sylvar

From the I-should-be-working-on-the-report-that's-due-today-but-can't-focus department:

Back when I was in college, I made a mixtape called "Songs of Love and Bitterness". Or maybe it was high school. I've revisited it and created a muxtape (an mp3 compilation on muxtape.com) that you can listen to for free in your web browser.

Some of the songs will be familiar to most people. Others might be somewhat familiar, but are covered by another artist. And unless you've heard the original mixtape I made, you probably haven't heard of Bakers Pink's "The Noose, the Flesh, & the Devil". I hadn't heard of them when I bought their CD used in the 99-cent rack, and that was a long time ago. But I'm really glad that I did.

Like to hear it? Here it go.

Click here to open the muxtape in a new window, then click a song to start listening: Songs of Love and Bitterness (2008)

1. Styx - Don't Let It End
   
   "Don't let it end this way": but as some scurrilous wag attributed to Seneca, "every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end" (Semisonic - Closing Time). So begins this mix.


2. Moxy Früvous - Fly
   
   "A song ... about the moment when you realize that someone that you really love, that you really care for, when you both realize that—you're just not right for each other." Poignant and bittersweet, but not bitter simpliciter.


3. The Corrs - Everybody Hurts
   
   My original mixtape used R.E.M.'s original, but I like this cover even better.
   


4. Bakers Pink - The Noose, the Flesh, & the Devil
   
   "And if I can't have you—I can't go on."
   


5. Harry Connick, Jr. - Only 'Cause I Don't Have You
   
   "Later on, good wishes. Later on, good try." But for now, "if looks could kill, this mirror would do."
   


6. Ivan Neville - Why Can't I Fall in Love?
   
   The emotional turning point: "It's time to fall in love."
   


7. Scala & Kolacny Brothers - Creep
   
   A cover of Radiohead sung by a Belgian girls' choir. "But I'm a creep. What the hell am I doing here? I don't belong here." A reminder for those who might be overheard listening to this music: "Creep" drops the F-bomb.
   


8. The Police - Message in a Bottle
   
   The original turning point of the mixtape. "Seems I'm not alone at being alone."
   


9. Danny Elfman - Edward Scissorhands: Ice Dance
   
   Without words.
   


10. The Cure - Hello I Love You
    
    Exuberant and wholehearted, a cover of The Doors from the Elektra Records cover compilation Rubaiyyat.
    


11. The Decemberists - Human Behaviour
    
    Ideally, I'd use Björk's original, but it's so freaky (delightfully and justly freaky, in my opinion) that it would threaten to make the whole muxtape unlistenable.
    


12. Jennifer Warnes - And So It Goes
    
    When this started playing on Coverville (#456, The Billy Joel Cover Story), Jodi skipped it because she didn't want to listen to a sad song. But, to my mind, it's one of the most hopeful romantic songs in the world. The narrator worries that a lover will leave, but acknowledges that the lover is free to choose. Most love songs treat uncertainty as torture, but the narrator of this song embraces uncertainty as part of faith and puts their heart on the line anyway: "So I would choose to be with you—that's if the choice were mine to make—but you can make decisions too, and you can have this heart to break."
    

Thank you very much.