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Underground > Radio & Music >

Songs for when you just want to be miserable.

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14:29 / 29.11.03

another term is over i've done just about nothing and this would probably be getting me down if it werent for the discovery of tom mcrae and his albumn of the same name.
this man is so miserable and incredibly talented that it doesnt seem there is much point in even attepting to be miserable myself.
so i wanted to know which artists/albumns do you listen to when you just want to be glum?

15:40 / 29.11.03

to answer your question directly would be incorrect; i listen to all sorts of things in all sorts of moods. i find the situation guides my hand, but not predictably.

i can heartily recommend ozomatli for that 'bring back summer' vibe, though. their first album is three quid in fopp, if you are in the UK.(near seven dials in london, on cockburn street in edinburgh, and all over glasgow. they even have one in dundee, i'm told.)

on a richly BANGIN' note, you might try the schoolyard posturing of one mr sean paul. heezanaughtyRAGGAmuffin, so he is.
oh, and always make time for slayer on the way to work, the day will almost always be better.

16:37 / 29.11.03

implicit in that was meant to be the idea that one should not wallow, by the way.

i think you should seek to lift a black mood, not enhance it.

16:39 / 29.11.03

I go for the classics. Nothing quite like Joy Division to anchor one's self in true existential angst and morbidity.

All Acting Regiment

20:07 / 29.11.03

Ooooooh yesssss. Ice Age- those noises at the begining. That's a soul weeping.

01:15 / 30.11.03

implicit in that was meant to be the idea that one should not wallow, by the way.
i think you should seek to lift a black mood, not enhance it.

And I suppose you think idle hands are the Devil's workshop, too?

Tch. Puritans.

10:01 / 30.11.03

If you want a band who initially makes you feel justified in being miserable, but then very quickly makes you feel that it's probably best not to stay that way, I can heartily recommend Paradise Lost's Draconian Times.

16:22 / 30.11.03

do you really think you shouldnt wallow when you are feeling miserable? i really enjoy it in a perverse sort of way, i was never one of those kids who would cut themselves, im too big a wuss for that, i'd just sort of scratch quite hard but when i'm feeling shitty trying to feel more shitty always makes me come out the other side faster.
hefner, especially the fidelity wars and boxing hefner are awesome for when your feeling dumped down.
as for albumns to bring you out the other side i generally use bob dylans desire, followed by some belle and sebastian chased by a night on the piss.
Tom McRae's albumn is amazing though and i really recommend you give him a try.

17:36 / 30.11.03

I’d say if you’re already so miserable that mere happy music won’t pull you out of the dive, using Tindersticks records. Their superdense ultra-depressive gravitational field can be used to create a kind of ‘slingshot’ effect which will accelerate you clean through a full-blown wallow and out the other side where you’re pissing yourself at the absurd cartoon miserablism of it all.

Be warned though, if you calculate your trajectory wrong you crash on Tindersticks planet, from which there is no escape, where you are doomed to take them seriously for all eternity.

20:04 / 30.11.03

i had a similar experience with hefner, i ended up mistaking the songs for reality which resulted in four days of me sitting around convinced that i'd lost a girlfriend because i slept with a fat woman named kelly who needed braces.
oh well

No star here laces

02:16 / 01.12.03

Mobb Deep - "The infamous" is pretty much unparalleled in terms of bleak, despairing nihilism. If you're down and a little pissed off too, this will hit the spot.

If its a relationship thing that's got you down, can't do much better than Townes van Zandt.

I also listen a lot to Joni Mitchell "Blue" which is a cliche, but still incredible.

Sizzla - "black woman and child" is something I like to listen to when down, but it's not for everybody. Just very soulful, thoughtful music, kind of takes you out of yourself.

Spiritualized - "lazer guided melodies" will do nicely also, but you have to be able to play it really loud and it'll just take you up and away and wrap you up in soft fuzzy sound. It really is like taking opiates.

And, don't let on, but I also listen to the Smiths sometimes...

No star here laces

02:17 / 01.12.03

Oh and (hey plums!) bronski beat can't be bettered sometimes.

02:57 / 01.12.03

Leonard Cohen.

He could be singing about happy hedgehogs and with his voice it would still sound like he's feeling misserable.

06:05 / 01.12.03

blind willie johnson is worth your time.

06:44 / 01.12.03

For me, it'd have to be Nick Drake espcially "Pink Moon". The first time I listened to that LP I had a long, cold, stoned bus journey back to the other sides of town, and the feelings of emptiness and paranoia seemed to get anchored in, and would replay themselves whenever I listened to it. Knowing his tragic history probably adds to this. The same is true for the much under-rated Televison Personalities, whose lead singer (can't remember his name dammit!) had a history of depression and mental helath problems. I love their "Painted Word" LP when I'm wallowing. Extract from a review online: "Everything anyone's ever felt after being dumped or betrayed or just alienated is here, ... set against a beautiful backdrop of melancholy guitars and psychedelic washes."

lord nuneaton savage

10:57 / 01.12.03

The singer for the TVP's is Dan Treacy.

When consumed by the dull fire of misery I usually go for something with a happy/sad kinda feel, Talking Heads 'This must be the place' for example or Talk Talk's gorgeous 'Spirit of eden'.

When I was a heavily pissed off teenager Sabbath's debut album used to leave my head ringing and make me feel a hundred foot tall.

The Smiths? nah...

11:55 / 01.12.03

Tom Waits is excellent, because he is not only good at being miserable, but he's also funny when he's singing about being miserable. So whilst it certainly doesn't try to cheer you up, it makes the whole situation seem more amusing. (Especially if you own Nighthawks At The Diner.) I also like Jeff Buckley's Grace, but it took a bit of getting into and his voice isn't to everyone's taste.

Another Leonard Cohen endorsement from here -such good lyrics, too...

foot long subbacultcha

14:55 / 01.12.03

You want to be miserable? I find most of the music mentioned in this thread to be quite uplifting. If I want to be miserable I'll listen to some Westlife or Atomic Kitten.

Goodness Gracious Meme

15:52 / 01.12.03

(Jefe- yep- Age of Consent really works for me! See also Soft Cell/Depeche Mode)

I've experienced both outcomes with the Tindersticks. *g*

Arthur Lee/Love's Forever Changes seems to be an album for all moods, and works for bleakness in that happy/sad way.

Another Green World -Eno.

Nick Drake- yep - Cello Song/way to blue.

Autechre - Amber.

Orbital - Insides

Dolly Parton.

My ultimate one though is Talking Heads' 'Heaven'(Fear of Music in general, actually), musically and lyrically, it's perfect.

"There is a party, everyone is there.
Everyone will leave at exactly the same time.

Its hard to imagine that nothing at all
could be so exciting, and so much fun.

Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens"

17:05 / 01.12.03

Bengali - do you really find Orbital and Autechre to be in any way miserable? I find "Insides" makes my mind go all kind of cloudy (usually in a good way), and "Amber" gives me an eery sense of clarity. To me, they don't belong in the same list for anything except for being electronic.

17:26 / 01.12.03

blind willie johnson is worth your time.

Blimey, I was just going to post and mention Blind Willie Johnson myself - been listening to a lot of that lately. Wasn't expecting someone to have beat me to it. Cool.

'Lord, I just can't keep from cryin'. The counterpoint between Blind Willie's crazed screaming out of hell and the female vocalist's muffled sense of hope.

I reckon this is what Tom Waits must put on when he's in a bad mood.

Lots of amazing music from that period, Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson, etc..

18:25 / 01.12.03

matt groening once said, "why is tv the best invention ever? because when yr tired, tv does the playing for you!" and i feel similarly about arab strap. they often make me feel better, cos it's like they do the depression for you. however, they've gotten more upbeat the last two records or so. i cannot recommend "i would have liked me a lot last night" enough, as sad songs go. beautiful.

oh, also "needle in the hay" by elliot smith...if it's depresssing enough for a suicide scene (the royal tenenbaums), it's depressing enough for me!
and "happily divided" by sebadoh. there's just somethin about it.

18:48 / 01.12.03

Yes, I'll second Arab Strap, who sometimes just remind me that even when I'm lower than they are, I'm not as miserable as them. Philophobia doesn't really have any cheering moments on it, but it's wonderful; in some ways, though, The Weekend Never Starts Round Here or Elephant Shoe are better places to start - Elephant Shoe, in particular, has some lovely moments, Cherubs in particular.

21:42 / 01.12.03

Lots of amazing music from that period, Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson, etc..

Skip James! Skip James is the undisputed king at articulating the weirdy sadness that is within every human soul and comes out when you’re all alone.

Has there ever been a thread in this forum about pre-war blues? ‘Cause I can wax lyrical about Charley Patton and his talking guitar until the cows come home. Most of CP’s stuff is rowdy, raucous, drinkalong bellowing, but there is one recording of him from just before he died, a duet with his wife, called “Oh Death” which is utterly, utterly fantastic as this dying man’s voice strains forward to meet his end, and the echo carries forward another 70 years for us to hear and wonder at. It’s fearful, tortured, resigned, and he’s probably in pain as his health gives out, but throughout there’s his wife’s sweet voice intertwined with his, supporting the melody, taking over the lead at the end of lines, helping him thru. There’s a view of Patton as like the archetypal blues “badman”, and his wife was supposedly a devout churchgoer who sung in gospel choirs and the like: these are just cliches, but they way they interact on this one spiritual at this one moment in time is...well, it’s just be so fucking beautiful, it’s good to be human and alive to feel it.

23:49 / 01.12.03

Tom Waits is good, EVERYBODY ROW!!
canibal ox, ornette coleman the constantines.

all these best served with alchohol and breakable objects.

Keith, like a scientist

16:59 / 03.12.03

nick drake, red house painters, old sebadoh

21:03 / 03.12.03

Godspeedyoublackemperor! works best for that whole "the world is desolate and full of pain, let's crawl up and die" feeling, and by the time they've got through a couple of numbers you've been raised up and knocked down again so many times you've long forgotten whatever it was you were upset about..

Mogwai's 'Come On Die Young' and Explosions in the Sky's 'Those who tell the truth shall die..' also deserve a prominent mention.

More vital than listening to music when monolithically miserable though is listening to music when you're just plain PISSED OFF.. it's then that, almost by unconscious reflex, one reaches for Big Black, Minor Threat, Napalm Death and Anaal Nathrakh.. "DESTROY!!"

21:46 / 03.12.03

Has there ever been a thread in this forum about pre-war blues?

I don't think there has been, but I definitely think that there should be. I'll start one tomorrow morning if you haven't already beaten me to it.

"Tell him I'm gone,
Tell him I'm gone,
I'm sure is gone.."

at the scarwash

21:59 / 03.12.03

I like to listen to John Frusicante's Smile From the Streets that you Hold when I'm down. It's like combing your frontal lobe with nettles while sunbathing in a 200kph sandstorm. It's not the sound of despair, it's the sound of being so far beyond despair that the postal service doesn't deliver to where you are.

02:00 / 04.12.03

I'll start one tomorrow morning if you haven't already beaten me to it.

Get to it, sunshine. I’m too newly-hatched and wet to cope with the tricky business of formulating a decent topic abstract.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

08:40 / 04.12.03

When I'm really, really going through a bad one, Current 93's "Of Ruine Or Some Blazing Starre" is my best friend. It starts nice, then proceeds down some very dark paths until it's in full-on wallow mode, then gradually gets all majestic and beautiful by the end, reducing depression to melancholy. Works for me, anyway.

If I'm just wallowing, then yes, Joy Division (Joy Division are generally one of the best bands ever under any, and I mean any circumstances EVER). Leonard Cohen (esp. "Dress Rehearsal Rag".) The first Tindersticks album (except someone stole mine.) The first Nine Inch Nails album. Selected New Model Army ballads ("Lovesongs" being a particularly good one.)

If I'm drunk and self-pitying, various Bad Seeds songs fill the spot- depending on the situation, Nick's always got something in his bag of tricks to fit perfectly. As has Tom Waits. And "Open" by the Cure- one of my favourite ever drinking songs (as in songs about drinking rather than songs to drink to).

And, of course, all the songs with sentimental value that would mean jack shit to anyone else but me.

Jack The Bodiless

11:38 / 04.12.03

I'd go with The Cure, selected highlights of - most of Wish has unpleasant memories associated with it. Oddly, the most harrowing song for me is 'From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea', possibly the most horribly painful song about a disintegrating relationship I've ever heard (you've GOT to worry about Bob and Mary after some of the nightmarish shit he's written about being in love). Gotta listen to that to get through to the other side.

Then there's Brave, by Marillion. Creepy/trippy (the Japanese whispering in the middle of 'Goodbye To All That'), heartrendingly sad (the lyrics to the title track, vocals soaring like a motherfucker), defiant, fucked up, posturing rock n' roll ('Hard As Love', 'Living With The Big Lie') weary/stately hangover music ('The Hollow Man')... what else would you expect from an album telling a story about abuse and lies? That the album ends on a happy, uplifting song is one of the most unpleasant things about it, since it's left ambiguous whether the Girl kills herself or not in the song before...

18:35 / 04.12.03

Scott Walker, because spectacular absinth soaked melodrama beats weepy bedsit moaning hands down any day of the week.

20:54 / 04.12.03

Darlene Love's Spector-tastic 'Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)' is an especially apt piece of musical melancholia for this time of year.

Goodness Gracious Meme

14:36 / 06.12.03

Scott Walker! Yes!

REM's Automatic For The People makes me cry these days, (ie now I haven't played it to death for about 10 years)

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