bookgazing asked a question: Mix tapes are really still a thing, no fooling? Ok, so what would be on your creepy (*cough*awesome*cough*) mix tape of emotions?

No fooling! Well, they are in Ana world anyway (though these days they’re mix .rar files more often than not) :P I’ve actually been keeping a text file with all the track lists of the mix tapes I’ve made since 2005 or so; I’ve just had a quick look and there are over 60 different ones in there :o I’ve made countless ones for Mathie over the years, and also many for friends. In 2009 I even went through a phase of inflicting them on any blogging friend who showed interest - it’s a miracle that you somehow escaped :P

Okay, so the following songs are creepy-awesome in several different ways: some are about dysfunctional or abusive relationships; some are very pessimistic in a all-love-is-doomed sort of way; some are creepily sexist; some are self-consciously dark and disturbing (which I always find far less creepy than earnest love songs that turn out to be creepy by accident, Conor Oberst style); some are even about murder :P Youtube links included for your listening pleasure:

• Interpol - Stella Was a Diver And She Was Always Down
 
• Red House Painters - Mistress
 
• The Twilight Sad - Half a Person (Smiths cover. I love the original but have a soft spot for this version)
 
• Eels - Fucker
 
• The Mountain Goats - No Children (actually, make that the whole of Tallahassee. It’s a concept album about the most dysfunctional relationship ever, and also my favourite Mountain Goats record. So brilliant, so messed up.)
 
• Stars – Your Ex-Lover Is Dead
 
• Nick Cave - Henry Lee (This album is called Murder Ballads; need I say more? :P Also, is it weird that I find this video really sexy?)
 
• The Magnetic Fields - I Don’t Really Love You Anymore (My favourite stalker song)
 
• Antony and the Johnsons - Cripple and the Starfish
 
• The Smashing Pumpkins - Stand Inside Your Love
 
• Smog - All Your Women Things (Argh, this song. Callahan is a brilliant songwriter, but some of his lyrics make me want to scrub my brain with a steel wool brush, and this is one of them. On a side note, I think it’s very interesting to listen to this alongside Joanna Newsom’s Does Not Suffice. I don’t want to be one of those annoying people who suggest that because they were in a relationship their work is all ~magically connected~; the creative process behind Joanna Newsom’s song is completely irrelevant here, but as a music fan I think they work perfectly as companion songs).

Sooo, I guess the next time you start worrying that you might be creepy because of what your musical preferences say about you, you can make yourself feel better by thinking of me :P