out how the rest of the tracks came to be on this mix after a listen. Special thanks this week to Mel, who pointed out a coupld of tracks, including the sublimely bitter Dirty Little War.
Tracklisting:
Elvis Costello – I Hope You’re Happy
Rosie Thomas – The One I Love
Stabbing Westward – Shame
Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers – You’ve Changed
The Cure – Pictures Of You
The Mountain Goats – No Children
The Decemberists – The Rake’s Song
Velvet Revolver – Used To Love Her (acoustic)
Will Hoge – Dirty Little War
Download it here while you can!
This week’s image comes from *sean.
DJ ERIC M
on Feb 15th, 2009
@ 12:41 pm:
Loved the mix. “Pictures of you” classic favorite