Anti-Love Mix 2015

Ah, that time of year when Valentine's Day happens... which, even for those of us who are married, sometimes is mostly exciting because it's almost time for cheap candy, whoo! Also, it's that time of year when I release my annual anti-love mix (previous editions here, here, and here), partly because there are so many great anti-love songs and partly as an ongoing tribute to my 15-year-old self who would compile these and listen to them for hours on end angsting her heart it. For anyone else who needs to angst a bit, may this mix take you on a journey of emotions and leave you feeling a little better. And for people who just like new music, there's that too.

Download link available at the bottom of the page.

1. Touching My Hand (Jason "SweetTooth" Williams and Lauren Marcus)
One of the many new discoveries from musical theater composer Joe Iconis. It's a live version, which I don't usually like to open my mixes with, but I also like to start with a cheerful and somewhat naive love song, and this is definitely that. It's very, very high school and very, very amusing to me.

2. Fight For Me (Heathers the Musical)
Well, I've written SO MANY BLOGS about Heathers in the past six months, but if you haven't taken all that prompting and actually listened to it, here's a quote from past blogs: "This is Veronica's first encounter with J.D., when he gets into a fist fight with one of the jerk jocks at school... and she's kind of into that and sings a whole song about it. This was also the first song from the musical I really fell in love with. It's such an unusual love song, and I think that's what really draws me to it."

3. Change of Heart (Love's Labour's Lost)
I really worked very, very hard to not just fill this entire list with songs from Love's Labour's Lost, since, well, there are a lot of love songs in it. I do have a few, though, beginning with this song, an "I swore to myself I wasn't going to fall in love" song. Sometimes it just happens, and all those lame cliches you laughed at before are... kind of a thing for you now. There's an entertaining little battle in this song between his annoyance at having fallen in love and his attitude of "What the hey, I'll just embrace these feelings."

4. Stop Your Heart (Love's Labour's Lost)
Another song from the show about falling in love against your better judgment, though this one is less caught up in the joy and more frustrated with the pitfalls that come along with love.

5. Somebody to You (The Vamps)
The first one on the list that's overtly about loving someone who doesn't love you back, though this one is still a pretty cheerful ones -- the depressing ones will come along in a bit. This song, like the last couple (have I found an unintentional theme?), deals with the idea of never thinking you were going to fall in love, only to find everything a little upside down once you do.

6. The Shadow in the Door (Bruce Robbins)
This song ended up being one of my favorites of the year. It's really cheesy, but this mix is nothing if not cheesy, so here's a song about what happens when past relationships move on with their lives and find someone else.

7. I Push Up My Glasses (Barrett Wilbert Weed)
A live concert song that I discovered this year while searching for random Barrett Wilbert Weed videos. It's an unrequited love song from a shy nerdy girl to a girl she works with, and it's so very, very reminiscent of the URLSCDs -- a perfect balance of hopeful and despairing.

8. Lisa (Katrina Rose Dideriksen)
I didn't mean to put both lesbian love songs together, but this is where the transition fell between "unrequited love song" and "dysfunctional relationship song." There's a guy version of this song too, but I prefer the performance in this one. While the Lisa being sung about clearly likes the main singer, the singer's crippling self-loathing and anxiety turns what could be a very sweet love song into a dark, unhappy song with lyrics like "I know if I were her, I'd hate me."

9. Lying There (Annie Simpson)
I couldn't tell you where I got this song came from, but this song just makes me so very sad. It's about someone in a relationship realizing that she may never be truly happy in her relationship. The song vacillates between proclaiming all the things she does love about him and confessing that she can't make herself love him as much as she feels like she's supposed to.

10. Shades of Cool (Lana del Rey)
I'm can't tell you exactly what's going on in this song -- there are plenty of theories, everything from mental illness to drug abuse -- but it's clear that this is about a relationship with plenty of distance and darkness surrounding it. It's incredibly melancholy and more than deserves its place on this list.

11. Barf Bag Breakup (Barrett Wilbert Weed)
A quiet, sad little breakup song that I discovered at the same time I discovered I Push Up My Glasses. There's something about the song's simplicity that really speaks to me.

12. Kindergarten Boyfriend (Heathers the Musical)
This is maybe THE anti-love song of the year. It's another song I've written multiple blogs about, so to steal from one of them: "Back when I was an especially emo high schooler who collected unrequited love showtunes and 'no one will ever love me' songs, I would have been all over this song. Even though I am less emo these days, I still empathize very, very strongly with this character, one of the unpopular kids who has been picked on for years and years and years."

Listening to it again as I put together these write-ups... and this lyric gets me every time: "Certain boys are just for kindergarten, certain girls are meant to be alone."

13. Love's a Gun (Love's Labour's Lost)
A dark-sounding song about how depressing and unpredictable love can be in general. This one isn't my favorite from the show, but it definitely grows on me the more I listen to it.

14. It All Fades Away (The Bridges of Madison County)
I haven't yet fallen in love with this cast recording, though it's Jason Robert Brown, so I'm sure it's just a matter of time... but in the meantime, here's this song I do love. This song is sung toward the end of the show, as the main character reminisces about the woman he loved and lost. At first glance, it's a more hopeful song than I sometimes include at this point in the mix, but I don't think it's about hope so much as... wistfulness.

15. You Haven't Seen the Last of Me (Burlesque)
I wrote about this a bit in my Best Songs of 2014 blog post, but it's definitely worthy of mentioning here. Maybe my favorite part of all the anti-love mixes and URLSCDs are the songs that have the message of "I'm going to be better, I'm going to power through this." Those always hit me hard in any kind of situation where I'm feeling sad or overwhelmed, and they remind me I'm gonna be OK.

16. Since We Broke Up (Bowling for Soup)
I'm finally getting around to listening to Bowling for Soup's last album, and I'm glad I am, as I discovered this time just in time to include it on the list. In very BFS style, it's a cheerful song about how awesome life is after breaking up with someone. It's like a snarkier "Since U Been Gone."

17. Dear Future Husband (Meghan Trainor)
All right, I do have some problems with this song -- never a fan of women treating physical affection as a reward for good behavior from their significant others, and agreeing that I'll buy someone groceries if they give me flowers on our anniversary seems like a very strange deal. But it's awfully cheerful, and I'm always in favor of "yeah, you're not gonna treat me like crap" songs. So it gets to be on here. But it doesn't get to close out this collection. That honor goes to...

18. You Can't Hurry Love (Phil Collins)
I've known this song forever, but for some reason I hadn't owned it until this year. But it seems like pretty much the perfect way to end the mix.

Download the full mix here... and Happy February.

Anti-Love Mix 2014

It's that time of year again, guys! When I compile the best unrequited love songs, break-up songs, terrible relationship songs, "forget romance" songs, and "someday my prince will come" songs added to my collection the previous year and present them in mix format for you all to enjoy.

It's always interesting to see what types of songs I end up with. This year's selection ended up being fairly upbeat and optimistic, with not a lot of truly sad, sad songs in the mix. (But don't worry, melancholy friends, there are definitely a few.) As a whole, the list is a lot more "we'll make it through!" than "my life is over!" It's just where it landed this year.

Without further ado, here's the 2014 Anti-Love mix, complete with download link at the bottom.

1. Kiss You (Roomie)
I always like to start my mixes off with happy songs about falling in love. Because as difficult and sucky as unrequited love is, there's still something really fun and exciting about loving someone. This is my favorite cover version of this song. It makes me want to dance.

2. I Wanna Dance With Somebody Who Loves Me (Whitney Houston)
Speaking of dancing... I rediscovered this song this past year and realized I didn't have it in my music library. FIXED. It's so cheerful and happy but the lyrics are so sad and wistful, and you all probably know I'm a sucker for happy-sounding songs about sad things. So of course this one had to be in this mix.

3. Dumb (Tich)
A song about realizing you might have missed out on your chance because you rejected someone and then later developed feelings for them. It's a fun dancey little tune, and I really enjoy the right-before-the-chorus lyric of: "You make me smile... a lot."

4. When I Fall In Love (Michael Ball)
An old classic from one of my favorite vocalists. I've probably even included other versions of this song on previous Anti-Love Mixes or URLSCDs... but it's always worth including again. A beautiful, wistful song about truly falling in love someday.

5. Hello (Paul Anka)
One of the albums I kind of fell in love with this past year was Paul Anka's "Rock Swings," in which he does smooth jazzy versions of mostly rock songs. Here he covers Lionel Richie's "Hello," and I love it. It's a little less mournful than the original, which makes it seem less like an emo stalker is singing it and more like playful flirting.

6. Let Me Love You (Jacob Artist, from Glee)
I love this version of the song so much more than the original. It's a sweet and gentle and tender ballad, as it should be, instead of a vaguely dancey bland pop number. Sung like this, it's one of those songs like Enrique Iglesias' "Hero" that easily melts a girl's heart.

7. Misery Loves My Company (Farah Alvin)
I found this song on a YouTube video of a concert somewhere and fell in love with it. I was pretty hyped when I found it was on SoundCloud. It's got a great "torch song" sound and wonderfully jaded lyrics. Super satisfying to sing along to when I'm feeling miserable.

8. Against All Odds (Darren Criss, from Glee)
I found this to be one of the most moving performances on the show in a long time. Darren Criss has a way of infusing his sad songs with a great deal of emotion and making me really listen to the lyrics. As far as sad love song goes, this is a classic, and I love his rendition of it.

9. When I Was Your Man (Sam Tsui)
It's not an Anti-Love Mix without a Sam cover. :-) Really, though, this is one of my favorites he's done in a long time. I hadn't heard the original version when I first listened to this, and I love the sad lyrics and the simple melody, and Sam sings it with a satisfying degree of angst.

10. Manhattan (Sara Bareilles)
I've written about this song before, so I'll just say this song gets more heartbreaking and emotionally devastating every time I listen to it.

11. Should've Gone To Bed (Plain White T's)
And after just a few sad, dark songs, we begin our climb upward toward happier times, or at least happier sounds. This is a classic theme of the Anti-Love Mixes: the "I've had too many drinks and now I'm calling an ex, which is a stupid idea" song. (There are quite a few of these. And I own several.)

12. Boomerang (Barenaked Ladies)
And, on the flip side, here's an "we broke up but I'm pretty sure we'll get back together" song. It's fairly optimistic, unless, of course, you take the view that they're never going to get back together, in which case it's kind of tragically misguided.

13. Cups (Anna Kendrick)
And on to what is maybe my favorite Anti-Love Mix song category (and the busiest, this year): the songs about surviving break-ups. This song is maybe even instigating a breakup -- saying, "Well, off I go traveling the world. You can come along if you want. I'd like it if you did, and you'll miss me if you don't. But I AM going." I love the light breeziness of it and how nonchalant she is about just taking off.

14. It's a Beautiful Day (Michael Buble)
This is such a delightfully cheerful song about moving on from a not-good relationship. It's hard for me to listen to this song and not dance around in my chair.

15. Too Late (Roomie)
This is a Roomie original that I just discovered about a month ago and fell in love with. A happy, joyful song about the sort of perverse joy of an ex who dumped you returning to you only for you to realize you really don't want them back. Take THAT!

16. I'm Still Standing (Elton John)
I have also written about this song in the past few weeks. It seems like a good "HA, you couldn't break me!" song to end the mix on.

...Well, mostly end the mix. I do have one more.

17. Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People (from Frozen)
A short song to remind us all that sometimes people are just kinda lame.

Want the whole mix? You can get it here.

Anti-Love Mix 2013

Sadly, I didn't acquire much new music over 2012, so I didn't have a lot to drawn on when creating this mix. I ended up with a bit of a compromise - many of these songs are new to me this past year, but a lot of them are older songs that could totally have ended up on an anti-love mix somewhere along the line, but they didn't for some reason.

1. What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? by Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. As always, I like to start off the mix with less of an anti-love flair and more of that "do they don't they like me" cutesyness. As long as it's not definitely reciprocated. It's just too sad to start off a mix with something super dark. But don't worry. The sad songs are on their way.

2. I Want Somebody (Bitch About) by Kristin Chenoweth. You pretty much all know my dislike for country music, but, guys, it's Kristin Chenoweth. You can't go wrong with her. This is a cheerful enough song to go at the beginning of the mix but it's definitely in the "someday my prince will come" category of songs... and it's definitely about not having someone.

3. Come Back to Me from On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, sung by Brent Barrett. This year, I ended up connecting with a bunch of songs about separated lovers. (I am sure this is in no way influenced by my being in a long distance relationship since last May...) So here are a couple of them in a row. Although the songs occasionally imply the two are together, I find they work well if you imagine they're break-up songs as well.

4. Love Song Without Metaphor by Groovelily. I really like cheerful-sounding songs about sadness, loneliness, and melancholy, and this is one of those. Also, Brendan Milburn can sing anything and I'll believe him.

5. Come Back With the Same Look in Your Eyes from Song and Dance, sung by Linzi Hateley. The main character in this song is crazy insecure about a long distance relationship, to the point where it segues nicely into the next category which is bad relationships.

6. One More Night by Sam Tsui. My favorite cover of a Maroon 5 song that went crazy popular this year, and the song is almost as infectious as the toxic relationship he's singing about. The song's about not being able to really break it off from a bad relationship.

7. Not Like the Movies by Katy Perry. This may actually be my favorite Katy Perry song ever, a haunting tune about realizing that the relationship you're in is not at all the one you've dreamed about, and hoping for somebody better.

8. I Know You Won't by Carrie Underwood. A heartbreaking tune about being with somebody who clearly doesn't love you as much as you love him. I absolutely love the chorus... Carrie sings each line like some sort of mourning cry. This song kind of breaks me.

9. So Sick by Sam Tsui & Max Schneider. The first song I added to this mix, actually. I've heard the original version and, nope, I don't like it nearly as much as this one, which is much more vulnerable and sad a break-up song.

10. People Are Strange by Echo & the Bunnymen. A nice dark classic cover about how being and feeling alone makes everything else seem darker and worse too (even if it isn't). Such a satisfying song to listen to on whiny URL sorts of days.

11. Take Away My Dreams by Groovelily. I can't believe I didn't have this on last year's. It is possibly my very favorite depressing song ever, about wanting to give up on all your dreams. And like I said... Brendan Milburn can sing anything he wants and make me believe it. It is so very sad

12. Gloomy Sunday by Sarah McLachlan. And right on the heels of that, here's the song that QI deemed the saddest song in the world, and Stephen Fry doesn't lie to people. Apparently this song was blamed for a wave of suicides in the 1930s. While I find it mostly cathartic, I'd never want to end a mix with this song. But don't worry, the next song will put some of these dark emotions to good use.

13. You Oughta Know by Alanis Morissette. That good use is screaming out your anger. This is my very favorite "sing along with loudly in the car" song because it feels so very good to sing along with it. Of course, you have to learn the lyrics, otherwise you just end up going, "Cuz a dub dabba dub dubba mabe wubba nub ba ya OPEN WIDE, NOOOOO!"

14. Here's Your Freakin' Song by Bowling For Soup. They're awesome to sing along to angrily too. This one's passive aggressive snarky rather than... well, rather than "every time I scratch my nails down someone else's back I hope you feel it," and it's about a bad relationship rather than a break-up, but it's oh so satisfying for when you need a good anti-love song.

15. Build a Wall from Shrek the Musical, sung by Brian D'Arcy James on the original Broadway cast. A little milder than the previous two, but it's still cranky and wonderfully antisocial and painful.

16. Nicest Thing by Kate Nash. I absolutely love the sad violin in this (and usually I hate violins). I love the simple melody and vocals, and I love that the lyrics are so heartfelt and specific and clearly directed at an actual person instead of being one of those vague songs that really doesn't mean much of anything. This right here is my favorite unrequited love-specific song of the year. If you don't listen to anything else on the mix, check this one out.

17. Leap by Groovelily. Here's a rather more hopeful song. It's about being cautious and scared and afraid to try anything new... but for something like relationships, eventually you just have to go for it and leap. I hugely identify with this song and find it rather empowering.

18. Live by Paul and Storm. We're now getting into a couple of the sillier ones... and this one is a heartfelt song sung from a Dr. Frankenstein-ish sort of character wanting to create himself a girlfriend. It's very pretty and sweet... and goofy.

19. One Knight from Wonderland, sung by Darren Ritchie on the original Broadway cast. I've written about my irrational love for this show before, and this song absolutely had to be included in this song. It's sung in the style of a cheesy boy band ballad, and somehow it does exactly what boy band ballads are meant to do to girls... it melts me. I don't know why. It just does. I'm pretty sure it's 90% Darren Ritchie's voice.

20. Haven't Met You Yet from Smash, sung by Nick Jonas. A nice song, and I really enjoy the softer feel to the song (see, Nick Jonas, you don't always have to suck. Just stop doing big dramatic musicals that require you to not be poppy). I also wanted to end this mix on a hopeful note, as always.

If you want to download my mix in its entirety, you can find it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?3dnk3g5nfu2et41

Happy February.

Anti-Love Mix 2012!

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