iTunes insomnia, bitter edition

So, I recognize that I am pretty late to be pouncing upon the Stephin Merritt bandwagon. I had 69 Love Songs in my possession not long after I was moving as much of my music-listening to mp3s as possible, and I declined to convert the CDs to MP3's* because it didn't seem like I wanted 69 titles scrolling up the screen in the RealJukebox program I was using, esp. if they were all going to be about love anyway. In any case, the songs that I have since won me over tend to be his more embittered work anyway. Since I purchased it on iTunes last week, I keep going back and listening to "I Don't Believe You" (JFW audioclip here). It makes me want to go out and find a special someone to have a horrendous-horrendous-soulcrushing breakup with just so I can sit in the dark with a pack of TorMentos** and listen to "I Don't Believe You" over and over and over again for days/weeks/the remainder of my thirties.

Another project of Merritt's is The 6ths, where he has other singers perform his songs. My favorite 6ths song is "Falling Out of Love with You" (JFW audioclip here), this one a paean to the death throes of a relationship rather than its bitter end.

* I refuse to anymore use the word "rip" for this process, as it has made me feel like I was weirdly brandishing a youthful affectation when I've used it in the past.

** An idea for a mint-candy specifically marketed to the inconsolably depressed that I have been trying to sell to a major candy manufacturer for nearly a decade.