Every year in February I create an anti-love mix, full of songs I've discovered in the past year that focus on unrequited love, unhealthy relationships, break-ups... even the occasional "some day my prince will come" type song. I used to worry that I'd get all mushy someday when I was in an actual relationship and not make these anymore, but turns out that is so not happening. Because sad love songs are awesome.
This year's mix has an unusual amount of covers, so I'm not sure what happened there. I also didn't add nearly as many new songs to my library this year as I usually do, so I didn't have as large a pool of songs to choose from that I have in years past, but there definitely a few that I can see adding into my regular anti-love song rotation. (My personal favorites: #9 and #17, which I kind of listened to obsessively over the past year.)
Anyway. On to the 4th Annual Anti-Love Mix!
1. Taylor the Latte Boy (Alan Cumming). I always like starting my anti-love mixes off with some upbeat or innocent unrequited love songs, and this is one of the best. I discovered this cover version this year and fell in love with it. Alan Cumming's voice is so unique and I love his take on the song.
2. Fallin' For You (Colbie Caillat). An adorable little song about that moment when you *think* you're starting to develop feelings for someone, but you're not sure yet. I apparently included this on my happy love songs mix two years ago, but I've rediscovered it as an unrequited love song since then. Reclaiming it for the sad side!
3. When Words Fail (the musical Shrek). The musical version of Shrek has some really great songs, and this is one of my favorites, as Shrek tries to work up the nerve to tell Princess Fiona how he feels, only to realize that it's probably not going to come out at all the way he wants it to.
4. I Should've Been After You (Rooney). This song kinda sounds like it belongs in a rom com, during a sudden "whoa, THAT'S the one I love" montage. But a happy montage, not a sad one.
5. Misery- Acoustic Version (Maroon 5). The upbeat original song is fun and dancey, but I like this rather mournful version a lot too... certainly more for this mix.
6. My Man (Lea Michele, from Glee). A classic unrequited love song, and one of my favorites. While I'm usually not a Lea Michele fan, I think she does a pretty fantastic job with this song, so I chose to include it in this year's mix.
7. Please Don't Make Me Love You (the musical Dracula). This song is a lot like My Man, about an inescapable love that takes over you almost against your will, except in this song the woman isn't quite as surrendered to the idea.
8. Never Fall In Love (the musical Elf). A little more light-hearted than the previous one, in the style of a self-deprecating torch song, we have this entertaining little song from the recent musical version of Elf, which is pretty boring except for this song. Some relationships just don't work very well.
9. Happy, Happy, Happy (Groovelily). My go-to "EVERYONE HAS SOMEONE BUT ME" song last year. The song itself is actually about being jealous about someone else's career accomplishments, but it works awesomely for an anti-love mix too.
10. I Don't Wanna Be In Love (Good Charlotte). I'm not a huge Good Charlotte fan or anything, but this is their second appearance on one of my anti-love mixes. They're just pretty good at writing cynical "love sucks" anthems.
11. I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You (Darren Criss, from Glee). This song has an incredibly awesome title, but more importantly, it's fun, dancey, and is certainly about unhappy love.
12. Oh Lately It's So Quiet (OK Go). A very pretty little mournful little song about lost love. OK Go usually has more interesting music videos than songs, but this one just works for me.
13. The One That Got Away (Sam Tsui). Pretty self-explanatory as far as unfortunate love songs go, but of course I had to choose the Sam Tsui cover instead of the Katy Perry original. Because Sam Tsui rules.
14. The Man Who Can't Be Moved (Xenia). One of my favorite performances on The Voice last year, all about refusing to give up hope for a lost love to be restored. Much more interesting than the original version, IMHO.
15. Life After Lisa (Bowling For Soup). Many apologies to my close friend Lisa for including in this mix a song about a horrible girl who shares her name... but this song is a lot of fun. Bowling For Soup has some great angry breakup songs.
16. Someone Like You (Sam Tsui). I could pretty much include any Adele song released in the past year, but I think this one is probably my favorite, as well as my favorite version of the song. It's a great combination of resignation and... "hopeless hope" is a terrible phrase, but it's kind of what I want to say.
17. God's Gift to Women (Kate Miller-Heidke). My most-listened song of all of 2011, about those people who just think they are ALL that... but, no, none of us are *that* desperate. This works best as an anti-love song when paired with...
18. Holding Out For a Hero (Frou Frou). I really like following God's Gift to Women up with this one. They have an oddly similar sound to me, and thematically it works great. Nice couple of songs about not settling for jerks and waiting for the good guys to come along.
19. Love Can Wait (Cameron Mitchell). And a cheerful song to end on about being willing to wait for something real. Also, I love Cameron Mitchell.
Download link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?x6lo91gh2r133hb
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