the most depressing album in the world ever

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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

Lots of votes for Univers Zero's 1313 being one of them bleakest records ever made in the omniverse, I've seen. The record itself I haven't heard.

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 11:35 (twenty years ago) link

Swans, The Burning World. "God Damn the Sun" is possibly the most hopeless song I've ever heard.

― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 11:52 (twenty years ago) link

Hats - ambushed by expected emotion?

― Cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 11:56 (twenty years ago) link

(I fear I'm turning into some sort of caricature of myself but all I have been listening to recently is the Blue Nile. A vast majority of the music I love I hardly ever talk about on ILM. See 'tracks for Nick Southall to download' thread for pointers.)

― Cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 11:58 (twenty years ago) link

I said it before, and I'll say it again....

The Funky Headhunter by MC Hammer.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 11:59 (twenty years ago) link

Throwing Muses eponymous debut.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 12:05 (twenty years ago) link

I find The burning World undepressing - my fave songs on it are Saved and The River That Runs With Love Will Not Run Dry - granted the songs and the title lyrics aren't straightforward in relation to each other but still, those songs give me comfort. I Remember Who You Are is pretty devastating though! Failure off Swans' White Light From the Mouth of Infinity is depressing - okay yeah maybe that album gets a strong nomination - "Love will save you, but it won't save me"...

also, as I was reminded by someone else playing him this morning: Loren Connors.

― cuspidorian (cuspidorian), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 23:45 (twenty years ago) link

Swans are indeed deeply nondepressing -- cathartic isn't the right word either, necessarily. Exultant, yes -- but exultant in minor key.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 3 September 2003 00:00 (twenty years ago) link

Air, The Virgin Suicides.

Really like it. Can't listen to it anymore. And my absence-of-hatred-at-best feeling about the movie is 25% Dunst, 75% this sound track, so go figure.

Still can't listen to it. Like doing bad, um ... lithium ... or something ...

― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Wednesday, 3 September 2003 00:10 (twenty years ago) link

Smog, The Doctor Came at Dawn..

― daria g (daria g), Wednesday, 3 September 2003 00:48 (twenty years ago) link

How the fuck can anybody hate an album with a lyric as cool as, "And with an ashtray as big as a fucking really big brick, I split his skull in half"???

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, 5 September 2003 04:17 (twenty years ago) link

Yes! The Murder Ballads is a fucking riot. And that may be my favorite line on it. ("The Curse of Millhaven" and his wacky version of "Stagger Lee" also crack me up.)

Not depressing at all.

― Salmon Pink (Salmon Pink), Friday, 5 September 2003 11:41 (twenty years ago) link

I think Faith is really depressing because by the end of that album he knows now that the only Faith he can have is in himself. Pornography is far more of a rallying cry (it sounds good live too).

― flowersdie (flowersdie), Friday, 5 September 2003 11:51 (twenty years ago) link

Nick Drake - Time of No Reply. 4 songs recorded when he was at his worst, could barely speak. Listening to it makes me cry.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Friday, 5 September 2003 11:52 (twenty years ago) link

i still miss you by arab strap and track 6 off bogdan's my love i love. both bring me down like a lead balloon.

― chicken tonight (chicken tonight), Friday, 5 September 2003 12:01 (twenty years ago) link

I just got Slint's Spiderland and the Red House Painters' rollercoaster album yesterday. I second both of them; I've been extremely miserable (and awed) since listening to them.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 6 September 2003 02:24 (twenty years ago) link

I always found the very existance of a Wide Boy Awake record to be intensly depressing.

― John Bullabaugh (John Bullabaugh), Saturday, 6 September 2003 13:49 (twenty years ago) link

Frank Sinatra - In The Wee Small Hours

― Chris Barrus (Chris Barrus), Saturday, 6 September 2003 16:02 (twenty years ago) link

Anything by Mecca Normal and especially the song "Fan Of Sparks", which is both depressing and obscenely painful.

― Etienne (Etienne), Saturday, 6 September 2003 16:16 (twenty years ago) link

Sophia "fixed water"

― Bruno- (Bruno-), Saturday, 6 September 2003 16:34 (twenty years ago) link

five months pass...

cat power - myra lee
modest mouse - sad sappy sucker
mogwai - happy songs for happy people
bright eyes - fevers and mirrors

― tiffany, Saturday, 21 February 2004 05:36 (twenty years ago) link

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 --
-- Alex in NYC (vassifer@earthlink.net), January 17th, 2003.

― Colin Beckett (Colin Beckett), Saturday, 21 February 2004 08:10 (twenty years ago) link

Yes, Colin....and?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 21 February 2004 08:20 (twenty years ago) link

Wasn't your favorite album of 2003 by Killing Joke?

― Colin Beckett (Colin Beckett), Saturday, 21 February 2004 08:26 (twenty 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.

Part two. Killing Joke's 2003 album had no business being as good as it turned out to be (thanks in great part to the production of Andy Gill, the reintroduction of Raven to the fold, some dicey world events and the injection of youthful energy that was Dave Grohl), thus it bucked the odds and does not adhere to the stipulations of desperation I layed out in the quote of mine you cited.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 21 February 2004 08:29 (twenty years ago) link

four years pass...

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, January 16, 2003 7:11 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
OH MY GOD ALEX THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME THE NAME OF THAT HAMMER ALBUM.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, January 16, 2003 7:34 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark

this exchange ALONE made this thread classic :-)

― Eisbär (Eisbaer), Saturday, 13 December 2008 12:01 (fifteen years ago) link

There was a compilation album out recently of songs from adverts. I've not listened to it, but I can't conceive conceptually a more depressing album.

― rjberry, Saturday, 13 December 2008 20:23 (fifteen years ago) link

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