Comments on: Dark and lovely songs

Question: Dark and lovely songs

carolinaherrera — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:35:46 -0800

Looking for beautiful songs with good lyrics that evoke a feeling of violation, dark secrets, slow growing horror

Sometimes I get into a mood where I want to hear music that makes me feel like something dark, awful, and hidden has happened, but calmly accepted.

Examples of songs that make me feel this way: Bon Iver's Blood Bank (there's something chilling about a song that starts with "I met you at the blood bank...") and Peter Gabriel's Mercy Street (about Anne Sexton's incestuous relationship with her father) or Elliott Smith or even Modest Mouse's "Float On".

Songs about damage, pain, secrets...that are beautiful and have a sort of knowing, accepting feeling. I find them cathartic.

Additional criteria:
- Not angry, loud, punk, metal, etc.
- Not whiny, crying, keening or grief-ridden songs. More of a calm acceptance of something dark. Peaceful, folk-ish, lovely.
- This is more about the beauty of the lyrics than the specific music, so Pandora and Spotify haven't been much help

Thank you!

By: pompomtom

pompomtom — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:38:51 -0800

The Cure - Lullaby.

By: sweetkid

sweetkid — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:41:51 -0800

Famous Blue Raincoat, Leonard Cohen.

By: mlle valentine

mlle valentine — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:42:23 -0800

Hannah Marcus -- Demerol
Gabriel Kahane -- Rochester
The National -- Val Jester

By: librarianamy

librarianamy — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:43:54 -0800

I've always been a fan of Angie Baby by Helen Reddy for the 'cheerful twist' at the end. ymmv

By: halcyon_daze

halcyon_daze — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:53:18 -0800

Oh how time flies
With crystal clear eyes
And cold as cold
When you're ending with diamond eyes

Oh come child
In a cross bones style
Oh come child
Come and rescue me

(Listen. Ignore the video.)

By: stellaluna

stellaluna — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:53:46 -0800

I can think of tons of Tom Waits songs that fit the bill, but right now I'm listening to Rain Dogs and I think "Jockey Full of Bourbon" (hey little bird, fly away home, house is on fire, children are alone) might be what you're looking for.

By: randomnity

randomnity — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:54:16 -0800

Mad World - Gary Jules

By: mattoxic

mattoxic — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:56:45 -0800

Anything by Joy Division

Decades
New dawn fades
Dead souls

By: cushie

cushie — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:56:48 -0800

Boston band The Milling Gowns play what they call "gloom Pop" that I think fits what you're asking for.

By: moonmilk

moonmilk — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:57:50 -0800

Robyn Hitchcock - Raymond Chandler Evening

By: peagood

peagood — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:58:12 -0800

Elvis Costello's cover of Leon Payne's Psycho might fit the bill.

Gillian Welch's Caleb Meyer

Neko Case's Furnace Room Lullaby

By: randomnity

randomnity — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:58:30 -0800

Also - not sure if it's dark enough for you, but Stars' In our bedroom after the war is lovely.

By: mattoxic

mattoxic — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:58:39 -0800

Sorry

Forgot Joy Division

Atmosphere

And Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead

By: lambdaphage

lambdaphage — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:59:00 -0800

Maybe Gillian Welch's latest album, The Harrow and the Harvest, is what you're after. The emotions you describe, at least, are precisely the themes of the record. IIRC, noted metalhead John Dyer Baizly was slated to do the album cover, but Welch hadn't recorded the music by the time Baizely needed the cover done, so she sent him the lyrics instead. His reaction after reading them was approximatley: "Jesus, what's wrong with you?"

For your consideration: Dark Turn of Mind, The Way it Goes.

By: Malla

Malla — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:59:10 -0800

Catherine Wheel by Crowded House
Hours by TV on the Radio
Mommy Daddy You and I by the Talking Heads
Little Fish by P.J. Harvey
Everyone Gathers at the Chapel by Liam Finn

By: cobaltnine

cobaltnine — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:02:10 -0800

Parts of VAST's albums might work for you, but I'm not entirely sure what counts as 'too loud' for your purposes. YT video list here.

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:02:29 -0800

Little Fish by P.J. Harvey

The whole Album Let England Shake is pretty death and murder heavy, highly recommended.

And of course you'll be wanting a copy of Nick Cave's Murder Ballads.

By: lamp

lamp — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:05:11 -0800

ANBB - I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground

roxy music - in every dream home a heartache

By: Kruger5

Kruger5 — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:06:21 -0800

"This Isn't Everything You Are"

Snow Patrol

By: mr vino

mr vino — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:14:53 -0800

I would have expected Richard Thompson in comments number 1, 2, and 3.

You could start with Cold Kisses.

By: Jacen

Jacen — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:15:04 -0800

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4rXbSnk2ng from silent hill 4. Not sure it fits the criteria 100%, but its a fun song.

By: Fig

Fig — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:17:34 -0800

'The Gardener' -- Dresden Dolls

By: thack3r

thack3r — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:26:51 -0800

Death Cab for Cutie, "A Lack of Color"
Interpol, "A Time to be So Small"
The National, "Bloodbuzz Ohio"
Bloc Party, "Signs"
Arcade Fire, "City With No Children"

By: ActionPopulated

ActionPopulated — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:32:14 -0800

I saw this question and immediately thought of the many versions of The Long Black Veil. Talk about calm acceptance of a horrible fate! Johnny Cash's version is the classic, but I like this one by the Chieftains and Mick Jagger too.

You might also look into the entire output of the October Project: Bury My Lovely is a pretty good representation of what they're like, musically and lyrically. (Lyrics here.)

By: a louis wain cat

a louis wain cat — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:33:33 -0800

"Hope Dies Painless" by Rome fits your description perfectly, IMO, both in terms of music and lyrics (cryptic as the latter are).

"A Strange Day" by The Cure also has this quality about it, though to some extent that depends on how one interprets the lyrics, which I can read either as being about suicide or the end of the world- I'd say it works much better for this if it's the latter.

I'm not sure I'd agree that Joy Division fits here as a whole (IMO there isn't much of the "calm acceptance" element to most of their songs, rather the opposite if anything), but I would definitely agree with the suggestion of "Atmosphere".

By: fancyoats

fancyoats — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:41:46 -0800

Will Oldham's Riding

By: TheWhiteSkull

TheWhiteSkull — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:43:53 -0800

Cowboy Junkies- Post
Dolly Parton- Silver Dagger
Palace (aka Will Oldham)- Old Jerusalem
Bonnie Prince Billy (aka Will Oldham)- I See A Darkness
His Name Is Alive- Can't Go Wrong Without You
Bruce Springsteen- Atlantic City
Cowboy Junkies- Lost My Driving Wheel
The Go-Betweens- Cattle and Cane
Neko Case- Middle Cyclone
Daniel Lanois- Sleeping in the Devil's Bed
Tom Waits- A Little Rain

By: Ghostride The Whip

Ghostride The Whip — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:47:24 -0800

I've always found Tori Amos' cover of I Don't Like Mondays to fit the bill for that kind of mood, especially when you know the story behind the song.

By: spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints

spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:52:34 -0800

LYDIA by Slaid Cleaves

You're a bad person if you don't cry when you hear this.

By: salvia

salvia — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:59:24 -0800

Bush - Glycerine
Mountain Goats - Song for Dennis Brown

By: lovableiago

lovableiago — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:00:26 -0800

Great Lake Swimmers - "Your Rocky Spine"
Fiona Apple - "Sally's Song" (from "Nightmare Before Christmas")
Allison Krauss "It Doesn't Matter"
Massive Attack - "Angel"
Underworld "8 Ball" (this song gets happier halfwayish through and I always find myself getting a little emotional for some reason)

By: lovableiago

lovableiago — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:01:28 -0800

Oh and because I just saw Tori Amos above: "Spark"

By: Miko

Miko — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:01:57 -0800

That's pretty much the sound of Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter.

By: The World Famous

The World Famous — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:02:53 -0800

Cracker - Big Dipper
Bauhaus - Hollow Hills
The Church - Hotel Womb
Aura
The Dissilusionist
Block

PJ Harvey - A Place Called Home
Kaki King - Spit It Back In My Mouth
Ani DiFranco - Pulse
The Cure - Apart
Cocteau Twins - Blue Bell Knoll
The Cure - The Drowning Man
Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms

By: Yma

Yma — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:03:14 -0800

Marrissa Nadler's cover of Famous Blue Raincoat by Leonard Cohen.
In My Other World by Julee Cruise.
Pretty much anything by Lisa Germano.
Slo Fuzz by Sol Seppy.
Most things by Azure Ray.

By: brujita

brujita — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:03:15 -0800

The Smiths' "The Hand that Rocks the Cradle" and "Suffer Little Children"

By: Admira

Admira — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:04:38 -0800

Where the Wild Roses Grow with Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue

By: lunasol

lunasol — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:04:39 -0800

Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans

Dar Williams - Mark Rothko Song (she has a bunch of these, but this one instantly came to mind)

Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal (listen carefully to the lyrics ...)

Joni Mitchell - Little Green

Neil Young - Down by the River

By: Charlemagne In Sweatpants

Charlemagne In Sweatpants — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:06:04 -0800

Anything by the Mountain Goats.
Anything by The Handsome Family
Shivers by the Boys Next Door

"I've been contemplating suicide, / But it really doesn't suit my style. / So I think I'll just act bored instead, / And contain the blood I would've shed."

Anything by its writer, Rowland S Howard, like Autoluminescent.

Anything by Edith Frost
Neko Case - I Wish I Was The Moon

anything by Barry Adamson

Ed Kuepper (from The Saints)

I've got dozens more. You want more alt-country, more traditional country (Merle Haggard or Townes Van Zandt can be chilling), more indie?

By: TheWhiteSkull

TheWhiteSkull — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:07:41 -0800

A couple more:

Nico- These Days
Marianne Faithful- Something Better
Tori Amos- The Wrong Band
Shirley Collins- Lady Margaret and Sweet William
$100- No Great Leap
Leonard Cohen- The Partisan

By: The World Famous

The World Famous — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:09:50 -0800

Sufjan Stevens - For The Widows In Paradise, For The Fatherless In Ypsilanti

By: eponym

eponym — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:13:39 -0800

Just raided my iTunes...May have gone a little overboard but hopefully at least some of these are along the lines of what you're thinking - I love songs like this.

Alela Diane - The Rifle
Blitzen Trapper - Black River Killer
Broken Social Scene - Gangbang Suicide
Dawn Landes - Bodyguard
The Dresden Dolls - The Perfect Fit
Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton - Our Hell
Emily Jane White - Frozen Heart
félperc - Going Nowhere
The Frames - Dream Awake
Gram Rabbit - Devil's Playground
The Hundred In The Hands - Young Aren't Young
Iron & Wine - Cinder and Smoke
Jane Vain & The Dark Matter - C'mon Baby Say Bang Bang
Jenny Lewis – Rabbit Fur Coat
The Kills - Black Balloon
Laura Veirs - Wide-Eyed, Legless
Metric - Blindness
Mew - Her Voice Is Beyond Her Years
Morcheeba - Blood Like Lemonade
Neko Case - Deep Red Bells
Rural Alberta Advantage - Frank, AB
Sharon Van Etten - Serpents
Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gacy Jr
Thea Gilmore - Water to Sky

By: Charlemagne In Sweatpants

Charlemagne In Sweatpants — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:15:01 -0800

Frightened Rabbit
The National
Poe

By: N-stoff

N-stoff — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:17:54 -0800

Violent Femmes - Country Death Song

By: twentyfoursummers

twentyfoursummers — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:21:11 -0800

'Halah' by Mazzy Star

By: divined by radio

divined by radio — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:22:24 -0800

The National, "All Dolled-Up in Straps" (lyrics)
David Bazan, "Hard to Be" (lyrics)
Dolorean, "Hannibal, MO" (lyrics)
Firewater, "Seventh Avenue Static" (lyrics)
The Mountain Goats, "Dilaudid" (lyrics)
Sufjan Stevens, "Romulus" (lyrics)
Wye Oak, "Civilian" (lyrics)
Phosphorescent, "South (of America)" (lyrics)

pretty much everything Mark Lanegan has ever touched, I might start with "Lexington Slow Down" (lyrics)

and no matter what, Jason Molina sings like the whole world has fallen apart (lyrics -- any of them, honestly)

By: Yma

Yma — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:24:04 -0800

Oooh and anything by Slowdive or Bark Psychosis.

By: divined by radio

divined by radio — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:27:21 -0800

Can't believe I forgot this one:
Death Cab for Cutie, "Death of an Interior Decorator" (lyrics)

By: piyushnz

piyushnz — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:38:15 -0800

Bass Song - Hayden
Hurt - Johnny Cash
Monkey - Low
Down in it - Nine inch nails
Roads - Portishead
Rush and a push and the land is ours - The Smiths
Beyond Love - The The

By: citron

citron — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:43:46 -0800

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Stranger Than Kindness
Tindersticks Trouble Every Day
Kristen Hersh Your Ghost
Mekons "Last Weeks of the War"
Fever Ray If I Had a Heart
Nearly God (Tricky side project) Poems
Yo La Tengo Everyday
Jackson C. Frank Blues Run the Game in general.. Dialogue (I Want to Be Alone)
PJ Harvey and John Parish Civil War Correspondent

By: spunweb

spunweb — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:43:52 -0800

the toadies --- possum kingdom

By: like_a_friend

like_a_friend — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:54:04 -0800

Someone mentioned Robyn Hitchcock-- "No, I Don't Remember Guildford" always gave me that sense of something awful being done and gone, but hiding in all the cracks.

By: a humble nudibranch

a humble nudibranch — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 21:34:03 -0800

Neil Young - The Needle and the Damage Done
Alice In Chains - Am I Inside
10 Years - Silhouette of a Life
Transfer - Waltz
Dishwalla - Until I Wake Up

By: jaksemas

jaksemas — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 22:11:20 -0800

Two more Sufjan Stevens songs:
Casimir Pulaski Day
Chicago (I like the "Adult Contemporary Listening" version)

By: dekathelon

dekathelon — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 22:13:22 -0800

Ane Brun - These Days
Beth Orton - Pieces of Sky
Cat Power - Good Woman
Fiona Apple - Werewolf
Kristin Hersh - Tuesday Night
Stina Nordenstam - This Time, John (or really anything off Dynamite)
The Cardigans - Couldn't Care Less (no, really)

By: 2N2222

2N2222 — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 22:21:25 -0800

Greg Brown - Sadness

By: Johnny Wallflower

Johnny Wallflower — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 22:24:37 -0800

John Prine, Six O'Clock News

By: bunglin jones

bunglin jones — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 23:05:29 -0800

"Violation, dark secrets, slow-growing horror"? You want 'Do You Love Me (Part 2)' by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I'm using my phone and am terrible at linking with it, but these are some of the lyrics from memory:
here's a man in the theatre with girlish eyes
Who's holding my childhood to ransom
On the screen there's a death, there's a rustle of cloth
And a sickly voice calling me handsome
There's a man in the theatre with sly girlish eyes
On the screen there's an ape, a gorilla
There's a groan, there's a cough, there's a rustle of cloth
And a voice that stinks of death and vanilla
This is a secret, mauled and mangled
And the coins in my pocket go jingle-jangle

By: weston

weston — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 23:11:49 -0800

I think you need to pick up the Dar Williams/Lucy Kaplansky/Richard Shindell colab album Cry Cry Cry, which is generally good and has a couple of tracks fitting this description. See, for example, Northern Cross. It's also a cover album, so it's a decent jumping off point for other investigations.

I totally second the Neko Case suggestions. And Gillian Welch.

A couple of other random ideas:

The band known for that super-peppy uber-80s tune Take on Me has also done some darker/discomfiting stuff: I've Been Losing You & Sycamore leaves.

American Tune (pick from Eva Cassidy or Paul Simon or probably a lot of other people).

Keane's Spiralling (or if you want a more folksy version, you could try my cover on MeFi music).

By: islander

islander — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 23:23:26 -0800

Concrete Blonde, Joey

By: ostro

ostro — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 00:00:40 -0800

Promise Me, Courtney Saunders.

By: MinusCelsius

MinusCelsius — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 02:57:33 -0800

Some Deine Lakaien songs fit the bill. I'd start with "Wasted Years" and "Walk to the Moon". Also, some of Alexander Veljanov's solo songs.

By: Nattie

Nattie — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 02:58:07 -0800

Darren Hayes:
Neverland (from the perspective of a very young child watching his mother be physically abused by his father)
Darkness
Step into the Light (starts anguished but builds more to acceptance)
Who Would Have Thought
A Conversation with God (iffy?)

Darren Hayes's entire album This Beautiful Thing We've Made is about accepting all the bad things that have happened to him, so the songs transition from dark and intimate to uplifting and cathartic. Sometimes it's in a single track or over an arc of songs, but if you like Step Into the Light you'd probably like the album. I don't know if you consider soprano male voices inherently keening or not, though; he usually sounds soothing and only does keening for effect when it's useful.

The Cardigans - And Then You Kissed Me

Depeche Mode:
Suffer Well
I Want It All (iffy?)
Damaged People (iffy?)

I feel like a lot of Depeche Mode songs, and the whole album Playing the Angel, might fit what you're looking for.

Morrissey:
Come Back to Camden
I'm Not Sorry (he sings this with a sort of acceptance in his tone, like it's just factual and doesn't bother him exactly... which is sort of depressing or cathartic depending on your outlook)
All the Lazy Dykes (iffy?)

Morrissey is so matter of fact about depressing things in some songs that I would call it "calm," but then I'm not sure it has the same aspects you're looking for when you say "calm." If resigned or bored or gone-through-bitter-and-out-the-other-side count... Elliott Smith strikes me the same way but I wouldn't call him uplifting at all, so I'm throwing this out there anyway.

Depeche Mode and Darren Hayes remind me of Peter Gabriel in some of the ways you describe, mostly in the dark "feel" of songs, but again, not entirely sure it's what you mean. And both have a ton more songs that have that same feel, but don't fit the rest of your criteria, so if you like any of those try others from the same albums.

By: CarolynG

CarolynG — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 03:08:59 -0800

Vienna Teng - Passage

By: benzo8

benzo8 — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 03:32:05 -0800

Pretty much anything from Polly Scattergood's eponymous debut album fits the bill. I Hate The Way is as good a place to start as any...

By: gaspode

gaspode — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 04:39:59 -0800

Several songs by the New Zealand band Straitjacket Fits would work. For example: If I were you.

By: winna

winna — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 04:46:47 -0800

Tom McRae's 'You Cut Her Hair'.

By: soi-disant

soi-disant — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 04:52:18 -0800

low, for sure. pretty much everything off things we lost in the fire fills me with beauty and dread, but here are a couple:

amazing grace
sunflower

By: Slap*Happy

Slap*Happy — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 04:55:38 -0800

Gary Numan - Down in the Park.
Imagine Dragons - Radioactive
Peter Schilling - Major Tom

By: robocop is bleeding

robocop is bleeding — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 05:09:40 -0800

Not whiny, crying, keening or grief-ridden songs. More of a calm acceptance of something dark. Peaceful, folk-ish, lovely.

Darren Hayman's Essex trilogy (Pram Town, Essex Arms, and The Violence) may have what you're looking for, especially the latter two albums. Essex Arms features mentions of car crashes, sex for money, and a murder/robbery. The Violence is about the English Civil War and Witch Hysteria (FPP that drew my attention).

You also might enjoy People Take Warning!, a "stunning, landmark 3CD Boxed Set featuring 70 beautifully remastered recordings by some of the cornerstones of American vernacular recording + a 48 page book with eye-popping historic images never before reproduced. These songs of death, destruction and disaster, recorded by black and white performers from the dawn of American roots recording, are rare audio messages in a bottle."

By: ouke

ouke — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 05:19:06 -0800

Sparklehorse!

By: mrmarley

mrmarley — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 05:24:53 -0800

this is what you want: Bob Dylan - Lovesick

or also by Dylan:
Dark Eyes
Blood in My Eyes

By: jbickers

jbickers — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 05:43:22 -0800

Synchronicity 2 by The Police:

"Mother chants her litany of boredom and frustration
But we know all her suicides are fake
Daddy only stares into the distance
There's only so much more that he can take
Many miles away something crawls from the slime
At the bottom of a dark Scottish lake"

By: lakersfan1222

lakersfan1222 — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 05:45:35 -0800

You are looking for Mount Eerie, from the EP Black Wooden Ceiling Opening, the tracks are "In Moonlight" and "Stop Singing". Dark, eerie, holding secrets, and total indie head-banging pleasure, ultimately.

By: to recite so charmingly

to recite so charmingly — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 05:48:44 -0800

Neutral Milk Hotel - Engine

By: dlugoczaj

dlugoczaj — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 06:18:44 -0800

The song that did this for me for a very long time was "A Dream" from Lou Reed and John Cale's Songs for Drella. Taken mostly verbatim from Andy Warhol's diaries. "And you can never tell anybody anything, I've learned that."

By: SLC Mom

SLC Mom — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 06:42:44 -0800

Strange fruit by Billie Holliday

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

By: booth

booth — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 06:56:06 -0800

Patty Griffin does bleak beautifully.

Useless Desires
"Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, old friend. You won't be seeing me again."

Long Ride Home
"Forty years go by with someone laying in your bed. Forty years of things you say you wish you'd never said. How hard would it have been to say some kinder words instead? I wonder as I stare up at the sky turning red"

By: love is a murderer

love is a murderer — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 07:46:35 -0800

+1 for Richard Thompson, and while your description covers much of his catalog, I immediately thought of Killing Jar. I'm revisiting it now, with a full version on youtube.

By: neroli

neroli — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 08:33:16 -0800

Black Box Recorder pretty much made a whole career out of this.

By: MsMolly

MsMolly — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 08:42:08 -0800

Mountain Goats - Marduk T-Shirt Mens Room Incident

By: Chenko

Chenko — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 09:10:39 -0800

Star Witness by Neko Case
("Go on go on and scream and cry
You're miles from where anyone will find you
This is nothing new, no television crew
They don't even put on the siren")

Also, Dirty Knife and her version of Poor Ellen Smith.

By: ArgyleGargoyle

ArgyleGargoyle — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 09:17:30 -0800

Seconding Depeche Mode. It might be a bit heavy on the electronic side, but fits the bill when I'm looking for dark and lovely (tone-wise as well as content-wise):

Depeche Mode - Halo
Depeche Mode - Waiting for the Night

Nearly everything on the Violator album is dark (at least to my sensibilities).

By: audacity

audacity — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 09:31:57 -0800

Fol Chen's Part II: The New December is a concept album about a post-apocalyptic post-revolutionary society falling into the same old patterns of tyrannical rights suppression and societal decay. But it's subtle. Some of the songs are really lovely, some are lovely in an electro-pop way.

It's a sequel to Part 1: John Shade, Your Fortune's Made, which I only just got and haven't heard yet in its entirety, but is about a post-apocalyptic revolution, and seems equally dark.

By: zerobyproxy

zerobyproxy — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 09:56:14 -0800

Aimee Mann

Save Me.

Wise Up.

By: Ladysin

Ladysin — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 10:00:45 -0800

More Tori Amos: Blood Roses.

By: thenewbrunette

thenewbrunette — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 10:47:05 -0800

I'll agree with all the aforementioned Martin Hannett-produced choices, and by all means, get a hold of as much Nick Cave as you can.

Also, Coil "Ostia (The Death of Pasolini)" gives me the chills every single time.

There's a real melancholy to Gene Love's Jezebel's "Coal Porter"

Death in June? They always scared the bejeezus out of me.

By: workerant

workerant — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 11:04:16 -0800

Elegia by New Order

By: WalkerWestridge

WalkerWestridge — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 11:13:31 -0800

Mazy Star - Fade Into You, David Bowie - Heroes, and I second the Concrete Blonde suggestion and want to add Concrete Blonde -Mexican Moon.

By: bibliogrrl

bibliogrrl — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 17:06:53 -0800

Andrew Bird - Fake Palindromes

And I have to say I HATE the cover of Mad World by Gary Jules. You need the original by Tears For Fears. Or heck, the whole album. It's amazing.

By: heartquake

heartquake — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 06:00:51 -0800

Elsa - Dancing
Cardigans - Marvel Hill, I Couldn't Care Less
J Ralph - One Million Miles
Telepopmusik - Breathe

By: WalkingAround

WalkingAround — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 06:27:01 -0800

Anything by Nick Drake. Three examples from each of his three published records:

Saturday Sun
Northern Sky
Pink Moon

By: WalkingAround

WalkingAround — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 06:33:09 -0800

Wilco - Via Chicago (Opening line: "I dreamed about killing you again last night, and it felt alright to me.")

By: joeyjoejoejr

joeyjoejoejr — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 06:55:27 -0800

Child I Will Hurt You by Crystal Castles

By: psoas

psoas — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 06:19:41 -0800

Aimee Mann

Also Little Bombs and Thirty One Today. Girlfriend knows how to make you want to take a shower.

By: cnc

cnc — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:26:43 -0800

Might violate your "no loud stuff" rule, but pretty much all of Exitmusic's songs evoke the feelings you're talking about.

By: inbetweener

inbetweener — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 16:01:09 -0800

Totally seconding Lullaby by The Cure - utterly brilliant.

I have a spotify playlist that I created a couple of years ago to effectively serve this purpose (spoti.fi/13JhxhC). In addition to Lullaby, some of the songs I think that more specifically fit your remit include:

Bat for Lashes - Daniel (currently my favourite song, period)
INXS - Need you tonight
Depeche Mode - Enjoy the silence
Portishead - Over (or in fact almost anything by Portishead)
Echobelly - Dark therapy
Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights
Tanita Tikaram - Twist in my Sobriety
Bjork - Isobel
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps

By: black8

black8 — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 16:39:15 -0800

Wire - Feed Me

By: ifjuly

ifjuly — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:26:49 -0800

Nico's The Marble Index is really good at this (and Shearwater's cover of "Nibelungen" at shows is amazing). So's early Cat Power (Tim Foljahn, pre-Covers Record era).

Also, it might just be me, but what I think of as '70s Cali rock (even though much of it is not actually based in LA) often evokes this feeling in me, for better or worse (I hate the Doors, but I suppose they are the prototype along with their hipper counterpart the Stranglers, and Suicide, while also not LA-based, has that feeling down too). Maybe it's just me though; for some reason I tend to associate the trappings of that era with dark creepiness hiding behind a veneer of sunshine and lethargic beachiness that makes it especially potent.

Crime and the City Solution/Birthday Party/early Bad Seeds ("From Her to Eternity") does it well too.

PJ Harvey's got lots of dark and pretty stuff. White Chalk in particular. Maybe Rita Lynch. Some Arab Strap. Sometimes, bands like Comsat Angels and the Sound pulled it off too.

And for my money, no one evokes beautiful dread quite like Ligeti.

By: ifjuly

ifjuly — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:32:01 -0800

Ohohoh, and Nikki Shapiro's "Beautiful Whore" is very serene and quiet and beautiful but, yeah.

Tom Waits sometimes too.

By: ifjuly

ifjuly — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:35:35 -0800

Oh damn, and duh, Thalia Zedek ("Evil Hand", her cover of "1926", "Strong"). She is a queen at this.

Crooked Fingers was pretty good at this too.