I find it mildly ironic that on the heels of one of the most upbeat Mike Mixes on record comes one of the most depressing. Mike Mix 14 is, without a doubt, a complete downer. A quick glance at the song titles (see the track list below) reveals themes of loneliness and asphyxiation – not the most uplifting subject matter.

But in my experience, sad songs often have the most beauty and depth. And the tracks on Mike Mix 14 only reinforce this. Consider “Strangulation!” by My Morning Jacket. The song immediately explodes with a cacophony of guitars, drums, and muffled screaming. Then after a minute everything cuts out, leaving Jim James’ reverb-drenched vocals front and center. What follows is quite possibly the best six minutes of music ever recorded. It is both awe-inspiring and heartbreaking. Even after all these years the song still hits like a ton of bricks.

Mike Mix 14 features a handful of artists that are appearing on my site for the first time. One of them is Manchester Orchestra. If I wasn’t so lazy, I would’ve written about these guys months ago. They are incredible. The two songs on the mix (“Where Have You Been?” and “I Can Barely Breathe”) are from their debut album I’m Like a Virgin Losing a Child. Hopefully I’ll post something about them in the next few weeks. They deserve more attention than these few brief sentences.

As always, I strongly recommend listening to Mike Mix 14 in the order presented below. Download the entire mix here or stream it using the player below! Enjoy responsibly.

As it turns out, every song on Mike Mix 11 is new to my site. I don’t know how this happened, but needless to say I have my work cut out for me.

So I guess I’ll start with the obvious: Mike Mix 11 features a ton of great music. And it starts out firing on all cylinders. After almost two minutes of quiet noodling, the first track, “Brother” by Annuals, explodes in a cacophony of guitars, drums, and violins. The next two songs keep the pedal to the floor. “Percussion Gun” by White Rabbits rides a thunderous drum beat while “Quiet Little Voices” by We Were Promised Jetpacks soars on a relentless guitar riff. It’s hard to imagine a more energetic start to a mix.

Following this fiery opening is a trilogy of fantastic songs. “Y’all Come Back Now” by Ten Kens is one hundred percent badass. “Available” by The National is the angriest, most bitter song the band’s ever recorded. And “Papillon” by The Twilight Singers is dark yet surprisingly upbeat.

The second half of Mike Mix 11 doesn’t quite pack the same punch as the first. But what it lacks in energy it makes up for with raw emotion. “Lies I’ve Told” by Yarn is completely devastating. So too is “Fool” by Cat Power, though for different reasons. In “Lies I’ve Told” the lyrics break your heart, whereas in “Fool” the instrumentation paints an overwhelmingly bleak picture. But the second half isn’t all doom and gloom, however. The mix closes on a relatively upbeat note with “Epilogue,” the soaring finale from Hospice by The Antlers.

As always, I highly recommend listening to Mike Mix 11 in the order presented below. Download the entire mix here or stream it using the player below! Enjoy!