17 Goth Dark Wave Songs Perfect For Brooding
Time for another mixtape playlist!
If you’re anything like me, you absolutely love fall – however, it tends to help put me into a melancholy state of mind. Not that this is a bad thing…
This mixtape playlist will feed into that brooding and angst you’re feeling as the leaves change and we prepare for another long, cold winter – well that’s what The Farmer’s Almanac is calling for anyways.
This one is chock full of classic alternative greats like Joy Division, The Cure, Depeche Mode, and Siouxsie & The Banshees.
As always, this mix has been tested and approved! If you’d like me to create a mixtape playlist post for you, feel free to ask! My musical knowledge and love reach beyond alternative music!
And now, get ready for a full-on Fall Mood experience…
Mephisto – Depeche Mode
Nothing better than a spooky instrumental to start this mix off in the right mood! This was a b-side to Enjoy the Silence.
I absolutely adore this song – so many creepy-cool elements!
This needs to be in a horror movie soundtrack!
Chauffeur – Deftones
I normally despise covers of my favorite bands, however, The Deftones nailed this Duran Duran classic!
It’s dark, brooding, and almost as good as the original. Almost.
“And watching lovers part, I feel you smiling / What glass splinters lie so deep in your mind?”
The Killing Moon – Echo & The Bunnymen
No fall mood mixtape is complete without this excellent classic tune by Echo & The Bunnymen!
This is by far my favorite Echo tune – of course, I have a bit of an obsession with the moon, but I digress…
Ian’s voice is sublime as he sings these ethereal words…
“In starlit nights I saw you / So cruelly you kissed me / Your lips a magic world / Your sky all hung with jewels / The killing moon / Will come too soon”
Trust in me – Siouxsie & The Banshees
Another cover, this time from Disney’s The Jungle Book. Siouxsie owns this hypnotic and mesmerizing song.
I love to light a few candles and some Nag Champa incense when I listen to this…
“Slip into silent slumber / Sail on a silver mist / Slowly and surely your senses / Will cease to resist”
W
ave of Mutilation (UK Surf) – Pixies
There’s just something so hauntingly beautiful about this song, I just can’t find the words to describe it.
The original version isn’t as dark as this one, which makes it perfect.
Just trust me… this is a great brooding song.
“you’ll think I’m dead, but I sail away / on a wave of mutilation”
Bloodletting (The Vampire Song) – Concrete Blonde
A song about vampires – you can’t get any more brooding and darker than this.
Johnette’s soulful voice makes me want to find a vampire to turn me so I can join them in New Orleans!
“I’m going down by the river / Where it’s warm and green / I’m gonna have a drink and walk around / I got a lot to think about”
I wouldn’t have to give it a second thought.
Red Rain – Peter Gabriel
It was a struggle between this one and “In Your Eyes”, but “Red Rain” wins for the beautiful lyrics and the mood it invokes… much more brooding than the mainstream “In Your Eyes” as well.
His voice is so soothing and powerful at the same time.
“I am standing up at the water’s edge in my dream / I cannot make a single sound as you scream / it can’t be that cold, the ground is still warm to touch / this place is so quiet, sensing that storm”
Condemnation – Depeche Mode
This is my all-time favorite Depeche Mode album, so of course, I had to choose a track to include in this mixtape playlist!
The lyrics of this song touch a place deep down inside of me. Martin Gore is a modern-day poet. He’s edgy and brooding.
“If for honesty / You want apologies / I don’t sympathize / If for kindness / You substitute blindness / Please open your eyes”
The Seventh Stranger – Duran Duran
My favorite Duran Duran album, and one of my all-time favorite songs by them as well!
Andy has a KILLER guitar solo in the middle… gives me chills!
The lyrics resonated with me all the way back in the sixth grade and still courses through my blood.
“Was I chasing after rainbows / One thing for sure you never answered when I called / And I wiped away the water from my face / To look through the eyes of a stranger”
A Forest – The Cure
One of my favorite classic songs by The Cure.
Excellent bass line.
Full of mystery.
I like to close my eyes and imagine I am running through a forest at dusk…
“Suddenly I stop / But I know it’s too late / I’m lost in a forest / All alone”
Cuts You Up – Peter Murphy
Peter Murphy, the lead singer of Bauhaus (the unofficial Godfathers of Goth), has an amazing solo career that is still going strong to this day.
Picking Bauhaus’ “Bela Lugosi is Dead” would have been too easy, so I pulled a fast one and included this melancholy tune.
“On and on it goes / Calling like a distant wind / Through the zero hour I will walk / Cut the thick and break the thin”
Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division
Before there was New Order, there was Joy Division. Ian Curtis was a lyrical genius and threw his angst and depression into not only the lyrics but the sound that was Joy Division.
This is one of their most popular tunes, and I’m not one that goes with what is popular, but there is a reason this is the song everyone thinks of when they hear Joy Division.
RIP Ian Curtis, your music lives on.
“You cry out in your sleep, / All my failings exposed. / And there’s a taste in my mouth, / As desperation takes hold. / Just that something so good / Just can’t function no more.”
#1 Crush – Garbage
I know they aren’t classic alternative, but then again neither are Deftones, so…
This song is perfect to follow Joy Division. It is my favorite song by the 90’s alternative band Garbage. It’s a perfect example of the ’90s mainstream Dark Wave.
Shirley Manson’s gutsy and angst-ridden voice is full of soul in this song that was featured in Baz Lurhmann’s 1996 version of Romeo + Juliet.
“Violate all The love that I’m missing / Throw away all the pain that I’m living / You will believe in me / And I can never be ignored”
No New Tale to Tell – Love and Rockets
In order to give you a full dose of Bauhaus, I’ve chosen this great one from Love and Rockets, which features the other members of Bauhaus: David J, Daniel Ash, and Kevin Haskins.
“Our little lives get complicated / It’s a simple thing / Simple as a flower / And that’s a complicated thing”
The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove – Dead Can Dance
This has got to be the most gloomy song by Dead Can Dance. Everything about this song is perfect for brooding!
Powerful lyrics with amazing ethereal tribal music. Perfect for belly dancing.
Just listen…
“I thought that I knew it all / I’d seen all the signs before. / I thought that you were the one / In darkness my heart was won”
Lay Your Hands on Me – Peter Gabriel
Another Peter Gabriel tune that’s not as well known as his other stuff.
So dramatic, sexy, and intense… This. Song. Is. Amazing.
Just listen and I’m sure you’ll agree.
“I’m living way beyond my ways and means, / living in the zone of the in-betweens / I can see the flashes on the frozen ocean, / static charge of the cold emotion”
Waiting For The Night – Depeche Mode
Time to end it the same way it started, with Depeche Mode – if you can’t tell by now, they are my favorite band – and perfect for brooding.
This song is almost like a lullaby… with its melodic darkness lulling you into slumber.
“There is a sound in the calm / Someone is coming to harm / I press my hands to my ears / It’s easier here just to forget fear”