Best break up albums

[Dr Syntax Head]

Done before I'm sure.

Gentleman-Afghan Whigs
Beck-Sea Change
Eels-End times

Disintegration qualifies even though Smith was newly married at the time.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

Kris Kristofferson's 'To the Bone' is an underrated one

[Sin Agog]

Peter Hammill's Over is fucking intense.

Also, Marvin Gaye's Here, My Dear, rattled off to pay his alimony, is easily my favourite album by the dude.

[Dr Syntax Head]

That album with that wood cabin guy. I forget.

[thraxx]

Dog Man Star.

Blood on the Tracks.

Both certified and road tested break up albums, by me.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

Here, My Dear is indeed excellent. A massive, open-hearted, eccentric masterpiece

[Dr Syntax Head]

It amazes me that the most beautiful Cure song ever made was on a breakup album after Smith got hitched up. Pictures of you. How did his wife feel hearing that beauty?

[Sin Agog]

Just a song, but John Cale's Guts has one of the best opening lines ever: "The bugger in the short sleeves fucked my wife."  I think said bugger was Kevin Ayers.

[Dr Syntax Head]

Just a song, but John Cale's Guts has one of the best opening lines ever: "The bugger in the short sleeves fucked my wife."  I think said bugger was Kevin Ayers.

Dark but to the point. It's what we all want in a break up song. Dulli would dig that line.

[jobotic]

Isn't that Field Mice/Trembling Blue Stars chap's entire output about break-ups. with women that were in his bands at the time?

[garbed_attic]

I would have said Brand New's Devil and God Are Raging Inside of Me... but now I fear it's actually about grooming underage girls. /sigh

[non capisco]

Another vote for Marvin Gaye's 'Here, My Dear'. I'd read about the circumstances behind that album before I heard it and assumed it would be the soul equivalent of Van Morrison fulfilling a record contract by singing about ringworm. I was delightfully surprised when it turns out that it's possibly his best one.

'Blood & Chocolate' by old wordy acidic thwarted chops Elvis Costello is one of the best "my woman done me wrong" albums ever recorded. "He's got all the things you need and some that you will never/You make him sound like frozen food, his love will last forever". I like the bit where he sneers that his replacement between the sheets wears turquoise pyjamas. "Turquoise pyjamas, what a loser!" thinks Elvis from behind his high strength binoculars. 'I Want You' is borderline traumatising. It's a fantastically bilious collection of songs. "You never did anything she couldn't do on her own/You're as good as your word but that's no good to her/You better leave that kitten alone." Plenty more fish in the sea, Elvis mate.

"Tunnel Of Love" by Bruce Springsteen, there's another divorce belter. Full of wounded dignity, self recrimination and all that good stuff.

[The Culture Bunker]

I was going to say Hats by the Blue Nile, on the back of "Let's Go Out Tonight" and "From a Late Night Train", but I remembered it ends with "Saturday Night", which is pretty optimistic. Bah.

[Dr Syntax Head]

I'm interested in the difference between man break up music and woman break up music. Man break up music seems more bitter.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

Just a song, but John Cale's Guts has one of the best opening lines ever: "The bugger in the short sleeves fucked my wife."  I think said bugger was Kevin Ayers.

'I Keep A Close Watch' is another haunting break up song from Cale

[wosl]

As is Amsterdam.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

Yes! Forgot about that one, it's fantastic.

[Dr Syntax Head]

I'm very perplexed as to we've never had a definitive Nine Inch Nails breakup album. He did loss and grief a lot and loads of breakup songs but never 'that album' If there's anyone qualified .....

[Dr Syntax Head]

Is there really a better subject to write songs about?

[DrGreggles]

Do band break-ups count?

Because 'Abbey Road' and 'Strangeways Here We Come' are both amazing considering what the tension between the band members must have been like.

[Sebastian Cobb]

It amazes me that the most beautiful Cure song ever made was on a breakup album after Smith got hitched up. Pictures of you. How did his wife feel hearing that beauty?

Untitled as well.

[Phil_A]

Richard and Linda Thompson - Shoot Out The Lights



They were breaking up as it was recorded. An extraordinarily bitter and beautiful album.

[Dr Syntax Head]

Untitled as well.

Oh god! How many times have I cried my eyes out to that song

[non capisco]

Do band break-ups count?

Because 'Abbey Road' and 'Strangeways Here We Come' are both amazing considering what the tension between the band members must have been like.

If 'Let It Be' is the insurmountable deadlock at the end of a long relationship then the medley on side 2 of 'Abbey Road' is the liberating final shag.

[Captain Crunch]

Must be this one surely?

[drummersaredeaf]

PHM is full of break up angst, and it's abundant elsewhere in the nin catalogue. Something I Can Never Have screams of unrequited love to me.

"Annie, hold a little tighter I might just slip away".

[holyzombiejesus]

Perhaps not a break up album per se but it certainly captures the bitterness, resentfulness and ennui that's been present at the end of most of my relationships.

[buzby]

Elbow's Leaders Of The Free World, written in the wake of Edith Bowman giving Guy Garvey the 'elbow' Most of the songs on the album revolve around this toa greate ror lesser extent (e.g Mexican Standoff, My Very Best, The Stops)
New Order's Technique, written while Bernard Sumner and his first wife Sue were getting divorced (in particular the lyrics of Love Less, Round & Round, Guilty Partner and Run)

[the ouch cube]

'The Boatman's Call' innit.

Bob Mould's 'Black Sheets Of Rain' and the 1996 self titled (aka Hubcap) are both easily as embittered as 'Blood And Chocolate'

Converge's 'Jane Doe'

[Z]