Walking away: Songs to spin when the love is gone
The Spectors, "When The Girl Of Your Dreams..." (from 2003's Beat Is Murder: Cockfights & Cakefights 1992-1996)
Love at first sight? Great in concept, but love is at its blindest during that first headlong rush into a relationship. It's all the little things you discover later—weird personality quirks, strange habits, uncomfortable smells—that kill romance deader than a squashed cockroach. Early-'90s mod-rockers The Spectors took a sip from love's sour cup on this 1994 gem, originally released as a seven-inch single and later collected on the retrospective CD Beat Is Murder. With acidly tongue-in-cheek humor, "Girl Of Your Dreams" looks in horror at the aftermath of a night of whirlwind romance, when the previous evening's paramour has revealed herself as "the girl of your nightmares" instead. Hang on, though: Who's really the nightmare in this relationship? Her flaws: She doesn't cook him breakfast the next morning, and she doesn't close the bathroom door. His flaws? He's a commitment-phobe and a sexist cad who plans to leave her in the middle of the night "and hit the road with her jailbait sister." You're better off without him, sweetheart.
Brother Ali, "Walking Away" (from 2007's The Undisputed Truth)
Over a bouncy, whistled beat put together by Atmosphere's Ant, Brother Ali delivers the most mature kiss-off song ever written. Always known for his honesty, Ali is nothing less than brutal in telling off his ex-wife, though this is less a middle finger than a reflection on what went wrong. Hip-hop has a history of rather harsh breakup songs, but this one stands out more for its earnestness than its vitriol. The track is a terse meditation on the woman that inspired life-affirming lyrics on 2003's Shadows On The Sun, now sorely remembered with candid lines like "You got a sick stone under your ribs where a heart is supposed to live" and "I don't love you / I don't think I ever did / If you hadn't tried to kill me I'da stayed for the kid."
Dessa, "Seamstress" (from 2010's A Badly Broken Code)
Lost love looms over much of Dessa's work, and this haunting yet energetic track from the Doomtree MC's debut album uses her melancholy tone to full effect, expressing the difficulty of keeping relationships intact in terms of other kinds of mending. Some of the metaphorical lyrics—about poking holes with threadless needles, and tattered angels kept underneath the bed—aren't very transparent initially, but once she gets to the kicker the message is clear: "Stitching up boys is different that way / You fix a bird, you buy a cage / You fix a man and he flies away." The song suggests that her attempts at repairing may have contributed to the eventual decline, but as Dessa says, "The creed of the seamstress is that you're pretty in pieces."
Cloud Cult, "Estupido" (from 2003's They Live On The Sun)
Craig Minowa was going through a lot when he wrote the songs for Cloud Cult's third album. His 2-year-old son had died suddenly, and in the aftermath he and his wife split up temporarily. Amid the album's heartbreaking tunes about his broken family and an abruptly ended childhood comes this electronic track with a pounding four-on-the-floor beat. Minowa observes a couple in a restaurant and imagines their own time together ending when she winds up pregnant and the "male ho" flees. The view from his table-for-one is clouded by a bitterness he doesn't attempt to conceal, instead flaunting a command of Spanish ("millions of sperm to permeate your huevo") and crude chorus ("He's a gigolo with his serpent down your throat") sure to be appreciated by teenage boys. It's a jaded, childish outburst from a lonely man that feels as raw as the tearjerkers surrounding it.
Prince, "When You Were Mine" (from 1980's Dirty Mind)
The Artist was the most obvious choice for our recent list of flirty songs, which is all the more reason to make room for him on this one. That same falsetto that drips with lust on countless other tracks becomes vulnerable and sheepish here as he recalls a relationship that's most certainly over. Yeah, she took his money and cheated on him repeatedly (probably with his buddies), but she was also, he admits, "kinda, sorta" his best friend. The worst part of the breakup is realizing that he's still in love with her despite all the pain she's caused him. Not quite a condemnation or a plea for her to come back, "When You Were Mine" is more a monologue about not knowing what to do with the new void in your life, and one that's more danceable and upbeat than it has any right to be.
