Got a broken heart and your name on my cast And everybody’s gone at last
June 30, 2024 10:29 AM Subscribe
40 Saddest Albums of All Time (slDiscogs)
I knew there would be a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album but I was expecting Boatman’s Call not the more recent Ghosteen
posted by dis_integration at 10:47 AM on June 30 [1 favorite]
posted by dis_integration at 10:47 AM on June 30 [1 favorite]
if you want a 41st try Splinter by The Sneaker Pimps.
posted by supermedusa at 11:06 AM on June 30
posted by supermedusa at 11:06 AM on June 30
Only one Elliot Smith album, which ok I guess because otherwise it'd be a good chunk of the list.
No Julien Baker! C'mon. C'MON.
Shocked to not see Death Cab. Plans could be on there for most of the album, but "What Sarah Said" should cement it for that song alone.
posted by curious nu at 11:17 AM on June 30 [2 favorites]
No Julien Baker! C'mon. C'MON.
Shocked to not see Death Cab. Plans could be on there for most of the album, but "What Sarah Said" should cement it for that song alone.
posted by curious nu at 11:17 AM on June 30 [2 favorites]
Two of the albums that sprang immediately to mind, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s I See a Darkness and Nico’s Desertshore, were on the list, so I’m happy, and several artists have different albums than the ones I expected, but mostly they make sense. The two albums I’m surprised didn’t make the list are Billie Holiday’s brilliant and heartbreaking Lady Sings the Blues and Skip Spence’s Oar. The latter is the sound of a broken down man falling apart in a studio.
posted by Kattullus at 11:19 AM on June 30 [2 favorites]
posted by Kattullus at 11:19 AM on June 30 [2 favorites]
Checked to make sure that "Songs of Love and Hate" by Leonard Cohen was included, and was not disappointed.
Interesting to see "The Sophtware Slump" by Grandaddy on there. Absolutely one of my favourite albums, and it definitely has some extremely poignant and tragic songs, but I never really classified it in my head as a "sad album", per se.
posted by mrjohnmuller at 11:21 AM on June 30 [3 favorites]
Interesting to see "The Sophtware Slump" by Grandaddy on there. Absolutely one of my favourite albums, and it definitely has some extremely poignant and tragic songs, but I never really classified it in my head as a "sad album", per se.
posted by mrjohnmuller at 11:21 AM on June 30 [3 favorites]
I have a couple...
"Godless America" is a compilation of obscure country western songs from the pre Nashville era. "Eight Weeks In A Barroom" is a hell of a ride through someone's darkness.
The other is "Hank Williams as Luke The Drifter", which has some real dirges. A taste of Hank's alter ego; I can only take it in very small pieces, many of which are available on YouTube.
posted by cybrcamper at 11:29 AM on June 30 [2 favorites]
"Godless America" is a compilation of obscure country western songs from the pre Nashville era. "Eight Weeks In A Barroom" is a hell of a ride through someone's darkness.
The other is "Hank Williams as Luke The Drifter", which has some real dirges. A taste of Hank's alter ego; I can only take it in very small pieces, many of which are available on YouTube.
posted by cybrcamper at 11:29 AM on June 30 [2 favorites]
No Gillian Welch? No Aimee Mann? No Lana Del Rey? Are you trying to make these sad girls sadder???
posted by rikschell at 11:29 AM on June 30 [8 favorites]
posted by rikschell at 11:29 AM on June 30 [8 favorites]
Sea Change is a breakup album, sure, but it also gathers some sinister context when you combine it with the scientology-hijinks surrounding him at the time
I'm not sure there's an all-sad Tom Waits album, but you could definitely compile a 10 Saddest
posted by credulous at 11:47 AM on June 30 [2 favorites]
I'm not sure there's an all-sad Tom Waits album, but you could definitely compile a 10 Saddest
posted by credulous at 11:47 AM on June 30 [2 favorites]
These all sound great, and I will bookmark the page for some lovely/lonely night of listening with a big glass of wine in the dark.
When I was in college my best friend and I were obsessed by Tears for Fears' first album The Hurting. Very very very saaaaaaadddddd.
posted by JanetLand at 11:48 AM on June 30 [3 favorites]
When I was in college my best friend and I were obsessed by Tears for Fears' first album The Hurting. Very very very saaaaaaadddddd.
posted by JanetLand at 11:48 AM on June 30 [3 favorites]
but "What Sarah Said" should cement it for that song alone
For some inexplicable reason unrelated to any of this I had this song stuck in my head last night all night.
Love is watching someone die.
So who's going to watch you die?
Oh.
Oh God.
posted by kbanas at 12:15 PM on June 30 [3 favorites]
For some inexplicable reason unrelated to any of this I had this song stuck in my head last night all night.
Love is watching someone die.
So who's going to watch you die?
Oh.
Oh God.
posted by kbanas at 12:15 PM on June 30 [3 favorites]
On one hand, this is extremely presentist - like, do we really, really believe that virtually all of the saddest albums of all time were recorded after 1990? I think that's the sign of not enough listening.
On the other hand, this is a great way to do a list - pick something more specific than "the best" and pick something we all know is pretty subjective so that we can chat rather than fight. Unlike most curated lists, this actually made me want to listen to a bunch of the albums.
My personal saddest albums are PJ Harvey's Let England Shake and David Berman's Purple Mountains album. "The Color of the Earth" on the PJ Harvey is actually such a sad song that I skip it when I listen to the album - I think I've actually listened to it twice, and I've probably played the album fifty or sixty times.
The thing about sad breakups is that eventually you virtually always feel better, but if you died on the barbed wire in WWI you're still dead, if you're David Berman you're still dead, etc.
posted by Frowner at 12:21 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
On the other hand, this is a great way to do a list - pick something more specific than "the best" and pick something we all know is pretty subjective so that we can chat rather than fight. Unlike most curated lists, this actually made me want to listen to a bunch of the albums.
My personal saddest albums are PJ Harvey's Let England Shake and David Berman's Purple Mountains album. "The Color of the Earth" on the PJ Harvey is actually such a sad song that I skip it when I listen to the album - I think I've actually listened to it twice, and I've probably played the album fifty or sixty times.
The thing about sad breakups is that eventually you virtually always feel better, but if you died on the barbed wire in WWI you're still dead, if you're David Berman you're still dead, etc.
posted by Frowner at 12:21 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
I was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2015. I'm ok now but that Sufjan album - Carrie and Lowell - came out that summer and for like three months while I was waiting for surgery I would just listen to that album and sob. In my car. At home. At work. But I never stopped playing it. Sometimes it feels good to be sad.
I still can't listen to it without tearing up.
That's the top of my personal list.
posted by kbanas at 12:35 PM on June 30 [9 favorites]
I still can't listen to it without tearing up.
That's the top of my personal list.
posted by kbanas at 12:35 PM on June 30 [9 favorites]
JFHC! No Farewell Angelina recorded by Joan Baez right after she got dumped by Bob Dylan!? What universe do these faux mopers live in!? That has to be one of the saddest albums of all time. My dad would start screaming 'Suicide music! Turn off that goddamn fucking suicide music!' whenever I put it on. As did more than one girlfriend over the years. That has to be just about the most depressed album ever.
posted by y2karl at 12:41 PM on June 30 [2 favorites]
posted by y2karl at 12:41 PM on June 30 [2 favorites]
I was prepared to whine about Lou Reed’s Berlin being ignored but nope, there it is. “Certain parts of the album still feel dreadful”, indeed. What a feeling…
posted by aquanaut at 12:58 PM on June 30 [2 favorites]
posted by aquanaut at 12:58 PM on June 30 [2 favorites]
Like 'They're taking the children away...' complete with crying babies in the background.
posted by y2karl at 1:06 PM on June 30
posted by y2karl at 1:06 PM on June 30
Some good stuff on here, but yeah, this is very recent stuff - would nominate Wish You Were Here, Tonight's the Night, Plastic Ono Band as some older candidates.
Or for more recent stuff, how about Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space or 69 Love Songs?
But IMO another weak point here is the concentration on stereotypically sad-sounding stuff - mellow acoustic guitars, slow beats, minor keys. Echo-y, somber, ethereal. While personally I have a weak point for music that sounds happy and bouncy, but has crushingly depressing lyrics. I might vote for Heavenly/Amelia Fletcher as the absolute champion of that genre.
posted by equalpants at 1:11 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
Or for more recent stuff, how about Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space or 69 Love Songs?
But IMO another weak point here is the concentration on stereotypically sad-sounding stuff - mellow acoustic guitars, slow beats, minor keys. Echo-y, somber, ethereal. While personally I have a weak point for music that sounds happy and bouncy, but has crushingly depressing lyrics. I might vote for Heavenly/Amelia Fletcher as the absolute champion of that genre.
posted by equalpants at 1:11 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
It has A Crow Looked At Me. The list is therefore complete; there can be no sadder album. I have listened to that Mount Eerie album precisely once, and I ended up on the floor emitting low sobs. And I was in a fairly good place when I started. (If you want to bookend the sadness, Geneviève wrote a children's book for her child, knowing she wouldn't live to see them grow up)
A personally sad album for me is The Caretaker's "Everywhere at the end of time". The album tracks the loss of memory, self and sensation from the onset of dementia, and my dad was sliding that way when I heard it.
posted by scruss at 1:14 PM on June 30 [3 favorites]
A personally sad album for me is The Caretaker's "Everywhere at the end of time". The album tracks the loss of memory, self and sensation from the onset of dementia, and my dad was sliding that way when I heard it.
posted by scruss at 1:14 PM on June 30 [3 favorites]
I was prepared to whine about Lou Reed’s Berlin being ignored but nope, there it is.
Lester Bangs wrote an article for Creem magazine on the occasion of Lou Reed's Sally Can't Dance entitled LOU REED! DEAD OR ALIVE -- WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE!?' wherein he wrote, in reference to Berlin, '...and then he puked up the most gargantuan slab of maggoty rancor ever recorded!' God, I loved Lester Bangs -- about as much as he loved Lou Reed.
posted by y2karl at 1:28 PM on June 30 [3 favorites]
Lester Bangs wrote an article for Creem magazine on the occasion of Lou Reed's Sally Can't Dance entitled LOU REED! DEAD OR ALIVE -- WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE!?' wherein he wrote, in reference to Berlin, '...and then he puked up the most gargantuan slab of maggoty rancor ever recorded!' God, I loved Lester Bangs -- about as much as he loved Lou Reed.
posted by y2karl at 1:28 PM on June 30 [3 favorites]
I was ten choices into the list before hitting an album I don't have (I haven't heard of Susanne Sundfør, will have to check her out) but I just have to say that I strongly suspect a Richard-Thompson-shaped hole in this writer's music collection.
posted by Nerd of the North at 1:42 PM on June 30
posted by Nerd of the North at 1:42 PM on June 30
I read about A Crow Looked At Me a few years ago and bookmarked it for when I thought I’d be in the right mental space to be devastated.
Haven’t listened to it yet…
posted by ejs at 1:50 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
Haven’t listened to it yet…
posted by ejs at 1:50 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
Oops -- re Lou Reed and Lester Bangs in Creem in 1975: I was wrong on the title. LOU REED! WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE -- WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? was the headline on the cover. The article itself was entitled Let Us Now Praise Famous Death Dwarves: Or How I Slugged it Out With Lou Reed and Stayed Awake --and that's just the interview part.
CW: Just about everything you can think of -- as it was written in 1975 and details the conversation of two very pottymouthed men. And just now I realize that was almost 50 years ago. Oh, my.
posted by y2karl at 1:57 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
CW: Just about everything you can think of -- as it was written in 1975 and details the conversation of two very pottymouthed men. And just now I realize that was almost 50 years ago. Oh, my.
posted by y2karl at 1:57 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
coverdale/page is the saddest album, you could tell how much jimmy missed robert and it was breaking his heart
posted by logicpunk at 2:06 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
posted by logicpunk at 2:06 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
Oh god, I just found and have to add Lou Reed Meets The Press (1974) just because. Plus on my phone there is no end to similar YouTube clips of him at the time. What a goldmine. Again on all, CW: Everything.
posted by y2karl at 2:20 PM on June 30
posted by y2karl at 2:20 PM on June 30
I have a weak point for music that sounds happy and bouncy, but has crushingly depressing lyrics.
One, Two, Free Four!
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 2:23 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
One, Two, Free Four!
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 2:23 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
Lou Reed in Australia 1974 -- the whole interview.
OK, my work here is done. For now.
posted by y2karl at 2:27 PM on June 30
OK, my work here is done. For now.
posted by y2karl at 2:27 PM on June 30
ejs: I haven't listened to it either, but just the quote in the article made me say "Jesus Christ" out loud. Woof.
As far as the list... not terrible, but some notes:
Sufjan's newest isn't exactly an easy listen either.
"'Daydreaming' is the saddest Radiohead song ever." I mean... "How to Disappear Completely" exists, so.
posted by papayaninja at 2:30 PM on June 30
As far as the list... not terrible, but some notes:
Sufjan's newest isn't exactly an easy listen either.
"'Daydreaming' is the saddest Radiohead song ever." I mean... "How to Disappear Completely" exists, so.
posted by papayaninja at 2:30 PM on June 30
Wah, a listicle that doesn't suck about a topic that interests me.
I could kick in for Lorca by Tim Buckley, but I know it leans kinda obscure.
posted by ovvl at 2:55 PM on June 30
I could kick in for Lorca by Tim Buckley, but I know it leans kinda obscure.
posted by ovvl at 2:55 PM on June 30
Interesting to see "The Sophtware Slump" by Grandaddy on there. Absolutely one of my favourite albums, and it definitely has some extremely poignant and tragic songs, but I never really classified it in my head as a "sad album", per se.
Yes; The Sophtware Slump is melancholic; Just Like the Fambly Cat is sad. (This Is How It Always Starts just wrecks me.)
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 2:59 PM on June 30
Yes; The Sophtware Slump is melancholic; Just Like the Fambly Cat is sad. (This Is How It Always Starts just wrecks me.)
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 2:59 PM on June 30
I disagree with much of this, but that's probably because I can't really consider any great song to be a sad song because how can you be sad about something so beautiful?
That said, I Called You Back is sadder than any song on I See a Darkness. So is New Partner and Weaker Soldier and I Gave You. Hell, I See a Darkness isn't even truly a sad song, when looked at another way.
I'll agree with Frowner that the absence of Purple Mountains is a puzzler. What an extraordinary beautiful sad album that is. Berman was always one of the great songwriters of his generation and he really hit that final record out of the park. Nights That Won't Happen ("Death is a black camel that kneels down so we can ride ... The dead know what they're doing when they leave this world behind"), Darkness and Cold ("The light of my life is going out tonight as the sun sinks in the west / the light of my life is going out tonight with someone she just met ... Darkness and cold rolled in through the holes in the stories I told"), and I Loved Being My Mother's Son is even more devastating when you're aware of how much Berman hated his father. And of course the brilliant All My Happiness is Gone ("Lately, I tend to make strangers wherever I go / Some of them were once people I was happy to know / Mounting mileage on the dash / Double darkness falling fast / I keep stressing, pressing on / Way deep down at some substratum / Feels like something really wrong has happened / And I confess I'm barely hanging on // All my happiness is gone.")
Other absences for me would be something by Mojave 3, Bobby Birdman's Born Free Forever, and The Rapture's extraordinary In the Grace of Your Love, which is filled with sad songs set to dance beats, each song alternating between being about the singer's mother who committed suicide and his wife who divorced him.
posted by dobbs at 3:02 PM on June 30
That said, I Called You Back is sadder than any song on I See a Darkness. So is New Partner and Weaker Soldier and I Gave You. Hell, I See a Darkness isn't even truly a sad song, when looked at another way.
I'll agree with Frowner that the absence of Purple Mountains is a puzzler. What an extraordinary beautiful sad album that is. Berman was always one of the great songwriters of his generation and he really hit that final record out of the park. Nights That Won't Happen ("Death is a black camel that kneels down so we can ride ... The dead know what they're doing when they leave this world behind"), Darkness and Cold ("The light of my life is going out tonight as the sun sinks in the west / the light of my life is going out tonight with someone she just met ... Darkness and cold rolled in through the holes in the stories I told"), and I Loved Being My Mother's Son is even more devastating when you're aware of how much Berman hated his father. And of course the brilliant All My Happiness is Gone ("Lately, I tend to make strangers wherever I go / Some of them were once people I was happy to know / Mounting mileage on the dash / Double darkness falling fast / I keep stressing, pressing on / Way deep down at some substratum / Feels like something really wrong has happened / And I confess I'm barely hanging on // All my happiness is gone.")
Other absences for me would be something by Mojave 3, Bobby Birdman's Born Free Forever, and The Rapture's extraordinary In the Grace of Your Love, which is filled with sad songs set to dance beats, each song alternating between being about the singer's mother who committed suicide and his wife who divorced him.
posted by dobbs at 3:02 PM on June 30
I was sure your Mojave 3 link was going to point here..
I'm not sure if I think After the Gold Rush belongs on the list but if for some reason you want to bring me down, this song is ironically the way to go..
posted by Nerd of the North at 3:18 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
I'm not sure if I think After the Gold Rush belongs on the list but if for some reason you want to bring me down, this song is ironically the way to go..
posted by Nerd of the North at 3:18 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
I’m interested in following some of these down. For whatever reason, a lot of them are in a post-me indie category so I have either not heard of or not heard a lot of them. I don’t think of Portishead as really sad, just mellow. For me #1 is Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks. The melodies and amount of detail in the breakups and relationships take me to a really rough place.
posted by caviar2d2 at 3:27 PM on June 30 [2 favorites]
posted by caviar2d2 at 3:27 PM on June 30 [2 favorites]
"Dummy" is sad? Not buying it; too much of a bop. On the other hand, even thinking about The Sophtware Slump makes me sad.
posted by phooky at 4:08 PM on June 30
posted by phooky at 4:08 PM on June 30
I'd also like to suggest Frightened Rabbit's The Midnight Organ Fight for a very sad album. Sure, it's got an uplifting track (Old Old Fashioned), but the rest is bleak, especially:
Am I ready to leap is there peace beneathposted by scruss at 4:31 PM on June 30
The roar of the Forth Road Bridge?
On the northern side there's a Fife of mine
And a boat in the port for me
I don't know if I'd call it one of the saddest albums of all time but I was shocked when I sat down to listen to Carole King's Tapestry all the way through again recently.
I think all of us know the hits, and the hits are good, but they lead one to believe this album is going to be fun.
Nope, it's about an incredibly lonely woman wanting a connection with people in her life (romantically or otherwise) and usually not getting it. I sat down for a good time and found myself crying over the story this album told. There is so much genuinely painful longing!
I do love Tapestry (I own two copies for reason, but it's always good to have a backup) but I don't think I ever gave it more than a casual listen until I did so recently. Honestly, the sadness of it made me love it even more.
posted by edencosmic at 4:37 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
I think all of us know the hits, and the hits are good, but they lead one to believe this album is going to be fun.
Nope, it's about an incredibly lonely woman wanting a connection with people in her life (romantically or otherwise) and usually not getting it. I sat down for a good time and found myself crying over the story this album told. There is so much genuinely painful longing!
I do love Tapestry (I own two copies for reason, but it's always good to have a backup) but I don't think I ever gave it more than a casual listen until I did so recently. Honestly, the sadness of it made me love it even more.
posted by edencosmic at 4:37 PM on June 30 [1 favorite]
but I never really classified it in my head as a "sad album", per se.
You said I’d wake up dead drunk
Alone in the park
I called you a liar
But how right you were.
posted by Huggiesbear at 4:50 PM on June 30
You said I’d wake up dead drunk
Alone in the park
I called you a liar
But how right you were.
posted by Huggiesbear at 4:50 PM on June 30
Not a Mt Erie fan--nothing against him, Microphones/Mt Erie just never made it to my short list--but "A Crow Looked at Me" lends this list credibility. That is the single most effective "reduced to a tearful puddle on the floor" thing I have ever heard. It hard to explain, like is it even music? I guess. But it's incredibly direct and effective and there but for the grace of God.
I'd have swapped "Didn't It Rain" for Ghost Tropic" though.
And yeah Purple Mountains belongs here.
posted by kensington314 at 5:15 PM on June 30
I'd have swapped "Didn't It Rain" for Ghost Tropic" though.
And yeah Purple Mountains belongs here.
posted by kensington314 at 5:15 PM on June 30
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posted by jessamyn at 10:45 AM on June 30 [2 favorites]