Have a Nice Life - Deathconsciousness Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked At Me Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell The Microphones - The Glow, Pt. 2 Sunn O))) - Black One Giles Corey - Giles Corey Nirvana - In Utero Brand New - Daisy Björk - Vulnicura Joy Division - Closer Some of my personal favourite albums ever, all depressing
Check out is Grand Mal stuff. It's a collection of unreleased material if you haven't heard of it already. So so good. It's a tragedy none of those songs are officially out yet, especially Stickman.
artists mentioned: elliott smith bright eyes neutral milk hotel the roots phil ohcs nick drake bonnie “prince” billy ii joy division gris sunn O))) wolf eyes suicide swans have a nice life godspeed! you black emperor simon joyner nick cave scott walker patsy klein tom waits johnny cash hank williams
Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" has the most tangible melancholy set into music that I have ever known. Man, that record is just of a league of its own when it comes to emotional pureness.
The Antlers - Hospice Cure - Disintegration Sun Kil Moon - Benji Counting Crows - August & Everything After Chelsea Wolfe - Pain Is Beauty Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago Billy Holiday - Billy Holiday Sings Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible Modest Mouse - Lonesome Crowded West Eels - Electro-shock Blues Lou Reed - Berlin Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here/The Final Cut John Mitchell - Blue Beck - Sea Change Nico - The Marble Index Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures The Front Bottoms - My Grandma vs. Pneumonia
SnowKid32 Berlin is a fantastic example, I think he wrote it after his wifes death not sure, its the best example of musical melancholy i can think of...
i listen to 'depressing' music because it fills my chest with a familiar kind of weight i think. It just feels right because I'm used to that feeling. Also depressing music takes away the loneliness because you feel in a way connected to the artist through your feelings that they experience and express so perfectly for you
I actually listened to that song during a traumatic part of my childhood with the hope of raising my feelings. It worked at the time, like a cage, in that it trapped the emotions. Whenever I listen back on that song I'm plunged in this awful state of mood. I never fail to forget
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned The Caretaker's 6-staged work called 'Everywhere at the End of Time'. That shit goes beyond depressing, it is hauntingly scary. I listened to the first half an hour of the first stage, which I'd been told is the easiest to get through, and I could not go any further. The shit literally made me have trouble falling asleep because death and dementia (themes that are explored quite frequently) were so heavy on the mind. Edit: I got through the first 3 stages 4 days ago. It was in one listen, and it just got even more dreadful. I also finished the first part of stage 4, and it...well, if you've listened, you know, but putting it lightly, it's really heavy dread. Edit 2: Apparently there were mentions of EATEOT earlier in the year than what I had seen at the time since they had very few likes compared to now. Also I finished the thing around 2 weeks ago, the last 5 minutes were sad, and I recognized what they were meant to symbolize, but it was not enough to push me to the point of tears. (Thanks Mr Flibble for the reminder) Edit 3: I have no idea why I did this, but I came back to EATEOT and listened another time. It's really unsettling still, but honestly, this time around, it lost its luster. Though it did reaffirm my belief that alzheimers should be a disease that can allow you to be eligible for Euthanasia, that suffering is something that we cannot comprehend, and we shouldn't let those that we love go through it.
As someone who listened to the entire length recently, the way that it replicates dementia is incredible. It feels like your listening to the audible deterioration of this in-universe character, and eventual death. Anyone who has heard the last 6 minutes will agree that there is a certain grief at the end of the album, and throughout the whole six hours you really start to think about the impact of dementia on people. Probably the most comments I've ever read on a youtube video
@@johnstamos75 It's a combination of ballroom music from the 20s-40s that becomes more and more distorted as you get further through it as your 'dementia' worsens and gets more severe. It's also really really long (clocks in at around 6 and a half hours I believe). I can't describe it super well, but that's a really shitty description of it. You'll understand once you listen.
John Stamos give it a listen, even the most elegant description from Kirby (the artist) wouldn’t even scratch the surface of what the album/work does to ones mind and body when listened to. If possible I’d dedicate a day to listen, it’s 6.5 hours, broken down more or less to 6 1 ish hour long albums that build upon the last, until a finale that is a literal metaphor for death. It’s free on RUclips, the description has it broken down very well, with apt descriptions of each stage, and has some amazing artwork as well, although it does it rather unsettling by the end.
Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked at Me Carissa's Weird - Songs About Leaving Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool Eels - Electro-Shock Blues The Cure - Pornography Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral Have a Nice Life - Deathconciousness Low - I Could Live In Hope Scott Walker - Tilt
Bohren & der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss Ulver - Shadows of the Sun Tom Waits - Alice Swans - Soundtracks for the Blind Dalek - Absence Virgin Black - Requiem - Mezzo Forte Nick Drake - Pink Moon Coil - The Ape of Naples Thee Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra - He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corners of Our Rooms...
Hospice by The Antlers. That whole album tells this beautiful heartfelt story of a relationship falling apart. Listening to that album while reading the lyrics booklet was a huge emotional hit.
I think what makes OK Computer by Radiohead such a depressing album is that it’s universal. The instrumentation, lyrics, production, and vocals are cold, disconnected, and isolated but also impassioned, powerful, and raw. The overarching message and theme of the record is that we constantly try to fill an emotional void in our lives with superficial and temporary thrills to indulge our senses until we inevitably return to the inescapable emptiness and mundanities of everyday adult life. It’s definitely a bleak portrayal of how we conduct ourselves and interact with one another, but still a very honest and real account of the human condition nonetheless
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral is probably one of the most depressing albums I listen to on a regular basis. I'd listen to it less, but you just have to appreciate how clever it is as a concept. You can even listen to it to get you pumped up too. It's a weird mixture of feelings that it brings out. It also has some of NIN's best material.
Jar of Flies- Alice in Chains In Utero- Nirvana Pornography- the Cure Filth- Swans Fiona Apple- The Idler Wheel... Silver Mt. Zion- He has left us... Opeth- Watershed Literally any song by Sopor Aeternus is the most depressing song ever written.
Tudorgeable except he was not he checked out of rehab upwards to 10 times and at the time they recorded JoF they were kicked out of there house from not paying rent. so they lived at the studio
Also: Joni Mitchell - Blue Antony & The Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell Radiohead - Kid A The National - High Violet MONEY - The Shadow Of Heaven Sharon Van Etten - Are We There Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures Sun Kil Moon - Benji Portishead - Dummy Leonard Cohen - Songs Of Love And Hate Slint - Spiderland (yeah, it's been a complicated road for me)
What a great range of depressing records. Especially Cohens Songs of Love and Hate. "I stepped Into an avalanche it covers up my soul", "your pain is no crudential here its just the shadow of my would" He is a fucking master of his kind.
Here's some underrated depressing music: Have a Nice Life - Deathconsciousness Burzum - Hvis lyset tar oss The Chameleons - Script of the Bridge Nick Drake - Pink Moon Slowdive - Souvlaki
immodium91 do you think so? i get a very melancholic vibe from it. somehow it entails a feeling of thoughtfulness and emptiness. interesting how peoples opinions differ on this
ppl who listen to the caretaker are mouthbreathers. get more emotion from reading the wiki page for dementia and i dont have to listen to mid ambient music for 6 hours
Almost anything from Alice in Chains has a depressing aspect to it, except for Facelift, Sap and a couple of songs from Dirt and the Self titled (Rooster and The Nothin' song)
Immigrato clandestino - I mean, here, a lot of people talk about their lyrics but I think that in Dirt, this sludgy music just slooows you down and buries you in a 70 minutes delicious agony; while Jar of Flies has depressing lyrics but plain beautiful harmonies, quite light actually.
atrass toumay exactly.. the lyricism is kind of secondary when it comes to music to me so usually the instrumentation itself is the depressing part for me. This probably comes from my love for metal. However, Brand New is an example of music where the lyricism really gets to me
What about Matt Elliott? He's the most underrated musician ever, all of his albums are filled with brilliance, love the way he twists european folk music, and his songs trilogy is like the most depressing thing ever. My favourite album of his is the Howling Songs. That one is the best album I've ever sat through in my life. Gotta mention his starter album which is the Drinking Songs ehich got me hooked on. Everything this man does is just perfect. Highly recommended, sadly he doesn't get the publicity he deserves but I hope I'll get some of you to try his music.
A lot of people mention The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails, but The Fragile is just as depressing really. Pretty Hate Machine more angry than depressing though
I think "Still" is probably Trent's most depressive material, not only due to the lyrics but also the melodies of the songs and the whole subdued, quiet sound and atmosphere
I love Crywank, I recommend you these song if you're looking for something specially depressing, but 99% of them are, so you shoud probably check the rest of them out. Leech Boy; You Couldnt Teach Me Integrity; Baby Self-absorbed; Waste; Its Ok, I Wouldn't Remember Me Either; Memento Mori; Hikikomori; Do you have PPE for self-esteem?; and my all time fav: Sad Song for a Guilty Sadist. Yes, Im 7 years late. No, I don't care.
Seriously people will casually play Casmir Pulaski Day like its such a nice, chill song when it's really incredibly bleak. Kinda like Tracy Chapman's 'Fast Car'. They played that one everywhere.
True, but people tend to think of singles like "Friday I'm in Love" when they think of The Cure. They are especially powerful on their first few albums.
Of course, sad or melancholic music usually isn't commercially successful, but I'm certain Anthony isn't somebody who only listens to singles and even on Wish there are plenty of heart-wrenching tracks.
BloodflowersAndHurricanes Yeah, Anthony wouldn't be a music nerd if he only listens to singles. But yeah, what you said is totally true, it normally isn't. I was lucky enough to stumble upon The Cure's sad songs.
Pornography, Seventeen Seconds, Faith. Especially Pornography. (Songs like: A Forest, M, At Night, Seventeen Seconds, The Holy Hour, Other Voices, The Funeral Party, Faith, One Hundred Years, Siamese Twins, The Figurehead, A Strange Day, Cold, Pornography). They do all have this melancholic and dark feelings, with lyrics that can be cleary interpreted as sad and depressing. The first song on Pornography, One Hundred Years, starts with "It doesn't matter if we all die." :D
And Jar Of Flies. Every song in that EP holds so much emotional weight on it's own, minus the closer but to me it seems like a bit of "comic relief" after a heartwrenching listen.
_Carrie & Lowell_. Fuck _me_, that album is depressing. And if we're going to talk about individual songs, then "Headlights" by Eminem. I get a lump in my throat every time I hear it, and that _never_ happens with me.
Slowdive's Souvlaki, can be a downer (in the best possible way) especially such songs like 'Mellon Yellow' and 'Dagger', Have A Nice Life's complete discography pretty much but more so on Deathconsiousness (Hunter & There Is No Food), Brian Eno's Apollo is a great album too if your in a depressive mood.
+N.K. Revolution Ah, undoubtably there are uplifting songs such as Alison and When The Sun Hits but the album as a whole to me is quite depressing but to each his own I suppose. If you haven't already seen the Pitchfork documentary then I'd highly recommend it, sort of adds to how depressing the atmosphere was, to me at least
ActuallyIan headless horseman, the glow pt. 2, the mansion, i’ll not contain you, i felt your shape etc. are all beautiful bummers. and also i’ll not contain you is seriously one of the most beautiful songs to ever exist.
Songs like I Felt Your Shape and Samurai Sword almost balance it out for me, even if both can still be considered to be tinged with sadness. But yeah, I suppose ultimately I concur, it really is a beautifully sad album.
For me, the most depressing songs come from an album or a band not conventionally known to exhale depressing music. Prime example is Ween - Birthday Boy, right near the end of their first album godweensatan. You're almost an hour in, and you've been listening to completely ridiculous and otherworldly forms of humor and musical expression. You think that these kids (Gene and Dean) are completely nuts. Then, birthday boy happens. Push through godweensatan, and you'll understand the impact it can have. When an album is nothing but depressing songs (OK Computer), it is still an emotional experience, but the attack is dulled by the fact that there's nothing to contrast it. Nothing to make it seem THAT much more emotional.
Guercinator to give a contemporary hip-hop comparison: To Pimp a Butterfly. The album starts off pretty light hearted and jovial. At times a little dark or serious, but Kendrick hits a rut and the track “u” is very depressing
I listen to depressing music because I relate to it a lot. It seems to help me knowing that someone can be depressed and yet contribute something I percieve to be of great value. Particular themes can be especially beneficial to explore if they relate to someone. In my case, I've been listening to music about drug abuse, unrequited love and lack of commitment. Sometimes a well placed happy song is just the thing too, depressed or not. Right now because of my age and who I grew up with I find myself going back a lot of Fall Out Boy, Blink 182 and Green Day's older material again, partially for nostalgic reasons and partially because I still relate a great deal and have an even deeper appreciation for what in this case is fairly simple, yet catchy crunchy chuggy riffs and melodrama about girls and identity.
City and Colour - Bring Me Your Love Death Cab For Cutie - Plans Benjamin Francis Leftwich - Last Smoke Before the Snowstorm Baths - Obsidian Alexi Murdoch - Time Without Consequence Luke Pickett Tom Waits (Most of it but I would say Alice and Mule Variations) Pompeii - Nothing Happens for a reason *I could go on and on, but I think that's a good enough list*
Beck - Sea Change Radiohead - Kid A / In Rainbows / A Moon Shaped Pool The National - High Violet / Trouble Will Find Me Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights The Smiths - The Smiths Morrissey - Viva Hate Joy Division - Closer Spiritualized - Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space Portishead - Dummy Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell Tom Waits - Closing Time Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree Nick Drake - Pink Moon Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks Neil Young - Harvest / On The Beach Sun Kil Moon - Among The Leaves / Benji Perfume Genius - Put Your Back N 2 It Slint - Spiderland Future Islands - In Evening Air Deafheaven - Sunbather Albums that I think are definitely worth mentioning here. And happens to be that all these albums are also perfect. Is it depressing to realize, that most of my personal favourites are depressing albums?
zenscape87 I would say that it deals with areas of depression but doesn't full out go into the mindset of depression. I like a album that isn't just full sadness but majorly deals with it.
hellosqueakers I would kind of argue that it doesn't completely "deal with it". In the last track he seems to move on from whole nightmare, but it comes back to him in haunting dreams - and this is one of the major appeals of the album for me, stating that mourning is such a complex process, dealing with anxiety, shame/blame for yourself and for the world. One of the best, heart wrecking albums i've ever heard, haven't had such an emotional listening for a while now.
Kasparas Varžinskas Hey man. I get what you are saying. Epilogue is one of my favorite tracks off that album. Acoustically and Lyrically. I can see it being a happy ending to a sad album but to me its a depressing listen. Thanks for new insight on the album.
Flatsound!!!!!!! His whole discography is melancholic and I WHOLEHEARTEDLY recommend his music to you! To get into it, "sleep" is a great starter album, but I really like his 2017 release "i stayed up until sunrise but got to fall asleep to the sounds of birds singing"
Townes Van Zandt deserves more than a passing mention, the man embodied sadness. On that note, Jeff Buckley - perhaps 'depressing' isn't as good a term as 'haunting'. If you've never listened to the mostly-unreleased "Manic-Depressive Named Laughing Boy" by Modest Mouse, it is BOTH haunting and depressing, especially when you discover 'Isaac' means "laughing boy" in Hebrew and so the song is probably their most nakedly personal. The ominous reverberating metal 'clinking' of the guitar in the intro, the oppressive march of the instrumentation once it kicks into the song, and the shrill cries of "WHY'D YOU DO IT!?" directed at the protagonist of the song (and thus at Isaac Brock himself) in the chorus make it one of the most disturbing songs for me, lent this "snuff film" quality by the over-all audio quality which is post-Sad Sappy Sucker but pre-Long Drive. (That is to say, shitty)
Frightened Rabbit's The Midnight Organ Fight is the most sincere album about a breakup that I have found. Scott Hutchison is an amazing musician, songwriter and singer.
"Perfect day" by Lou Reed has always deppresed the hell out of me....any song that has "happy" lyrics but with sad, somber music does that. "What a wonderful world" ny Louis Armstrong has a similar effect.
_The Holy Bible_ by the Manic Street Preachers, an album devoted almost exclusively to the darkest aspects of the human condition, is downright heartbreaking at times.
+Kurtis C. Oh god yeah, I remember the first time listened to that album, i had no idea who the manics were or what the album contained ... i spent about 4 weeks listening to it pretty much exclusively afterward, researching lyrics and backstory and even parts of history i wasn't to clear on. That album for me is one of the most beautiful ive ever heard, the lyrics are just so raw,. P.S I just realised why i love this particular type of "depressing music" lol i for hate love songs and breakup song. She is suffering is the closest thing on the album which actually is my least favorite song as it turns out.
My favourite album of all time, but The Intense Humming Of Evil is sometimes unlistenable because of how purely haunting it is. And 4st 7lbs is very harrowing as it's the most personal song Richey ever wrote. This Is Yesterday is a beautiful song though, a brief glimmer of light among the darkness.
Feeling This I fucking hate Alice In Chains. They make some of the most boring ass music I’ve ever heard. They have three good songs, Would?, Down In A Hole and Bleed The Freak. Everything else they’ve done is starving African baby grade garbage. Never understood why people love them so much.
Joy Division's Closer. That album is the epitome of depression. C'mon it's Ian Curtis' suicide note put into music! Closer is so dark, eerie, cold, and nihilistic in which it makes me cry every time I listen to it.
Magnolia Electric Co. perfectly sums up the feeling of the cold air drying up tears on your face. It’s such a harrowing album sonically and lyrically, especially Farewell Transmission. Love this album to death.
Always on my rotation. For me its Magnolia electric co - Songs: Ohia, Alice in chains self titled, Purple Mountains by David Berman , Warning - watching from a distance, Low - I could live in hope, degradation trip volumes 1&2 by Jerry cantrell
Speaking of nihilistic albums, lets not forget Kid A. The lyrics on that albums are haunting, but impossible to interpret; they're meaningless. Halfway through the album you realize you're trying to attribute themes or meanings to the songs that just aren't there. Kind of a depressing when something that inspires so much interest, turns out to be nothing but chaotic. C'est la vie. Great album.
Kid a is really depressing for me I think bc the sounds used give the album a really cold feel to it a lot of the lyrics can be seen as not so depressing but the sounds always give me chills like it sounds like how it feels to slowly pass away I guess it definitely has a melancholiac beauty to it
Kid A and Amnesiac both excel at making you feel trapped, scared, empty, and depressed, but Amnesiac is a little bit better at this; which is why it hasn't been received as well. Shame, it's a truly underrated album.
Kid A isn't really depressing so much as it induces existential dread. It makes me think about the future in a way that paralyzes me in absolute horror.
Pink Floyd - The Final Cut. The album tells the story of a WWII vet turned schoolmaster clearly suffering from PTSD as he struggles to reconnect with his wife, children, and life in general, all while being tormented by the memories of the horrors he both witnessed and perpetrated in the throes of war. The album climaxes in his aborted suicide attempt (to which the title of the album alludes) and closes with his nightmare vision of a nuclear apocalypse. There is no happy ending, nor any real resolution at all. Roger Waters' poignantly poetic lyrics and heartfelt vocal delivery, along with Michael Kamen's affecting orchestrations and David Gilmour's incomparably soul-wrenching guitar work, ratchet the tear-factor up to 11. On a side note, for those who don't know, this album is actually kind of a sequel or spin-off to the much more famous "The Wall," as its lead character is one and the same with the schoolmaster from that album. In fact, most of these songs were written for "The Wall," but were rejected for various reasons. A short film was made as well, featuring the same actor who played the schoolmaster in the film version of "The Wall."
Hey theneedledrop, I know this is an old video, but I have something that might answer your question. Coming from a super emotional person (I feel each emotion extremely deeper and more intense, which is good and bad at times), when I am going through the days or times of depression (clinically diagnosed, not Mayo Clinic lmfoa), sometimes what helps is to listen to some really depressing music and allow myself to wallow in it, to really feel it with every part of my existence, that way it goes away quicker, kind of like crying when you just let it all out. But if I try to hide it or whatever, it prolongs it. It's like, I accept it, acknowledge it, allow myself to feel it, embrace it, and then in time, say good bye to it. And there are other reasons we like it too, like you said, to hear something relateable. Sometimes I like to pretend I'm in a movie when I'm riding my bike or something at night, envision a camera angle where it shows me riding my bike in slow motion, and depending on how I'm feeling that night, I'll put on some depressing music to add to the "movie scene", just like how you would see it in a movie, if that makes sense. Hope that helps!!
Been thinking about the questions asked at the start of the video. Lately I've been listening to The Antlers' album Hospice a-ddic-tive-ly. This comes at a time, let's call it a year, that's been pretty difficult personally. The idea of an album that tells the story of someone going through an emotionally abusive relationship, while simultaneously telling the analogous story of a hospice worker working with a difficult patient at the end of their life--well, I can't say it mirrors what I'm going through exactly, but there are certain things that really hit home. Hearing certain lines helps me is therapeutic, it helps me to process. People, I think, are attracted to lyrics that resonate with them and help them to process their own emotions. The harder it is to deal with the emotion, well, the more you might listen to the song. I think the circumstances of my life at this time have kind of colored the tone of the music I listen to, and indeed, my tracklists lately have been generally down-tempo or mid-tempo, if they are not as overtly depressing as this album. Wasn't always this way, but it's been a tough year and yes, I do think it affects the music I listen to. Maybe if you're thinking, why do I get requests for depressing albums, as opposed to albums that speak to any other emotion that people would be feeling; well, I'd think it's because you don't really look to music to "process" other emotions, but when you're depressed, anxious, or something of this sort, it's something you do actively.
A lot of Alice In Chains stuff puts me there, going deep into they’re lyrics and albums you can feel the pain that Layne was going through, Jerry’s writing complimented by his vocals give songs like Don’t Follow or Down in a hole multiple meanings, then you’ve got songs like Dirt, Rain when I Die, Angry Chair and the like that are heavy but the pain behind all this rage is just saddening, and love hate love is mint
Just listen to anything by Modest Mouse prior to the release of Good News, particularly the Moon & Antarctica. Even the title and art on that LP can simulate the feeling of sinking into an abyss.
Brand New, dude! Tracks like millstone, sic transit gloria..., handcuffs, Jesus, and You won't know (yes I know these are only from two of their albums) are some heart wrenchers. These are usually the "rage against the dying of the light" style depressing songs. Often dealing with themes raging from losing your potential and favor in the eyes of your peers, to dying alone because of your own fear, t being used because it's the only thing you know how to do. Jesse Lacey's voice sounds like the last breaths of a dying animal, demanding it's last moments to burn out rather than fade away, and vincent acardi's guitar work is both subtle and blaring, mixing dissonance from bands like Built to Spill, to more hardcore influences that are very power chord driven from Bands like Bad Religion and turnstile. A tight rhythm section (at it's peak in Sic Transit Gloria...) paints a driving, tank like, background that the leads scrape over, like they're tearing through sheet metal. I've more often than not angry cried through "The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me". Great for emotional validation and anguish.
I started listening to music this January, partially thanks to some of your insights and classics reviews and while I'm still new to music I'm glad to have had the opportunity to listen to stuff like Slowdive-Soulvlaki Radiohead-Ok Computer (not really depressing) Joy Division-Unknown Pleasures Interpol-Turn on the Bright Lights
I've seen Pink Floyd live, and was high as fuck, but the show stayed with me to this day. I feel like I could gush endlessly about that show, but you just had to see/hear it, to believe it. Every single sight and sound, is engineered to take you directly to the darkest, most isolated places in your mind. I fucking love it, and would have to count it as some of the most beautiful, deep, and yes, depressing music, ever created. Even their happiest tunes still have a palpable amount of melancholy, and beauty to spare. It's still my best music related memory, even decades later. Pink Floyd reached directly into my chest that night, and squeezed some of the life out of me. For that, I am eternally grateful to them.
Mark Kozelek, particularly his most early act Red House Painters are undoubtedly the most depressing band in my opinion. Particularly songs such as their most praised and my personal favourite of all time "Katy Song". Others such as "Moments" and "Drop" are emotional lyrically and instrumentally and I would highly recommend them.
Nina Simone has a vocal style that can grip you and lead you up or down pretty well. Her song, "Strange Fruit" not only has very very dark lyrics but her voice calls a deep ache into the soul. Feelin Good is a song that is uplifting by her. So, enjoy if you've never listened before
1. Grace - Jeff Buckley 2. The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me - Brand New 3. Carrie & Lowell - Sufjan Stevens 4. Mean Everything to Nothing - Manchester Orchestra 5. Still - Nine Inch Nails 6. Not to Disappear - Daughter 7. Kintsugi - Death Cab for Cutie 8. Low Roar - Low Roar 9. Birthdays - Keaton Henson 10. Timber Timbre - Timber Timbre 11. Final Straw - Snow Patrol 12. The Bends - Radiohead 13. Ghost - Radical Face 14. Happy Songs for Happy People - Mogwai 15. Young Mountain - This Will Destroy You 16. Are You Alone? Majical Cloudz 17. Trouble Will Find Me - The National 18. Come to Where I'm From - Joseph Arthur 19. Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd 20. Bon Iver - Bon Iver
The Gris album pictured in this video has the single most tortured human voice I've ever heard. It is still hard for me to listen to that album, even though I think it is great.
Most depressing song I know is Louis Armstrongs What a Wonderful World. It sounds like a man who is dying and is gonna miss every little thing in life so much.... :( sad but beautiful at the same time
THE ANTLERS : HOSPICE LOW : I COULD LIVE IN HOPE LA DISPUTE : SOMEWHERE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE RIVER BETWEEN VEGA AND ALTAIR FLEET FOXES : HELPLESSNESS BLUES BECK : SEA CHANGE RADIOHEAD : KID A SMASHING PUMPKINS : SIAMESE DREAM COLDPLAY : A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD LOW ROAR : LOW ROAR TOM O'DELL : LONG WAY DOWN
James Blake's The Colour In Anything is both depressing and uplifting as a narrative that you can take what you want from it. I had to warm into it as a record as Overgrown was a much more accessible album (except for Voyeur ugh), but in the end the breakup narrative is so relatable from different angles and so charged with emotion to convey that the peaks and valleys resonate deeply with me. I know it got a 5 over here but he always says it's just his opinion so ehhh.
I listen to everywhere at the end of time when I go to sleep and I find it beautiful. Most of the people I see hate it but i feel like it makes me at peace.
1.queensryche. "Promised Land" 2 Soundgarden "superunknown" 3 Overkill "killbox 13" 4 Bob Dylan "blood on the Tracks" 5 Neil Young "Harvest" 6 Pink Floyd"animals" 7 Queen" innuendo" 8 W.A.S.P "Crimson Idol" 9.The Cure "Desintegration" 10 James Blunt "all the lost souls".....
When I felt the real urge for depressive music to inhabit my ears, I listened to a lot of different things. One band I listened to were The Exploration, and it's funny, can't go back to listen to them anymore. Though, I also listened to Merchant Ships, and the one song that people think of when they hear Merchant Ships and depressing is "For Cameron" but I found "Something That Matters" stuck with me most. It captured a sense of nostalgic depression, the idea of lost youth. Now I'm not saying these songs are great or super deep and complex, they both just bring out specific emotions and my interpretations are what bring some depth. The one song I would say is objectively great, and one I related to the most, playing it almost exclusively (along with Solace by Earl) is "u" by Kendrick Lamar. A beautiful track, a great source of healing for me. If anyone read this rant, I love you. Hope you find your way soon if you haven't yet.
I listened to a lot of The Smiths when I was feeling depressed. I successfully made myself felt worse.
Mother I can feel the soil falling over my headd
I always feel better when I listen to the smiths
the sadder you are the happier they make you. they only make me sad when i'm happy
+Merryn Hurley-Rawlins "good art comforts the disturbed, and disturbs the comfortable"
+Murakami R That song in particular is my one true love when i feel crappy.
Have a Nice Life - Deathconsciousness
Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked At Me
Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
The Microphones - The Glow, Pt. 2
Sunn O))) - Black One
Giles Corey - Giles Corey
Nirvana - In Utero
Brand New - Daisy
Björk - Vulnicura
Joy Division - Closer
Some of my personal favourite albums ever, all depressing
Tom Abraham this is a great list :)
Proper list here
Daisy doesn't get the recognition it deserves
where's my modest mouse tom?
Glow Pt.2 is my favorite out of those you named.
I recommend Skeleton Tree by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.
Elliott Smith- Roman Candle
Elliott Smith- S/T
Elliott Smith- Either/or
Elliott Smith- XO
Elliott Smith- Figure 8
Elliott Smith- From a Basement...
Elliott Smith- New Moon
Check out is Grand Mal stuff. It's a collection of unreleased material if you haven't heard of it already. So so good. It's a tragedy none of those songs are officially out yet, especially Stickman.
You seem like you really need a hug
Elliot Smith is amazing
@@ColombianThunder suicide machine, first timer, see how things are hard, and you make it seem like nothing are all in that I think amd they are great
Crazy fucker from the grand mal is amazing. There is a studio version on youtube as well
artists mentioned:
elliott smith
bright eyes
neutral milk hotel
the roots
phil ohcs
nick drake
bonnie “prince” billy ii
joy division
gris
sunn O)))
wolf eyes
suicide
swans
have a nice life
godspeed! you black emperor
simon joyner
nick cave
scott walker
patsy klein
tom waits
johnny cash
hank williams
I'm gay
You forgot eels
Tom Waits?
He forgot The caretaker
Where are the Eels mentioned??
Sadthony Mantano
Feelsbadthony Mantano
Sadthony MADtano
Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" has the most tangible melancholy set into music that I have ever known. Man, that record is just of a league of its own when it comes to emotional pureness.
All my life I’ve been looking for Fantano to just mention Nick Drake and I finally found a video of it 😅
@@AmeersJournal seriously i cant believe he hasnt made a classics review of it
The Antlers - Hospice
Cure - Disintegration
Sun Kil Moon - Benji
Counting Crows - August & Everything After
Chelsea Wolfe - Pain Is Beauty
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Billy Holiday - Billy Holiday Sings
Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible
Modest Mouse - Lonesome Crowded West
Eels - Electro-shock Blues
Lou Reed - Berlin
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here/The Final Cut
John Mitchell - Blue
Beck - Sea Change
Nico - The Marble Index
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
The Front Bottoms - My Grandma vs. Pneumonia
Eels- electroshock blues hit me hard
I mainly listen to hip hop but benji was inhumanely sad
SnowKid32 Surprised to see nico in there, nice.
SnowKid32 Berlin is a fantastic example, I think he wrote it after his wifes death not sure, its the best example of musical melancholy i can think of...
SnowKid32 Building Nothing Out Of Something or TIALDFSWNTTA was a way better pick for depressed Modest Mouse. Totally nailed Pink Floyd though.
i listen to 'depressing' music because it fills my chest with a familiar kind of weight i think. It just feels right because I'm used to that feeling. Also depressing music takes away the loneliness because you feel in a way connected to the artist through your feelings that they experience and express so perfectly for you
this is how if feel when I listen to kid cudi, or 808s & heartbreak by kanye
Pharrell Williams- Happy. Makes me cry everytime
Cry about the state of music.
Same here :.(
I actually listened to that song during a traumatic part of my childhood with the hope of raising my feelings. It worked at the time, like a cage, in that it trapped the emotions. Whenever I listen back on that song I'm plunged in this awful state of mood. I never fail to forget
I'm laughing
Goddammit
elliott smith is a god among men. he died way too young
I am as sad as Rick
"A god among men."
Just what I was thinking about
TheHalliday123456789 WOW, a reference about a reference.
elliot rodger is a god among men.
he died way too young
Everywhere At The End Of Time - The Caretaker
Quite possibly the most devastating and crushing work of music ever made
PLEASE NONO I MADE A FULL EFORT TO FORGET THE ENTIRE ALBUM WHYYYY
@@user-ys1mb9ho2m forget. haha.
@@sean1419 its a masterpiece but I hate it with all my heart
@@sean1419 They will. We all will...
Crywank's album "tomorrow is nearly yesterday" is a great album for dealing with depression
Been looking for crywank to be mentioned
@@Aceken23 same here
love that album btw
@@cciale that album is a gift from the gods
Crywank is a God
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned The Caretaker's 6-staged work called 'Everywhere at the End of Time'. That shit goes beyond depressing, it is hauntingly scary. I listened to the first half an hour of the first stage, which I'd been told is the easiest to get through, and I could not go any further. The shit literally made me have trouble falling asleep because death and dementia (themes that are explored quite frequently) were so heavy on the mind.
Edit: I got through the first 3 stages 4 days ago. It was in one listen, and it just got even more dreadful. I also finished the first part of stage 4, and it...well, if you've listened, you know, but putting it lightly, it's really heavy dread.
Edit 2: Apparently there were mentions of EATEOT earlier in the year than what I had seen at the time since they had very few likes compared to now. Also I finished the thing around 2 weeks ago, the last 5 minutes were sad, and I recognized what they were meant to symbolize, but it was not enough to push me to the point of tears. (Thanks Mr Flibble for the reminder)
Edit 3: I have no idea why I did this, but I came back to EATEOT and listened another time. It's really unsettling still, but honestly, this time around, it lost its luster. Though it did reaffirm my belief that alzheimers should be a disease that can allow you to be eligible for Euthanasia, that suffering is something that we cannot comprehend, and we shouldn't let those that we love go through it.
As someone who listened to the entire length recently, the way that it replicates dementia is incredible. It feels like your listening to the audible deterioration of this in-universe character, and eventual death. Anyone who has heard the last 6 minutes will agree that there is a certain grief at the end of the album, and throughout the whole six hours you really start to think about the impact of dementia on people. Probably the most comments I've ever read on a youtube video
i listened to the whole thing just yesterday and i could not sleep at all last night. i cried at the final 5 minutes
Could you describe how the album sounds? I’d like to give it a listen
@@johnstamos75 It's a combination of ballroom music from the 20s-40s that becomes more and more distorted as you get further through it as your 'dementia' worsens and gets more severe. It's also really really long (clocks in at around 6 and a half hours I believe). I can't describe it super well, but that's a really shitty description of it. You'll understand once you listen.
John Stamos give it a listen, even the most elegant description from Kirby (the artist) wouldn’t even scratch the surface of what the album/work does to ones mind and body when listened to.
If possible I’d dedicate a day to listen, it’s 6.5 hours, broken down more or less to 6 1 ish hour long albums that build upon the last, until a finale that is a literal metaphor for death.
It’s free on RUclips, the description has it broken down very well, with apt descriptions of each stage, and has some amazing artwork as well, although it does it rather unsettling by the end.
Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked at Me
Carissa's Weird - Songs About Leaving
Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
Eels - Electro-Shock Blues
The Cure - Pornography
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Have a Nice Life - Deathconciousness
Low - I Could Live In Hope
Scott Walker - Tilt
+Anthony Fantano
Bohren & der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission
Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
Ulver - Shadows of the Sun
Tom Waits - Alice
Swans - Soundtracks for the Blind
Dalek - Absence
Virgin Black - Requiem - Mezzo Forte
Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Coil - The Ape of Naples
Thee Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra - He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the
Corners of Our Rooms...
As a huge Radiohead fan, AMSP doesn’t belong here with A Crow Looked At Me
Deathconsciousness left me feeling so broken jesus that shit was heavy
You forgot Hospice by The Antlers.
Skeleton tree - Nick Cave and The bad seeds
Sea change (in general) - Beck
★ - David Bowie
Amnesiac - Radiohead
I love those albums so much.
Alice in Chains- Jar of Flies.
Especially the song "nutshell". Man.. it hits really hard and super close to the heart.
Masterpiece
love alice in chains
W
Top 5 song personally
Slowdive- Souvlaki.
so purdy... would have been too good to be true if it got a mention here
I agree- while Just For a Day is a better album in my opinion, Souvlaki hits way harder emotionally and feels much more heartfelt and genuine.
Pygmalion is the more depressing Slowdive album.
do you really call any of slowdive's albums depressing? They are about beautiful melancholy, not depression.
Women Public Strain
How to disappear completely by radiohead
Yes, thank you! That and Pyramid Song incite the most powerful melancholy feelings, for me at least.
Thomas Liebrecht Thhhhhat there.... that's not meee
The depression anthem
Dont leave me high.... dont leave me dryyyyyayayay I cry evy time...
it may be one of the prettiest songs ever written
Hospice by The Antlers. That whole album tells this beautiful heartfelt story of a relationship falling apart. Listening to that album while reading the lyrics booklet was a huge emotional hit.
That album is gorgeous!
I LOVE THAT ALBUMM
I think what makes OK Computer by Radiohead such a depressing album is that it’s universal. The instrumentation, lyrics, production, and vocals are cold, disconnected, and isolated but also impassioned, powerful, and raw. The overarching message and theme of the record is that we constantly try to fill an emotional void in our lives with superficial and temporary thrills to indulge our senses until we inevitably return to the inescapable emptiness and mundanities of everyday adult life. It’s definitely a bleak portrayal of how we conduct ourselves and interact with one another, but still a very honest and real account of the human condition nonetheless
Ok Computer is a masterpiece. kind of eerie at times as well
Eerily prophetic
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral is probably one of the most depressing albums I listen to on a regular basis. I'd listen to it less, but you just have to appreciate how clever it is as a concept. You can even listen to it to get you pumped up too. It's a weird mixture of feelings that it brings out. It also has some of NIN's best material.
+scaredypicker agreed, agreed, and agreed
Nirvana
+scaredypicker I'd like to mention The Hurting by Tears For Fears.
yeah, i was surprised it wasn't mentioned.
The Downward Spiral pretty much started my love for NIN, The Fragile has to be my second favorite NIN album.
Jar of Flies- Alice in Chains
In Utero- Nirvana
Pornography- the Cure
Filth- Swans
Fiona Apple- The Idler Wheel...
Silver Mt. Zion- He has left us...
Opeth- Watershed
Literally any song by Sopor Aeternus is the most depressing song ever written.
I found Jar of flies to be the most uplifting of AiC, and it shows since it was made when Layne was recovering from drugs
Tudorgeable except he was not he checked out of rehab upwards to 10 times and at the time they recorded JoF they were kicked out of there house from not paying rent. so they lived at the studio
Filth is more aggressive than depressing, at least to my ears.
Soundtracks for the Blind is more depressing
I think Dirt and Tripod are a lot more depressing than Jar of Flies
Megamaniac610 in utero isn't so much depressing as it is painful know what I mean. You don't get sad you get more so angsty.
Also:
Joni Mitchell - Blue
Antony & The Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
Radiohead - Kid A
The National - High Violet
MONEY - The Shadow Of Heaven
Sharon Van Etten - Are We There
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Sun Kil Moon - Benji
Portishead - Dummy
Leonard Cohen - Songs Of Love And Hate
Slint - Spiderland
(yeah, it's been a complicated road for me)
What a great range of depressing records. Especially Cohens Songs of Love and Hate. "I stepped Into an avalanche it covers up my soul", "your pain is no crudential here its just the shadow of my would" He is a fucking master of his kind.
+all of them milking with green fleshy flowers *shadow of my wound
Aside from motion picture soundtrack and how to dissappear completely, how is Kid A depressing?
The Cure - Disintegration
Townes van Zandt - For the Sake of the Song
Lou Reed - Berlin
Nirvana - In Utero
Cure-Disintegration is the first album I think I ever bought and I was only 10 I believe. Totally Awesome album..still one of my favs
Radiohead
Radiohead. nuff said
Yeah, I'm pretty shocked he didn't mention them. And what about The Cure?
Yeah but I do agree with Anthony in the sense that Radiohead (to me) is always like some kind of "depression-vicarious-experience" imho
Yup
Radiohead is the most motivating and inspirational band of all time. I dont see in what way you might call them depressing
Here's some underrated depressing music:
Have a Nice Life - Deathconsciousness
Burzum - Hvis lyset tar oss
The Chameleons - Script of the Bridge
Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Slowdive - Souvlaki
Lucas Ferreira
The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me by Brand New is incredibly depressing, in my opinion.
Really? I'm not too familiar with Brand New's music so I'll check it out.
I dont think souvlaki is depressing at all
Have a nice life is life
immodium91 do you think so? i get a very melancholic vibe from it. somehow it entails a feeling of thoughtfulness and emptiness.
interesting how peoples opinions differ on this
the caretaker - everywhere at the end of time, an empty bliss beyond this world
Have a nice life - Deathconcsiousnes
Slowdive - Pygmalion
the caretaker is the final boss of depression music
Stellar 3
Slowdive💞
ppl who listen to the caretaker are mouthbreathers. get more emotion from reading the wiki page for dementia and i dont have to listen to mid ambient music for 6 hours
@@freindmaker4473 you are not a funny boi for saying that statement
Alice in chains, Elliott Smith, Jeff Buckley. Blind Melon are quite depressing too, if you look into the lyrics.
Alice In Chains self titled album is the most heart breaking album I ever heard.
Yes! Their self titled album figuratively punches me in the gut every time I hear it. Same with The Holy Bible by the Manic Street Preachers.
Almost anything from Alice in Chains has a depressing aspect to it, except for Facelift, Sap and a couple of songs from Dirt and the Self titled (Rooster and The Nothin' song)
Immigrato clandestino - I mean, here, a lot of people talk about their lyrics but I think that in Dirt, this sludgy music just slooows you down and buries you in a 70 minutes delicious agony;
while Jar of Flies has depressing lyrics but plain beautiful harmonies, quite light actually.
atrass toumay exactly.. the lyricism is kind of secondary when it comes to music to me so usually the instrumentation itself is the depressing part for me. This probably comes from my love for metal. However, Brand New is an example of music where the lyricism really gets to me
The Caretaker - Everywhere At The End Of Time
Saw your comment on stage 3
@@Aceken23 as funny as this sounds I actually forgot I left a comment on stage 3
@@PLAGUE-KARM THE IRONY IN THIS STATEMENT HAHAHA
Elliott Smith and his music are so great, really happy to hear him mentioned when he always seems to be forgotten
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral, The Fragile, Still,
Also Something I Can Never Have
Right Where It Belongs. It belongs DIRECTLY in my feels.
The downward spiral should have been in the video
Trent's music is angsty and occasionally sad but I've never found it depressing.
Way too heavy and industrial for the most part
What about Matt Elliott?
He's the most underrated musician ever, all of his albums are filled with brilliance, love the way he twists european folk music, and his songs trilogy is like the most depressing thing ever.
My favourite album of his is the Howling Songs. That one is the best album I've ever sat through in my life.
Gotta mention his starter album which is the Drinking Songs ehich got me hooked on. Everything this man does is just perfect. Highly recommended, sadly he doesn't get the publicity he deserves but I hope I'll get some of you to try his music.
A lot of people mention The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails, but The Fragile is just as depressing really. Pretty Hate Machine more angry than depressing though
I think "Still" is probably Trent's most depressive material, not only due to the lyrics but also the melodies of the songs and the whole subdued, quiet sound and atmosphere
i agree. the downward spiral can get very angry at times. the fragile is just bleak throughout
Were u too depressed for a TRAN-SITION?!?!
nah, this is just an oldie before i started doing that. :-)
+theneedledrop I WAS A FAN OF FANTANO BEFORE THE TRANSITIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Guatemalan Dude 69 Did you like it you hate it? Don't get mad don't be sad.
Guatemalan Dude 69 3:55 What's this band/album?
i would like to ask that as well
What album is it ?
The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me by Brand New is incredibly depressing, in my opinion.
Also, _Leaves Turn Inside of You_ by Unwound [the latter part of the album].
Tim Lundin the amount of times I've listened to that album is insane. Definitely one of my favorites
I agree very much so, a couple of songs in particular are actually very upsetting (in a good way) to listen to
Good call. That album hit me hard as well. Same with American Football's only album.
Tim Lundin
The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me by Brand New is incredibly depressing, in my opinion.
Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible
Pulp - This Is Hardcore
Nirvana - In Utero
Radiohead - OK Computer
Joy Division - Closer
I love Crywank, I recommend you these song if you're looking for something specially depressing, but 99% of them are, so you shoud probably check the rest of them out.
Leech Boy; You Couldnt Teach Me Integrity; Baby Self-absorbed; Waste; Its Ok, I Wouldn't Remember Me Either; Memento Mori; Hikikomori; Do you have PPE for self-esteem?; and my all time fav: Sad Song for a Guilty Sadist.
Yes, Im 7 years late. No, I don't care.
Crywank are underrated
"Everyone I love is gonna die, and I will die as well"
Jesus dude...
@@Rackune I think the title "Memento Mori" means "Remember that we're all gonna die", not exactly with those words but that's the idea.
Outgoing hikkikomori has nice Lofi that is actually good
I always thought that Sufjan Stevens made some of the most depressing music.
True, but optimism usually shines through there
Spencer Moore I agree, but it's also weirdly beautiful
Seriously people will casually play Casmir Pulaski Day like its such a nice, chill song when it's really incredibly bleak. Kinda like Tracy Chapman's 'Fast Car'. They played that one everywhere.
I cannot agree more. Casimir Pulaski day and death with dignity get me every time.
There is not enough The Cure in this video.
True, but people tend to think of singles like "Friday I'm in Love" when they think of The Cure. They are especially powerful on their first few albums.
Of course, sad or melancholic music usually isn't commercially successful, but I'm certain Anthony isn't somebody who only listens to singles and even on Wish there are plenty of heart-wrenching tracks.
BloodflowersAndHurricanes Yeah, Anthony wouldn't be a music nerd if he only listens to singles. But yeah, what you said is totally true, it normally isn't. I was lucky enough to stumble upon The Cure's sad songs.
do you guys have some recomendations for sad albums/singles of The Cure?
Pornography, Seventeen Seconds, Faith. Especially Pornography. (Songs like: A Forest, M, At Night, Seventeen Seconds, The Holy Hour, Other Voices, The Funeral Party, Faith, One Hundred Years, Siamese Twins, The Figurehead, A Strange Day, Cold, Pornography). They do all have this melancholic and dark feelings, with lyrics that can be cleary interpreted as sad and depressing. The first song on Pornography, One Hundred Years, starts with "It doesn't matter if we all die." :D
Hospice by The Antlers is a soul crusher
really surprised he didnt mention it
he hated that album he gave it like a 3
Really? That's sad.
ikk I love that album
Opeth, Slint, Slowdive, Portishead, RADIOHEAD, Nine Inch Nails, Nick Drake, Nirvana... yeah
Alice in Chains- Dirt. Easily one of the most depressing albums of all time, yet my favorite album ever.
It is rather depressing. I would have to say that their selftitled is even more depressing though.
Dirt is depressing but is has energetic songs. Self titled is just pure misery.
And Jar Of Flies. Every song in that EP holds so much emotional weight on it's own, minus the closer but to me it seems like a bit of "comic relief" after a heartwrenching listen.
_Carrie & Lowell_. Fuck _me_, that album is depressing.
And if we're going to talk about individual songs, then "Headlights" by Eminem. I get a lump in my throat every time I hear it, and that _never_ happens with me.
It's funny that you say that, I just commented on his Planetarium video that Carrie and Lowell is my go to weeping album. I absolutely love it!
Jimmy Eat Word-Clarity, Futures
Brand New- The Devil and God Are Raging Inside me
Weezer- Pinkerton
OH MY GOD I LOVE YOU
Clarity always puts me in a good mood tho, I always vibe to it
Connor Mortifier yeah I've never thought of Clarity being a depressing album, brings back good memories
Slowdive's Souvlaki, can be a downer (in the best possible way) especially such songs like 'Mellon Yellow' and 'Dagger', Have A Nice Life's complete discography pretty much but more so on Deathconsiousness (Hunter & There Is No Food), Brian Eno's Apollo is a great album too if your in a depressive mood.
Love that album. I listened to it during a depressing time in my life but I don't think it's depressing. Maybe just a little sad.
+N.K. Revolution I was talking about slowdive btw
+N.K. Revolution what album are you referring to?
+N.K. Revolution Ah, undoubtably there are uplifting songs such as Alison and When The Sun Hits but the album as a whole to me is quite depressing but to each his own I suppose. If you haven't already seen the Pitchfork documentary then I'd highly recommend it, sort of adds to how depressing the atmosphere was, to me at least
GunRunner181 I love that documentary. That's what motivated me to listen to it a few days after it was uploaded. :D
The Glow Part 2 really bums me out
Was searching specially to see if anyone said this, the really climactic middle bit especially
Oh God yeah that's a powerful song
ActuallyIan headless horseman, the glow pt. 2, the mansion, i’ll not contain you, i felt your shape etc. are all beautiful bummers. and also i’ll not contain you is seriously one of the most beautiful songs to ever exist.
Songs like I Felt Your Shape and Samurai Sword almost balance it out for me, even if both can still be considered to be tinged with sadness. But yeah, I suppose ultimately I concur, it really is a beautifully sad album.
@@ttdmax5711 oh men, I think that too!!! I'll not contain you it's so fucking beautiful...
For me, the most depressing songs come from an album or a band not conventionally known to exhale depressing music. Prime example is Ween - Birthday Boy, right near the end of their first album godweensatan. You're almost an hour in, and you've been listening to completely ridiculous and otherworldly forms of humor and musical expression. You think that these kids (Gene and Dean) are completely nuts. Then, birthday boy happens. Push through godweensatan, and you'll understand the impact it can have. When an album is nothing but depressing songs (OK Computer), it is still an emotional experience, but the attack is dulled by the fact that there's nothing to contrast it. Nothing to make it seem THAT much more emotional.
Guercinator everywhere I go I find you
good point
Guercinator to give a contemporary hip-hop comparison: To Pimp a Butterfly. The album starts off pretty light hearted and jovial. At times a little dark or serious, but Kendrick hits a rut and the track “u” is very depressing
Hey it's you
"Fluffy " :-(
I listen to depressing music because I relate to it a lot. It seems to help me knowing that someone can be depressed and yet contribute something I percieve to be of great value. Particular themes can be especially beneficial to explore if they relate to someone. In my case, I've been listening to music about drug abuse, unrequited love and lack of commitment. Sometimes a well placed happy song is just the thing too, depressed or not. Right now because of my age and who I grew up with I find myself going back a lot of Fall Out Boy, Blink 182 and Green Day's older material again, partially for nostalgic reasons and partially because I still relate a great deal and have an even deeper appreciation for what in this case is fairly simple, yet catchy crunchy chuggy riffs and melodrama about girls and identity.
City and Colour - Bring Me Your Love
Death Cab For Cutie - Plans
Benjamin Francis Leftwich - Last Smoke Before the Snowstorm
Baths - Obsidian
Alexi Murdoch - Time Without Consequence
Luke Pickett
Tom Waits (Most of it but I would say Alice and Mule Variations)
Pompeii - Nothing Happens for a reason
*I could go on and on, but I think that's a good enough list*
Radiohead's Kid A is not only depressing, but also a spiritual journey.
really... no emotion with how to disappear completely
Easily my favorite album and favorite band of all time
You can definitely add Blackstar to this list now. Even though the sound isn't that depressing, the context is just so sad, you can't ignore it.
Beck - Sea Change
Radiohead - Kid A / In Rainbows / A Moon Shaped Pool
The National - High Violet / Trouble Will Find Me
Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
The Smiths - The Smiths
Morrissey - Viva Hate
Joy Division - Closer
Spiritualized - Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
Portishead - Dummy
Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
Tom Waits - Closing Time
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree
Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks
Neil Young - Harvest / On The Beach
Sun Kil Moon - Among The Leaves / Benji
Perfume Genius - Put Your Back N 2 It
Slint - Spiderland
Future Islands - In Evening Air
Deafheaven - Sunbather
Albums that I think are definitely worth mentioning here. And happens to be that all these albums are also perfect. Is it depressing to realize, that most of my personal favourites are depressing albums?
The Antlers - Hospice
depressing? or an album about mourning?
Hospice is a beautifully sad album, but absolutely not depressing
zenscape87 I would say that it deals with areas of depression but doesn't full out go into the mindset of depression. I like a album that isn't just full sadness but majorly deals with it.
hellosqueakers
I would kind of argue that it doesn't completely "deal with it". In the last track he seems to move on from whole nightmare, but it comes back to him in haunting dreams - and this is one of the major appeals of the album for me, stating that mourning is such a complex process, dealing with anxiety, shame/blame for yourself and for the world. One of the best, heart wrecking albums i've ever heard, haven't had such an emotional listening for a while now.
Kasparas Varžinskas Hey man. I get what you are saying. Epilogue is one of my favorite tracks off that album. Acoustically and Lyrically. I can see it being a happy ending to a sad album but to me its a depressing listen. Thanks for new insight on the album.
Flatsound!!!!!!! His whole discography is melancholic and I WHOLEHEARTEDLY recommend his music to you! To get into it, "sleep" is a great starter album, but I really like his 2017 release "i stayed up until sunrise but got to fall asleep to the sounds of birds singing"
One word to explain this phenomenon: Catharsis.
Townes Van Zandt deserves more than a passing mention, the man embodied sadness. On that note, Jeff Buckley - perhaps 'depressing' isn't as good a term as 'haunting'. If you've never listened to the mostly-unreleased "Manic-Depressive Named Laughing Boy" by Modest Mouse, it is BOTH haunting and depressing, especially when you discover 'Isaac' means "laughing boy" in Hebrew and so the song is probably their most nakedly personal. The ominous reverberating metal 'clinking' of the guitar in the intro, the oppressive march of the instrumentation once it kicks into the song, and the shrill cries of "WHY'D YOU DO IT!?" directed at the protagonist of the song (and thus at Isaac Brock himself) in the chorus make it one of the most disturbing songs for me, lent this "snuff film" quality by the over-all audio quality which is post-Sad Sappy Sucker but pre-Long Drive. (That is to say, shitty)
But Townes didnt make depressing albums, just depressing singles. His albums were often mixed with more positive stuff.
Frightened Rabbit's The Midnight Organ Fight is the most sincere album about a breakup that I have found. Scott Hutchison is an amazing musician, songwriter and singer.
First Interpol album
"Perfect day" by Lou Reed has always deppresed the hell out of me....any song that has "happy" lyrics but with sad, somber music does that. "What a wonderful world" ny Louis Armstrong has a similar effect.
Slint - Spiderland
Has destroyed me and I can't stop listen to this masterpiece.
It helped me get through suicidal thoughts and low social battery, honestly.
_The Holy Bible_ by the Manic Street Preachers, an album devoted almost exclusively to the darkest aspects of the human condition, is downright heartbreaking at times.
Agreed!
+Kurtis C. Oh god yeah, I remember the first time listened to that album, i had no idea who the manics were or what the album contained ... i spent about 4 weeks listening to it pretty much exclusively afterward, researching lyrics and backstory and even parts of history i wasn't to clear on.
That album for me is one of the most beautiful ive ever heard, the lyrics are just so raw,.
P.S I just realised why i love this particular type of "depressing music" lol i for hate love songs and breakup song. She is suffering is the closest thing on the album which actually is my least favorite song as it turns out.
I completely agree. It's a punch in the gut followed by a twisting of your brain and your entire worldly perspective.
My favourite album of all time, but The Intense Humming Of Evil is sometimes unlistenable because of how purely haunting it is. And 4st 7lbs is very harrowing as it's the most personal song Richey ever wrote. This Is Yesterday is a beautiful song though, a brief glimmer of light among the darkness.
Eh, more traumatic than depressing to me.
Nutshell by Alice In Chains
Most Alice In Chains songs pre-2000 have depressing lyrical content.
Nutshell is beautifully dark. Dirt is sludgy and ugly which in turn delivers the dark themes in a more depressing manner imo
Boring ass song.
@@anonymoususer2756 oh, how special u r sir.
Feeling This I fucking hate Alice In Chains. They make some of the most boring ass music I’ve ever heard. They have three good songs, Would?, Down In A Hole and Bleed The Freak. Everything else they’ve done is starving African baby grade garbage. Never understood why people love them so much.
Joy Division's Closer. That album is the epitome of depression. C'mon it's Ian Curtis' suicide note put into music! Closer is so dark, eerie, cold, and nihilistic in which it makes me cry every time I listen to it.
Magnolia Electric Co. perfectly sums up the feeling of the cold air drying up tears on your face. It’s such a harrowing album sonically and lyrically, especially Farewell Transmission. Love this album to death.
Always on my rotation. For me its Magnolia electric co - Songs: Ohia, Alice in chains self titled, Purple Mountains by David Berman , Warning - watching from a distance, Low - I could live in hope, degradation trip volumes 1&2 by Jerry cantrell
give a listen to jason molina’s solo album “let me go.” really raw and emotionally moving stuff, my personal favorite release of his
Not very many people think this, probably, but I think "The Suburbs," by Arcade Fire is one of the most depressing albums I've ever heard.
I'm so glad you mentioned Elliott's strong sense of musicality and the fact that he didn't just make music for it to be depressing music.
Speaking of nihilistic albums, lets not forget Kid A. The lyrics on that albums are haunting, but impossible to interpret; they're meaningless. Halfway through the album you realize you're trying to attribute themes or meanings to the songs that just aren't there. Kind of a depressing when something that inspires so much interest, turns out to be nothing but chaotic. C'est la vie. Great album.
Kid a is really depressing for me I think bc the sounds used give the album a really cold feel to it a lot of the lyrics can be seen as not so depressing but the sounds always give me chills like it sounds like how it feels to slowly pass away I guess it definitely has a melancholiac beauty to it
Kid A and Amnesiac both excel at making you feel trapped, scared, empty, and depressed, but Amnesiac is a little bit better at this; which is why it hasn't been received as well. Shame, it's a truly underrated album.
Kid A isn't really depressing so much as it induces existential dread. It makes me think about the future in a way that paralyzes me in absolute horror.
@@lamestudiosinc418 that existential dread is the depressing part imo
during my "phase" last year, i played earl sweatshirt a ton
same
Tim Chizzik your "phase".
*cough
I guess you didn't liked shit and you didn't go outside.
im really late to this but have u heard "solace" from earl? i believe it was after the passing of his grandmother. I replayed it for days.
Shabazziii Bam ayyyyyyy
Pink Floyd - The Final Cut. The album tells the story of a WWII vet turned schoolmaster clearly suffering from PTSD as he struggles to reconnect with his wife, children, and life in general, all while being tormented by the memories of the horrors he both witnessed and perpetrated in the throes of war. The album climaxes in his aborted suicide attempt (to which the title of the album alludes) and closes with his nightmare vision of a nuclear apocalypse. There is no happy ending, nor any real resolution at all. Roger Waters' poignantly poetic lyrics and heartfelt vocal delivery, along with Michael Kamen's affecting orchestrations and David Gilmour's incomparably soul-wrenching guitar work, ratchet the tear-factor up to 11.
On a side note, for those who don't know, this album is actually kind of a sequel or spin-off to the much more famous "The Wall," as its lead character is one and the same with the schoolmaster from that album. In fact, most of these songs were written for "The Wall," but were rejected for various reasons. A short film was made as well, featuring the same actor who played the schoolmaster in the film version of "The Wall."
Hey theneedledrop, I know this is an old video, but I have something that might answer your question. Coming from a super emotional person (I feel each emotion extremely deeper and more intense, which is good and bad at times), when I am going through the days or times of depression (clinically diagnosed, not Mayo Clinic lmfoa), sometimes what helps is to listen to some really depressing music and allow myself to wallow in it, to really feel it with every part of my existence, that way it goes away quicker, kind of like crying when you just let it all out. But if I try to hide it or whatever, it prolongs it. It's like, I accept it, acknowledge it, allow myself to feel it, embrace it, and then in time, say good bye to it. And there are other reasons we like it too, like you said, to hear something relateable. Sometimes I like to pretend I'm in a movie when I'm riding my bike or something at night, envision a camera angle where it shows me riding my bike in slow motion, and depending on how I'm feeling that night, I'll put on some depressing music to add to the "movie scene", just like how you would see it in a movie, if that makes sense. Hope that helps!!
808s and Heartbreak by Kanye West is a great album in this fashion.
Sindre Høllesli YES
I don't believe it to be as depressing as the bands mentioned in the video, but I think Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, and Soundgarden do it for me.
Have a Nice Life's "Deathconsciousness" has been on heavy rotation as of late.
Been thinking about the questions asked at the start of the video. Lately I've been listening to The Antlers' album Hospice a-ddic-tive-ly. This comes at a time, let's call it a year, that's been pretty difficult personally. The idea of an album that tells the story of someone going through an emotionally abusive relationship, while simultaneously telling the analogous story of a hospice worker working with a difficult patient at the end of their life--well, I can't say it mirrors what I'm going through exactly, but there are certain things that really hit home. Hearing certain lines helps me is therapeutic, it helps me to process. People, I think, are attracted to lyrics that resonate with them and help them to process their own emotions. The harder it is to deal with the emotion, well, the more you might listen to the song. I think the circumstances of my life at this time have kind of colored the tone of the music I listen to, and indeed, my tracklists lately have been generally down-tempo or mid-tempo, if they are not as overtly depressing as this album. Wasn't always this way, but it's been a tough year and yes, I do think it affects the music I listen to. Maybe if you're thinking, why do I get requests for depressing albums, as opposed to albums that speak to any other emotion that people would be feeling; well, I'd think it's because you don't really look to music to "process" other emotions, but when you're depressed, anxious, or something of this sort, it's something you do actively.
A lot of Alice In Chains stuff puts me there, going deep into they’re lyrics and albums you can feel the pain that Layne was going through, Jerry’s writing complimented by his vocals give songs like Don’t Follow or Down in a hole multiple meanings, then you’ve got songs like Dirt, Rain when I Die, Angry Chair and the like that are heavy but the pain behind all this rage is just saddening, and love hate love is mint
R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People is a pretty depressing album. It was actually the last album Kurt Cobain listened to before he committed suicide.
Just listen to anything by Modest Mouse prior to the release of Good News, particularly the Moon & Antarctica. Even the title and art on that LP can simulate the feeling of sinking into an abyss.
Brand New, dude! Tracks like millstone, sic transit gloria..., handcuffs, Jesus, and You won't know (yes I know these are only from two of their albums) are some heart wrenchers. These are usually the "rage against the dying of the light" style depressing songs. Often dealing with themes raging from losing your potential and favor in the eyes of your peers, to dying alone because of your own fear, t being used because it's the only thing you know how to do. Jesse Lacey's voice sounds like the last breaths of a dying animal, demanding it's last moments to burn out rather than fade away, and vincent acardi's guitar work is both subtle and blaring, mixing dissonance from bands like Built to Spill, to more hardcore influences that are very power chord driven from Bands like Bad Religion and turnstile. A tight rhythm section (at it's peak in Sic Transit Gloria...) paints a driving, tank like, background that the leads scrape over, like they're tearing through sheet metal. I've more often than not angry cried through "The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me". Great for emotional validation and anguish.
I started listening to music this January, partially thanks to some of your insights and classics reviews and while I'm still new to music I'm glad to have had the opportunity to listen to stuff like
Slowdive-Soulvlaki
Radiohead-Ok Computer (not really depressing)
Joy Division-Unknown Pleasures
Interpol-Turn on the Bright Lights
the downward spiral and the fragile by nine inch nails are pretty depressing
love em
Elvis Depressedly is a good band if your into sad, calmish stuff
I've seen Pink Floyd live, and was high as fuck, but the show stayed with me to this day. I feel like I could gush endlessly about that show, but you just had to see/hear it, to believe it. Every single sight and sound, is engineered to take you directly to the darkest, most isolated places in your mind. I fucking love it, and would have to count it as some of the most beautiful, deep, and yes, depressing music, ever created. Even their happiest tunes still have a palpable amount of melancholy, and beauty to spare. It's still my best music related memory, even decades later. Pink Floyd reached directly into my chest that night, and squeezed some of the life out of me. For that, I am eternally grateful to them.
1. The Antlers - Kettering
2. GY!BE - Storm
3. Bright Eyes - At the Bottom of Everything
Every time I listen to these three songs I may actually cry.
I honestly find storm and at the bottom of everything to be very happy and uplifting, but happy in a teary eyed way
Mark Kozelek, particularly his most early act Red House Painters are undoubtedly the most depressing band in my opinion. Particularly songs such as their most praised and my personal favourite of all time "Katy Song". Others such as "Moments" and "Drop" are emotional lyrically and instrumentally and I would highly recommend them.
Both Joy Division albums, Unknown Pleasures and especially the second album Closer is particularly tough on the heart
Berlin by Lou Reed. All other albums can't compare to this masterpiece. The perfect depressing album
+Florian Decros (ProgRockFan) That album is such a masterpiece. Probably My Favorite Lou Reed album.
+Florian Decros (ProgRockFan) Dont forget Magic And Loss by Lou Reed... Gut wrenchingly depressing
Nina Simone has a vocal style that can grip you and lead you up or down pretty well. Her song, "Strange Fruit" not only has very very dark lyrics but her voice calls a deep ache into the soul. Feelin Good is a song that is uplifting by her. So, enjoy if you've never listened before
1. Grace - Jeff Buckley 2. The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me - Brand New 3. Carrie & Lowell - Sufjan Stevens 4. Mean Everything to Nothing - Manchester Orchestra 5. Still - Nine Inch Nails 6. Not to Disappear - Daughter 7. Kintsugi - Death Cab for Cutie 8. Low Roar - Low Roar 9. Birthdays - Keaton Henson 10. Timber Timbre - Timber Timbre 11. Final Straw - Snow Patrol 12. The Bends - Radiohead 13. Ghost - Radical Face 14. Happy Songs for Happy People - Mogwai 15. Young Mountain - This Will Destroy You 16. Are You Alone? Majical Cloudz 17. Trouble Will Find Me - The National 18. Come to Where I'm From - Joseph Arthur 19. Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd 20. Bon Iver - Bon Iver
Failure by Swans is an absolutely devastating song
The Gris album pictured in this video has the single most tortured human voice I've ever heard. It is still hard for me to listen to that album, even though I think it is great.
Most depressing song I know is Louis Armstrongs What a Wonderful World. It sounds like a man who is dying and is gonna miss every little thing in life so much.... :( sad but beautiful at the same time
THE ANTLERS : HOSPICE
LOW : I COULD LIVE IN HOPE
LA DISPUTE : SOMEWHERE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE RIVER BETWEEN VEGA AND ALTAIR
FLEET FOXES : HELPLESSNESS BLUES
BECK : SEA CHANGE
RADIOHEAD : KID A
SMASHING PUMPKINS : SIAMESE DREAM
COLDPLAY : A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD
LOW ROAR : LOW ROAR
TOM O'DELL : LONG WAY DOWN
Seems like you don't listen to the lyrics.
Pink Floyd - the wall
Alice In Chains - dirt
i honestly find tripod works better, like, heaven and hell is always a go to when i'm depressed for sure, just the hook of that song,
Smoke- Heaven On A Popsicle Stick
Failure- Fantastic Planet
Daniel Johnston's entire music library
SpamNapkin
The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me by Brand New is incredibly depressing, in my opinion.
+willr455 thanks for the recommendation, just checked them out
James Blake's The Colour In Anything is both depressing and uplifting as a narrative that you can take what you want from it. I had to warm into it as a record as Overgrown was a much more accessible album (except for Voyeur ugh), but in the end the breakup narrative is so relatable from different angles and so charged with emotion to convey that the peaks and valleys resonate deeply with me. I know it got a 5 over here but he always says it's just his opinion so ehhh.
I listen to everywhere at the end of time when I go to sleep and I find it beautiful. Most of the people I see hate it but i feel like it makes me at peace.
same! everything before stage four is perfect for me
1.queensryche. "Promised Land"
2 Soundgarden "superunknown"
3 Overkill "killbox 13"
4 Bob Dylan "blood on the Tracks"
5 Neil Young "Harvest"
6 Pink Floyd"animals"
7 Queen" innuendo"
8 W.A.S.P "Crimson Idol"
9.The Cure "Desintegration"
10 James Blunt "all the lost souls".....
Lonesome crowded west by modest mouse
When I felt the real urge for depressive music to inhabit my ears, I listened to a lot of different things. One band I listened to were The Exploration, and it's funny, can't go back to listen to them anymore.
Though, I also listened to Merchant Ships, and the one song that people think of when they hear Merchant Ships and depressing is "For Cameron" but I found "Something That Matters" stuck with me most. It captured a sense of nostalgic depression, the idea of lost youth. Now I'm not saying these songs are great or super deep and complex, they both just bring out specific emotions and my interpretations are what bring some depth.
The one song I would say is objectively great, and one I related to the most, playing it almost exclusively (along with Solace by Earl) is "u" by Kendrick Lamar. A beautiful track, a great source of healing for me. If anyone read this rant, I love you. Hope you find your way soon if you haven't yet.