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1
On Days Like These
Matt Monro
03:42
2
The Songs That We Sing
Charlotte Gainsbourg
02:57
3
Night of Joy
The Breeders
03:25
4
A Garden in the Rain
Gene Austin
03:14
5
I Love You
The Dandy Warhols
04:12
6
The Crying Game
Dave Berry
02:45
7
Video Games
Lana Del Rey
04:41
8
Honey Child What Can I Do?
Isobel Campbell, Mark Lanegan
03:43
9
Summer Wine
Nancy Sinatra, Lee Hazlewood
04:16
10
Caroline, No - Mono / Remastered
The Beach Boys
02:53
11
Open up Your Door
Richard Hawley
04:43
12
Shelter
Bosco Rogers
03:21
13
To the End - 2012 Remaster
Blur
04:04
14
Wichita Lineman - Remastered 2001
Glen Campbell
03:06
15
Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want - 2011 Remaster
The Smiths
01:52
16
Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Neil Young
03:08
17
Do You Love Me Now?
The Breeders
03:01
18
Come On Let's Go
Broadcast
03:17
19
Superstar
Sonic Youth
04:06
20
Hospital
The Modern Lovers
05:31
21
Hurt
Johnny Cash
03:36
22
Maps
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
03:39
23
Love Will Tear Us Apart - 2010 Remaster
Joy Division
03:24
24
Nothing To Lose - The Party/Soundtrack Version
Claudine Longet
02:20

Love Songs for the Collapse

A bittersweet selection of songs of love, loss, longing, and self loathing.

My favourite selection of songs of love, loss, longing, and self loathing. Some are specific, some are abstract. The glimpse of a memory, something special you can’t fully recall. Sitting awake at night watching the TV tuned to static. A remembrance of a warm Summer's day in the arms of a lover, long since gone, the antithesis of the static and distortion laid bare before you. So cold and disorientating, like the final text message of a relationship in its death throes.

I have an early memory of my life as a child living in a foreign country, the only English language VHS we owned was a copy of The Italian Job, which I watched religiously. The theme music was a song by Matt Monroe, "On Days Like These". I was captivated by the beauty (and the sudden brutality) of the opening scene. This was me falling in love with love, blind to the fact that love can switch from beauty to brutality in a heartbeat. It seems fitting that we begin here. I generally prefer stories or journeys to be non-linear, the Hopi have very little reference to temporal events in their language, everything happens as it should, let’s not get up on “when”.  The oldest song here is one of the more recent I discovered ("Garden In The Rain"), and one of the more recent ("Video Games") tells a tale as old as time. Some of the tracks remind me of specific times and certain people. Some have passed on, some have moved on, but all of them have gone.

I’ve never been a fan nepotism, unless it benefitted me (ha), so I’ve included a song by Bosco Rogers. But, it’s one that was beautifully written and sung by Barth (not me) and my favourite composition of ours.

I couldn’t help regressing to my childhood once more for the final song, a Henry Mancini track sung by Claudine Longet. It’s from another favourite film, The Party starring Peter Sellers. It’s a perfect moment of serenity, at odds with the Jacques Tati inspired mayhem that permeates throughout the rest of the film. The lyrics have a hopeful yearning, maybe everything will work out in the end?



So take solace in these bittersweet melodies that both sooth and taunt. Let them caress you, envelope you. Let them pull your heartstrings tight until they’re ready to snap as you follow the tumultuous journey of love, from fruition to death on the vine, and everything in between. Speaking of vines – or, more to the point, vineyards – I would recommend a nice bottle of Château Poujeaux 2011 as an accompaniment. It will truly compliment the melancholic flavours of this playlist.



These are my love songs for the collapse. Set adrift on a raft towards sweet oblivion, past the point of no return. Love is fleeting and life is but a dream, sweetheart.

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