Confuzzled 2026: The Musical Mix
Confuzzled 2026 is around the corner. For Confuzzled 2022, which was the first post-COVID convention I attended, I created a little mix CD which featured songs that for me celebrated being together with others - I handed them out at the con and left some in public spaces for strangers to grab. I've been wanting to revisit the idea for a few years now but things have been getting in the way. The same happened with CFz 2026 as well - I just ran out of time and focus to actually make this into a physical reality. But I did get the tracklist sorted. So, if you're heading to Confuzzled, here's a selection of songs you can try and source for a DIY mix for yourself.
CFz 2026's theme is Musicals, which is perhaps a too obvious theme for a compilation of music - but I didn't want to just grab a bunch of music from, well, musicals. Instead you have songs from rock operas and concept albums; songs written for musicals but re-recorded by the artist themselves for their own canon; covers; unique versions found on soundtracks as opposed to the films; songs from animations with musical sequences; and many other different ways of interpreting the same brief. It's an eclectic mix of tracks that form some sort of journey when brought together. I think it's fun. Sorry you can't play it on your CD player which we all have of course.
- The Mountain Goats - Overture. Each musical should start with an overture, and it's handy that The Mountain Goats' rock opera album from last year featured one. Not that we'll hear any of these motifs again on this album.
- Sufjan Stevens - Come On! Feel the Illinoise!. From the album now adapted into an off-Broadway musical.
- Sparks - "Mr. Bergman, How Are You?" / "He'll Come 'Round". From the art pop duo's concept album/rock opera about the Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman. The mix would've contained these two songs combined, as inherited from another mix a friend of mine made for me.
- Pet Shop Boys - Friendly Fire. Written for their 2001 stage musical Closer to Heaven; they later recorded the song themselves for a b-side.
- Janelle Monáe - Violet Stars Happy Hunting!!!. Back when Janelle was still excitedly busy with her multi-release-spanning sci-fi story about a rebellious android starlet. For the actual mix I would've tidied up the ending a bit to remove the segue to the next song.
- Richard O'Brien - Shock Treatment (Solo Version). Written for the Rocky Horror Picture Show pseudo-spiritual sequel of the same name; this version was recorded by O'Brien for his own purposes.
- Frank Floyd - Calling You. From the very musical The Raccoons cartoon's TV special 'The Raccoons and The Lost Star'.
- Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil - It's Too Heavenly Here. Screw you I like the All Dogs Go to Heaven sequel in all its direct-to-VHS point-missing glory, and this song plays in my head all the time.
- The Magnetic Fields - Busby Berkeley Dreams. Referencing the famous choreographer and director for the golden age of Hollywood musicals, of course.
- Litku Klemetti - En elä. This isn't from a musical, a rock opera or even a concept album - but it sure sounds like it should be in one, right?
- Björk - I've Seen It All. Originally appearing in the film 'Dancer in the Dark', for the soundtrack version Björk replaced Peter Stormare as her dueting partner with Thom Yorke of the Radioheads. And also decided to jumble up the lyrics which completely ruins the dialogue between the two perspectives and ooo it drives me nuts.
- MJ Hibbett & The Validators - (Theme From) Dinosaur Planet. The rousing theme for the rock opera album of the same name. For the mix I would've used the album version I've got which opens with some dialogue, but this snappy single version would've done well too.
- Stephin Merritt & Kenny Mellman - Electric Love. One of the best songs from Bob's Burgers, covered by two gruff men. Stephin Merritt's back after track 9!
- The Decemberists - The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid. Back to indie rock operas, with this dramatic centrepiece anthem from The Decemberists' stab at one. For the ending, I would've wanted to cross-fade the final feedback into the feedback intro of the next song...
- Metric - Black Sheep. Does 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World' count as a musical? Anyway here's Metric performing the scene-stealing song they wrote for the film's superstar band Clash at Demonhead.
- Peter Gabriel - Downside-Up. From Gabriel's soundtrack for the music experience 'OVO' commissioned for London's Millennium Dome in 1999.
- Fishboy - The Last Waitsgiving. Fishboy's 'Waitsgiving' is a concept album about multiple characters who all do some kind of waiting. In this climactic grand finale all these characters come together for a heist to steal a time capsule from the city park grounds. For the actual mix I would've tidied up that intro, segueing from the previous song.
- Sinéad O'Connor - Don't Cry for Me Argentina. Finishing this journey with a song from an actual musical, covered by the incredible Sinéad.
See you at CFz if you're going!
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