By Spencer. There’s a somewhat pedestrian album by British one-hit-wonders Keane called Hopes And Fears. And while compiling the tracks for this latest edition of The Mixologist, it occurred to me that Keane got their album title completely backwards. As these eleven songs exploring all the unexpected little complications of love attest, fears often come ahead of hopes. Sure, there are magic hours and maybe even thoughts of diamonds right from the start. But as Miya Folick says, “nothing ever ends the way you thought it would when you started.” And there are all those annoying little questions that start to intrude. Will this end in heartbreak? Is she still afraid of the ghosts of her past? Is he only telling me what I want to hear? Will I end up just another cautionary tale? Is it just dumb to put yourself out there like this? How much is too much?

But of course none of those questions are as important as they first seem. As Seryn reminds us, it comes down to just one question: how does it feel when the two of you are apart? Fears may come first, but hope is what matters most in the end.

Click here to download: S&N Mix 21: Fears & Hopes.

1. Conner Youngblood – Diamonds.
2. Aoife O’Donovan – Magic Hour
3. Anderson East – What A Woman Wants To Hear
4. Miya Folick – Strange Darling
5. Gems – Heartbreaker
6. Sonny Smith – Wolf Like Howls From The Bathhouse
7. Butch Walker – Afraid Of Ghosts
8. Dylan LeBlanc – Cautionary Tale
9. Boy & Bear – Just Dumb
10. Bob Moses – Too Much Is Never Enough
11. Seryn – Foreign Fields

Or listen on Spotify: