yr fucking exes' mixes

I was the dumper, in this situation. It'd been one of those throw-your-entire-character-into-the-white-hot-pinball-machine-and-see-what-comes-out intense first love things, but by the time the mix was made I was at the fault-finding stage and lots of little things annoyed me about it. (eg. Dire Straights) And normally I keep her tapes and letters and stuff in a little box that I only open when I feel like devoting an evening to wistfulness and gin is like the most constructive thing I can think to do; I only listened to it because I didn't have my CDs and somehow it was still in the tape player of an old hi-fi. (I never really play tapes)

It completely blew me away. That thing where you said like i didn't wanna be with her anymore but i still want to be reminded of her and the way she felt for me and vice versa, I dunno if that's what I was going for but that's completely what I got. I seriously considered making someone, anyone, the exact same mixtape in the same order just so they could hear it, because I couldn't understand how I'd missed the fact at the time that every song on it was so rich and magical and sad and hopeful and lost. It wasn't like a nostalgic pain-pleasure, it just sounded unambiguously amazing, all these songs that'd grown so much by becoming full of someone I no longer resented for like being in bands and not liking dance music and whatever.

But, yes, the guilt was there.

i had one mixtape from an ex-gf that i considered good enough (it introduced me to the fall and suicide among others) to let a later gf borrow, which she didn't on some sort of moral grounds. apparently i'm clueless.

My ex-gf made a completely fantastic mix tape for me & my wife to play in the car on our honeymoon a few years ago...

All of my exes had shitty taste in music, actually.

Were they unteachable?

I didn't really bother.

"teaching" doesn't work anyway. If they don't care what they listen to, why should you?

Yeah, but it's cool if music's something you can share. But then, I've been fairly lucky in being with people who have had good taste.

all of my exes were all hippie bitches, most of the tapes consisted of grateful dead songs. sometimes the same grateful dead song two or three times on the same tape. I once had a tape with 3 different live versions of "St. Stephens" on it. Stupid bitches. Of course most of my tapes to them had Toad the Wet Sprocket on them so I suppose it was an even trade off.

I have a tape that an ex made me, and I still listen to it a lot, because to this day it's still the best mix tape anyone's ever made for me.

I only have one mix tape made by an ex, I don't listen to it but I've since bought most of the songs I liked so I do listen to the songs from it. Some songs it took me a while to be able to listen to without feeling horribly depressed, though! It was a good tape though, had Slint, Arab Strap, GYBE, T-Rex, VU on it from what I remember. I have wondered if she ever listens or listened to the tape I made her after we broke up, she used to have it in her car stereo while we were going out. Lost touch with her about 3 years ago though.

I'm pretty much always the dumpee, it seems, so I've not really been in the exact same situation as the question asks about, but I always keep mixtapes made by exes. Though I guess most of the exes who ever bothered to make me them are still friends - two of them are actually in the process of making me new ones. When there are bad/sad memories attached to certain songs it can be hard, especially if listening in isolation, but it depends on the condition of the break-up.

If a current girlfriend/boyfriend minds you making a mix for an old one, then you have some issues to sort out regarding your relationship with either the new partner or the ex - if you're solely friends then jealousy should be irrelevant.