the most depressing album in the world ever

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yes, slint, they make me want to kill myself. i'd vote for anything by simon joyner.

keith, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

If I would have been paying less attention to work maybe I could have been the first one to say it, but I will repeat it because really there's no contest. Berlin wins, hands down.

Miranda, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yeah, but when those kids start crying you gotta laugh, don't you? Especially when you know that Reed made them cry for real by telling them their mum had died. Seriously, I'm not a kiddie-torturing sadist or anything, but it is funny.

Nick, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Berlin is only depressing if you can take it seriously and put up with Reed at his most beatnik-bleak, i.e. if you concentrate on it. But I find it hard to take it very seriously so it doesn't depress me - or maybe I just can't relate to the 'characters'.

As Mark suggests, context is important. But a record which fills a room with sad sounds whatever you the listener put in is still surely more 'depressing' than a record where you have to be listening attentively to the lyrics to get the misery.

Tom, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

A Q magazine feature on The Most Miserable Albums Of All Time also indicated that it was pronounced Clozer,which is what I call it,but I still feel self-conscious saying it. The White Birch is pretty grim,but it at least offers the glimmer of hope at the end with Smoking Room,which always seems so much faster than the rest of the album.I thought the second Idaho album was more grim than the first,but I love them anyway.

Damian, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Re: Closer vs Clozer.

FWIW: There's an interview online somewhere with Bernard Sumner that I listened to a while back and he mentions the album in passing - and pronounces it Closer (as in nearer).

scott, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Closer is a better and subtler name than Clozer. But it's not a terribly subtle album.

Tom, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Rickie Lee Jones, 'Pop Pop'

dave q, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I would have picked Electro-shock Blues, though I think the kicker is PS: You Rock My World.

Just for less overlap I'll say Tonight's The Night.

zacko, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Re: Closer/Clozer

I just wanted to point out that "closer" pronounced with a "z" is too a real word - anyone who works in sales or real estate can tell you that :)

Ally, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

one year passes...
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""


1 Stop the closer/clozer discussion and answer the questn if you will.
2 I love music and art really do. And art says to fuck boundaries. I love drinking too and you know what. That fucks the walls too. Ladies and gentlemen be universal o.k. dont get stucked at one band and one sort. I have spent quite a time noting the songs i didn't know and will spend more to download them and all but do you know why all that is for.. to find a piece music floating in the air cutting through the silhoutte of my heart without bleeding or noise.
3 Finally...

Not all of them but I think one of the greatest music ever made and depressing too:


1 BEETHOVEN-MOONLIGHT SYMPH.
2 SEZEN AKSU-HERSEYI YAK,BELALIM,VAZGECTIM (sure most of you don't know it. that is why i wrote them.go on. check them and find the lyrics if you can and try to understand. ý call these three songs the three full stops ...)
3 PORTISHEAD-ROADS,SOUR TIMES, ONLY YOU (what an 'ohhh' she says.could be the best female singer too.)
4 MASSIVE ATTACK-TEARDROP,ANGEL (teardrop on the fire)
5 RADIOHEAD-KARMA POLICE
6 NIGHTWISH-WALKING IN THE AIR
7 MY DYING BRIDE-FOR MY FALLEN ANGEL
8 DEEP PURPLE-SOLDIER OF FORTUNE
9 THE GODFATHER THEME
10 DREAM THEATER-SPACE DYE VEST

not all, not the very best but try the first five. trust,try...
now please write some good stuff that i wouldn't want to listen three million times of three million times so that it loses its tunes.i would like to keep it.

sorry and thanxsssssssszszs. """"""""""""

soothteller, Thursday, 16 January 2003 15:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

Alejandro Escovedo's got lotsa real downer songs, but his latest, A Man Under the Influence, is like 90% bummer, 10% summer ("Castanets" being the only real rocker on the platter).

Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 16 January 2003 15:04 (twenty-one years ago) link

any Red House Painters album has got to be on this list.

Chris V. (Chris V), Thursday, 16 January 2003 15:32 (twenty-one years ago) link

Futurism 2.

Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 16 January 2003 15:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

Here are Dean (or is it Gene, I get them confused) Ween's picks for the "5 songs that have always just reduced me to a little girly-man no matter how many times I've heard them":

Wichita Lineman-Glenn Campbell
Johnny Cash-Sunday Morning Comin' Down
Stevie Wonder-You and I
James Taylor-Fire and Rain
Glenn Campbell-Gentle on My Mind

However, you really should read his personal commentary here to get the full flavor.

o. nate (onate), Thursday, 16 January 2003 15:39 (twenty-one years ago) link

Oops, that's the wrong link. Try this.

o. nate (onate), Thursday, 16 January 2003 15:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

Current 93 : I Have a Special Plan for This World

I guess it's a single, not an album, but it's most depressing.

jot eff pe, Thursday, 16 January 2003 15:56 (twenty-one years ago) link

American Music Club, pick an album at random. Though Everclear gets bonus points for starting with the drug addicted malaise of "Why Won't You Stay" and closing with the hopelessly alcoholic "Jesus' Hands." And it actually gets lower in between.

The Karl Hendricks Trio have a disc called Some Girls Like Cigarettes which is as close to recorded suicide as it gets.

zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Thursday, 16 January 2003 16:35 (twenty-one years ago) link

third eye foundation - ghost

arjun (arjun), Thursday, 16 January 2003 17:05 (twenty-one years ago) link

'six' - mansun.
a whole album's worth of songs based around a genuinely depressed young man's dawning realisation that his beautiful guitarist chad won't ever return his love for him.

piscesboy, Thursday, 16 January 2003 17:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

Ha. I'll have to hear that because my mate is the absolute spit of chad out of mansun. Maybe I could put them in touch.

James Ball (James Ball), Thursday, 16 January 2003 17:40 (twenty-one years ago) link

I find anything by Steps, SClub 7 or Will Young incredibly depressing....

...also, seriously, anything by Bob Dylan (is he the most overrated musician ever? I think so), anything by Leonard Cohen....

...but for GREAT albums that happen to be depressing:
Nick Drake (can't think of the title but it's brilliant)
Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen...
The Smiths - The Smiths
Sinead O'Connor - Universal Mother
Portishead - Dummy

russ t, Thursday, 16 January 2003 17:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

christ ! i've been meaning to mail you
james re: yr guardian stories.
i really did mean to, but we can't
'do' hotmail in work anymore.
one of these days though when i'm
passing a net caff i'll do
just that. ...unless you're a different james ball.

piscesboy, Thursday, 16 January 2003 18:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

Swans, "Cop" surely.

ian Johnson, Thursday, 16 January 2003 19:16 (twenty-one years ago) link

Arjun, I never would have thought of that 3rd Eye Foundation CD, but....yeah, fuckin' really, really depressing. Good pick.

matt riedl (veal), Thursday, 16 January 2003 19:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

Parts of Nick Cave's Murder Ballads can get me wailin'.

christoff (christoff), Thursday, 16 January 2003 19:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

Parts of Nick Cave's Murder Ballads can get me wailin'.

Really? I find most of the album heeeelarious; it's hard to take seriously what's so absurd. The very concept of a Kylie Minogue duet with Cave overshadows whatever emotional baggage the song would contain; the only really upsetting songs on the album, I think, are "Song of Joy" and "Henry Lee."

Ian Johnson, Thursday, 16 January 2003 19:31 (twenty-one years ago) link

I agree, MURDER BALLADS is pretty damn funny (whether that's intentional or not is another matter).

Most depressing? I suppose one could say UNKNOWN PLEASURES or something, but I find that too intriguing to be depressing.

I find desperate albums depressing, i.e. albums made by folks whose time has clearly come and gone, yet they keep struggling in abject futility against the cruel tides of time, fashion and changing tastes -- like Motley Crue's GENERATION SWINE or MC Hammer's FUNKY HEADHUNTER. You just want to sit them down and tell them to give it up.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 17 January 2003 00:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

OH MY GOD ALEX THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME THE NAME OF THAT HAMMER ALBUM.

Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 17 January 2003 00:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

one month passes...
I usually lean on Mogwai's "Come on Die Young" but just the other day the third track on "Mi Media Naranja" made me want to sob uncontrollably.

Leee (Leee), Monday, 3 March 2003 02:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Faith" by The Cure. And, btw. I like that album a lot....

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 3 March 2003 02:27 (twenty-one years ago) link

Following my personal trend of providing the most boring answer to any question: Rush's 'Grace Under Pressure'. Supposedly a horrible experience to record, all the songs are about depressing subjects (friends dying, escapes from concentration camps, nuclear war, and so on), and Lifeson's guitar is pushed even further back in the mix (excepting 'Kid Gloves', a musically brighter yet still depressing song, and a couple of other tracks). They even look really tired and sad in the Karsh photo. Supposedly Karsh was unimpressed with them as they were normal everyday guys, quiet and unassuming, and he was hoping for crazy rowdy rawk starz.

Bryan (Bryan), Monday, 3 March 2003 02:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'll vote for Red House Painters myself (being the heretic I am, I'll pick "Retrospective" cuz it's the easiest for me to get all the way through). "Katy Song" is one of my favoritest beautiful mope songs ever. Feels funny to say, but that song sounds to me like a vivid memory of a time, a person and/or a feeling that you worry might be gone forever. At their best, Red House Painters is the embodiment of bittersweet.

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 3 March 2003 02:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'll second or third Electro Shock Blues. I'll also offer up Low's Medicine Magazines.

Prude, Monday, 3 March 2003 03:07 (twenty-one years ago) link

five months pass...
Nick Cave's Murder Ballads "pretty damn funny"? I suppose then, that it depends on who's listening. Because "Where the Wild Roses Grow", I hardly consider comical - but then again, a close family friend just one week shy of her 18th birthday was bludgeoned to death in the head with a rock and thrown in the river to drown.

booyah, Monday, 1 September 2003 22:37 (twenty years ago) link

killer m.i.k.e.'s monster;
as that album goes along
it gets SO DAMNED BLEAK

first, I thought "author",
just personae--then it's clear
that he's just LIKE that

Haikunym (Haikunym), Monday, 1 September 2003 22:52 (twenty years ago) link

Earwig - "Under My Skin I Am Laughing" - harrowing.

Ben Dot, Tuesday, 2 September 2003 00:05 (twenty years ago) link

CONFLICT - From Protest To Resistance

None of Joy Division's output ever reached the depressing depths of "Cruise", and Mr. E, of The Eels, even on Electro Shock Blues, didn't touch "Meat Means Murder" and Arab Strap is sunshine and flowers next to the emotional sandpaper of "Vietnam Serenade".

Charlie Chomsky, Tuesday, 2 September 2003 00:21 (twenty years ago) link

OK Computer used to do it for me when I was 15-16, but by now I´ve listened to it so much I´ve grown immune.

I´d say...THE REPLACEMENTS- LET IT BE. Without a doubt. It prompts me to cry, that motherf...

Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 03:06 (twenty years ago) link

Sisters of Mercy to thread!

My favorite one of these ever: Theater of Tragedy, "Velvet Darkness They Fear", because it's so beautiful and melodic and gloomy but also the most aggressive thing I've EVER heard.

sucka (sucka), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 05:25 (twenty years ago) link

It's Berlin for me, but not because of the story or stupid sound effects, but the dreary melodies, bloated and unexciting orchestration and Reed's humorless performance. And the album was promoted heavily and sold well, too; I just find it to be a strange artifact. I like the album and continue to play it even though I'm really not a solo Reed fan. Just holding the jacket gets me depressed.

Personal to dave q: eloborate on your pick above and I will grant one wish.

Sean (Sean), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 05:38 (twenty years ago) link

Tom Waits' Heart of Saturday Night

nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 05:38 (twenty years ago) link

I think that "Seventeen Seconds" by the Cure is a big depression kind of an album, and probably "Disintegration" as well.

I don't know if this is a particularly depressing album just more of a could-be-dangerous-for-people-with-bad-depression to listen to = "era of sad wings" by Keiji Haino's Niujumu - I had to give back the copy someone made for me recently because I just COULD NOT handle it. I also think Jandek has done some real depressive stuff.

cuspidorian (cuspidorian), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 06:29 (twenty years ago) link

oh yeah I see someone did mention "Faith" I'll second that - "all cats are grey" etc. I've never found Leonard Cohen to make depressing music personally.

cuspidorian (cuspidorian), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 06:30 (twenty years ago) link

Oh god okay THE most depressing record I know (CD Ep) = "Trace" by Demarnia Lloyd. It's also goddamn brilliant.

cuspidorian (cuspidorian), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 06:31 (twenty years ago) link

Skip James 'Devil Got My Woman'

dave q, Tuesday, 2 September 2003 06:43 (twenty years ago) link

(ie the title event seems to be the only GOOD thing that ever happened to him - the rest is not upbeat, however)

dave q, Tuesday, 2 September 2003 06:44 (twenty years ago) link

Blood on the Tracks, Pornography, Closer

Fabrice (Fabfunk), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 06:51 (twenty years ago) link

Anything by MY DYING BRIDE

JP Almeida (JP Almeida), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 07:37 (twenty years ago) link

The entire 1980-82 trilogy by The Cure, with "Pornography" possibly the most depressive of all.

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 08:07 (twenty years ago) link

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i128/garzweiler2/R-562902-1139674160.jpg

Siegbran, Saturday, 13 December 2008 20:28 (fifteen years ago) link

http://www.amazon.com/Part-Summa/dp/B00005MNCL/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1229201465&sr=1-2

Arvo Pärt - Part: Summa

All of it is really sad and depressing. Of course, it's probably my favorite classical release ever.

Gino-Vanellyville (Mackro Mackro), Saturday, 13 December 2008 20:53 (fifteen years ago) link

Paavo Järvi is a master on this.

Gino-Vanellyville (Mackro Mackro), Saturday, 13 December 2008 20:54 (fifteen years ago) link

http://www.ecmrecords.com/Images/cover/New_Series/1500/N1591g.gif

krakow, Saturday, 13 December 2008 22:09 (fifteen years ago) link

Xiu Xiu depresses me, but I think that's intentionally on Jamie Stewart's part. Also for some reason Return To Cookie Mountain never fails to put me in a foul mood. The first Sunset Rubdown album has a similar effect. There is a line in a song on the new Department of Eagles album that goes "Those nights you wandered online/You'll never get to relive them" or something like that, which gets to me. Also, hip hop songs about how good it used to be back in the day.

samosa gibreel, Saturday, 13 December 2008 23:02 (fifteen years ago) link

Which album is that, Siegbran?

Le Bateau Ivre, Sunday, 14 December 2008 01:51 (fifteen years ago) link

I sold Broken By Whispers by Trembling Blue Stars partly because I found it so depressing.

Girlfriend, you've been scooped like ice cream (mehlt), Sunday, 14 December 2008 02:00 (fifteen years ago) link

What, no one has ever sat through 'The Hunter' by Blondie?

Dr. Joseph A. Ofalt, Sunday, 14 December 2008 02:03 (fifteen years ago) link

dave bixby. ultimate downer record

oscar, Sunday, 14 December 2008 02:07 (fifteen years ago) link

No mention of GY!BE, 'F# A# ∞', yet, eh?

I've felt that the first few tracks on Gang of Four's 'Solid Gold' were unrelentingly depressing, in that listless, defeated sort of way.

Millsner, Sunday, 14 December 2008 03:50 (fifteen years ago) link

loveless- My Bloddy Valentine.

― tom, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (7 years ago) Bookmark

trolling ain't what it used to be

country matters, Sunday, 14 December 2008 03:53 (fifteen years ago) link

I'm surprised no one mentioned Joni's Blue.

Mordy, Sunday, 14 December 2008 04:18 (fifteen years ago) link

Well, let me respond to this in two parts.

Part one. FUCK YOU and the bow-legged, oft-felched, syphillitic donkey you call "Mama" that you limped in on.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, February 21, 2004 2:29 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

brooklyn we go hard

merriweather passantino pavilion (J0rdan S.), Sunday, 14 December 2008 04:22 (fifteen years ago) link

http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/qwerty/wire/images/itllendintears.jpg

Creeztophair, Sunday, 14 December 2008 05:26 (fifteen years ago) link

red apple falls

ciderpress, Sunday, 14 December 2008 05:40 (fifteen years ago) link


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