Most desolate sounding songs

[heinous seamus]

 

[Happy Tree]

 

[Sasaferrato]

 

[Sasaferrato]

 

[zahir]

 

[SpookyFrank]

Or anything off this album tbh.

 

[zahir]

 

[zahir]

 

[zahir]

 

[zahir]

 

[chilango]

D:Ream - Things can only get better

 

[chilango]

...more seriously, The Pogues version of Waltzing Matilda is pretty bleak.

 

[dessiato]

Most of Soko's lyrics are sad, this one is one that makes me think about life a bit.


But I especially like this one

 

[zahir]

 

[zahir]

 

[hitmouse]

I think of Jason Molina/Songs:Ohia as being one of the great kings of desolate:

 

[Saul Goodman]

 

[hitmouse]

Performative Guilt by Self Defense Family is a great desolate EP, I've picked this one but any of them would work:

 

[Saul Goodman]

 

[hitmouse]

Have some Xiu Xiu:


Or if you prefer, have some Xiu Xiu covering Tracy Chapman:

 

[hitmouse]

"Most of us probably not getting better, but not getting better together" is up there among my favourite lines of all time.

 

[hitmouse]

Gotta throw a bit of Mountain Goats in there:

 

[AverageJoe]

Nine Inch Nails - Hurt.

So bleak I'm not going to even link to it. It's a Friday night after all.

 

[VivaE]

The The - Kingdom of Rain

 

[stdP]

It's an instrumental, but the dour Fyt by This Mortal Coil always brings the breath of an apocalypse with it. It always reminds me of the clanking industrial landscapes, like the horrible coal-stained beach at the end of Get Carter.



<Tried very hard not to post a whole bunch of Aphex Twin tracks esp. from SAW and SAWII which can be quite harrowing listening at times. Plus what many of the tracks are actually called is open to interpretation>

I will however post this piano cover of Vordhosbn by Leila:



That then reminded me of this, a track from a little point'n'click puzzle game no less. Come for the lonely piano, stay for the cautiously uplifting oboe:



I struggled to think of any actual songs with words in them, because I think as soon as you add a human you start to lose the desolation factor. But I figured Arc of a Journey by the late great Broadcast fits the bill, the thoughts of a satellite orbiting an Earth from which all human life has been extinguished.



Jury's out on whether you'd consider Liz Fraser using words exactly, but Musette and Drums sounds like the sort of spell that would end the world:

 

[zahir]

 

[mwgdrwg]

 

[hash tag]

The mother of all misery songs; Patches, not the original but the hit version by Clarence Carter going way back to 1970, telling the story of a young boy taking over from his dying dad

 

[danski]

So bleak but I love it!

 

[MBV]