I need depressing music

My Dying Bride (the band) would be a good place to start.

Anything by the late great Elliott Smith.
August and Everything After by Counting Crows.
Most of Out of Time, some of Automatic for the People, and almost all of Reckoning by R.E.M.

Diamanda Galas.

Tori Amos.

His music definitely transcended "depressing", but it's the closest to the most beautifully depressing music you'll ever hear: Johnny Cash, specifically the American Recordings albums.

The Eels album 'Beautiful Freak' and Faultline's 'Your Love Means Everything' are two mopey favorites of mine.

The Leonard Cohen canon entire.

Have I got some stuff for you! Hoo-boy! A lot of movie scores (and thus some songs will only be applicable in certain sections), and a lot of no-brainers, but here you go. Ye be warned, some of these songs my brain has latched onto for days and drove me to unheralded lows.

-A Beautiful Mind - Looking For The Next Great Idea
-A Beautiful Mind - Real Or Imagined
-Agnes Of God - Suite
-Alice Cooper - I Never Cry
-American Beauty - Angela Undress
-Beatles - Let It Be (naturally)
-Bernice Johnson Reagon – We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder
-Bicentennial Man - The Gift Of Mortality
-Black Hawk Down - Gortoz A Ran
-Black Hawk Down - Leave No Man Behind
-Bob Dylan - Blind Willie McTell
-Bob Dylan - Knockin' On Heaven's Door
-Boondock Saints - Three Stones
-Braveheart - Betrayal And Desolation
-Braveheart - Outlawed Tunes
-Bruce Mitchell - Gaelic Morn
-Bubba Ho-Tep - All Is Well
-Buffalo Springfield - Expecting To Fly
-Built To Spill - Cortez The Killer
-Carlito's Way - Theme
-Casper - Theme
-Chieftains & Joan Osborne - Raglan Road
-Chieftains & Loreena McKennitt - Carrickfergus
-Children Of Dune - Preacher At Arrakeen
-Christy Moore - A Pair Of Brown Eyes
-Christy Moore - Back Home In Derry
-Cinderella Man - All Prayed Out
-David Gray - The Other Side
-Dead Can Dance - The Host Of Seraphim
-Dead Can Dance - The Wind That Shakes The Barley
-Derek & The Dominos - Bellbottom Blues
-Derek & The Dominos - Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out
-DeVotchka - How It Ends
-Dragonheart - Wonders Of An Ancient Glory
-Dropkick Murphys - The Auld Triangle
-Dubliners - Rare Ould Times
-Dubliners - The Fields Of Athenry
-Dubliners - The Town I Loved So Well
-Edward Scissorhands - The Ice Dance
-Elton John - Belfast
-Enya - May It Be
-Flogging Molly - Laura
-Gary Jules - Mad World
-Gattaca - The Arrival
-Geasa - Spancill Hill
-Glory - An Epitaph To War
-Gods And Generals - Loved I Not Honor Anymore
-Gods And Generals - These Brave Irishmen
-Gods And Generals - You'll Thank Me In The Morning
-Goo Goo Dolls - Iris
-Gordon Lightfoot - The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald
-Gregorio Allegri - Miserere Mei Deus
-Guns 'N' Roses - Estranged
-Hellboy - Father's Funeral
-Hook - Farewell Neverland
-Hulk - The Truth Revealed
-Independence Day - El Toro Destroyed
-Isaac Hayes - Walk On By
-Jeff & Mychael Danna - Lament
-Jeff & Mychael Danna - Loch Etive
-Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
-Joe Dolan - Everybody Hurts
-Johann Sebastian Bach - Jesu Meine Freude
-John Denver & Paul McCartney - Let It Be
-John Denver - Whispering Jesse
-Jumanji -Alan Parrish
-King Kong - Central Park
-Kinks - Nothing In This World Can Stop Me Worryin' 'Bout That Girl
-Layer Cake - Aria
-Led Zeppelin - Stairway To Heaven
-Legends Of The Fall - Twilight And Mist
-Les Miserables - Bring Him Home
-Les Miserables - Empty Chairs At Empty Tables
-Lisa Gerrard - Sacrifice
-Loreena McKennitt - Annachie Gordon
-Loreena McKennitt - Bonny Portmore
-Loreena McKennitt - Dante's Prayer
-Loreena McKennitt - Gloomy Sunday
-Lost - Win One For The Reaper
-Lou Reed - Perfect Day
-Lynard Skynard - Simple Man
-Man On Fire - Bullet Tells The Truth
-Man On Fire - Pita's Sorrow
-Mark Collie - In Time
-Masterless Men - Dublin In My Tears
-Matthew Good Band - Advertising On Police Cars
-Meet Joe Black - That Next Place
-Merlin - Age Of Magic
-Metallica - Mama Said
-Metallica - Nothing Else Matters
-Metallica - The Unforgiven II
-Metallica - Turn The Page
-Moody Blues - Nights In White Satin
-Munich - A Prayer For Peace
-Neck - I'll Take Me Back
-Nirvana - Heart Shaped Box
-Old 97s - Salome (ye be warned x2)
-Pan's Labyrinth - Long, Long Time Ago
-Pantera - Suicide Note Part 1
-Pearl Harbor - December 7th
-Pink Floyd - Hey You
-Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
-Pleasantville - Suite
-Pogues - Four O'Clock In The Morning
-Queen - Who Wants To Live Forever
-Radiohead - Creep
-Radiohead - How To Disappear Completely
-Road To Perdition - Wake
-Rob D - I'm Not Driving Anymore
-Rosewood - Look Down, Lord (Reprise & Finale)
-Slowdive - Avalyn II
-Smashing Pumpkins - Landslide
-Smashing Pumpkins - Tonight Tonight
-Sonata Arctica - Replica
-Sonata Arctica - Shamandalie
-Sonata Arctica - Shy
-Spider-Man - Farewell
-Spy Game - Operation Dinner Out
-Stabbing Westward - Wasted (Acoustic)
-Superman Returns - You Are Not One Of Them
-The Abyss - Finale
-The Civil War - Ashokan Farewell
-The Fountain - Together We Will Live Forever
-The Horse Whisperer - Creek House
-The Insider - Broken
-The Last Castle - September 11, 2001
-The Life Of David Gale - Almost Martyrs
-The Lord Of The Rings - Amon Hen
-The Lord Of The Rings - Samwise The Brave
-The Lord Of The Rings - The Breaking Of The Fellowship
-The Lord Of The Rings - The King Of The Golden Hall
-The Lord Of The Rings - The Return Of The King
-Tommy Fleming - Only Our Rivers Run Free
-Tossers - Alone
-Tossers - Everything's Bad
-Tossers - Minutes On A Screen
-Tossers - The Last Night On Earth
-V For Vendetta - Valerie
-Veronica Guerin - Never Show Your Fear


And the crowning achievement in depressing music, which is damn near impossible to find but I can give ya if needs be:
-All-State Choir - Prayer Of The Children

But here's the song you should most definitely be listening to in your current state I'd say:
-Clancy Brothers - Streets Of London

If you like Boublil/Schoenberg, I've always thought "I Still Believe" and "Now That I've Seen Her" are pretty moving, though they might lack resonance out of context. (EDIT - from MISS SAIGON)

CCR - "Effigy"

Morphine - "In Spite of Me"

Doctor Hook - "Sylvia's Mother"

Nick Drake

Ryan Adams's self titled album is rather morose. I love La Cienega Just Smiled.

The Smashing Pumpkins' Adore.

If you ever want to stop fucking around and try out some real "bleak despair of the human condition"-level depressing music, try Gorecki's Symphony No. 3, Opus 26 (a.k.a. "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs"). Beautiful, but oh so goddamned depressing.

Ok if we are heading in that direction then you can't top anything from the composer Carlo Gesualdo. I can give you specifics when I get home and check my CD collection but you can't get much more depressing and "For fucks sake, life sucks" than this guys work. If you are in that moping by yourself in a room full of candles phase, you can't do better. He was a guy who was working out a whole bunch of "issues".

EDIT: Ok it's Sacred Heart for 5 Voices.
There it is.

That one Smiths' song where Morrissey sounds depressed.

Gotta be Radiohead innit.

Sun Kil Moon is a bit depressing, its the band of Mark Kozelek. Oh, his previous band Red House Painters is depressing too (but crap unlike Sun Kil Moon)

Godspeed You Black Emperor!
Jeff Buckley (especially if you think about him drowning)
Elliott Smith (especially if you think about him taking a knife to the chest)

Hey Stormin, all that Brian Tyler shit is real pretty. Maybe it's just me, but I find it uplifting rather than depressing.

Sade people. Sade. The woman has a way of making you want to grab a razor and end it all.

There's also A Perfect Circle.

I find a lot of Sigur Ros tends to be depressing, or strangely uplifting. It depends on your mood.

Ah, good point. I definitely feel both extremes with that band, their () album has some very depressing moments.

Any particular reason you need music to cry to, Pat?

And if you wanna up the Radiohead=depression quotient, I suggest you give Chris O'Riley's True Love Waits a try. It's an entire album of Radiohead covers on piano. If that don't make you wanna slit your wrists, I don't know what will.

I will take your word for it, but I like my wrists these days so I shall avoid Mr O'Riley's rendition of 'Thinking About You' and such.

Off topic, but what is it with this flood of piano/orchestral arrangements of songs by rock bands? The first few times it was nice and novel but now its just boring and most of the time not good at all. I'm sick of those String Quartet Tribute albums damnit.

Anyway.

The Cure

Cog, most of those albums are put out by a label called Vitamin Records. They realised they have a cash cow on their hands, so they just hire a couple of lousy musicians to do a tribute to Panic! At The Disco, or whatever other flavour of the month bands they can get rights to. But you shouldn't compare those to O'Riley's output. The guy's a musical genius and seems to realy get what Radiohead's music is about.

Talking about classical arrangements of rock songs, I think the first one that comes to mind is the show that Metallica put together with Michael Kamen. Though I'm sure there were others even then. And you gotta admit: when it works, it works.

My general impression of Sade is she makes people want to grab someone of the opposite sex and make babies.

Neko Case - "The Tigers Have Spoken" off the album of the same name

Peter Gabriel - "Talk to Me" off of Us

Roseanne Cash did a FANTASTIC version of "I Still Miss Someone" at the Johnny Cash tribute. You can find it on YouTube.

I never find GYBE depressing.


Sometimes; "Hallelujah" is cliche these days, but still moving if you can get over that (Love...it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah") and "Dream Brother" gets to me quite a bit. Very melancholy and very beautiful. Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk always seems a bit more uplifting to me

Pinkerton.

People who don't love this album aren't fully human.

"Highway Patrolman" by Bruce Springsteen.

Can’t go wrong with Billie Holiday (Gloomy Sunday, In My Solitude, God Bless the Child, Strange fruit, etc.).

ECM records’ classical division specializes in bleak and depressing early music. It’s a bit over the top. The album covers-usually black and white photographs of Lapland tundra, urban decay or village hovels of the Ukraine-set the mood. Slathering on the reverb, the recording engineers create quite a convincing illusion of plaintive voices and creaky instruments echoing across these desolate and unpopulated landscapes. They have done a suitably mopey Gesualdo album. But, for more consistently cheerless music I would suggest Tallis’ The Lamentations of Jeremiah:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Tallis-...6649298&sr=8-2

…or the Keller Quartet’s version of Bach’s Art of the Fugue:

http://www.amazon.com/Bach-Art-Fugue...6646305&sr=1-1

…or pretty much anything by Arvo Part (a contemporary composer of old-sounding music)

http://www.amazon.com/Litany-Arvo-Pa...6649431&sr=8-1


Enjoy!

It's both.

Thirteenth Step, primarily. Mer De Noms is actually in the music to make babies to category, Three Libras and Judith aside.

As for eMOTIVe, as it pertains to this thread, get the cover of Peace Love And Understanding. It's definitely....less inspiring than before.

I love strings, cant get enough of them, but sometimes it becomes a cliche or overblown, like the Brodsky Quartet Version of Bjork's Hyperballad. I'll check out O'Riley though, I like me some pianos too (check out Craig Armstrong's Piano Works album if you're into pianos too)

Speaking of strings....Rob Dougan's Furious Angels. The midsection of the album, I'd say the three tracks after I'm Not Driving Anymore really sinks into heartbreaking territory.

They're also the songs where the disc with the vocals actually shines instead of distracts.

I was going to suggest Clint Mansel's The Fountain soundtrack.

Nothing like making you feel like you're floating through space in a bubble with a dying tree as your only company.

Elliot Smith is always reliable.

I'm surprised no one started throwing Death Cab for Cutie circa Transatlanticism out there.

Try John Prine's Sam Stone or even better Six O Clock news

Wanda had a baby in nineteen fifty one.
The father was stranger and a stranger was the son.
Call that child James Lewis, call these rooms a home.
Changing all them diapers polish all that chrome.
C'mon, baby, spend the night with me

All around the schoolyard playing all the games
Running, laughing back and forth the kid with two first names
Stranger in the closet, lock the diary
The past is running faster singing harmony
C'mon, baby, spend the night with me

"God bless this kitchen" said the knick-knack shelf
"The dinner's almost ready Go and wash yourself"
Jimmy's growing up now and Wanda's growing old
The time is growin' shorter the nights are long and cold
C'mon, baby, spend the night with me

Sneaking in the closet and through the diary
Now, don't you know all he saw was all there was to see
The whole town saw Jimmy on the six o'clock news
His brains were on the sidewalk and blood was on his shoes
C'mon, baby, spend the night with me
C'mon, baby, spend the night with me

I tend to gravitate toward Fiona Apple if I need something downbeat. Her music works especially well for relationship troubles.

I'll second that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0AZIFmkogY

Roger Water's "Amused to Death" is pretty much a downer even by his standards.

I love that video. Depressing as all hell.

This one immediately becomes non-depressing after Case's super-cute little "Thank ya very much" to the crowd at the end.

Bella Bartok. Chopin. Beethoven. But it's pretty tough to rival Barber's Adaggio For Strings for reveling in a state of melancholia.

"The Last Five Years," which is about a couple's courtship, marriage, and eventual divorce, is a far far more depressing piece of musical theatre than "Les Miserables." I own the cast recording, and I can barely make it all the way through it without wanting to slit my goddamn wrists.

Also, Christy Moore does a better version of "Streets of London" than the Clancy Bros. Sorry, Stormin!

Go watch Dancer In the Dark. Then try to make it all the way through Bjork's Selmasongs without turning into a sobbing blubbery mess.

Here's a quick list of all the most depressing songs I can think of...

Lua - Bright Eyes
Hollow Hills - Bauhaus
Siamese Twins - The Cure
Ever Had The Feeling - Blind Melon
Hate - Cat Power
Sullen Girl - Fiona Apple
Baby Sister - Damien Rice
Man That You Fear - Marilyn Manson
Cold Hard World - Daniel Johnston
Grave Digger - Dave Matthews Band
The End - The Doors
Between the Bars - Elliott Smith
Hardly - Hayden
Suicidal Failure - Suicidal Tendencies
Famous Blue Raincoat - Leonard Cohen
Perfect Day - Lou Reed
My Dream Girl Don't Exist - Neutral Milk Hotel
Been Smoking Too Long - Nick Drake
Help Me I Am In Hell - Nine Inch Nails
Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay - Otis Redding
Strange Fruit - Nina Simone
Goodbye Cruel World - Pink Floyd
Climbing Up The Walls - Radiohead
Crosswalk - Rasputina
The Drugs Don't Work - The Verve
Porcelain - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Freak - Silverchair
Wet My Bed - Stone Temple Pilots
Pool Shark - Sublime
Everything Goes To Hell - Tom Waits

^Your list reminded me of two songs:

Bright Eyes - Padraic My Prince
Cat Power - Names

I had a very similar experience while listening to Takk on the long drive home to Los Angeles the night my dad passed away. One minute the music is making me bawl like a child, the next I actually feel uplifted. I love Sigur Ros.