Heartbreaking, sad, depressing music / Redeeming music

June 23, 2013 4:57 PM

I'm looking for music to listen to tonight while I work on some sad writing and wanted recommendations for the most heartbreaking, saddest, depressing albums you know. I've googled and read lists on music websites, but would love your opinion. (I also read a MeFi post on optimistic/pessimistic music.) But I will also be writing coming-through-the-storm stuff, so I'm also looking for recs of albums that are redeeming, like they really make you feel like you've survived or you're a better person for having heard them. I mostly listen to indie rock and classic rock. I like a lot of contemporary classical, but I prefer music with vocals. I am also looking for albums rather than individual songs, preferably. Thank you!
posted by mermaidcafe to Media & Arts (69 answers total)

Anything by Daniel Johnston or Elliott Smith. Songs of pain is a good starting point. The mountain goats might work as well.
posted by phil at 5:04 PM on June 23, 2013 [5 favorites]

Pink Floyd - The Final Cut
posted by procrastination at 5:06 PM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

I think all of Joanna Newsom's albums are pretty bleak. There's usually one or two upbeat songs thrown in there, but nothing can really make up for ending an album with a song like Does Not Suffice.
posted by telegraph at 5:09 PM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

Type O Negative - Slow, Hard and Deep and most of their other stuff also.
posted by 445supermag at 5:09 PM on June 23, 2013

The Cure - Disintegration
posted by macska at 5:10 PM on June 23, 2013 [7 favorites]

Dakota Moon
Magic Slim and the Teardrops
Peter Gabriel - Don't Give Up with Kate Bush from his So album
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 5:12 PM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

You can't go wrong with the Smiths--I'd suggest Hatful of Hollow or the self-titled debut album. Also, Peter Gabriel's orchestral rerecording of some of his older material New Blood --most of it feels very dark but then he does have a few tracks that might constitute redemption.
posted by drlith at 5:21 PM on June 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

Mazzy Star, So Tonight That I Might See; specifically Into Dust. Rips me apart every single time.
posted by cooker girl at 5:32 PM on June 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

Jim O'Rourke - Eureka.
posted by black_lizard at 5:35 PM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

Closer
posted by Max Power at 5:35 PM on June 23, 2013 [4 favorites]

Off the cuff: Low, Elliott Smith, Lucinda Williams, David Bazan/Pedro the Lion, Clem Snide, Pernice Brothers.
posted by baseballpajamas at 5:40 PM on June 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

Neil Young - On The Beach
posted by porn in the woods at 5:40 PM on June 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

Most anything by Red House Painters or Mark Kozalek gets me pretty down.
posted by checkitnice at 5:42 PM on June 23, 2013

John Vanderslice's album Pixel Revolt. Representative sad song about barely hanging on: Dead Slate Pacific.
posted by knuckle tattoos at 5:43 PM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

Several songs on Dark Dark Dark's Wild Go are deeply melancholy, in particular "Daydreaming." There are several uplifting/redeeming moments too. The overall sound is quiet but warmly resonant (think sipping whisky in a quiet, dark bar) and feels somehow literary to me.
posted by aintthattheway at 5:43 PM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

Liking baseballpajamas' answer didn't seem enough. So let me second Pedro the Lion and Pernice Brothers. Clem Snide, too.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:44 PM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

Nick Drake. Any and all Nick Drake.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 5:44 PM on June 23, 2013 [3 favorites]

The Antlers' Hospice is completely devastating. The music itself isn't always slow and minor key, but the story the album tells is just heartbreaking.
posted by yasaman at 5:47 PM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

The Swans - God Damn the Sun
posted by bendy at 5:52 PM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

The Handsome Family-Weightless Again

Through the Trees, the album this song comes from, is bleak overall, but Weightless Again is the single bleakest song.
posted by ActionPopulated at 5:55 PM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

Max Richter - Infra
anything by Philip Glass
posted by emmatrotsky at 6:03 PM on June 23, 2013

Hotel Hong Kong, by Future Bible Heroes, tears me apart.
posted by bunderful at 6:05 PM on June 23, 2013

Because the pernice brother's have come up a couple of times I'm gong to toss José Ayerve out there. Are you gong to kiss or wave goodbye, by spouse seems most applicable - although it might be too upbeat.
posted by phil at 6:07 PM on June 23, 2013

Interpol - Interpol
The National - High Violet
Mazzy Star - So tonight that I might see
posted by hobo gitano de queretaro at 6:11 PM on June 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

Beck - The Golden Age. A wracking, heartwrenching album.

And OMG, yes to Hospice by The Antlers.
posted by sevensnowflakes at 6:12 PM on June 23, 2013 [3 favorites]

David Sylvian - Blemish
posted by davebush at 6:17 PM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

I was going to say Sea Change by Beck, which is the album that Golden Age (recommended above) comes from
posted by silvergoat at 6:32 PM on June 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

...I will also be writing coming-through-the-storm stuff, so I'm also looking for recs of albums that are redeeming, like they really make you feel like you've survived or you're a better person for having heard them....

Dylan's Blood on the Tracks.
posted by hydatius at 6:33 PM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

Depressing and Redeeming: I figured Lou Reed's Berlin would have come up in the first few answers.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:44 PM on June 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

Cowboy Junkies -- Miles from Home and Misguided Angel.
posted by Ostara at 6:48 PM on June 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

Songs: Ohia, Didn't It Rain
Magnolia Electric Co., Magnolia Electric Co.
David Bazan, Curse Your Branches
The Mountain Goats, The Sunset Tree
The Dismemberment Plan, Emergency & I
Ted Leo/Pharmacists, The Tyranny of Distance
Frontier Ruckus, Deadmalls & Nightfalls
posted by divined by radio at 6:49 PM on June 23, 2013 [5 favorites]

Freedy Johnston always makes me cry, particularly "This Perfect World." Also nthing Dylan Blood on the Tracks, Lou Reed, Elliott Smith and Cowboy Junkies.
posted by loveyallaround at 7:01 PM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

A Century Ends by David Gray. Recorded before he broke out, first album and utterly fantastic.
posted by arcticseal at 7:03 PM on June 23, 2013

Nine Inch Nails
posted by John Cohen at 7:04 PM on June 23, 2013

The saddest song I know of is John Prine's rendition of Sam Stone.
posted by jcworth at 7:11 PM on June 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

Thirding Beck's Sea Change. It's also just a brilliant album.
posted by war wrath of wraith at 7:20 PM on June 23, 2013

In the last album he released before his death, Johnny Cash did a bunch of covers.

His version of the Nine Inch Nails song Hurt is exactly what you're looking for.

He does a version of U2's One that is pretty melancholy especially compared to the original.

There are probably more, similar songs on the album but those are the two that I've heard.
posted by VTX at 7:32 PM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

Cat Power - The Covers Record
Sigur Ros - ()
Radiohead - Kid A
Pink Floyd - Animals
posted by seemoreglass at 7:43 PM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

American Music Club/Mark Eitzel
posted by porn in the woods at 8:09 PM on June 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

Any album by Neko Case
The xx - xx (2009 album)
Feist - The Reminder and Let It Die
Jeff Buckley - Grace
Harry Nilsson

2nd John Vanderslice and Eliott Smith
posted by penpenne at 8:24 PM on June 23, 2013

Seconding The Smiths. The Queen is Dead or Louder than Bombs would be my album picks. "I Know It's Over," which appears on The Queen Is Dead, is quite possibly the most depressing song ever recorded.
posted by SisterHavana at 8:37 PM on June 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

The Cure - Faith
posted by pompomtom at 8:52 PM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

Not everyone loves Kate Bush, but her album The Hounds of Love has a very narrative feel: after you sob through the first half, you come to the end refreshed and hopeful.
posted by Kaleidoscope at 9:05 PM on June 23, 2013

Nothing Compares to You - Sinead O'Connor

All My Little Words - Magnetic Fields

Someone Like You - Adele (It had to be said.)

Cat's in the Cradle - Henry Chapin

Mother - John Lennon
posted by cairdeas at 9:14 PM on June 23, 2013

Art of Fighting (pretty much any/all of their albums)
Efterklang - Tripper
Kashmir - Zitiliites
Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile left and right.
Peter Gabriel - Passion
Portishead - Dummy
Radiohead - almost anything, though I do agree with the Kid A suggestion above
Richard Hawley - Truelove's Gutter
Sigur Ros - Aegætis Byrjun and ( ) particularly but also Taak is so achingly beautiful it's both sad and uplifting at once.
posted by Athanassiel at 9:26 PM on June 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

Depressing- Mark Lanegans Whiskey for the Holy Ghost. Its just awful. It's music for drinking alone and regretting.

Redeeming- Of Monsters and Men My Head is an Animal. That seems to be about people who did a Bad Thing but got away with it.
posted by fshgrl at 9:36 PM on June 23, 2013

You need Nick Cave, especially The Boatman's Call. It's just the most miserable album. Even the opening lovesong is pretty dirgey.
posted by Jilder at 9:47 PM on June 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

Anna Nalick's first album, Breathe, has a lot of great redemption songs.
posted by Night_owl at 9:49 PM on June 23, 2013

The party's over by Talk Talk.
posted by arcticseal at 9:52 PM on June 23, 2013

La Disparition - Keren Ann
posted by Bokmakierie at 9:57 PM on June 23, 2013

Joy Division
Big Star - Third/Sister Lovers (You can stop before the last track, an ill-advised Jerry Lee Lewis cover.)
Nick Drake - Pink Moon
The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds, Surfs Up
Smog - The Doctor Came at Dawn

Bonnie "Prince" Billy - I See a Darkness
He used to record as Palace and other variations:
Palace Brothers - Days in the Wake
Palace Music - Lost Blues
posted by hydrophonic at 10:03 PM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

Seconding Big Star's Third/Sister Lovers. On a related note, the posthumous album by (Big Star's founder) Chris Bell, I Am the Cosmos, is pretty heartbreaking, too, especially in light of his tragic final years.
posted by scody at 10:35 PM on June 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

(Oh, and for a sample of Chris Bell, check out You and Your Sister.)
posted by scody at 10:45 PM on June 23, 2013

Tiny Tears by the Tindersticks, and almost anything off their first album Tindersticks.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 11:18 PM on June 23, 2013 [5 favorites]

Galaxie 500 - On Fire
posted by TrialByMedia at 12:06 AM on June 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

The The - Soul Mining (the whole album)
Kate Bush - The Dreaming (maybe not the title track)
R.E.M. - Automatic for the People
Tool - Aenima
PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her
posted by h00py at 4:03 AM on June 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

Oh god, yes, John Prine! Even when he's singing a "happy" song, his voice is just so "I've seen it all, and frankly, most of it sucks", that you just can't help feel all melancholy.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 6:46 AM on June 24, 2013

The most deeply sad piece of music I have ever heard is Symphony No. 3, composed by Henryk Gorecki. Here is a taste from youtube. I remember when I first heard this piece...my parents have their satellite tv set to a classical music channel, and when I walked into their living room on early morning, this was on and I was stunned into silence.
posted by lakersfan1222 at 7:28 AM on June 24, 2013 [5 favorites]

I came here to suggest Gorecki as well, but his entire suite (titled Miserere, I think), not just symphony no. 3. All together, the three-part suite make that last symphony sound redemptive and hopeful (so that's saying something.) I have the Chicago Symphony recording done in 1992, and it still makes me shiver.

Also: Kate Bush's latest album 50 Words for Snow made my tear up at the very end, no lie. The whole album swallows you whole. It's an experience, not one where you can pick a song here or there.
posted by absquatulate at 9:07 AM on June 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

WHOOPS, sorry, I have it mis-titled in iTunes, the entirety is called Symphony No. 3. Carry on, then.
posted by absquatulate at 9:20 AM on June 24, 2013

Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" is a plaintive, heartrending song-cycle of death and transfiguration. Redemption too.
posted by ROTFL at 9:25 AM on June 24, 2013

The saddest song I know is probably Bonnie Prince Billy's version of I See A Darkness.
posted by Lutoslawski at 10:23 AM on June 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

Cat Stevens - Trouble (aka The Saddest Song I Have Heard)

Fiona Apple - Sullen Girl
posted by lovableiago at 1:15 PM on June 24, 2013

Oh and also:

The Beach Boys - Warmth of the Sun
posted by lovableiago at 1:24 PM on June 24, 2013

Slaid Cleaves' album Broke Down is exactly what you're looking for.
posted by ZabeLeeZoo at 3:57 PM on June 24, 2013

Rachael Yamagata's voice does it for me all the time.

Also:

Here's Comes a Regular by The Replacements
These Days by Nico
posted by bigasthesky at 5:35 PM on June 24, 2013

Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms

Beth Nielsen Chapman - Sand and Water (Sir Elton has covered it in concert during melancholy moments.)
posted by maggieb at 9:16 PM on June 24, 2013

David Tibet and Stephen Stapleton - The Sadness of Things LP - 2 long tracks with vocals

Swans - The Seer

Nthing Gorieki

Nico - Desertshore
posted by rock swoon has no past at 4:07 PM on June 25, 2013

Joey -- Concrete Blonde
Poison Heart -- The Ramones
One -- Cowboy Junkies
posted by Ostara at 2:23 PM on June 26, 2013 [1 favorite]