The OMITI Murder Mystery Playlist On Spotify

A Mystery Mix Exclusively for Paid Subscribers!

Welcome to the official Only Murders In The Inbox Playlist on Spotify! This twelve hour mix of over two hundred songs has been carefully curated the way I did all of my cassette mix tapes back in sixth grade, which, lemme tell you, is a hobby I took very seriously. For this playlist, I’ve spent the past five months sifting through dozens of genres, covering music from several decades to make sure this playlist is comprehensive and worthy of a long listen.

Many of my favorite artists — The Mountain Goats being the best example — have memorable tracks about murder. When there’s a moving song that’s a chapter within a powerful, bigger story, it becomes more than a ballad with catchy lyrics. It becomes a piece of art as unforgettable as the best Mickey Spillane novel.

There are plenty of favorites on this playlist from my college radio days when I was a DJ at WVFS. The White Stripes know how to elicit that murderous vibe, just like the bands Low, Slant 6 and Sleater-Kinney do (I’m happy to report that Corin Tucker loves mysteries as much as I do! Check out this interview with Sleater-Kinney and the guys from How Long Gone). There are also tracks from newer acts that I love; Conan Gray, Chloe Moriondo and Phoebe Bridgers from boygenius all have songs that fit perfectly on this OMITI playlist.

Robert Johnson, Image Courtesy of the Delta Haze Corporation

As you listen, you’ll discover some music genres lend themselves more to murder than others. Not to be all, “we Southerners really know our murder” except…we do. Southerners know better than anyone how to weave a dark mystery. Southern Gothic roots in music run deep and make for especially poignant lyrics. Blues, especially blues originating in The Deep South, is rooted in the mysterious through folklore, legends and myths. Long before country singers like Johnny Cash and rappers like Rick Ross built their careers on a good story, Delta blues musician Robert Johnson was at the crossroads making a deal with the devil. So much of what made Johnson unique were the myths surrounding his music. And not only did he sing about murder, he supposedly was murdered by a jealous girlfriend (or an angry husband, depending on which side of the Mississippi you’re on). Plenty of other blues musicians — from Charley Patton to Howlin’ Wolf — had hits mired in murder, too, and the best tracks made it onto this playlist.

Blues isn’t the only genre out of The South to have that dark sinister twist in its music. For decades, country music has long been known for murder ballads with clever lyrics. Some of the best murder mystery songs are found in country. When songwriter Bobby Russell wrote “The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia” for his wife Vicky Lawrence, it became a quintessential murder ballad (later a huge hit for Reba McEntire). That Southern gothic flair, full of swaying mossy oaks and shallow graves, are chock full of bodies buried in swamps that’ll never see the light of day. My favorites revolve around women gettin’ that revenge on those abusive, cheatin’ men who finally get what they deserve.