Nostalgia Alternative's Definitive Halloween Playlist

 

It's that spooky, scary time of year again! And if you're like me, then you're probably tired of hearing the usual, standard Halloween tracks at your neighbor's Halloween party. If you're looking for something fresh and new, featuring some more "obscure" Halloween inspired music, look no further than Nostalgia Alternative's own Halloween Playlist! Carefully curated, and updated year after year, my Halloween playlist is one that I'm very proud of. It has some classics to keep your more casual-listener friends entertained (see: "Thriller", or "Ghostbusters"), but is 90% that post-punk, goth, metal, and overall "alternative" music that we love. There's such a variety though, that there should be something for every spooky music fan on here. With bands such as the Ramones or Talking Heads, to Slayer and to Lady Gaga (yes, you read that right)- you're bound to find at least one track to be a new Halloween favorite. Whether you're wanting to hear an entirely new playlist, or just find one or two new songs to add to your own playlist, I hope you enjoy my take on music that feels right for this classic holiday! 

I'll leave the link to my Halloween Playlist up here, and you can also listen to it via the Spotify player in the sidebar, if you're viewing this from your desktop. But! Before you get too into it, this is a blog afterall, so I want to talk about my choices in songs for a bit first, and then I invite you to check out the entire thing to your heart's content. 

With the large amount of different genres I feature on this playlist, it may seem a little all over the place at a first glance, but you have to remember the unifying theme is not genre- but Halloween. These are all songs that give off scary, eerie, or unsettling vibes that feel just like Halloween should, and at the same time, most of them are great to play at a party! 

Funny enough, I feature four different songs on this playlist that are titled simply "Halloween". There's one from the Misfits, Sonic Youth, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Helloween. And yes- all of them are necessary, and very different from one another. The Misfits "Halloween" is fast, brash, punk and clocks in at just under 2 minutes long. It serves as a great intro. track that sets the mood in a simple way to tell you just what this playlist is about ("I remember Halloween!"). Sonic Youth's is a much slower, creepy, actually genuinely scary if you're out alone at night, take on the word. It tells a cryptic, unnerving story that is left purposely open-ended, and to me, feels perfectly like that specific paranoia fear you get just before something terrifying is going to happen ("There's something shifting in the distance, don't know what it is..."). 

Then as for the Banshees, their "Halloween"  is rumored to be about something even scarier than slashers and ghosts- the loss of innocence that happens as we get older. It is like a short story on how much we get excited for things like Halloween when we're younger, versus how those things can become boring or a hassle when we're adults (unless you're a goth, of course). And there seems to be a sinister, darker meaning to loss of innocence- like someone or something scary or traumatic stopped your young love for Halloween. A very realistic type of fear is hidden in this song, underneath a thick layer of fun, spooky, and with a catchy chorus ("'Trick or treat', the bitter and the sweet"). Finally, Helloween's "Halloween" is an over 13 minute novel of a song, bridging the gap between the supernatural fear you feel on Halloween, and the fun, excitement that it also brings ("Magic in the air on Halloween, Black is the night full of fright..."). It might be one your party guests will want to skip, if they're not big metal fans especially, but if you still want to hear it on your own time, it's worth the length. With a Charlie Brown reference, and the talk of good, evil, and heaven and hell, it's like all the different things you were told about Halloween growing up, wound into one epic, power metal saga.

Normally I'd link one or more of these songs below, but I'll leave it for the whole playlist. Next up what I'd like to mention is one of the standout, oddballs on this mix (or at least maybe odd to you). While the uninitiated might find it strange, I happen to enjoy a fair amount of Lady Gaga's music- Particularly her Born This Way album, where she went for a deliberately eclectic, 70's & 80's pop-rock sound and aesthetic (and she nailed it). There's a song on there you might remember if you enjoyed pop music in the early 2010's, called "Judas". It's a heavily Madonna inspired track, but with a darker twist than she might have dared to do in her heyday. On the album it's a dancey, fun track about being "in love with Judas", despite wanting to be true to Jesus (pop-flavored blasphemy at its finest). But, the version I feature here on this playlist is not much like the original at all. It's the Goldfrapp remix of the track... which turns it borderline demonic. Gaga's voice is distorted, and deepened, making her sound possessed by evil, rather than just happily singing about it. It's as if "Judas" and the essence of betrayal has consumed her, taking her over. It honestly sounds truly terrifying, in an Exorcist sort of way, and genuinely scared me the first time I heard it. But! The thumping electronic beat, combined with this scary, demonic reimagining, make it a perfect Halloween party track. I'll let you hear it for yourself, if you're still skeptical over the name "Gaga". Trust me, it's anything but "pop". 

Finally, I'd like to mention one more intriguing highlight of this playlist for me, before I send you on your way to go listen to all of it. I feature 3 songs on here from goth favorites, The Cure. This of course includes the obvious yet timeless, "Lullaby", as well as their original song for spooky film classic, The Crow, "Burn". There's one more Cure song I find to be perfectly fitting of Halloween, and that's their slow, groovy-goth cover of Jimi Hendrix classic, "Purple Haze".  Their version takes it from a fast and furious rocker, to a spooky, mystical gothic perspective. I never would have thought of the original as a Halloween song at all, because it doesn't scare me or make me want to be scared at all. But the minute I heard the Cure's cover, it just felt right. For me, it's the slowed down beat, combined with Robert Smith's signature "spooky" voice, that makes this a modern Halloween classic. Give it a listen for yourself, below, and hopefully you'll feel it too. 

So that's all I'll say about my Halloween Alternative mix for now. I think hopefully it should speak for itself, and you'll understand a majority of the song choices without my explanation. But, if you are curious about any, feel free to reach out to me, and I'll give you as shallow or deep of an answer as you like. Also, this is a Spotify playlist, as that is my main method of streaming music, but if I know you in "real life", you can feel free to reach out and ask for a physical copy on CD, as that is a lost art / favorite hobby of mine (or I can create a YouTube playlist version, if anyone asks for it!). 

Halloween is creeping up around the corner... or if you're a goth, it's all year 'round! So whether you've got a party planned or just want something to enjoy with a glass of cider by yourself, I hope Nostalgia Alternative's Halloween Mix is what you've been looking for! Thanks for reading this brief overview of it (very brief, as the playlist is nearly 4 and a half hours in length!), and I hope you'll enjoy what you hear! Happy Halloween, Blessed Samhain, and happy spooky season to you all! 

"Boo Wave", goth & new wave artist Halloween art, by Matthew Lineham.