Past empty lots and early graves

Neko Case - "Deep Red Bells" (Blacklisted)

I'm not sure why I have such an affinity for songs about murder. I could never hurt anyone. One time I shut the door at my old storage facility job, unknowingly pulling the tail off of a lizard that was underneath it, and I felt awful for days. And those things are SUPPOSED to come off. I mean, I still remember that moment some seven or eight years later. Songs like this, about the Green River Killer, should have me just vomiting, overcome with misery, right?

But God...it's so magnificently narrative/picturesque/beautiful/sad. This song paints such a fully fleshed out picture of the stormcloud of fear--both lyrically and through the use of reverbed minor chords--hanging over Tacoma during Ms. Case's youth when the Green River Killer's spree was terrorizing the populace. I guess it's harder for me to be destroyed by negative emotions when they're wrapped up like a goddamned perfect Flannery O'Connor story set to music.