My Ever-Changing Ranking of Songs From ‘The Vampire Lestat’

The Vampire Lestat has been a change from the first two seasons of Interview With the Vampire. Now, we’re in Lestat de Lioncourt’s (Sam Reid) world and that includes his rockstar era. Meaning that composer Daniel Hart had his work cut out for him when The Vampire Lestat rolled around.

The music of Lestat is a bit complicated. Some vampires hate his songs (like the Fang Gang’s hatred of “Long Face”) while others found themselves in the words of “The Loneliness.” He doesn’t believe his music is changing the world. He told Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) that there are “no delusions here” when it comes to how popular the band “The Vampire Lestat” really is.

That doesn’t mean that Hart’s music isn’t memorable or good. On the contrary, I have not stopped listening to The Vampire Lestat since the songs started dropping on Spotify. I’ve just added the new tracks to my “vamps” playlist each week.

And so, by design of the show, fans now have a new favorite song after each episode. So why not make an ever-changing list of songs that we love from The Vampire Lestat? So let’s breakdown what songs have been released so far, what we think about them, and rank them! Don’t worry, this list will change as more songs come out.

17. La Fontaine de Sang

Lestat sings “La Fontaine de Sang” as he is remembering a time when he and Gabriella (Jennifer Ehle) killed their entire family together. It is beautiful, tragic, and Reid delivers a captivating performance of it. But in the grand scheme of the rest of the show, it just fades into the background.

Maybe that’s the Sofia/Gabriella of it all for me but it does pale in comparison when you’re listening to the songs on Spotify as well.

16. Dancing With Myself

Who doesn’t love a Billy Idol song? And Sam Reid covering it? Delightful! But, much like that of “La Fontaine da Sang,” it just pails in comparison to the original songs Daniel Hart and Sam Reid have brought us throughout this season. Even with the weird techno breakdown in the middle of it.

It isn’t a bad cover, on the contrary. I think I enjoy it better than Idol’s original song (sacrilegious I know). But still, it is at the back end of my ranking for me.

15. Big Bad Wolf

Now, we’re getting into songs that Lestat has a lot of fun with in the show. Like “Big Bad Wolf.” And it being this far back in my ranking should tell you how good the music of The Vampire Lestat is because this is quite the banger. “I’m the big bad wolf in your fairytale,” Lestat sings and baby, go to therapy. Don’t hate yourself like that!

Reid’s breakdown as Lestat mid song makes this one sometimes hard to listen to. He’s very clearly still hurt over the book and this song represents that and save him.

14. All Fall Down

The season’s theme song “All Fall Down” does a great job of getting the audience hyped for the episode. I could listen to Reid say “I’m a little killer” on repeat for the rest of time. The problem is that I’ve heard it so many times at this point, it isn’t thrilling to me when played as a song on its own. It’s still incredible, but it doesn’t feature new storylines after it when I’m listening to it in my headphones.

Still, “All Fall Down” is a banger and earlier in the season, it was a top song. Others just…came before it.

13. Long Face

Will “Long Face” always have a soft spot in my heart because of how Lestat talks about it in episode 1? Maybe! In “Detroit,” the Fang Gang is making fun of “Long Face” and he doubles down on the song in a hilarious way, including referencing “Long Face” multiple times in actual dialogue.

All this leading to Lestat not even including it on the album. He’s kind of iconic for it.

12. Black Licorice

The song that is maybe Lestat singing about having sex with Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) has been labeled by the singer as a song about his first kill after getting back together with Louis. I beg to differ (as does Eric Bogosian’s Daniel Molloy) but I digress.

The song itself is fun and will have you jumping up and down as Lestat does, maybe sans violin, but with the same energy.

11. Le Petit Coup (Demo)

The demo, featured on Spotify with composer Daniel Hart singing it, appears briefly on the show but not with Reid’s voice behind it. But it does have the lyric “I am a vampire, I am immortal” that makes me laugh out loud so yes, that’s why it is pretty high up on the list of songs.

It would be nice to have Reid perform this song at some point because it is kind of fun but I guess there are enough songs about Sofia/Gabriella to go around.

10. Nothin’ to Lose

The beginning of this song feels like the most captivating and enthralling few notes. Maybe because it led to a great button at the end of “The Devil’s Road.” But it also just feels like a later aged rock song instead of the pop songs that Lestat is putting out throughout the show.

Imagine hearing this in a small show in the 90s. Pretty rad, right?

9. Cabbage

The anthem for Gabriella does kind of…slap. “Make more, make more” chanting in the background has me singing it along with them and I do love when Lestat breaks the fourth wall by calling his fans the Beautiful Unwell.

I love how in the context of the show, Lestat just tells the band he thought “make more” sounded cool. Whether he believes that or not, we don’t know but funny regardless.

8. Why Do I Have to Feel?

Lestat and Louis crumbs will always have me cheering. When Lestat gets Louis to come to his concert, he sings “Why Do I Have to Feel?” about feeling the pain of loving someone. Which means it can be about any of Lestat’s old loves, with lyrics that reference Nicki’s (Joseph Potter) and singing it to Louis, so much of this song is rooted in who Lestat chooses to love and how he loves.

He doesn’t want to feel but he does and does so too much. Plus, who doesn’t love a freeze frame love song moment when Lestat is throwing the book at Louis?

7. BIG BOSS

Lestat’s take on the trial is all about mocking Armand (Assad Zaman) and that’s kind of perfect. Armand comes to see his show and Lestat debuts his new song that is the meanest thing he could say to him. His “kisses put me in a coma” and he asked him if it was good and he said “comme ci, comme ça.” Which, in French, basically means “meh.”

He does this all while wearing pigtails and making fun of Armand using Claudia’s (Delainey Hayles) image as Baby Lulu outfit. Let the girl rest!

6. When I Call Out Your Name

Lestat’s take on a Radiohead esque song (to me) works because it’s sultry, dark, and a bit twisted. Well, and sad but a lot of Lestat’s songs are all about how sad he actually is. This song is about Sofia/Gabriella and is the best of the bunch. I could do without him constantly singing Gabriella’s name but maybe that’s just me and my personal vendetta against the character.

What Lestat really needs is someone willing to listen to him and help him but it doesn’t help that he doesn’t see himself as someone worthy of that kind of love and attention so he allows himself to be manipulated by Gabriella mixed in with the abuse she continues to enact.

5. Plastic Fiends

Elton John possessed Lestat with this one. With elements of Honky Tonk mixed in and a bit of a more upbeat nature, “Plastic Fiends” is mean. Like really mean. And what exactly does “you look like Saran Wrap and you smell like Fabreeze” mean? Just that clinically plastic smell and look? And all this about Americans. Dang, okay, Lestat.

Even when I am technically being dissed by association (even though I am not representative of these types of Americans he’s angry at), it is a bop.

4. Your Biggest Fan

In his Taylor Swift era, Lestat using the words of his maker Magnus (Damien Atkins) to write a pop ballad is kind of iconic of him. Magnus, who abused Lestat and turned him into a vampire without his consent, stalked Lestat at the stagedoor of his shows before preying on him. So Lestat turned that pain into a pretty great song.

It does make light (at first) to the trauma but we see later in the episode more of what actually happened between Lestat and Magnus and honestly? Let Lestat have this pop hit.

3. Hit the Lights (Bare Bones)

As someone who makes playlists titled “sad girl bops” or “yes I’m sad” all of the time, it should be surprising that I love this song. I lied, there’s another Sofia/Gabriella song but this song feels very much about a boy’s abandonment by his mother explored through song and that’s beautiful to me.

It’s kind of Lestat’s last stand, saying to let him go and to just leave him in his own darkness. That’s heartbreaking but also beautiful to me. No notes.

2. Stained Glass Eyes

Lestat’s song for Claudia and the pain he feels over her death was a long time coming. We don’t get to really see through Louis’ perspective how Lestat’s relationship with Claudia truly worked. There are glimpses but it is a lot of Louis’ relationship with her and brief moments of happiness with Lestat. So hearing “Stained Glass Eyes” is only our second real look into how Lestat felt about Claudia and losing her. The first being the end of season 2 in New Orleans.

This song is centered on the trial and losing her and how he stared at her as she burned before him and it really shows the depth of Lestat’s relationship with his daughter.

1. The Loneliness

Vampire loneliness is not a new thing. It is prevalent through most all vampire media. But The Vampire Lestat kind of hit the nail on the head with “The Loneliness” as to why we mere mortals love these kinds of stories: We all know this lonely feeling. Lestat sings “Don’t worship that grave dug on your own, don’t burn alone” and it feels like a window into everyone’s darkest thoughts. It’s beautiful.

The song itself ends up being a calling to all vampires in the world but it still hits that human emotional chord which makes it, thus far, the best song on The Vampire Lestat.

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Check back each week for new songs added to the list from The Vampire Lestat.

(featured image: Frank W. Ockenfels III/AMC)

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