Last year I collected some songs of spookiness here for Halloween, and a few years before that put together a Halloween compilation “The Moon Hangs in Black.” I’m not a rabid Halloween fan or anything, but I do like collecting songs around a theme. And Halloween is an especially fun theme to work with!

The Courtneys – “Lost Boys”
An homage to the mid-80s teen vampire movie of the same name from one of the coolest albums of this year.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers- “Casa Dega” and “Luna”
“Casa Dega” was the b-side to “Don’t Do Me Like That” and is a mix of smooth funky power pop (funky power pop? sure, why not?) which relates the tale of Cassadega, the real-life town of fortune-tellers and mystics in the interior of Florida.

“Luna” could just as well have been titled something like “Possession of the Moon Goddess,” or maybe it’s about alien abduction…either way, it’s one of those great little-known album tracks Petty’s discography is laden with.

Dream 6 – “Rain”
A punky dark-soaked haunted tune by a band fronted by a pre-Concrete Blonde Johnette Napolitano.

Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions – “Into the Trees”
Claustrophobic and creepy lead track to last year’s Until the Hunter. Someone Sandoval cares about disappeared in those trees, and she fears (or hopes?) that the same fate awaits her. Was the person taken by a dark, nameless force? Vampires? Witches? The wolf from Little Red Riding Hood?

Rush – “The Twilight Zone”
The Twilight Zone TV show – both the 50s version and subsequent revivals – acted as vehicles for short stories of the mysterious, surreal and unsettling.  Dig Geddy’s double-tracked whispering over the chorus sections (most audible with headphones). Ooooo…spooky….

Mary Lattimore – “You’ll Be Fiiinnne”
And you are fine, at least in the beginning. Lattimore’s deftly plucked harp mingles with the peaceful sounds of a forest as we go for a nice little walk.  By the middle (around 13:50 or a bit earlier), though, it’s a malevolent jungle trying to kill you. By the end, all is peaceful again. Of course, you’ve been eaten by a tree by then…