I’ll Have The RomCom—But Hold The Com, And I’ll Have The Romance On The Side
My Mixtape’s A Masterpiece is a weekly feature in which a guest compiles a playlist around some theme. This week, Seth Stoger assembles 12 melancholic songs about being in love. Read Seth’s thoughts on each song and listen along to the Spotify playlist on top and/or the YouTube playlist at the bottom of the post.
1. “Pretty Noose” by Soundgarden
Coming down from their career-defining Badmotorfinger (1991) and their critically-acclaimed Superunknown (1994), Soundgarden caught some static with their next release Down On The Upside (1996). Frontman Chris Cornell was even afraid that their album would start being stocked in the Easy Listening section of Musicland if they continued to become more mainstream – and their sound seemed to reflect it. But “Pretty Noose” reminds fans of the grungy guitars that these Seattle godfathers made so famous, and Cornell's signature howl sets the tone perfectly that this mixtape was mastered by a Mr. Lonelyhearts at the end of his rope. Like the band and heartbreak itself, the song pulls no punches, no matter the journey of sounds that the track takes.
2. “You Make Me Feel Like A Whore” by Everclear
After the independent release of their first album in 1993, the band's sophomore effort Sparkle And Fade (1995) managed to retain much of its garage band scrappiness, and “You Make Me Feel Like a Whore” captures that indignation with the melodic chords of its chorus, demonstrating that even kicked to the curb, one can find power in the trashiest of situations. The band would go on to record many songs about the trashiest of situations, even when their harmonies attempted to elevate the tragedy.
3. “Vincent Of Jersey” by Big Head Todd & The Monsters
Even for the brokenhearted, moments find them that provide an opportunity for reflection. This track is purposely meant to let the listener catch their breath even if for a minute or two, even as it serves with Track 4 as a perfect one-two punch of unrequited love and a resignation that love simply isn’t going to happen. Note that Todd Park Mohr's quiet declaration—“that's it”—concluded this particular track on the CD release. On streaming services, the comment launches “The Leaving Song.”
4. “The Leaving Song” by Big Head Todd & The Monsters
Those drums that usher you into this tune sound a bit like the frantic packing that goes along with the attempted clean getaway of a broken relationship, shoving item after item and article after article of clothing into a suitcase. Don't worry about being neat – just get out. Before you finish packing your things and before you hurry out that door, ensure that you've unloaded these bits of lyrics. You have one chance to say these words before this part of your life is a memory. The band's musicianship imitates with only three instruments the driving sound of a locomotive on the tracks here.
5. “Song For Zula” by Phosphorescent
There's something haunting and beguiling in the performance of this song, which at first outlines the different ways that one could look at love and then slowly and methodically turns into a way to look at the way love can change a person—and the change is not always for the better. A subdued animalism stalks the inside of a cage here, always staring at those who have come to see the wild thing finally captured and caged. But you are assured that you would be as physically rendered asunder as the lyricist's heart has been picked away by vultures of many species. This is a quietly maddening look at the remnants of a romance fallen apart…illustrated with a dulcet croon by the man behind Phosphorescent itself.
6. “Between Love & Hate” by The Strokes
“I never needed anybody,” sings frontman Julian Casablancas, and one can only imagine the spirited jig he's dancing while seemingly insisting that so long as he isn't feeling any pain in a breakup, neither should she. But the vocalist's insistence they should shrug off this momentary heartbreak is contradicted by the fact that this doesn't appear to be the first time they've walked away from one another (“I said I was fine / It's just the second time / We lost the war”). With any luck (or misfortune), there's a strong likelihood that this also won't be the last time she's shedding tears and he's promising her that this pain he doesn’t feel is perfectly normal.
7. “7:30” by Pernice Brothers
The energy is maintained here, and one of the greatest strengths of Joe Pernice has been his ability to imbue a melodic liveliness to lyrics that altogether contradict the drudgery of the lyrics themselves. The driving drumline and guitar propel the song from start to finish, robbing the track of any depressive qualities that one would ordinarily associate with heartache. He sings, “It would have been nice to be someone, / To have and to hold the only one. / But when 7:30 comes around, / There's nothing there, just bitterness.” Like the 1951 novel The End Of The Affair, “this is a diary of hate,” yet this diary is delivered with a tempo and tone that inspires toe-tapping and head-bobbing, all the way through the harmonic notes that carry the song to its conclusion. One would imagine that heartbreak would artistically usher in more calls for darker musical turns, but not here – for now.
8. “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” by Otis Redding
While this mixtape makes an effort to give a little bit of something to the different listeners who will stumble across it, the omission of Otis Redding's melancholy love song would likely be criminal for any collection intending to capture the pain of romance. From the introduction of Redding's inimitable tenor to the soulful crescendo (starting at 2:11) that carries the song until its conclusion. The track masterfully embodies the forlorn prayer of the broken-hearted, that never ending promise—“I can't stop now”—is a bittersweet reminder of the power of longing.
9. “Angelina” by Joe Purdy
There are a number of tracks that could have sold the sadism captured in this single song. Hendrix (“Hey Joe”), The Beatles (“Maxwell's Silver Hammer”), and Talking Heads (“Psycho Killer”), among others, have explored murder in song, whether with melodic or discordant success. But no song captures the heartache that could end in bloodshed quite like “Angelina,” Joe Purdy's “If-I-Can't-Have-You” ballad about a troubled suitor (musically captured through the track's haunting slide guitar) who can't seem to live without his beloved Angelina – until, that is, he decides that he can, and in killing her, begins a new love affair with aimlessness as he tries to elude capture.
10. “Get Gone” by Fiona Apple
If the missive and perhaps even the vocabulary of heartbreak can come off as repetitive from time to time, there's likely no greater use of it than the quietly patient piano key that introduces “Get Gone.” Like love, it's a complicated composition, moving from the pensively subdued tickle of ivory to Apple's own mounting frustration demonstrated by her staccato recollection of the details (“You got your game/made your shot/and you got away with a lot/but I'm not/turned on”). Once the percussion enters Apple's denunciation, there's little willpower on the part of any lover to work it out. The writing is very clearly on the wall, and there's only one natural response to be made when Apple snarls, “Fucking go.” I can't imagine we would hesitate for long in doing so.
11. “What It Takes” by Aerosmith
A number of musical genres have made a mark on the conversation of love and its many difficulties, but the hair bands that seemed to dominate the 1980s and persisted as long as they could in the ‘90s until the alternative movement wiped them out like a herd of sonic dinosaurs. And from out of those power ballads came one of the best by the Boston band Aerosmith. Steadily buoyed by wrist-snapping percussion and a piano melody threatening to take over the track, frontman Steven Tyler's poetic lyricism remains at its heavy-hearted height (“Tell me that you're happy that you're on your own/Tell me that it's better when you're all alone./Tell me that your body doesn't miss my touch/Tell me that my lovin' didn't mean that much/ Tell me you ain't dyin' when you're cryin' for me”). The band has consistently demonstrated its ability to produce a radio hit with its eyes closed, but more infrequently, Aerosmith produces an undeniable musical piece of art, perfectly marrying the song's messaging with its mechanics. While the most mainstream entry on this mixtape, this track cuts a little deeper than the company with which it kept during this era of long hair and electric guitar solos.
12. “Goin’ Goin’ Gone” by Old 97’s
The outro that concluded the last track seemed like the best possible commercial break before Rhett Miller and his band—historically fueled by Miller's excesses and the highway road driving beat of the drums—launches into this playful honky-tonk about finally moving in. Here, the lyricist imagines all the things that he'll do with his life now that he's free (and they don't always necessarily sound appetizing) and all the things she'll do with his absence. It turns out that it all sounds a little like resignation, a bit like breaking even before losing your shirt, punctuated no better than by the guitar string that breaks in the final moment of this track, perhaps suggesting that a heart wasn't the only casualty in the making of this mixtape.
