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"dark" songs/albums.

Started by BJB, September 18, 2007, 09:16:28 PM

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BJB

Which songs strike you as being dark, particulary themes?

An obvious choice would be the eagles "hotel california" although in retrospect thats probobly become darker with age due to the number of weird thories/claims about it.

The great escape (the blur album, not the film) unsettles me sometimes due to its recurrence of depression.

This gorillaz video is faintly disturbing as well

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hBWxyckRUA[/youtube]

thugler

Quote from: BJB on September 18, 2007, 09:16:28 PM
Which songs strike you as being dark, particulary themes?

An obvious choice would be the eagles "hotel california" although in retrospect thats probobly become darker with age due to the number of weird thories/claims about it.

The great escape (the blur album, not the film) unsettles me sometimes due to its recurrence of depression.

This gorillaz video is faintly disturbing as well

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hBWxyckRUA[/youtube]

None of those are very dark imho.

Anything by Swans.

Brundle-Fly

The Boiler by The Special AKA.
Most albums by Momus
What Have You Done? by William Shatner
Lovestruck by Madness (Sequel to Grey Day. Madness:The alcoholic's band of choice)

NoSleep

Univers Zero, whose music generally veers toward the dark and sombre, outdid even themselves with their second album Heresie.

Quote from: All Music GuideUnivers Zero's debut recording, 1313, may be somber, but it's a walk in the park compared to their second release, which features more or less the same lineup as the first (oboe, bassoon, viola, violin, bass, guitar, keyboards, drums), except for an additional and prominent contribution of cathedral organ from guitarist/keyboardist Roger Trigaux. Studio overdubbing sometimes gives the five-man group the sound of a much larger chamber ensemble. Extremely dissonant and emotionally bleak, Heresie is sometimes quite close to the industrial and gothic genres -- which didn't really even exist for another five years or more. A Magma influence is readily discernible on the long opening track "La Faulx," which includes the guttural chanting favored by Magma's Christian Vander. (In the early '70s, Univers Zero drummer Daniel Denis was employed as a second drummer in Vander's group.) "Jack the Ripper," the second long piece, maintains the oppressive atmosphere, and after a long, brooding introduction, introduces the nervous, jabbing ostinato patterns which were to become a Univers Zero trademark. This music on this CD might have little to do with rock, and might also be a massive downer, but the quality of the writing and playing is extremely high. Michel Berckmans' solo work on oboe and bassoon work is magnificent, and Patrick Hanappier's string playing (violin and viola) also demonstrates the precision of a trained classical musician, along with demonic avant-garde scraping and howling on "Jack the Ripper." Best of all, Univers Zero never cheapens the effect of the music with any of the stock cartoon licks which are associated with the gothic genre today. Group members sound deadly serious about what they're doing, which might call their sanity into question, but which makes for an incredibly powerful listening experience. In fact, Heresie is a stunning one-of-a-kind item which has never been duplicated by anyone -- including Univers Zero.
http://wc06.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:3pftxq95ldfe

buttgammon

'Closer' by Joy Division is an extremely dark and depressing album musically and lyrically.

And although it isn't really dark at all music-wise, David Bowie's 'Repetition' (a track off Lodger that probably isn't very well known) is quite a disturbing portrait of a wife beater. It starts "Johnny is a man, and he's bigger than you". Whoever Johnny is he's a really nasty piece of work!

A lot of dubstep is really dark and eerie sounding as well.

jamiefairlie

Quote from: buttgammon on September 18, 2007, 09:55:26 PM
And although it isn't really dark at all music-wise, David Bowie's 'Repetition' (a track off Lodger that probably isn't very well known) is quite a disturbing portrait of a wife beater. It starts "Johnny is a man, and he's bigger than you". Whoever Johnny is he's a really nasty piece of work!

The Au Pairs cover of this is one of my favourite songs, maybe even better than the original.

The Cure's Faith & Pornography are the sounds of desolation and mental illness respectively.

buttgammon

I've never heard that. I'll have to check it out.

Pornography is another great album that evokes dark imagery as well. It's probably my favourite Cure album too.

quadraspazzed

buttgammon: Here you go. I was actually unaware this was a Bowie song.

A song that's always haunted me since my youth is Endless Sleep by Jody Reynolds - a song from the fifties about a guy whose girlfriend gets swept away by the sea.

Spoiler alert
Alas, he saves her in the end, I think it would have been a much better ending if he had got dragged in as well.
[close]

And there's a whole thread on here about the song Gloomy Sunday, most famously (? certainly the version I'm most familiar with) performed by Billie Holiday. In fact a lot of Billie's stuff would fit in the topic category.

buttgammon

Quote from: quadraspazzed on September 18, 2007, 10:59:05 PM
buttgammon: Here you go. I was actually unaware this was a Bowie song.

Thanks. I'll give that a listen.

Edit: Oh, that's very good. The completely different music fits it really well.

quadraspazzed

Continuing on a Billie Holiday related vibe, here's Josh White's version of Strange Fruit - another song most associated her.

And er, not related at all to the above really, but here's The Smiths' Suffer Little Children.

In addition to 'Closer' and 'Pornography' (not heard 'Faith'), another brilliantly dark and utterly bleak album is 'The Holy Bible' by the Manics.

Famous Mortimer

Univers Zero sound like a really interesting band, I think I'll be checking some of their stuff out.

From a similar sort of school, the record I usually think of when conversation turns to this sort of thing is "The World As It Is Today" by Art Bears. From the BBC review of their box set:

QuoteThe darkest of the three, The World As It is Today scared me witless back then; imagine a soundtrack to an Industrial Revolution-era apocalypse with a libretto by William Blake, populated with pithy, nearly-pop songs (Frith's always had an ear for a good tune) and impossibly dark bursts of dread-filled noise.It scares me witless now too.
Pretty decent summation. I'd also go for "Hats" by the Blue Nile, it bummed / weirded me out to a great extent when I first played it and it's only come out very rarely since.

Brundle-Fly


Brundle-Fly

Quote from: BJB on September 18, 2007, 09:16:28 PM
Which songs strike you as being dark, particulary themes?

An obvious choice would be the eagles "hotel california" although in retrospect thats probobly become darker with age due to the number of weird thories/claims about it.

The great escape (the blur album, not the film) unsettles me sometimes due to its recurrence of depression.

This gorillaz video is faintly disturbing as well

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hBWxyckRUA[/youtube]

The lyrics are evocative of CAB comedy forum.  *cheesey grin emoticon*

Famous Mortimer


NoSleep

#14
Quote from: Famous Mortimer on September 18, 2007, 11:19:30 PM
Univers Zero sound like a really interesting band, I think I'll be checking some of their stuff out.
I'd go for their 3rd album as a starter - Ceux De Dehors - whilst never being the cheeriest of bands, this one won't grind your spirits down like Heresie can. It does seem that Belgian artists veer toward the darker side of things generally, from my casual observations. Jacques Brel springs immediately to mind.

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on September 18, 2007, 11:19:30 PMFrom a similar sort of school, the record I usually think of when conversation turns to this sort of thing is "The World As It Is Today" by Art Bears. From the BBC review of their box set:
QuoteThe darkest of the three, The World As It is Today scared me witless back then; imagine a soundtrack to an Industrial Revolution-era apocalypse with a libretto by William Blake, populated with pithy, nearly-pop songs (Frith's always had an ear for a good tune) and impossibly dark bursts of dread-filled noise.It scares me witless now too.
Pretty decent summation.

Just to add that you have to imagine that the "libretto by William Blake" was co-written with Bertolt Brecht.
The World As It Is Today is stunningly dark. Highlighted by the fact that when they use keywords like "democracy", "freedom" or "peace" (aside from providing titles for many of the songs) they are often framed like a shining sun of an advertisement amidst the gloom, like a jingle, to emphasize the redundancy & hypocrisy of their common usage ("corpses in the mouths of the bourgoisie" I think is the term used).

"As we look about us, things seem worse than ever."

Quote from: buttgammon on September 18, 2007, 09:55:26 PM
'Closer' by Joy Division is an extremely dark and depressing album musically and lyrically.

Oof yes.  Unknown Pleasures isn't much happier either.  However, for me anyway, these albums are like listening to the sun has got his hat on playing on repeat compared to the Manic Street Preachers' Holy Bible (as mentioned by 'spazzed above).  Fairly obvious choice, but every second of it is really fucking heavy

Famous Mortimer

Musically it's not especially dark, but in terms of its content and mood it most definitely is – "All Shook Down" by the Replacements. For extra darkness, play it alongside one of their early albums, all full of piss and vinegar, like "Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash" or "The Replacements Stink". It sounds half like they're utterly exhausted by it all, and half like they tried, failed and know it. I love the Replacements, they're one of my favourite bands ever, at least partly because of that journey that their records go on.

drberbatov

Sage Francis' Personal Journals, 'eviction notice' in particular is hard to listen to

Nick Cave has a very creepy take on 'Hey Joe' on the album 'Kicking Against The Pricks'

Marv Orange


Canted_Angle

Razorlight - 'In the morning' - I hate the song and despise the band and the song is about about date rape...I saw a mother singing it to her child in m&s It was a very dark moment.

Bonnie Prince Billy's I See A Darkness? Too obvious? Of course, Tool should get a mention, specifically the tracks Aenima and Ticks and Leeches I reckon. Plenty of Elliot Smith covers suicide and drug addiction (Needle in the Hay always gets me). Honourable mentions to Massive Attack's Mezzanine, Sufjan Stevens' John Wayne Gacy Jr, Biggie's Suicidal Thoughts, and most songs by Taskforce, El-P and Interpol. Plus pretty much all Dubstep and grimey DnB.

Cambrian Times

Asphalt World - Suede

Bells for her - Tori Amos

TC Raymond

ALBUMS...

Berlin - Lou Reed
Animals - Pink Floyd
American Gothic - David Ackles
Anything by Leonard Cohen

Identity Crisis Ahoy!


jonnycuba

I would have to go with Masta Ase's Slaughterhouse LP. Probably the only Hip Hop 'concept' lp that cuts the mustard. The beats are treacle thick (definatley a headphone job to catch all the layers). A strange note is that it was released on Delicious Vinyl - a label famed for it's lighthearted approach to music.

Catalogue Trousers

Lovestruck dark? Surely not, to me it's always been just a happy song about a cheery chap who's fallen in love and is showing it to the World at large like Gene Kelly tap-dancing down a rainy street.

One Better Day, mind you, now that's pretty dark. Even Yesterday's Man has a lot of sorrow underlying the almost desperate hope of the piece.

Also:

QuoteAnything by Leonard Cohen

What, even Jazz Police? But that's fucking hilarious!


Glebe

'Dark' Side Of The Moon! Ho ho!! Actually, that is pretty dark.

Ok Computer, anybody? Despite some uplifting bits.

Little Tommy Titter

Holy Bible - Manics

Strewth, that's glum.