I need slow goth songs for a slow jam at a goth-themed wedding.

March 27, 2012 9:03 AM

I am looking for Goth slow songs.

Now, I know that what's considered Goth can be widely debated, but I am comfortable with having some latitude with regard to what's considered Goth. Basically, I am interested in a slow jam that could be used at a Goth-themed wedding. I would be grateful for any suggestions people have.

posted by Sully to media & arts (51 answers total)

Are you looking for songs closer to the deathrock side (fuzzy guitars) or the darkwave (oontz, oontz, oontz) side?
posted by griphus at 9:07 AM on March 27, 2012

Including old Goth stuff like Bella Lugosi's Dead?
posted by Admiral Haddock at 9:08 AM on March 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

Love You to Death by Type O Negative?
posted by sanka at 9:10 AM on March 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

The Cure's "Pictures of You" is about as appropriate as "Every Breath You Take," but you could probably get away with it.
posted by modernserf at 9:11 AM on March 27, 2012

Almost not relevant, but I used to love the verses of Bif Naked - Lucky (the chorus is too cheesy!). The guitar at the beginning is goth-in-a-box for me.
posted by lokta at 9:11 AM on March 27, 2012

Griphus - More fuzzy guitars. Like, "Somebody" or "Pictures of You" by the Cure. But at the same time, I'll listen to anything that might even remotely be considered Goth. The problem is that I am not very goth at all. I am not up on the latest and greatest in Goth. Like - and I know this is going to show how ignorant I am - my impression of the latest Goth band is Evanesence. I am just trying to have people suggest slow goth songs so I can have a bunch and whittle the songlist down to something respectable. Thank you!
posted by Sully at 9:13 AM on March 27, 2012

Miranda Sex Garden: My Funny Valentine from Suspiria
posted by crush-onastick at 9:14 AM on March 27, 2012

Siouxsie and the Banshees: The Last Beat of My Heart
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 9:18 AM on March 27, 2012 [4 favorites]

Somebody, Depeche Mode.
posted by gyusan at 9:21 AM on March 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

Don't Fade Away, Dead Can Dance
posted by smirkette at 9:21 AM on March 27, 2012

Universal Hall Pass's cover of "Ring of Fire" is slow and trancey and romantic.
posted by rmd1023 at 9:23 AM on March 27, 2012

I am completely non-goth, but what about Mazzy Star's Fade Into You?
posted by artychoke at 9:35 AM on March 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

The Ubiquitious Mr. Lovegrove by Dad Can Dance is fantastic, though if you listen closely to the words it's not the most romantic.
posted by Kafkaesque at 9:49 AM on March 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

Ah, smirkette, that one is way better.
posted by Kafkaesque at 9:49 AM on March 27, 2012

Siouxsie- Face to Face
Peter Murphy--Cuts You Up
Hungry Lucy-Stay
Cranes--Watersong
posted by crush-onastick at 9:50 AM on March 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

Standing (Still) by VNV Nation
posted by Z303 at 9:54 AM on March 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

This Mortal Coil - Kangaroo
posted by hydrophonic at 10:00 AM on March 27, 2012

The Siren Songs, by Cocteau Twins, covered by This Mortal Coil and more recently by Thomas Feiner and Anywhen. Seconding hydrophobic's suggestion of Kangaroo.
posted by vers at 10:01 AM on March 27, 2012 [2 favorites]

I don't have a helpful answer to add (sorry) but I just wanted to shout out to Kafkaesque's typo up there, especially in the context of a wedding!
posted by corvine at 10:02 AM on March 27, 2012

Nick Cave's The Ship Song is a very popular bride/groom song in many of the weddings that I've been to with black clad friends.

also +1 on Song To The Siren
posted by bl1nk at 10:03 AM on March 27, 2012 [3 favorites]

Fuzzy guitars you say?
My Bloody Valentine - To Here Knows When
Or, some Tiamat
Swans - Blind
Katatonia - Tonight's Music
posted by lizjohn at 10:04 AM on March 27, 2012

Oh yes, definitely some Nick Cave.
posted by lizjohn at 10:15 AM on March 27, 2012

Lots of stuff by Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil would work. Nick Cave, too; I think some of his best love songs are on No More Shall We Part, but as b1ink says, "The Ship Song" is probably the absolute best choice.

Somebody mentioned Peter Murphy's "Cuts You Up," which is a great song, but "Strange Kind of Love" is even better! It's slow, and it's a love song!

"Welcome Tomorrow" by Love and Rockets might also be a good one.

"Some Kind of Strange" and "1959" by The Sisters of Mercy would be good.

So would lots of stuff by The Mission ("Stay with Me" and "Love Me to Death" off of God's Own Medicine and "Sea of Love" and "Butterfly on a Wheel" from Carved in Sand would probably be my choices for "slow-ish love songs to play at a wedding").

Last but not least, I'd throw in some Attrition, but it'd have to be either their neo-classical instrumental stuff or possibly "I Am..."

These are all classics by bands widely considered to be "gothic," by the way, as opposed to industrial, EBM, darkwave or what-have-you, and most of them are romantic or hopeful to at least some degree (it's hard to completely rule out irony when it comes to this stuff, but at the very least, none of them are bitter hate songs).

Industrial music is harder, but some of Einstürzende Neubauten's newer stuff is actually quite lovely and slow, like "Die Interimsliebenden" (it gets kind of loud and crashing, but it's still a love song) and "Stella Maris" (which is probably perfect for what you want, being slow, lovely and a love song).
posted by infinitywaltz at 10:36 AM on March 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

A couple more... which may push the defition a bit, but....

Breathless (criminally unknown band, at least stateside), All that Matters Now

Crime & The City Solution, All Must Be Love
posted by vers at 10:43 AM on March 27, 2012

"I am stretched on Your Grave" Sinead O'Connor
posted by effluvia at 10:51 AM on March 27, 2012

Lambchop's cover of the Sisters Of Mercy's This Corrosion is a current favorite of mine.
posted by mhoye at 10:56 AM on March 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

I am not up on the latest and greatest in Goth.

You don't really have to be up on the latest and greatest in Goth to pull this off. It's not like pop music, where last year's songs sound like last year; once a song makes it into the goth canon, it hangs around for years and years and years, to the point that everyone in the club sings along or at least mouths the lyrics, and generally only leaves the rotation once the DJs are so sick of it they can't stand to play it anymore. Goth kids will dance to songs recorded before they were born.
posted by Mars Saxman at 11:13 AM on March 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

This is my initial thought:

Sex Gang Children - Arms of Cicero


Maybe you could try one of Cranes slower, later songs.
Cranes - Beautiful Friend --personal fav
Cranes - Perfect World
Cranes - Are You Gone



Also, though, if your initial thought is Evanescence, I don't know how much any of our suggestions can help. Please, can you ask the couple and post back here? There's a lot of stuff out there. If they want only modern stuff, many songs suggested here might make them really unhappy.
posted by 200burritos at 11:20 AM on March 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

Slowness and gothness may vary drastically:

Bauhaus - She's in Parties
2nding Bauhaus' Bela Lugosi's Dead - it is pretty much *the* Goth song
The Birthday Massacre - Happy Birthday
The Birthday Massacre - Left Behind
Collide - Beneath the Skin
Jack Off Jill - Strawberry Gashes
Jack Off Jill - Star No Star
Kerli - Bulletproof
Nightwish - Eva
Nightwish - While Your Lips Are Still Red
QueenAdreena - Sleeping Pill
Rammstein - Roter Sand
The Sisters of Mercy - 1959
The Smiths - How Soon is Now?
The Smiths - Asleep
UnSun - Memories
Ohtsuki Kenji to Zetsubou Shoujotachi - Ningyoutachi
Johnny Hollow - Human Lullaby
Johnny Hollow - Nova Heart
Johnny Hollow - Stone Throwers
Johnny Hollow - Worse Things
Emilie Autumn - The Art of Suicide
posted by Senza Volto at 11:20 AM on March 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

I also want to suggest Polyrock - Romantic Me. It isn't 'goth', but it might fit in a 'goth' set.
posted by 200burritos at 11:24 AM on March 27, 2012

Here is a series of Best Gothic Love Songs on Amazon.


Others:

Anniversary - Voltaire
Luna - Smashing Pumpkins
Lips Like Sugar - Echo & The Bunnymen
Let me love you - Peter Murphy
Somebody - Depeche Mode
The Sweetest Drop - Peter Murphy
Love me til the end - Deine lakein
Phoenix of my Heart - Xymox
Ribbons - Sisters of Mercy
Venus - Air
Dia - Core
State of the Union - Romancing the Stone
Apoptygma Berzerk - Kathy's Song
Apoptygma Berzerk - Unicorn
Cure - Close to Me
Depeche Mode - Somebody
Nine Inch Nails - Perfect Drug
The Tear Garden - In Search of My Rose
The The - Uncertain Smile
Nick Cave - Into My Arms
Chameleons- Tears
posted by bleucube at 11:28 AM on March 27, 2012

London After Midnight - Sacrifice
posted by MinusCelsius at 11:28 AM on March 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

Best Goth slow song ever: Love Song For a Vampire by Annie Lennox.
posted by Doleful Creature at 12:07 PM on March 27, 2012

200burritos - My initial thought was Evanescence because I am completely ignorant, not because that is the direction we are after. Both old and modern stuff is much appreciated! I will be giving each song a listen to see if it'll fit the mood. There's been so many suggestions so far! I'm very excited. Thank you everyone!
posted by Sully at 12:11 PM on March 27, 2012

To continue the Peter Murphy: I'll Fall With Your Knife
posted by khaibit at 12:36 PM on March 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

Just came in to say that "I'll Fall With Your Knife" is pretty much the de facto goth wedding song.
posted by JoanArkham at 12:40 PM on March 27, 2012

Nick Cave's The Ship Song is a very popular bride/groom song in many of the weddings that I've been to with black clad friends.

It was ours! Straight to You was also considered.
posted by Kafkaesque at 1:08 PM on March 27, 2012

coil - Love's secret domain, though it may be a bit too noisy
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:18 PM on March 27, 2012

Faith and The Muse - Vervain
posted by Arethusa at 1:53 PM on March 27, 2012

Bauhaus - The Passion of Lovers
Siouxsie & the Banshees - Obsession

(tho' The Ship Song is pretty much the winner for mine)
posted by N-stoff at 2:05 PM on March 27, 2012

Is that Pixies song, "Where is my mind?" considered vaguely gothy?
posted by Sully at 2:08 PM on March 27, 2012

No, not really, but the label they were on, 4AD, has also been home to the likes of This Mortal Coil, Bauhaus, Clan of Xymox, Dead Can Dance, The Birthday Party, Cocteau Twins and Xmal Deutschland, so a lot of goths, myself included, tend to also be Pixies fans.
posted by infinitywaltz at 2:22 PM on March 27, 2012

I am going to put that Shakespeare's Sister song on, "Stay". Was that band considered real goth or marketed goth? I don't mind a little irony in the playlist.
posted by Sully at 2:24 PM on March 27, 2012

I officiated a wedding last year where the bride and groom used an instrumental cover of "Where is My Mind" as their processional. And they both have had / still have their Goth-As-Fuck moments.

Basically -- stop obsessing over whether it fails some arbitrary goth test. The only test that matters is the wedding couple's.
posted by bl1nk at 2:26 PM on March 27, 2012

I always though of Shakespear's Sister as being more like a moody pop band that goths liked, kind of like The The or The Smiths, as opposed to a band that was actually a part of the goth scene, per se. But yeah, they're fine!
posted by infinitywaltz at 3:22 PM on March 27, 2012

Personal favorite: Bauhaus - All we ever wanted
posted by stinker at 4:29 PM on March 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

Depending on the history of the relationship, The Sundays cover of The Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" may be appropriate.
posted by softlord at 5:43 PM on March 27, 2012

It was mentioned before, but with the wrong title: Sisters of Mercy - Some Kind of Stranger.

Aside from the fact that it's from the seminal album from the seminal goth band, it's also utterly perfect for a wedding, in a bittersweet gothy sort of way - see the lyrics.

heh - lil ubu is singing along
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:44 PM on March 27, 2012

Personal favorite: Bauhaus - All we ever wanted

Ooooooh, yes, yes, yes!
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:44 PM on March 27, 2012

I have the perfect one:

Is your love strong enough from the movie Legend by Bryan Ferry
posted by bleucube at 4:22 AM on March 28, 2012

wait, let me try again and include a link to a video so you can hear the gothy ring of fire
posted by rmd1023 at 6:23 AM on March 28, 2012