What is the most miserable album you own?

[Al Tha Funkee Homosapien]

What album do you put on to console yourself when you just hate the world? The more miserable and depressing the better.

For me it's something like The Cure Disintegration or something by Red House Painters or The God Machine.

So what about you lot, you all seem like a fairly miserable bunch, you must have loads of suggestions.

[Tom Pynchon's Photo]

bit obvious, I know



there's this as well.


and this is kind of miserable, in an utterly enchanting beautiful way.

[Anon]

Hmm, interesting thread this.  There's a few obvious contenders, like your Closers, your Holy Bibles ect. However, perhaps the most singularly bleak album I've ever heard is a double album by the American noise-rock/metal band Today Is The Day, entitled "Sadness Will Prevail":


I remember a review of this at the time stating, to paraprhase, that after listening to this album you'd be just like the person in the cover, unable to stand and crushed under the weight of incomprehensible depression - and that's probably putting it a bit likely.

Over the course of two and a half hours, this album goes from furious, discordant grindcore pieces like opening salvo Maggots And Riots and Face After The Shot (getting a feel for this jolly piece of work?) and dark, experimental pieces such as Spaceship and the 20-minute long Never Answer The Phone, which is the single most upsetting thing I've ever heard.  One the one hand, it's like any other double album: impressive in its scope, with a fair few moments of inspiration but just as many sections that seem to go anywhere.  But every bit of the album, filler or no filler, has an oppressive atmosphere that really has to be heard to be understood.  Given that it takes up two CDs pushed to the max, that's a hell of a lot to wade through: I've never managed to make through one CD without needing a break, so God only knows the state you'd be in if you listened to the whole lot in one go.  There's some very good stuff on there, but it's an album I very rarely listen to unless I'm in a very good mood because after a few tracks you really do start to feel pretty grim.

[Brutus Beefcake]

I'd say Arab Strap but I tend to avoid them when I'm depressed for fear they may push me over the edge.

[Cack Hen]

If I'm a bit down I have a playlist of songs that are all a bit melancholy, and they do simply depress me further. But I can't work out why I, and others do that. Is it just for the comfort? The logical thing to do would be to listen to the happiest music you own to try and get yourself out of it ASAP, but there's a perverse pleasure in listening to something really depressing when you're depressed.

[bill hicks]

"Sadness Will Prevail"

Damn straight. I've only managed to listen to the whole thing in one sitting twice and both times it was a monumental struggle.

If I'm horribly depressed then I tend to reach for some good solid Kvlt and Grim Black Metal. Anything recorded by a social misfit on his own in a decrepit bedsit while he thinks about the girlfriend he doesn't have is good. Leviathan's "The Tenth Sub-Level of Suicide" is a particular favourite ("There is no light at the end of the tunnel for you").

Alternatively I just whap on some Sunn0))), anything will do but 'Black One' (featuring as it does Malefic of Xasthur, one of the aforementioned nutty depressing Black Metal bands) is particularly grim.

Or Joy Division or the Holy Bible (probably listened to 2000 times now and still as depressing as the first time).

[Paranormalhandy]

The single most tear-streaked evening I've ever spent.

[GetTheeBehindMeStan]

[Waldo Jeffers]

I don't think I'm ever going to be able to take that man seriously. I'll never be able to think about anything except 'the fox would probably have time to evolve into a *bird*!'

[GetTheeBehindMeStan]

Huh?

[El Unicornio, mang]

Manic Street Preachers 'The Holy Bible'. Especially the one about the anorexic. PCP is quite jolly though.

[Paul's Boutique]

Lou Reed - "Berlin" - "The Kids" features genuine sounds of children crying - apparently the producer told them their mother had died and recorded the results!

Leonard Cohen - "Songs Of Love And Hate" - more accurately "Songs Of Despair".

[pandadeath]

Steps - Gold (Greatest Hits)

[CaledonianGonzo]

[Phil_A]

Perfect "staring out of the window on a rainy day" music.

[Ray Le Otter]

No contest - got to be...


Talk Talk "Spirit Of Eden". Perfect for rainy Sunday mornings.

[samadriel]

[trotsky assortment]

Lou Reed - "Berlin" - "The Kids" features genuine sounds of children crying - apparently the producer told them their mother had died and recorded the results!

'The Kids' features some of Lou's most bitchy scathing lyrics too:

They're taking her children away
because they said she was not a good mother
They're taking her children away
because she was making it with sisters and brothers
And everyone else, all of the others
like cheap officers who would
stand there and flirt in front of me

They're taking her children away
because they said she was not a good mother
They're taking her children away
because of the things she did in the streets
In the alleys and bars, no she couldn't be beat
that miserable rotten slut couldn't turn anyone away

[Famous Mortimer]

Good topic, this. Seconded on “The Holy Bible”, “Closer” and “Hats”. Boo-urns on the Beck record, which was only depressing in the sense Beck could do a whole lot better.

Panasonic â€" “Vakio”

Mostly because it doesn’t sound like it was made by anything living. Nary a moment of human warmth anywhere on this record.

[Pie Pie Eater]

usually:
most Arab Strap (usually Mad For Sadness or Elephant Shoe),
Red House Painters  - s/t
Mogwai - Come On Die Young,
Nick Drake - Pink Moon,
various Godspeed / Silver Mt. Zion stuff,
Manics - Holy Bible

and sometimes:
Circle Takes The Square - As The Roots Undo,
Khanate - Things Viral,
Codeine - D,
Black Heart Procession - Three,
Elliot Smith - Either / Or,
City Of Caterpillar - s/t.

I've waged a long term campaign to replace the word 'depressing' with the word 'depressed' to describe music, because 'depressing' is totally subjective. But I don't think anyone I've said that to has actually changed.

[thugler]

most godspeed you black emperor for me. Particularly the song sleep. In a pretty uplifting way though, I find it quite cathartic to listen to.

[Ciarán2]

"Berlin" by Lou Reed. Difficult to sit through really. My favourite Lou Reed album all the same.

[Captain Crunch]

I've waged a long term campaign to replace the word 'depressing' with the word 'depressed' to describe music, because 'depressing' is totally subjective. But I don't think anyone I've said that to has actually changed.

No that's a good point.  I find typically depressing music such as My Dying Bride very beautiful whereas the kind of thing they play on Magic FM makes me want to top myself.


What do you get if you play a country record backwards?
Your house back, your wife back, your dog back.

[Anon]

"Berlin" by Lou Reed. Difficult to sit through really. My favourite Lou Reed album all the same.

You know, I've never really found that album as depressing as people make it out to be.  The Kids and The Bed are pretty bleak to be fair, but the rest of the album just sounds too Broadway-ish production wise for it to be that dark.  That's no complaint - I'd probably agree that it's his best solo work, but the theatrical style of it does make it seem less gritty and dark for me.

[Famous Mortimer]

Good call on the Godspeed, I made a tape with their Peel session track on it and put it on in the car. By the end of the track I was nervous as hell and the atmosphere in the car had become quite odd. Not depressing so much as extremely unsettling.

[trotsky assortment]

Nick Drake - Pink Moon

I've never found the end result depressing especially.  Sparse, maybe.
I think this is only thought of as depressing since we can all see, with well documented evidence, what kind of state Drake was in when it was written and recorded.

[An Actual Propeller]

Diamanda Galas 'Saint Of The Pit'
Holy christ, is this bleak.  Track 2 - Exeloume - is particularly distressing.

[Dirty Boy]

Some others that haven't been mentioned yet...




Scott Walker-Tilt





Barrett-Madcap Laughs









Dead Can Dance-Within The Realm Of A Dying Sun








Tindersticks-II


Worth stretching the page for, i'm sure you'll agree...

[Pie Pie Eater]

I've never found the end result depressing especially.  Sparse, maybe.
I think this is only thought of as depressing since we can all see, with well documented evidence, what kind of state Drake was in when it was written and recorded.

Aside from the fact that some of those 'depressing's should be 'depressed's,
I think it is the sparseness of it that gives it a real air of resignation. This is probably hindsight, but having been born in 1983 and finding out about Nick Drake's life before hearing his music, how could it not be? Knowing, even in retrospect, about the state an artist is in when they make music can totally affect my reaction to it. So, you're right, it's not lyrically that bleak or anything. Nevertheless it remains something I listen to when I am miserable.