And people say I'm not romantic*

Singing along to:

There are all kinds of love songs. There are sweet and simple love songs (The Beatles: "I Want to Hold Your Hand"). There are kind of weird and idiosyncratic love songs (The Pogues: "Fairytale of New York"). There are love songs about people you've only just met (The Doors: "Hello, I Love You"). There are love songs about your pants, and the singer's desire to be inside them (okay, actually, that's basically every love song ever).

And then there's my very favorite sub-genre, love songs about death. This might just be an indie-ish pop thing, I don't know (my taste in music is not terribly wide-ranging), but it does seem to be a trend. (Five songs is a trend, right?)

Besides, nothing is more romantic than death, right? Of course right!

Iron & Wine, "Naked as We Came"
Of course Iron & Wine is at the top of the list. Iron & Wine is at the top of every list I make, even the lists that aren't about music. I just plain love Iron & Wine, despite Sam Beam's awful mountain man beard. I'll admit this isn't my favorite of their songs, but I guess it's all relative, because iTunes tells me I have listened to it 181 times. "I lay smiling like our sleeping children. / One of us will die inside these arms, / eyes wide open, naked as we came."

Death Cab for Cutie, "I Will Follow You Into the Dark"
This is one of my favorite Death Cab songs. Despite having one of the most ridiculous names in my iTunes library, they write lovely songs with fantastic lyrics. And I say this despite the sad and unnecessary bit of anti-Catholicism in verse two. (I have never heard a nun--or anyone else--assert that "fear is the heart of love.") Still: "If Heaven and Hell decide / that they both are satisfied, / illuminate the 'NOs' on their vacancy signs / if there's no one beside you / when your soul embarks / I'll follow you into the dark."

Wilco, "On and On and On"
This is actually the only Wilco song I know, which is probably heresy in some circles, oh well. So how coincidental that it also happens to be a morbid love song? Clearly it was meant to be. "One day we'll disappear together in a dream / however short or long our lives are going to be. / I will live in you or you will live in me / until we disappear together in a dream."

The Frames, "Lay Me Down"
The story that Glen Hansard sometimes tells in concert to go along with this song is a hilarious and self-deprecating tale of wildly over-the-top teenage love. The video (linked above) is also a bit odd (okay, very odd). Nevertheless, the song itself is gorgeous. "And lay me down / in the hollowed ground. / Down by your side I will stay / so lay me down."

Dolorean, "Dying in Time"
I could not find a video for this on YouTube, BUT you can listen to it on their mySpace page. It will probably be the only time you go on mySpace all year. "I pray it not come too soon, / I pray it comes without pain. / May it not be by avalanche, / may it not be by hurricane, / may it come to us both just as day turns into night."

I'm sure there are some I've missed--if you think of any, let me know in the comments!

**

*I do try to encourage that thought, not sure why, but let me tell you this: it is a lie. It a huge fat whopper of a lie. Here is the truth: weddings make me cry, even weddings in movies or on TV. I sobbed my way through 65% of Up, particularly that heartbreaker of an opening montage. I re-read Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" all the time and two of my favorite books are love stories. And in case you're wondering, I do have a favorite Shakespearean sonnet: number 130: "My mistress's eyes are nothing like the sun."