Before writing for ConcertTour, my only outlet for getting my musical ideas out to the masses was Amazon’s Listmania compilations. They were cheesy little sales tools for Amazon to hijack my musical expertise to sell albums, but sometimes you make concessions to get access to a wide audience. Well I’m taking back my lists Amazon. I hear them quivering in their corporate boots as I speak. My most popular list has always been the Depression Collection. This collection is the gathering of collective misery from artists I’ve stumbled across over the years that really squeezed the pain out of life’s toughest moments. These tracks hand you the towel when rivers stream down your face and hold your hand to tell you that you aren’t going through this gut wrenching pain alone. Girlfriend take the ginzu knife to your heart? Dog tangle with rush hour traffic? I have the cure to shake you out of that artificial Prozac happiness.
As with alcohol, this list is best used in moderation. Taken head on it can warp an already messed up outlook on life. That glass half empty will be bone dry if you aren’t careful. So sauter the top on the bottle of sleeping pills, bury those extra razorblades in the backyard and donate your guns to the local gang banger because after this you just don’t need the temptation.
> Red House Painters: Medicine Bottle – Mark Kozelek is the master of the “life is too heavy to get out of bed” philosophy of life. Out of his heaping catalogs of depressing fare, “Medicine Bottle” stands out as his defining moment as a musician. It sounds like his life is caught in a tar pit, helplessly watching it unravel. It is the darkest day of the breakup, digging up the caring letters, talking to an absent her and generally falling apart one piece at a time. This is a beautifully, draining song spanning 10 minutes that refuses to let go. Album: Down Colorful Hill
> Blue Nile: From a Late Night Train – Ugh. Paul Buchanan walks the florescent drenched streets of night, heart crawling behind him. The song mutters the barely legible line “it’s over now/I know its over/but I love you still.” This piece is wallowing in the vacant future that exists without her. Album: Hats
> The Smiths: Asleep – Moz’s ode to suicide. Wind is softly dusting around Johnny Marr’s cautious pianos. An exhausted Morrissey has given up on this mortal coil and explains his embrace of the big sleep. Deeply affecting look into this tormented soul. Album: Louder than Bombs
> Radiohead: How to Disappear Completely – Thom Yorke is dragging the bottom of the well of depression on this one. Spooky atmospherics with sirens wailing through the fog surround a soft calculated strum as Yorke looks to erase himself from existence in order to shield himself from an overwhelming tragedy. The orchestration is wondrous and inflates this song a hundred times. Album: Kid A
> Coldplay: I’ll See You Soon – Before Coldplay found their Parachutes, they release an EP entitled Brothers and Sisters which contains their most effecting song to date. “I’ll See You Soon” captures the ill-advised leap from friendship to more than, only to find your bared soul hitting the jagged wall on the other side. It’s that feeling of, where do we go from here and what harm has my wilting revelation caused. It’s very subtle in its savagery. Album: Brothers & Sisters EP
> Rosie Thomas: Leftover Coffee – Sweet Rosie stares into her coffee trying to find the end. This song is about the little things about someone you never notice until they’re gone. The fact he’d help her finish her coffee, and the way he made her laugh. The pain just echoes through her trembling voice, alone and empty.
> Morrissey: Seasick, Yet Still Docked – The king of mope was defined as such by tracks like “Seasick, Yet Still Docked.” It is the strum of hopelessness found in unrequited love that just keeps smacking you down every time you try to drag yourself off the mat. He shuffles through the many ways he’s never meant to have her as his despair slowly bubbles into hatred for making him feel this way. Album: Your Arsenal
> Sarah McLachlan: Possession (acoustic) – McLachlan’s breakthrough hit single took on an entirely different meaning when hidden away behind the final track “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy”. When you stripped away the glamour of the beats, you are staring at the raw emotion. Sarah’s voice just seems to become wrapped up in this hurt, fighting to free herself yet getting deeper entangled until she succumbs to it’s cold embrace. Searing lyrics that slice through to the bone. Album: Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
> Joni Mitchell: Blue – “Songs are like tatooes I’ve failed to see before.” Before we had Tori or Fiona, there was Joni. Blue was a seminal album that captured the heartache and confusion of a generation. The title track is its pinnacle, achingly beautiful. The fluctuations of her voice quiver and soar. A timeless classic that exquisitely captures the weight of life, and the drag it can have on your soul without sufficient light. Album: Blue
> Fiona Apple: Love Ridden – With all the rush of excitement over Fiona’s latest release, Extraordinary Machine, its easy to forget the emotionally draining When the Pawn. “Love Ridden” was one of its best as she longs for the warmth of her old love yet knows it will only freeze dry her soul the second she crawls under the sheets. She surrenders the “baby” she called him for his name and “only kisses on the cheek from now on.” It’s about having the strength to move on when your life is littered in weakness. Album: When the Pawn
> Miles Davis: Blue in Green – How do you make a trumpet cry? Just as the master — Miles. “Blue in Green” is rich melancholy in soft piano quiet and horns that create this misty, dream-like night that you can’t escape. It seems to be waiting patiently for someone that you know isn’t coming, yet hope makes you stay. Album: Kind of Blue
> Ben Folds Five: Selfless, Cold and Composed – One of the most honest breakup songs I’ve heard. She’s letting him have everything while staying cheery and aloof. She wants to shelter him by being the good guy, but her selflessness and being divorced from her emotions compound the heartache by a hundred. Show me you’re hurting too, damn it! Show me this actually meant something to you. Album: Whatever and Ever Amen
> Nick Drake: River Man – Unknown in his own time, Nick Drake became a staple influence among artists like R.E.M., Elton John and Nirvana. Hushed in silence, Nick Drake’s most haunting piece “River Man” shows what a loss this disturbed artist was. The song begins barely audible, zeroing in on Drake’s subdued voice. When you think things can’t sink any deeper, the strings section blows in from the east to serenade the song to another place. I hope when he met the river man he was as peaceful as this song. Album: Five Leaves Left
> The Cure: Untitled – The closing thought to the horribly maudlin Disintegration, “Untitled” is despair crashing down upon you time and again. He never finds the words for his feelings. Now the moment has passed, and he is left a hollow shell, searching for answers where only questions exist. Could’ve said and could’ve done plague him until he can’t lift his head. The song weighs on you like a wet shirt you can’t manage to get off. Album: Disintegration
> Over the Rhine: Latter Days – “There is a me you would not recognize dear/call it the shadow of myself.” This tune is a little hazy. Some elements push you to believe this is a breakup yet other glances lead you to think she is recovering from the death of her love. Really a breakup is the death of that unspoken entity that formed between two. It’s a beautiful lethargic tune that brings to mind Gail dancing at the end of Carlito’s Way. Somehow finding happiness beyond the tragedy. Album: Good Dog Bad Dog
> Alanis Morissette: That Particular Time – “I knew that staying with you meant deserting me.” Before Under Rug Swept, I approached Alanis with a sense of dread. After hearing the haunting “Uninvited,” I knew there was more to her than her angry radio manifesto. “That Particular Time” is the three acts of a breakup: the last try, the separation with ties and the ending. Her care of laying the bloody emotions on the table is very exacting and her words carry volumes of truth. Its letting go with perspective which none of us has until we don’t need it anymore. Album: Under Rug Swept
> Leona Naess: Dues to Pay – This track doesn’t have quite the maudlin somberness of its dour compadres, but its very careful and exacting in its quieter moments. You could soak up the longing in that sweet “baby, baby, baby” refrain. Unable to let go, suffering through the love, it is beautiful heartbreak. Album: Leona Naess
> Alison Krauss: Deeper than Crying – “So I’ll be the one to pull our tangled lives apart/I won’t dodge the angry words that hide a broke heart” Country crooner Alison Krauss transcended genres with her half of introspective So Long So Wrong. The most pronounced leaking heart tune is “Deeper than Crying.” It’s about trying to get on with your life and let go, yet the love is an anchor around your healing. It’s being strong enough to find the path you never thought you’d be taking because its where a broken relationship has kicked you. Album: So Long So Wrong
> Sebadoh: Together or Alone – One of grunge’s lost boys, Sebadoh turns it down a notch to really reflect on the angry charge that decorates the core of their music. Lou Barlow seems at a crossroads with his mistress, not sure if to hang on or let go. The song seems to fluctuate between the light and the dark via tempo changes, displaying the turbulent mood swings of emotional chaos. Album: Bakesale
Truthfully, I’m a pretty perky puppy these days, so much so that it took me five sittings to finally bring this article to a close. Regardless, it never hurts to be prepared like a boy scout when those deep blues come a calling. As with all moods, music is the best companion.
Songs in the Key of Blue
Before writing for ConcertTour, my only outlet for getting my musical ideas out to the masses was Amazon’s Listmania compilations. They were cheesy little sales tools for Amazon to hijack my musical expertise to sell albums, but sometimes you make concessions to get access to a wide audience. Well I’m taking back my lists Amazon. I hear them quivering in their corporate boots as I speak. My most popular list has always been the Depression Collection. This collection is the gathering of collective misery from artists I’ve stumbled across over the years that really squeezed the pain out of life’s toughest moments. These tracks hand you the towel when rivers stream down your face and hold your hand to tell you that you aren’t going through this gut wrenching pain alone. Girlfriend take the ginzu knife to your heart? Dog tangle with rush hour traffic? I have the cure to shake you out of that artificial Prozac happiness.
As with alcohol, this list is best used in moderation. Taken head on it can warp an already messed up outlook on life. That glass half empty will be bone dry if you aren’t careful. So sauter the top on the bottle of sleeping pills, bury those extra razorblades in the backyard and donate your guns to the local gang banger because after this you just don’t need the temptation.
> Red House Painters: Medicine Bottle – Mark Kozelek is the master of the “life is too heavy to get out of bed” philosophy of life. Out of his heaping catalogs of depressing fare, “Medicine Bottle” stands out as his defining moment as a musician. It sounds like his life is caught in a tar pit, helplessly watching it unravel. It is the darkest day of the breakup, digging up the caring letters, talking to an absent her and generally falling apart one piece at a time. This is a beautifully, draining song spanning 10 minutes that refuses to let go. Album: Down Colorful Hill
> Blue Nile: From a Late Night Train – Ugh. Paul Buchanan walks the florescent drenched streets of night, heart crawling behind him. The song mutters the barely legible line “it’s over now/I know its over/but I love you still.” This piece is wallowing in the vacant future that exists without her. Album: Hats
> The Smiths: Asleep – Moz’s ode to suicide. Wind is softly dusting around Johnny Marr’s cautious pianos. An exhausted Morrissey has given up on this mortal coil and explains his embrace of the big sleep. Deeply affecting look into this tormented soul. Album: Louder than Bombs
> Radiohead: How to Disappear Completely – Thom Yorke is dragging the bottom of the well of depression on this one. Spooky atmospherics with sirens wailing through the fog surround a soft calculated strum as Yorke looks to erase himself from existence in order to shield himself from an overwhelming tragedy. The orchestration is wondrous and inflates this song a hundred times. Album: Kid A
> Coldplay: I’ll See You Soon – Before Coldplay found their Parachutes, they release an EP entitled Brothers and Sisters which contains their most effecting song to date. “I’ll See You Soon” captures the ill-advised leap from friendship to more than, only to find your bared soul hitting the jagged wall on the other side. It’s that feeling of, where do we go from here and what harm has my wilting revelation caused. It’s very subtle in its savagery. Album: Brothers & Sisters EP
> Rosie Thomas: Leftover Coffee – Sweet Rosie stares into her coffee trying to find the end. This song is about the little things about someone you never notice until they’re gone. The fact he’d help her finish her coffee, and the way he made her laugh. The pain just echoes through her trembling voice, alone and empty.
> Morrissey: Seasick, Yet Still Docked – The king of mope was defined as such by tracks like “Seasick, Yet Still Docked.” It is the strum of hopelessness found in unrequited love that just keeps smacking you down every time you try to drag yourself off the mat. He shuffles through the many ways he’s never meant to have her as his despair slowly bubbles into hatred for making him feel this way. Album: Your Arsenal
> Sarah McLachlan: Possession (acoustic) – McLachlan’s breakthrough hit single took on an entirely different meaning when hidden away behind the final track “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy”. When you stripped away the glamour of the beats, you are staring at the raw emotion. Sarah’s voice just seems to become wrapped up in this hurt, fighting to free herself yet getting deeper entangled until she succumbs to it’s cold embrace. Searing lyrics that slice through to the bone. Album: Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
> Joni Mitchell: Blue – “Songs are like tatooes I’ve failed to see before.” Before we had Tori or Fiona, there was Joni. Blue was a seminal album that captured the heartache and confusion of a generation. The title track is its pinnacle, achingly beautiful. The fluctuations of her voice quiver and soar. A timeless classic that exquisitely captures the weight of life, and the drag it can have on your soul without sufficient light. Album: Blue
> Fiona Apple: Love Ridden – With all the rush of excitement over Fiona’s latest release, Extraordinary Machine, its easy to forget the emotionally draining When the Pawn. “Love Ridden” was one of its best as she longs for the warmth of her old love yet knows it will only freeze dry her soul the second she crawls under the sheets. She surrenders the “baby” she called him for his name and “only kisses on the cheek from now on.” It’s about having the strength to move on when your life is littered in weakness. Album: When the Pawn
> Miles Davis: Blue in Green – How do you make a trumpet cry? Just as the master — Miles. “Blue in Green” is rich melancholy in soft piano quiet and horns that create this misty, dream-like night that you can’t escape. It seems to be waiting patiently for someone that you know isn’t coming, yet hope makes you stay. Album: Kind of Blue
> Ben Folds Five: Selfless, Cold and Composed – One of the most honest breakup songs I’ve heard. She’s letting him have everything while staying cheery and aloof. She wants to shelter him by being the good guy, but her selflessness and being divorced from her emotions compound the heartache by a hundred. Show me you’re hurting too, damn it! Show me this actually meant something to you. Album: Whatever and Ever Amen
> Nick Drake: River Man – Unknown in his own time, Nick Drake became a staple influence among artists like R.E.M., Elton John and Nirvana. Hushed in silence, Nick Drake’s most haunting piece “River Man” shows what a loss this disturbed artist was. The song begins barely audible, zeroing in on Drake’s subdued voice. When you think things can’t sink any deeper, the strings section blows in from the east to serenade the song to another place. I hope when he met the river man he was as peaceful as this song. Album: Five Leaves Left
> The Cure: Untitled – The closing thought to the horribly maudlin Disintegration, “Untitled” is despair crashing down upon you time and again. He never finds the words for his feelings. Now the moment has passed, and he is left a hollow shell, searching for answers where only questions exist. Could’ve said and could’ve done plague him until he can’t lift his head. The song weighs on you like a wet shirt you can’t manage to get off. Album: Disintegration
> Over the Rhine: Latter Days – “There is a me you would not recognize dear/call it the shadow of myself.” This tune is a little hazy. Some elements push you to believe this is a breakup yet other glances lead you to think she is recovering from the death of her love. Really a breakup is the death of that unspoken entity that formed between two. It’s a beautiful lethargic tune that brings to mind Gail dancing at the end of Carlito’s Way. Somehow finding happiness beyond the tragedy. Album: Good Dog Bad Dog
> Alanis Morissette: That Particular Time – “I knew that staying with you meant deserting me.” Before Under Rug Swept, I approached Alanis with a sense of dread. After hearing the haunting “Uninvited,” I knew there was more to her than her angry radio manifesto. “That Particular Time” is the three acts of a breakup: the last try, the separation with ties and the ending. Her care of laying the bloody emotions on the table is very exacting and her words carry volumes of truth. Its letting go with perspective which none of us has until we don’t need it anymore. Album: Under Rug Swept
> Leona Naess: Dues to Pay – This track doesn’t have quite the maudlin somberness of its dour compadres, but its very careful and exacting in its quieter moments. You could soak up the longing in that sweet “baby, baby, baby” refrain. Unable to let go, suffering through the love, it is beautiful heartbreak. Album: Leona Naess
> Alison Krauss: Deeper than Crying – “So I’ll be the one to pull our tangled lives apart/I won’t dodge the angry words that hide a broke heart” Country crooner Alison Krauss transcended genres with her half of introspective So Long So Wrong. The most pronounced leaking heart tune is “Deeper than Crying.” It’s about trying to get on with your life and let go, yet the love is an anchor around your healing. It’s being strong enough to find the path you never thought you’d be taking because its where a broken relationship has kicked you. Album: So Long So Wrong
> Sebadoh: Together or Alone – One of grunge’s lost boys, Sebadoh turns it down a notch to really reflect on the angry charge that decorates the core of their music. Lou Barlow seems at a crossroads with his mistress, not sure if to hang on or let go. The song seems to fluctuate between the light and the dark via tempo changes, displaying the turbulent mood swings of emotional chaos. Album: Bakesale
Truthfully, I’m a pretty perky puppy these days, so much so that it took me five sittings to finally bring this article to a close. Regardless, it never hurts to be prepared like a boy scout when those deep blues come a calling. As with all moods, music is the best companion.
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