I do my best everything after midnight, and there's a specific set of records that go with that. This is less a recommendation list and more what's actually on when I'm awake and shouldn't be.
Where to start if you're new to goth
Siouxsie and the Banshees first — start with Juju. Then Bauhaus for the sound at its most skeletal, and The Cure's Disintegration, which is the one that converts people who thought they didn't like this.
Don't approach it chronologically like a syllabus. Find one song that gets you and follow it sideways through whatever it's connected to. That's how everyone actually finds their way in.
The heavy end
Deftones, always, and specifically the records where they're being beautiful rather than heavy. Type O Negative, who were funnier than people give them credit for and are the most romantic band in the genre by a distance.
Chelsea Wolfe for when I want something that sounds like the inside of a bad night. Her quieter records are better at 3am than the loud ones.
For calming down
Cocteau Twins, which is the sound of a language that doesn't exist and is the only thing that reliably slows my heart rate down. Slowdive and Mazzy Star for the same reason.
This is the end of the playlist. Nothing after this, because if I'm still awake past this point I've made a mistake.
The ones I've genuinely worn out
Every so often a song gets played so much it stops working, and it's always the ones I loved most. I've killed at least three that way and I still don't pace myself.
The trick, which I never do, is to let a song go for a few months and come back. It comes back new. I know this and it makes no difference to my behaviour.
Start with Juju, end with Cocteau Twins, and don't play your favourite song forty times in a week. I have never once followed my own advice on that last one.
I put the full playlist up on my page.
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