Melancholic music wanted.

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by redfloatboat, Apr 29, 2016.

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  1. If you like downtempo, Zero 7, Royksopp etc you might enjoy Blue States. Generally instrumental and quite cinematic but they do have some songs like this:

     
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  2. strat95

    strat95 Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    I'm a big Radiohead fan and really love the 2 songs you mentioned as well. Sometime after getting into Radiohead I came across the Post-Rock genre, usually instrumental songs and sometimes melancholy. You may want to check out a band called Mogwai and the "Mr. Beast" album as well as "Happy Songs For Happy People". In addition, check out Godspeed You! Black Emperor, you can't go wrong with their first 3 albums (F#A# Infinity, Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven, Yanqui U.X.O.) and check out their most recent ones too.

    I really think you'll find something in there that will fit the bill. The songs may not be purely melancholic, but they often shift back and forth in mood from slightly sad to slightly happy.
     
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  3. anduandi

    anduandi Senior Member



    Gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it.
     
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  4. MonkeyLizard

    MonkeyLizard Forum Resident

    Location:
    Philadelphia
    Ben Folds Five Whatever and Ever Amen album has some great melancholic tunes on it.

    Fair
    Brick
    Selfless Cold And Composed
    Smoke
    Missing The War

    And a few sweet rockers

    Edit: I'm going to bed, or else I would post links. Highly recommended.
     
  5. aussievinyl

    aussievinyl Appreciator Of Creative Expression

    SHE SHOT ME DOWN by Frank Sinatra may fit the bill for you - I won't say any more, it's best you go in not knowing anything about it except the title.
     
  6. RayistaGeoff

    RayistaGeoff Forum Resident

  7. RHCD

    RHCD Reverend Bong

    Pretty much everything by Jason Molina is tinged with an air of melancholy, heightened by the tragedy of his own short life.

    Try 'Almost Was Good Enough' from the album Electric Magnolia Company. Hard to penetrate but desperately sad.
     
  8. Jim B.

    Jim B. Senior Member

    Location:
    UK
    The first This Mortal Coil album, the whole thing would fit the bill, including their superior versions of Kangaroo and Holocaust.
     
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  9. AFOS

    AFOS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brisbane,Australia
    Song To The Siren is certainly melancholy - one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've heard
     
    Jim B. likes this.
  10. JRD

    JRD Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    Boston - A man I'll never be
    Bad Company - Love me somebody, The way i choose
    Free - Be my friend
    The Band - It makes no difference
    Grand Funk - Loneliness
    Black Sabbath - Changes
    Uriah Heep - Rain
    Deep Purple - When a blind man cries, Soldier of fortune
    Led Zeppelin - Tea for one
    Genesis - The chamber of 32 doors
    Golden Earring - The Lonesome DJ
    King Crimson - Starless
    Judas Priest - Here come the tears, Beyond the realms of death
    Elton John - Song for guy
    Rolling Stones - No expectations
    UFO - Profession of violence
    Bob seger - The famous final scene
    Supertramp - Hide in your shell
    Alice in chains - Down in a hole
    Bruce Springsteen - Racing in the street
    Cat Stevens - Foreigner Suite
    Guns N' Roses - November rain
    Rainbow - Rainbow eyes
    Moody Blues - Have you heard
    Steely Dan - Third World Man
    Status Quo - Lonely man
    David Bowie - Wild is the wind
    Cinderella - Heartbreak Station
    Accept - Can't stand the night
    The Who - How many friends
    Bee Gees - I can't see nobody
    Neil Young - A man needs a maid
    Rainbow - Street of dreams
    Thin Lizzy - Still in love with you
    Aerosmith - Home tonight
    Nazareth - Hearts grown cold, Love hurts
    Doors - The end
    Armored Saint - Isolation
    Alice Cooper - Dead Babies, Ballad of Dwight Fry
    Meat Loaf - For crying out loud
    Jethro Tull - Wond'ring Aloud
    Beatles - I want you (she's so heavy)
    Creedence Clearwater Revival - Wish I Could Hideway
     
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  11. Nice Marmot

    Nice Marmot Nothin’ feels right but doin’ wrong anymore

    Location:
    Tryon NC
    Closer more melancholy than Disintegration? The trait I hear most on Closer is tragic, because of the history behind it. I cannot say that it's sadder.
     
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  12. thebunk

    thebunk Senior Member

    I really do not think half the people in here know what melancholy is. I mean "The End" by the Doors and "I Want You (She's so Heavy) are not melancholy songs. Also I think melancholy expressed through a combination of vocals, lyrics and instrumentation has only become common place from the late 70s onward. Sure, there were those blazing the trail like Nick Drake, Brian Wilson, Chris Bell but most examples from the 60s and 70s seen in this thread are ballads and/or psychedelic more then melancholic in nature.

    Anyway my picks (some having been posted already):

    Chris Bell - I Am the Cosmos/You and Your Sister
    Explosions in the Sky - Almost anything but especially "The Earth is not a Cold Dead Place"
    Nick Drake - Anything but especially all of "Pink Moon" the album
    The Wake - Here Comes Everybody (espeically the songs "Melancholy Man" and "O Pamela")
    Wilco - Many songs but especially "How to Fight Lonliness" and "Jesus, Etc."
    Numerous Modern Dream Pop bands like "Beach House", "MemoryHouse" and "Haunt"
    Sparklehorse
    The Jesus and Mary Chain - Just Like Honey
    The Cocteau Twins


    But if I had to think of two modern artists that really embraced sadness and made a career out of it, it is Jason Molina (Songs: Ohia) and Swedish band the The Radio Dept.

     
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  13. thebunk

    thebunk Senior Member

  14. thebunk

    thebunk Senior Member

    Well the knock with Disintegration (and all Cure albums like "Head on the Door" and "Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me") is that the Cure never stuck to one style or sound on an album. For every "Pictures of You" there is a "Lovesong" which is great and may have melancholy lyrics but it at the end of the day is catchy pop song and is missing ingredients.
     
  15. Davey

    Davey NP: Electrelane ~ No Shouts No Calls (2007 LP)

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    And on their second album, Filigree & Shadow, Dominic Appleton sang a few of the songs, around the same time as the melancholy debut from his own band Breathless in 1986, with The Glass Bead Game ..

     
  16. Nice Marmot

    Nice Marmot Nothin’ feels right but doin’ wrong anymore

    Location:
    Tryon NC
    In my mind there is no knock with Disintegration. The title of the thread is Melancholic music wanted. I wasn't the only person who mentioned Disintegration. It has been like voted quite a bit. I don't really understand any argument against. Yeah, has some pop elements but those songs are hardly Walking On Sunshine.
     
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  17. TheVU

    TheVU Forum Resident

  18. thebunk

    thebunk Senior Member

    Don't disagree and I love Disintegration. Just saying as a whole, it is not melancholic thanks to Smith's ADHD songwriting/production style. Between the two, JD wins as a whole.
     
  19. No No No

    No No No Active Member

    Location:
    Leeds
    Richard Thompson's The End of the Rainbow is perhaps the saddest song I know
     
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  20. braun

    braun Active Member

    Location:
    salt lake city
  21. Davey

    Davey NP: Electrelane ~ No Shouts No Calls (2007 LP)

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    A lot of Sixteen Horsepower, and then Wovenhand music lives in this melancholy world. Dark and haunted, but sometimes that comes with an uplifting feel that gets you out of the gloom, a glimpse of hope. A big favorite of mine is the closer from the amazing Blush Music, called "Story and Pictures". Below some words from the allmusic review which echo my feeling very closely ...

    The ultimate track, "Story and Pictures" (which also appeared on the first Woven Hand disc in different form), is maybe the best piece of music Edwards has ever recorded. Heartbreaking yet strangely uplifting, the song uses a simple piano figure, an acoustic guitar strum, and Edwards' haunted (or haunting) vocals to communicate a dark, almost mystical beauty. Blush Music - Wovenhand | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic »



    Your fire burns for me, red as grace
    The blush came easily to your face
    Your fire burns for me, red as grace
    And she says that none would have her
     
    Last edited: Apr 30, 2016
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  22. Nice Marmot

    Nice Marmot Nothin’ feels right but doin’ wrong anymore

    Location:
    Tryon NC

    Perhaps

    [​IMG]

    If Closer is that melancholy but Ian Curtis kills himself to the The Idiot, then there's got to be something to it :agree:
     
  23. Pennywise

    Pennywise Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Sewers
    James Gang - Ashes, the Rain, and I
     
  24. Baba Oh Really

    Baba Oh Really Certified "Forum Favorite"

    Location:
    mid west, USA
    I won't post the youtube club, because my man Prince maybe wouldn't have liked that, but check out the song "Condition of the heart".
     
  25. John54

    John54 Senior Member

    Location:
    Burlington, ON
    Rialto, The Underdogs:

     
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