Post by: KharBevNor on 15 Jul 2006, 20:04
MY DYING BRIDE - TURN LOOSE THE SWANS
When I bought Turn Loose the Swans, I knew there was something different about this album to what I'd heard before. The artwork, the band photos, spoke of something on a completely different planet to the music I'd heard before. And so it was. Turn Loose the Swans is an album about the loss of a loved one, and the subsequent loss of Faith and poetic inspiration, ultimately leading to the good old favourite: suicide. The genius of the album comes in several places. The pacing is of course the first. Though this album is heavy as fuck, there's not even a single guitar chord until about 10 minutes into it. Just piano and violin. When the blast-beats kick in on 'The Snow In My Hand', with Aarons despairing roars over the top you are almost knocked out your chair. Aarons voice is the other thing. The man does not sing different keys, he sings different tones of misery and depression, perfectly summing up the emotions conveyed by the lyrics. And then, of course, there is the violin. Oh Gods, how beautiful. This album was one of the many that helped wean me off the more vacuous music I had been listening to and on to new things. It didn't half make me glum in the process though. The really wonderful thing about this album is how cathartic and personal it seems. It's also great for bus journeys in the winter.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/97/Gospel_of_Inhumanity_Cover.jpg)
BLOOD AXIS - THE GOSPEL OF INHUMANITY
The Gospel of Inhumanity covers a much wider theme than TLTS, and requires a bit more thought before its message hits you. The message is, ultimately, that we are doomed. The opening tracks, with the brilliant sampling from the Wicker Man, opening with Howies futile prayers to his God, and ending with his denunciation of the futility of the islanders actions ("Desire shall fail, and ye shall all die!"), foreshadows 'The Voyage', which quotes Tiresias' prophecy in the underworld from The Odyssey. The main hit of the album, however, is with the double-whammy of 'Herr, nun lass in Frieden' and 'Reign I Forever'. War is meaningless, the first track tells us. We are all the same, all brothers. The second track, however, is merciless. War shall rule humanity forever, and all goodness shall be crushed. There is no escape. A truly terrifying, but engrossing album.
Discuss and add your own, I shall be back with more. Many more!
Post by: Scytale on 15 Jul 2006, 20:46
I'm going to have to go with Filosofem
(http://www.nebelfee.gsb-online.com/shop/catalog/images/burzum_filosofem.JPG)
Everything about this album is depressing, the production, the wonderfully tortured vocals, Varg's best IMO and the lyrics, good god.
"I wonder how winter will be
With a spring that I shall never see
I wonder how night will be
With a day that I shall never see
I wonder how life will be
With a light I shall never see
I wonder how life will be
With a pain that lasts eternally "
Runner up for me is At The Gates - Terminal Spirit Dissease
(http://www.rockdetector.com/assets/img/covers/13269.jpg)
The way the violins merge into the guitar melody at the start of
"The Swarm" is amazing sounds like a funeral dirge or something and then the vocals hits Tomas Lindberg sounds he's most angry and spitefull on this album, I don't know if I've ever heard anyone manage to sound more pissed off. The two instrumental tracks are brilliant. The lyrics are also brilliant:
"In this cell that is ours there is no pity
No sunrise on the cold plain that is our soul
No beckoning to a warm horizon
The sun shall never greet my eyes again
It is our world
It has been stolen from us, bastards
No goddamn sun
No goddamn pain
I've searched my heart for love
But all in vain
No goddamn sun, no goddamn pain
Exploring life without fear -
Without feeling I am one with
My torment and forever blind
My desire clenches itself in a hungry fist
And welcomes my soul to the thirst of dying
Mother of all, come take your revenge
The sun shall never greet my eyes again"
Post by: Inlander on 15 Jul 2006, 20:52
For serious.
Post by: Ribbon Fat on 15 Jul 2006, 21:05
Post by: JLM on 15 Jul 2006, 21:27
(http://www.revolver.nu/bilder/album/the_rolling_stones_a_bigger_bang.jpg)
They should have hung it up years ago.
Or did you mean something else by "depressing?"
Post by: MWhaling on 16 Jul 2006, 00:07
Post by: Johnny C on 16 Jul 2006, 00:27
Okkervil River's Black Sheep Boy is a depressing album, but brilliant. Repeated lyrical motifs, a beautifully woven storyline of unrequited love that simply builds and builds as the album goes on and eventually leaves the underdog narrator finally alone despite every ounce of his soul being poured into loving the girl, and some stellar folk-rock.
(http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/6985/casiodh2.gif) (http://imageshack.us)
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone basically draws every song from an unfathomable pit of total heart-wrenching sadness, which is especially true on Etiquette. I seriously can't listen to more than two of his songs at a time. I mean, come on - the title of one of them is "Don't They Have Payphones Wherever You Were Last Night." The dude puts the "mope" in "siiiiiiiiiigh."
Post by: MWhaling on 16 Jul 2006, 00:38
Post by: Thrillho on 16 Jul 2006, 08:49
Quote from: Ribbon Fat
(http://www.albumvote.co.uk/images/closer.jpg)
Oddly, I usually find this album uplifting. It tends to shake me out of depression.
Post by: Misereatur on 16 Jul 2006, 10:10
(http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i2/ffgtthttghyujjfdss/gothic.jpg)
Second album from british doom metal act Paradise Lost is probably one of the best doom metal albums of the 90's. Many people (including the band memmbers themselfs) calims that this albums is actually the album that invented gothic metal, by combining death metal with doom metal estetics and throeing in femal vocals to accompany Nick Holmes' vocals.
Way is this the first album to come to my mind?
"After all wars
We lie, as shelter falls
The world is but hell
A place darckened by time
Submit to the fall
Live in peace for years
Turn back the hands of time
Light shines before
As lives are torn
Morals slow decline
We'll live in cold fear
Until we lay dead
Silent our pleas
Search for the end"
Paradise Lost - Shades Of God
(http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i2/ffgtthttghyujjfdss/sog.jpg)
Third album of PL brings a new sound, away from the doom/death of gothic to a more "down and dirty" sound (actually, I think the sound is closer to thrash metal then to doom). But none the less PL delivers another masterpiece that walked me through a lot in my life.
These will do for now, more to come.
Post by: Johnny C on 16 Jul 2006, 11:09
Post by: schimmy on 16 Jul 2006, 11:23
Post by: karl gambolputty... on 16 Jul 2006, 11:29
(http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h266/senadhi/B000009VOL.jpg)
Cat Power - Moon Pix. Incredibly depressing, and achingly beautiful.
(http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h266/senadhi/B00004WJDP.jpg)
Monroe Mustang - De Avonden 091099. It's pretty much the soundtrack to a funeral.
(http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h266/senadhi/B00004THL7.jpg)
Knife in the Water - Red River. It's more mopey country than mopey indie rock, but it's still sad as all hell.
Post by: jariku on 16 Jul 2006, 12:07
Post by: Merkava on 16 Jul 2006, 12:12
Come ooooooon. COME OOOOOOOON.
Post by: Willem on 16 Jul 2006, 12:59
(http://images-jp.amazon.com/images/P/B00005EHOV.09.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)
Lou Reed - Berlin
Post by: Rubby on 16 Jul 2006, 13:00
Quote from: Johnny C
(http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/6985/casiodh2.gif) (http://imageshack.us)
That's wonderful album art.
Post by: El Opium on 16 Jul 2006, 13:39
Sunn 0))-OO Void
(http://www.boomkat.com/media/image/sunnolpx.jpg)
Cuts straight to the soul with it's despairing heavyness. For some reason I think the sound of this record is equivalent to the "Boum" sound in E.M. Forster's "A Passage to India".
Arvo Part-Tabula Rasa
(http://home.ix.netcom.com/~philox/_uimages/ArvoPart.gif)
The perfect classical soundtrack to 3 A.M. misery. Makes me feel like my soul could fall through the space between the notes.
The Handsome Family-Twighlight
(http://www.carrottoprecords.com/media/Handsome-TW/HFTWI72_3.jpg)
Takes country's cardboard cowboy-hat happiness and turns it around to create something truly miserable.
Post by: Praeserpium Machinarum on 16 Jul 2006, 13:48
(http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf300/f335/f33580d6i1l.jpg)
On a more serious note I always thought Radiohead - Hail to the Thief was depressing in an angry culture pessimistic way.
Oh and I forgot I owned this:
(http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd800/d877/d87745q57t5.jpg)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F#A#(Infinity)
It has The Dead Flag Blues, need I say more?
Post by: ImRonBurgundy? on 16 Jul 2006, 13:56
(http://www.artistdirect.com/Images/artd/amg/music/cover/1661159_weezer_200.jpg)
(http://www.thegazz.com/blogs/newoldmusic/uploaded_images/weezer-758870.jpg)
wait a second. you meant depressing like how?
Post by: greenMonkey on 16 Jul 2006, 14:06
Anyways, I meant to post an image of GY!BE's f#a#(infinity).
I find it apocalyptic and creepy. But awesome none-the-less.
Post by: TrueNeutral on 16 Jul 2006, 14:13
"And I... I could try... but waking up is harder when you want to die."
Post by: Garcin on 16 Jul 2006, 14:17
Quote from: greenMonkey
(http://www.geekculture.dk/bedler/musik/godspeed.jpg)
I find it apocalyptic and creepy. But awesome none-the-less.
Either you got pwned when you cross-linked that, or we're closer than I thought.
Post by: KharBevNor on 16 Jul 2006, 14:44
CURRENT 93 - CATS DRUNK ON COPPER
A live album that, despite the fact that A Song For Douglas After He's Dead is conspicuously absent, really does just pull together the whole Inmost Light/Inmost Night strand of C93's work into a evocative compendium of personal and biblical apocalypse. From the fantastic re-working of Twilight Twilight Nihil Nihil (Never has a track been more redeemed from its original incarnation). The intensity of C93 live performances is married with a brilliant song selection and, for once, really good recording quality. From the opening sample, to the last, choked up words of Dave as 'Happy Birthday' fades into feedback and applause ("Thank you. That's all we know".) This album is a masterpiece.
(http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/9/96/200px-Soporesreiten.jpg)
SOPOR AETERNUS & THE ENSEMBLE OF SHADOWS - ES REITEN DIE TOTEN SO SCHNELL (OR: THE VAMPYRE SUCKING AT HIS OWN VEIN).
Why is the album title so long? Why is Anna-Varney naked on the front in full Butoh make-up with her mouth stuffed full of black rags? Who cares. This is deep stuff, if you can connect with it. The theme and imagery is heavily gothic-romantic, centering on a subject that should be extremely played out, that is, vampiric angst. However, unlike the cartoonish antics of, for example, Cradle of Filth, Anna-Varney traps in to the higher vein of 'monster' literature and film, which uses the accentuated plight of the living dead as a vehicle to comment on our own human experience.
"Undead and still suffering, always suffering..."
Quote
Christian Death - Only Theatre Of Pain (with or without Deathwish ep)
I just don't find almost any goth rock depressing. Christian Death is maybe approaching something gloomy, but as a genre it's all just too danceable. I'd say without the Deathwish EP.
Post by: greenMonkey on 16 Jul 2006, 15:04
Quote from: Moiche
Quote from: greenMonkey
I find it apocalyptic and creepy. But awesome none-the-less.
Either you got pwned when you cross-linked that, or we're closer than I thought.
Eh?
Post by: KharBevNor on 16 Jul 2006, 15:09
Post by: dancarter on 16 Jul 2006, 15:56
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3f/LastRightsAlbumCover.jpg)
This is Ogre, Key and Goettel at their most desperate. From the lurch and back masked opening of Love in Vein, quickly followed by the brutal, slow and empty "Killing Game", all the way through to the final drones and bleeps dying out on the last track, "Download", you can't get much more depressing than this. Even sonically, it's just crushing.
And if you can find it, there's a missing track which was banned (though easily accessible now), called "Left Hand Shake", featuring Timothy Leary.
Post by: SpacemanSpiff on 16 Jul 2006, 16:30
Aereogramme - A Story In White
Somewhere between Isis, fragile melodies and singing, screaming and post-rock lies the world of Aereogramme. It's not the "I want to kill myself" depression, it's this empty kind of depression you get when something vital is missing and you have no idea what it is. And the howling fits of rage and that sometimes attack you throughout this album for 30 seconds or so make the whole thing even worse because of the contrast.
Post by: Rubby on 16 Jul 2006, 17:01
Post by: Kai on 16 Jul 2006, 17:14
Post by: Inlander on 16 Jul 2006, 17:30
Quote from: El Opium
country's cardboard cowboy-hat happiness
What the fuck?? You've been listening to the wrong country.
Post by: Johnny C on 16 Jul 2006, 18:50
Post by: greenMonkey on 16 Jul 2006, 19:11
Quote from: Moiche
Quote from: greenMonkey(http://www.geekculture.dk/bedler/musik/godspeed.jpg)
I find it apocalyptic and creepy. But awesome none-the-less.
Either you got pwned when you cross-linked that, or we're closer than I thought.
Yeah I got pwned while direct linking.
THAR IS A MORAL TO THIS CHELDREN. NEVAR CROS LINK A PIXTAR ON TEH INTARBUTTS.
Post by: The Hammered on 16 Jul 2006, 19:32
Post by: Skibas_clavicle on 16 Jul 2006, 20:46
Quote from: TrueNeutral
(http://www.rwin.nl/grantleephillips/images/36277f.JPG)
"And I... I could try... but waking up is harder when you want to die."
I've been listening to this album all day and I don't think it's depressing....some songs are, but it is sorta creepy.
Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker
Cat Power - You Are Free
Perfecting Lonliness - Jets To Brazil
Post by: IntermittentEvil on 16 Jul 2006, 21:25
Post by: Joseph on 17 Jul 2006, 01:30
To kind of add on to ImRonBurgundy?'s post, I would like to add, in complete seriousness: (http://www.tprice.net/disco/weezer/pinkerton.jpg)
Something about the way it's sung and played just does it for me. Part of it has to do with when I first heard it, and how my life felt back then, but it still hits me.
You guys can go and shun me now, if you must.
Post by: Johnny C on 17 Jul 2006, 01:36
Post by: Thrillho on 17 Jul 2006, 09:14
Quote from: Dark Flame
I have to say, I'm absolutely loving this thread, tons of things to check out when I'm back from vacation.
To kind of add on to ImRonBurgundy?'s post, I would like to add, in complete seriousness: (http://www.tprice.net/disco/weezer/pinkerton.jpg)
Something about the way it's sung and played just does it for me. Part of it has to do with when I first heard it, and how my life felt back then, but it still hits me.
You guys can go and shun me now, if you must.
A magnificent record, and definitely quite depressing, but only when you listen properly and know the stories behind it. To the untrained ear it's just a fine rock album.
Post by: Zaarin on 17 Jul 2006, 14:50
Post by: Kid Modernist on 17 Jul 2006, 16:35
![]("http://www.johnnylunchpail.com/robwebber/uploaded_images/disintegration-734579.jpg")
Post by: The Eyeball Kid on 18 Jul 2006, 03:07
Late night moping that Tom Waits would kill to equal and so sad it breaks my heart sometimes
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000006TRV.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
Yep, its a total cliche. But when an album is so sad you can't keep listening to it 'cause it makes you too depressed, then I say its a contender... or it was when I was a kid.
I listen to alot of Nick Cave/Leonard Cohen/Tom Waits/Bob Dylan, but despite their reputations I usually find myself uplifted by their music; there's usually some humour to leaven the mood
Post by: Rizzo on 18 Jul 2006, 03:47
I find Tragedy incredibly depressing. The growled, distorted vocals combined with incredibly overdriven guitars.
Every song conjures up images of the end of the world and the lyrics do like-wise.The lyrics are despairing, there is no hope for humanity.
-To The Dogs
As we find ourselves barely conscious,we struggle to our knees
Looking for a sign that says this is life, and not a dream
There is a sign and it read: "hope is the leash of submission"
Moral bondage forges its cage, once again filling us with guilt and shame
Moral bondage tightens its grip, once again crushing us with fault and blame
For how long will we carry these crippling loads?
And when will we unlearn the lies, refuse the cost and throw it all to the dogs?
Surprisingly I find some of the new Rise Against album pretty similar. I can't help but agree when they sing about wanting to change the world and having no hope of doing so. That for me is more depressing than anything else.
Skinny Puppy seconded.
Post by: Thrillho on 18 Jul 2006, 07:39
Quote from: Zaarin
(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0001KZM3O.08._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
Fuck yeah. But fracturedly beautiful too!
Post by: Alchemist on 18 Jul 2006, 07:52
Post by: greenMonkey on 18 Jul 2006, 10:45
(http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B00006LLNU.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
It also puts me to sleep.
Post by: Shaft on 19 Jul 2006, 18:37
Post by: mberan42 on 19 Jul 2006, 21:06
(http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/6818/animalsuz5.jpg)
Depressing in a "this world sucks major ass" way.
I agree with The Final Cut, but not with The Wall. TFC has Your Possible Past and Fletcher Memorial Home and Southampton Dock on it. While TW has Mother, Don't Leave Me Now, Goodbye Cruel World, Nobody Home, Comfortably Numb (which has lost nearly all meaning for me, unfortunately), Stop and Outside the Wall, it also has Happiest Days of our Lives, Another Brickin the Wall (Pts. 2 & 3) (again, lost all meaning for me), Young Lust, Bring the Boys Back Home, In the Flesh and Run Like Hell - those songs detract from the depressiveness of the album, to me. I still think it's a brilliant album. Just not a, categorically, depressive album.
Animals is such a "fuck you" to society:
"You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to,
So that when they turn their backs on you,
You'll get the chance to put the knife in." - Dogs
"Big man, pig man, ha ha charade you are.
You well heeled big wheel, ha ha charade you are." - Pigs (Three Different Ones)
"What do you get for pretending the danger's not real.
Meek and obedient you follow the leader
Down well trodden corridors into the valley of steel.
What a surprise!" - Sheep
And pretty much all of Pigs on the Wing.
Ok, stepping off my Pink Floyd high-horse.
Other depressive albums, for me:
Can I even mention this band on the QC forums? Should I risk the ridicule and shame from my past likings (and continued guilty pleasure)?
Dashboard Confessional - So Impossible EP
Yeah, yeah, I know. You don't need to preach. I know. Trust me, I know. They were a past love. Kinda like your first girlfriend - you never forget her. That's what Dashboard is like to me. I've moved on, but I've never forgotten.
(http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/9112/b0000bwvm301lzzzzzzzeg6.jpg)
Especially the title track. Oh, man...
(http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/7180/jewelmw7.jpg)
Another guilty pleasure. I don't listen to it often, but it's killer.
(http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/8505/youngteamoc8.jpg)
A bit of redemption? Seriously, my favourite Mogwai disc. Mogwai Fear Satan is probably on my all-time top-10 list of favourite tracks. Probably.
I think that's all I have, for now.
I certainly have a veritable shitton of "most depressing tracks," should anyone choose to start a thread like that.
Cheers.
Post by: bucky_2300 on 19 Jul 2006, 21:32
Post by: Hairy Joe Bob on 19 Jul 2006, 23:18
God this album is depressing. Songs about despair, bleakness, despair, rape, despair, Nazis, being gay and repressed, bleakness, despair.
Ugh. good record but I almost topped myself afterward.
I'd recommend Behind The Rose (Fields of Rape) as a track to listen to.
In a foreign land
In a foreign time
Reaping time had come
I'm falling back into
Fields of rape
I'm falling back into
Fields of rape
We're falling back into
Fields of rape, my love
And this was the way
And those were the horrors
As father went reaping
I'm falling back into
Fields of rape
I'm falling back into
Fields of rape
We're falling back into
Fields of rape, my love
Crushed, crushed, crushed
Mother bleeding
Crushed, crushed, crushed
We stand grinning
In a foreign land
In a foreign time
Reaping time had come
cheerful stuff.
Post by: TrueNeutral on 20 Jul 2006, 03:53
Or - the album to use to convince drug addicts to stop.
Post by: Joey JoJo on 20 Jul 2006, 18:37
Whoops, clicked submit before I wanted to, bad n00b.
Anyway, this album tells one hell of a sad story.
In short, an outcast banished from his village returns for his love, Melinda, fifteen years after being shunned. He convinces Melinda to run away with him, if only for one night. The Council of the Cross finds them, takes Melinda and cuts her throat. In blind rage, he kills as many of the townspeople as he can before them pull him down. He is hanged, and sees Melinda waiting for him as he dies.
Post by: Trollstormur on 20 Jul 2006, 19:01
Leviathan - The Tenth Sub-level of Suicide
sad album is saaaaaaad
Post by: Injektilo on 20 Jul 2006, 19:46
I See A Darkness - Bonnie "Prince" Billy
That's got my vote for most miserable and depressing album I know. Nothing like track after track of distant, haunting lyrics and guitar. The first track, "A Minor Place," doesn't betray the true misery of the album either, which makes the subsequent tracks all the more poignant.
Post by: Praeserpium Machinarum on 20 Jul 2006, 21:58
In fact on the contrary I think it is uplifting in parts, what with ending it all on a sweet note like Raining In Darling. Will Oldham usually spice up some of the songs with humour(A King At Night, Hard Life, Beast for Thee etc.) which is one of the reasons I find him so interesting. The compelling thing is that it isn't all that depressing despite the subject matter.
Post by: KharBevNor on 20 Jul 2006, 22:25
Quote from: Shaft
...If I think a song is depressing, that means it strikes a chord with me, which makes me feel good - it makes me feel happy. In this way I don't find any music depressing. I get depressed by bad music, though.
I don't actually get all down when I listen to any of the albums I've listed. Maybe 'Most depressive albums ever' would have been better.
Quote from: Hairy Joe Bob
I would have to go with Nada! by Death In June
Good call. I was going to mention DI6, but I honestly couldn't think of what album to put. I was thinking of going with Rose Clouds of Holocaust, also my favourite DI6 album, but in a way it's quite a warm record, and I didn't think it quite fitted.
DI6 always has that depressing tone, but I think it's when you really start to analyse the meanings of the songs that the true weight of it comes in. Like 'C'est Une Reve'. We all have a Klaus Barbie in our hearts, and "Liberte c'est une reve". There's a fantastic bleakness about the whole neo-folk aesthetic, on which note:
(http://www.coldmeat.se/imgs/%7Bdc791fe0-ca01-4c7c-ad90-053159a1b862%7D.JPG)
SOL INVICTUS - THE HILL OF CROSSES
All Sol Invictus albums share a maudlin and morbid atmosphere, replete with harsh, nihilistic reminders of human stupidity and mortality, tales of murder, rape and madness, off-set with a brilliant sense of pagan mysticism. Hill of Crosses, however, really is probably the saddest thing Tony Wakefords ever done, with strong competition. It paints a bleak, war-ravaged European landscape, but unrelieved by the tinges of gallows humour that relieve albums like 'Death of the West' and 'The Devils Steed'. And of course, 'Black Dawn' and 'December Song' are two of the most depressing songs of all time.
"This is the longest road to nowhere
Although it's shorter than you think
When the shutters comes down
When the chain breaks its link
Can love triumph
Will hate fall
Can good win?
Probably not at all
The tide will go out and not return
The flame will die and never again burn
I will fall asleep and never awake
The next page of the diary won't have a date
Can love triumph
Will hate fall
Can good win?
Probably not at all
With vile defeats
I limp towards December
Full of vile deceits
But destined not to be remembered"
Post by: Johnny C on 21 Jul 2006, 00:07
Post by: The Eyeball Kid on 21 Jul 2006, 01:53
Post by: TrueNeutral on 21 Jul 2006, 03:12
Post by: FeralCats on 21 Jul 2006, 04:11
Ready for the House, by Jandek. Wow.
Post by: Inlander on 21 Jul 2006, 21:11
Quote from: Praeserpium Machinarum
In fact on the contrary I think it is uplifting in parts, what with ending it all on a sweet note like Raining In Darling. Will Oldham usually spice up some of the songs with humour(A King At Night, Hard Life, Beast for Thee etc.) which is one of the reasons I find him so interesting. The compelling thing is that it isn't all that depressing despite the subject matter.
I always laugh a little when I'm listening to "Death to Everyone". It's because when I saw him play in Canberra years ago (supporting the Dirty Three) he stopped in the middle of the song to explain the chorus to the crowd: he asked if anyone knew what "hosing" was ("Death to Everyone is going to come/And it makes hosing much more fun") and when nobody answered, he explained: "A man hoses a woman". Everyone laughed, the song continued.
And while we're on the subject of Will Oldham's sense of humour, see also the way he adopts an Elmer Fudd accent to rhyme "void" with "word" ("woid") in "Grand Dark Feeling of Emptiness", which to this day I maintain is a send-up of his reputation for bleak and depressing subject matter.
Post by: StrikeThePostman on 23 Jul 2006, 09:58
(http://rateyourmusic.com/album_images2/1310.jpg)
Post by: Praeserpium Machinarum on 23 Jul 2006, 10:16
Quote
I always laugh a little when I'm listening to "Death to Everyone". It's because when I saw him play in Canberra years ago (supporting the Dirty Three) he stopped in the middle of the song to explain the chorus to the crowd: he asked if anyone knew what "hosing" was ("Death to Everyone is going to come/And it makes hosing much more fun") and when nobody answered, he explained: "A man hoses a woman". Everyone laughed, the song continued.
I didn't know that, I thought that it refered to another meaning of "hose", namely to shot someone. And, in a way, I suppose I was right...
Post by: GuitarJunkie on 23 Jul 2006, 10:53
And not just because it was the straw that broke Ian Curtis' back. That is a thoroughly depressing but excellent album.
Post by: Pierre the Poet on 24 Jul 2006, 21:44
(http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l198/pierrethepoet/boatmanscall.jpg)
Yeah, "Kicking Against the Pricks" and "Murder Ballads" are more traditionally depressing. In fact, "Boatman's Call" is probably his quietest most comforting record. Still, coming right on the heals of the rage, insanity, and self-assertion of "Murder Ballads," I find the restrained melancholy of BC much more depressing (in an addictive sort of way). He just sounds so spent and broken. . .
Post by: E. Spaceman on 24 Jul 2006, 22:49
The Saddest Album
(http://blog.ysmis.cc/gallery/10056/10056-335.jpg)
Close to the above (though tommy may beg to differ)
(http://betterpropaganda.com/images/artwork/Happy%20Songs%20For%20Happy%20People-Mogwai_480.jpg)
pretty damn sad too.
Post by: Thrillho on 25 Jul 2006, 05:22
Quote from: Pierre the Poet
Well, as someone already mentioned, Nick Cave is an easy call, but I'll try an unusual album choice:
(http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l198/pierrethepoet/boatmanscall.jpg)
Yeah, "Kicking Against the Pricks" and "Murder Ballads" are more traditionally depressing. In fact, "Boatman's Call" is probably his quietest most comforting record. Still, coming right on the heals of the rage, insanity, and self-assertion of "Murder Ballads," I find the restrained melancholy of BC much more depressing (in an addictive sort of way). He just sounds so spent and broken. . .
That is a very depressing album. However I think it's depressing in a beautiful way, it's so skeletal and sparse. It's like Nick Cave solo, no Bad Seeds most of the time. I think 'Into My Arms' is one of the best songs he's ever written (bizarrely, it talks about not believing in an interventionist God or angels and yet its melody sounds exactly like a Christian song) and I also think that the glimmer of hope 'Far From Me' shows in the bit where he talks about 'a world where everybody fucks everybody else over' makes it all worth it.
Post by: books_out_loud on 26 Jul 2006, 12:13
Post by: Pierre the Poet on 26 Jul 2006, 14:58
Quote from: DynamiteKid
That is a very depressing album. However I think it's depressing in a beautiful way, it's so skeletal and sparse. It's like Nick Cave solo, no Bad Seeds most of the time. I think 'Into My Arms' is one of the best songs he's ever written (bizarrely, it talks about not believing in an interventionist God or angels and yet its melody sounds exactly like a Christian song) and I also think that the glimmer of hope 'Far From Me' shows in the bit where he talks about 'a world where everybody fucks everybody else over' makes it all worth it.
Agreed. I've noticed too that a lot of the songs sound hymn-like or vaguely Christian, but that just makes a nice dissonance with the lyrics, some of which are as dark as any he's written ("where do we go now but nowhere" for instance). Also, the sparse piano arrangements sort of remind me of "Goldrush" era Neil Young. Great album. . .
Post by: Thrillho on 26 Jul 2006, 15:21
Post by: amok on 26 Jul 2006, 16:46
it's a 57 minute CD of dark ambient stuff. so ambient that you can barely hear it at times for several minutes. but goddamn if it isn't hauntingly depressing.