Final Mix

When I have some sort of difficulty in my life (i.e. breaking off an engagement), I like to spend preposterous amounts of time organizing music to reflect my feelings. Usually, once I can listen to how I'm feeling, I can better deal with it. This was true long ago, when I was organizing music to tell my former fiancee that I loved him without actually saying it out loud. (I skipped this phase in high school.)

I really appreciate all the suggestions for break-up songs that people gave me here. I still have to check a few of them out. I didn't end up using any of them because they weren't quite right (it's amazing how each relationship has its own specific imprint), but I'd love to hear any more suggestions. Music is the most inexpensive therapy out there.

Here's my setlist:

Prelude

1. "Set Fire to the Third Bar," Snow Patrol featuring Martha Wainwright

Miles from where you are
I lay down on the cold ground
I pray that something picks me up
And sets me down in your warm arms.

2. "Hey Jupiter," Tori Amos

3. "You Only Disappear," Tom McRae

Tom McRae is a genius--and he's British. I wonder if he's single? This
is the best song no one's heard.

4. "How It Ends," DeVotchka

You already know how this will end.

Ceremony

5. "Last Goodbye," Jeff Buckley

6. "Let Him Fly," Patty Griffin

It would take an acrobat
But I've already tried all that.

7. "Delicate," Damien Rice

8. "Into the Ocean," Blue October

9. "Ocean Breathes Salty," Modest Mouse

For your sake, I hope heaven and hell are really there
But I wouldn't hold my breath.

10. "Dare You to Move," Switchfoot

This is the song I listen to when I'm sad in any situation. It actually makes me move.

11. "Sailed On," Landon Pigg

12. "Forget It," Breaking Benjamin

Forget it--just memory
on a page inside a spiral notebook.

13. "Smoke," Ben Folds Five

Leaf by leaf and page by page
Throw this book away.

14. "U + Ur Hand," P!nk

Yes, everything that the title implies. This is the token Angry Song.

Postlude

15. "Country Feedback," REM

Crazy what you could've had.

16. "Headlights," Albatross

17. "Always on Your Side," Sheryl Crow and Sting

When this song originally came out, I would hear it on the radio while driving to work. I was embarrassed that it moved me so much, much less that I always cried.

18. "The Guy That Says Goodbye to You is Out of His Mind," Griffin House

The first time I heard this song was live, on the South Side of Pittsburgh, just before I started my relationship with The Ex. He was planning on going to Egypt at the time, and hearing this song made me think, for the first time, that its title was true.