Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Halloween 2009 playlist

Got any favorite Halloween themed songs? In no particular order, my playlist includes:

XTC - Scarecrow People
This song is from Oranges & Lemons, a CD literally dripping with Beatles' influence and containing mountains of hummable songs.

Concrete Blonde - Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)
Can it get any better for Halloween? Once you hear Johnette Napolitano sing, it's a voice you don't forget. The group is best known for the song Joey, but don't overlook Caroline, Ghost of a Texas Ladies Man and many others. Their "Best of" CD is called Recollection. It's worth every penny.

Smithereens - Blood & Roses
There's just something to be said for straightforward rock played well. Formed in 1980 these guys are still going strong today. Their song Girl Like You is an instant classic.

Suzanne Vega - Blood Makes Noise
I love the industrial sound of this song, alongside her smooth voice and that really happy bass line.

Smashing Pumpkins - Bury Me
The best band name for Halloween bar none - not to mention the title works well too. Their debut Gish is incredible - ballads building to crunching guitars and flat out rockers that just demand to be heard. For me, everything else they did after that falls short.

Bishop Allen - Ghosts are Good Company
Rough, acoustic, and a bit quirky. Just a nice way to spend three minutes. One of the cutest songs you'll hear.

Kristin Hersh - Your Ghost
Formerly of Throwing Muses, this haunting song is from her solo album and features a duet with REM's Michael Stipe.

Police - Spirits in the Material World
I first heard them in the early 80's and it was like nothing I'd ever heard before. That's still true today.

Psychedelic Furs - Ghost in You
This song was in a lot of 80's movies that I didn't see, but I always knew it as a song first.

Tegan & Sara - Walking With A Ghost
There's something about the way these two sisters sing and craft pop hooks that just makes this song so listenable.

Bow Wow Wow - I Want Candy
Okay it's a stretch to be sure, but I wanted to include some homage to all the sweets dispensed on Halloween. Anyone else got another suggestion?

Radiohead - Bones
I was never a big Radiohead fan, especially when Creep became popular. A friend said he knew how I felt, but thought I should I hear The Bends anyway. Kinda under the banner of "If you must hear one album by Radiohead make it this one." He was right.

Cowboy Junkies - Murder Tonight in the Trailer Park
From the CD Black Eyed Man, this eerie song was my first exposure to their music. The entire album has a great feel about it.

Genesis - Man on the Corner
Creepy and secretive this song is from the album Abacab -- the last hurrah for Genesis and Phil Collins before they became over the top pop musicians.

There you have it - Halloween 2009. What do you think? Agree? Disagree? What's on your playlist?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

i gotta hand it to you... that's a broad spectrum right there! nice job.