Listen to this playlist on the Seeds Spotify account here.
“Songs To Be Sad To”
By Colin Loberg
I got a chance to make a playlist this week and I’m using a little different format than Dylan’s in the last issue. For starters, mine is worse but it’s also not a genre/style playlist, I choose a thematic playlist with a theme of “breakup songs” or more generally “music you can mope to.” This either works as counter-programing to a good Valentine’s Day or accurate-programming for a bad Valentine’s Day but whatever your situation, I hope you enjoy this playlist.
1. “You’re Not Good Enough”| Dev Hynes
The most straightforward song title on my list by far, Dev Hynes cuts to the chase by telling his lover that they “never were in love.” Telling someone that they’re simply “not good enough” is brutal, and even a synth groove this funky can’t completely soften the blow.
2.“Robocop” | Kanye West
As someone who considers “808s” and “Heartbreaks” as one of the all time great “breakup albums”, It took quite a bit of willpower to not put the entire album on here. Kanye’s been more open with his flaws in albums since 808s but the “spoiled little LA girl” outro is still memorably nasty.
3. “It’s Too Late” | The Streets
4. “She Just Won’t Believe Me” | Tame Impala
5. “Obstacle 1” | Interpol
6. “I am Trying to Break Your Heart” | Wilco
The song that got me into Wilco. There’s a fairly standard breakup song within here but its covered by lawyers of fuzz, beeping electronics and non sequiturs about avenue assassins.
7. “Alone, Together” | The Strokes
8. “I Can Change” | LCD Soundsystem
A cheery dance-pop beat backs this lament from Murphy to an uncaring subject, begging her to never change and assuring her that he can change. He doesn’t want to know what she’s doing, he just wants to be mercifully left in the dark.
9. “We Sink” | Chvrches
Another fantastically dance-y synth-pop song, this time sung this time by a narrator well past denial stage. Lauren Mayberry is mad as hell and wants her boyfriend to know, reminding him that even though they’ll be done soon, she will always be tormenting him.
10. “Sometimes”| MBV
MBV can turn quite a few people off, but this is one of their more accessible songs, behind the wall of guitars is a poignant song about a one-sided romance.
11. “Regret” | Fiona Apple
The slow piano ratchets up accordingly throughout until it keeps pace with Fiona’s raggedy vocal chords. Few things can match the intensity of the Fiona delivering the line, “I ran out of white dove feathers to soak up the hot piss that comes through your mouth every time you address me” as she turns the screw on a former flame.
12. “Get Away” | Yuck
13. “Hannah Hunt” | Vampire Weekend
Before Modern Vampires, Ezra Koenig talked about quitting music and becoming a full-time writer. This song seems like the kind of short story he would have turned his attention to, starting with the sound of crashing waves and peaking with a cry of “damnit Hannah!”
14. “I Felt Your Shape” | Microphones
Like all of Microphones’ work, “I Felt Your Step” is lyrically gorgeous and (if you’ll excuse me for using a horrible review cliche) achingly beautiful. Elverum laments the cold depth that is left after any relationship ends while trying to remember the warmth that used to live there.
15. “For Emma” | Bon Iver
As the story behind the album famously goes, Justin Vernon recorded his first album in a Wisconsin cabin after a medical scare and breaking up with his longtime girlfriend. Justin would later expand his band and add more instruments but the simple guitar and horn accompaniment suit these painful recordings perfectly.
16. “Graceless” | The National
17. “Roses” | Outkast
18. “She’s a Rejecter” | Of Montreal
“There’s the girl who left me bitter,” sings Kevin Barnes who first attempts to defend himself against the rejecter but then confesses he wishes he go on the offense. I tried to hold myself to only include one song per artist…
19. “We Were Born The Mutants Again With Leafling” | Of Montreal
“She’s a Rejector” feels so anticlimactic without the next song. The narrator’s relationship isn’t completely fixed in this song but he doesn’t care that others consider his love peculiar. The drum breakdown in the middle of this song is one of my favorite sections in any of Montreal song which puts it high in my rankings of all time favorite things.
