The pumpkins are carved, costumes perfected and the full-size candy bars stacked by the front door. There’s nothing missing from your kickass Halloween except a collection of tunes to get you in a ghoulish mood.
We have you covered with this three-hour Halloween playlist to bring out the beast in you.
Here are a few of our favorites:
July Talk: Blood & Honey
We kick it off with the boisterous hip-shooters July Talk as they hit us with wave after 20-ft wave of siren guitars and the sweet/salty call-and-response of their dual frontmen. Blood and honey. A taste of Halloween.
The Mountain Goats: Lovecraft in Brooklyn
Some people see spiders and their heart beats faster. Others get goosebumps when people whisper certain words. Me? It’s the scraping sound that a guitarist’s fingertips made on a steel string when changing chord quickly. It’s the metallic squeal of ships colliding or trains derailing; utterly disturbing, and there is plenty of it in this perfectly unhinged trip into the psyche of a one seriously strung-out dude. Bonus points for the Lovecraft tributes littered through the lyrics.
Bloc Party: Hunting for Witches
In essence a treatise on the media’s ability to create hysteria, this magnificent indie rock modern classic brings the Salem Witch Trials into the context of 2007. It’s a cautionary tale of the choice that we make when faced with terror: Do we unite and move on, or create cycles of violence and fear. A full decade later, and what have we learned? We’re still baying, baying, baying for blood.
Fleetwood Mac: Rhiannon
Yeah, the world is pretty fucked up right now. But you know what? You and me, we are on this earth at the same time as Stevie fucking Nicks, and that’s one hell of a consolation. Inexplicably, the third single from their second eponymous album, in 1975, Rhiannon is part dirge, part siren’s song and all classic rock masterpiece. If you can get past the experimental videography of this live recording, you’ll see Nicks at her most enchanting.
Japan: Ghosts
Straddling the nexus of art and music, these delightful proto-New Romantics were true masters of minimalism. In Ghosts, the earthiness of the marimba and David Sylvian’s voice perfectly complement the alien spaceship synths and set electronic music on a dark path that later acts like Depeche Mode would probe with panache.
Terry Jacks: Seasons in the Sun
A dirge in F major? Fancy that! Terry Jacks’ uplifting one-hit-wonder still surprises with the warmth and light it manages to give to our most closely held fears. It’s about coming to terms with death, and embracing the good things that come with change. And isn’t that what Halloween is about? Turn it up!
Here’s the full list. I hope you like it!