Weekly Mixtapes Based Off the Albums I Listened to in the Previous Week!
With Halloween right around the corner, it only made sense that I listened to a bunch of albums that fit right in with the Halloween spirit. I absolutely adore Halloween, it’s probably my favourite holiday of the year. The spooky season just hits me differently than all the others, something about the aesthetic of it all just excites me. Dressing up in costumes, having an excuse to be ridiculous, and all the blacks, reds and oranges that decorate your home just work for me. This year for the first time I hosted my own Murder Mystery Party and it was a great success! Probably will make it a yearly thing! Here’s to a week of songs that fit the Halloween vibe!
- Au Pairs – Sense and Sensuality
Not immediately though, I started the week not full thinking of Halloween quite yet. The Murder Mystery was on my mind, of course, because there was a lot to prep, but in terms of music, I was still thinking of whatever album popped out at me first. Au Pairs album appeared in my recommends and since I only ever heard one of their albums, I liked it, figured it’d be fun to check out another by them. It’s just that simple. Sometimes the best things are simple. And simplicity makes life easier that’s for sure. - Shania Twain – Come On Over
This has to be one of the scariest albums I have ever listened to in my life. - The Cramps – Songs The Lord Taught Us
Here’s where the Halloween vibes officially started. The Cramps managed to combine a wonderful blend of garage rock, rockabilly and gothic imagery, referencing b-movie horrors through the wails and warbles of Lux Interior. There’s a dirtiness and campiness to it all that just screams Halloween with an edge and is one I never fail to play around the spooky holiday. - Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells
I found myself wanting to listen to Tubular Bells and since the song takes up the entirety of Side A of the album, I figured I’d just listen to the entire thing. Even though the first five minutes of the song are most well known due to being the theme song to the Exorcist, the rest of the song still fits in very nicely with horror movies and spooky vibes, yes even when they decide to just list off instruments near the end of part 1, it still manages to work as a whole. - Brian David Gilbert – AAAH!BBA
This has to be one of the greatest discoveries I have ever made. While doing research to find albums that fit the Halloween vibes, I stumbled upon this one. The title alone grabbed my attention because it made me think of another band I love called ABBA. I wondered if the name of the album had anything to do with ABBA in anyway and boy was I pleasantly surprised to find that it was just a handful of ABBA covers but sung from the perspective of various Halloween creatures, with highlights being Lay All Your Love sung by a vampire, Gimme Gimme Gimme sung by Victor Frankenstein and SOS sung by Captain Hook. It’s silly, it’s ridiculous and I love it. - Rocky Horror Picture Show OST
LET’S DO THE TIME WARP, AGAIIIIIIIIIIIIN! - Tom Waits – Blood Money
I almost listened to Swordfishtrombones, which would have fit in perfectly, however, I wanted to take this opportunity to listen to a Tom Waits album I never heard before. I went with this one because the opener was a song I was incredibly familiar with from having had to do a dance number to it for a play I did n High School that used an entire Tom Waits soundtrack, all about Edward Gorey’s stories… it was indeed a very grim play. Blood Money ended up being more Halloween than any other Tom Waits album I’ve heard. - Bauhaus – Mask
How can you go wrong this Halloween season with some good old fashioned Goth Rock (and actual goth rock, none of that The Cure bullshit). It’s morbid, it’s dark, it’s melancholic and it rocks with noisy aggression and some fuzz guitar. How could you possibly go wrong with this album around Halloween? HOW!? - Frank Zappa – You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 6
I had a long night ahead of me at work and so it was a perfect moment to go back to my Frank Zappa discography listen and listen to another one of his incredibly long albums. I thought it was going to be Playground Psychotics, which the name itself fit nicely with Halloween, but I was sadly mistaken. Thankfully for me, some songs on this album had Halloween like titles to them, so in a strange way, it worked out nicely. - Oingo Boingo – Dead Man’s Party
This is an album I rotate on my turn table every single Halloween. How can I not, it was practically made for Halloween, supported by the fact that Oingo Boingo would have an annual Halloween concert. Everything Danny Elfman does just exudes Halloween, I mean, there’s a reason he made music for all of Tim Burton’s films, he had that spooky style down to a Tee. It’s hard not to listen to anything by Oingo Boingo and not think Halloween. No Halloween playlist would be complete without Dead Man’s Party. - Siouxsie and the Banshees – Juju
With Siouxsie Sioux fronting the band, sporting crazy black hair and gothic make-up, Juju evokes vibes of witchcraft and voodoo that can add the right amount of spookiness to any Halloween party, especially if you’re a coven of witches. - Depeche Mode – Black Celebration
Depeche Mode managed to create some dark synthwave stuff, and a title like Black Celebration fits right in to the whole thing. I would have never even thought of listening to this one but it was recommended in a list for Halloween albums and I was like “yeah that seems like it would be abut right”. I hadn’t heard this one in forever, so a newfound appreciation for Depeche Mode seems to have been slowly creeping up on me this year. - Roky Erickson – The Evil One
Last time I heard of Roky Erickson, he was making psychedelic music with the 13th Floor Elevators, incorporating an electronic jug as part of their music. He was also spending time in a mental asylum for a bit. Glad to see he got better and was able to make a rocking Halloween album for all of us to enjoy. - Goblin – Suspiria
I watched Suspiria for the first time during the Pandemic. I had so many opportunities to watch it in the last decade, but never did for whatever reason even though it was always at the top of my list of must-see horror movies. I’d love to watch more Giallo films as this is the only one I’ve ever seen and stylistically, I really enjoyed it. Although I am worried because I feel Suspiria is probably the best of the Giallo movies, so I only have down to go from here. Regardless, one of the most striking parts of the film is its score, so visiting the soundtrack was bound to happen eventually for me. - Fishbone – Truth and Soul
I took a break from Halloween albums because I really, really, really, really, really wanted to listen to Truth and Soul. I think Truth and Soul might have become my obsession of the year because I keep wanting to listen to it again and again. To my luck, there was a song called Bonin in the Boneyard, which fits in to my Halloween playlist quite nicely. Any reference to graveyards is good enough for me. - Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath
This was the first album I put on my list of Halloween albums to listen to and for some reason every time I ended an album, I kept pushing this one. I’ll listen to it later… nah not now, later… nah now not, maybe after… a different one, not now… No idea why I kept avoiding it, especially when I know I enjoy it. I mean, I enjoy Paranoid more, but still Black Sabbath is sludgy and murky and perfect for this…. so why avoid it? That’s what I told myself right before I decided to finally put it on. - The Misfits – Walk Among Us
Were The Misfits the first Horror Punk band out there? I’m not too sure, but they were definitely one of the first to merge the two genres together and make some damn fun music with it. It just felt like a no brainer to listen to them and I felt if I didn’t then someone out there would get really angry that I didn’t go for this incredibly obvious band. Well, here it is, just for you. - David Bowie – Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
Does Halloween and Glam rock mix well? I don’t think that’s a question that was ever asked but David Bowie answers this unasked question with a resounding yes. - Nightmare Before Christmas OST
I started playing this album on a whim. I wanted to listen to This is Halloween because… well, this is Halloween, and it’s right at the start of the album, so I started with the overture and kept it going… and didn’t stop it as it went into the next song and then the next song and the next. Without trying, I just listened to the entire thing. No complaints, but now I just want to watch the movie. - Alice Cooper – Welcome To My Nightmare
The first shock rocker to hit the scene, I would be remiss if I didn’t include him in this wonderful halloweeny playlist. I had debated between the two popular albums of School’s Out and Billion Dollar Babies, and although they are both equally theatrical, didn’t fully embody what I was looking for. SO I went for the album I hadn’t heard yet, which honestly felt like the better choice within this context. Every piece of theatricality we have known from Alice Cooper is there and still delivers on his shock value. - Slasher Dave – Tomb Of Horror
Never heard this before, but the small description I read was enough for me to check it out. Instrumental synth songs that are spooky and creepy and all Halloween themed? Sign me the fuck up! - Iron Maiden – The Number of the Beast
666 is the number of the beast, how’s that for summoning Satan on the last song. Happy Halloween, ya spooky kooks.
-Bosco
Bosco's Modern Life 