Saddest Album Ever?
 

I'd say that definitely the top nominees would have to be:

The Antlers - Hospice
Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Some Pink Floyd stuff to an extent
Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
Joy Division - Closer

But besides those, what other sad albums can you people think of?

Because for some reason I love sad albums

<.<

I don't think Joy Division or Nick Drake ever struck me as particularly sad just because Ian Curtis and Nick Drake suffered untimely deaths, it would be like suggesting Nirvana made sad music. Even Elliott Smith's music doesn't really connote sadness to me. Of course, if by "saddest album" you're referring to an album played largely in minor keys, there's a superfluity of those, David Bowie's Low, for example. (It's kind of a cheap songwriting trick to hijack a listener's emotions, usually finding its way onto the album closer).

The most evocative musicians I can think of were people like Daniel Johnston and Mark Linkous -- gifted songwriters whose material revolved around their own insular worlds. Sparklehorse's It's a Wonderful Life pretty much hits the nail on the head for me.

Elliott Smith's first 3 albums are particularly 'sad', whilst you could dip your toes into the sadcore/slowcore genre with bands such as Codeine, Sun Kil Moon, Red House Painters and American Analog Set.

Codeine - Frigid Stars
RHP - Rollercoaster LP
Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway
AAS - The Fun of Watching Fireworks.

This and "Songs In A&E" are particularly somber albums.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-V2I94F2g3...n_space-cd.jpg

Beck's Sea Change perhaps...

OooOoohh or a Van der Graaf Generator album.... "H to He, Who Am the Only One"

Mastodon's "Crack The Skye" is a pretty sad album, but also an uplifting one. It's got sort of a double concept, one being about a paraplegic boy who astral travels and becomes disconnected from his body, and the other being about Brann's (the drummer) sister's suicide, and his feelings and experiences that came with that.

Radiohead's album "Ok Computer". It completly depresses me to the point that I don't like to listen to it anymore.

For me, anything by Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate).



For me, it sort of sums up that miserable rainy day attitude where you just feel empty. I can't really listen to them for too long or else I'll just feel horrible.

HURT vol. 1

I forgot "F# A# ∞" by Godspeed You! Black Emperor, that album is very dark, miserable, and bleak. One of the few albums that actually frightens me.

Hospice, hands down. Not a glint of light on that album.

Every Elliot Smith album.

The Smiths' debut always leaves me feeling slight suicidal after a spin

I agree with Hospice and anything by Empire Empire (I Was A Lonely Estate)

I'll add The Saddest Landscape - You Will Not Survive. Very emotional, extremely sad, but a great listen.

Also Mansions - New Best Friends.
Which to me is an album you can only enjoy when you are extremely miserable. If you listen to that album in a good mood... well you should never listen to that album in a good mood.

Yeah, Suffer Little Children is as dark as you can get.

Here are some more additions...
Faith - The Cure
Berlin - Lou Reed
The Wall - Pink Floyd
Nico's solo albums always struck me as being rather sad, as does a lot of Leonard Cohen's work.

This is only a song, not an album, but it is one hell of a sad song.



In a way, And Don't the Kids Just Love It is a sad album.

Makes me cry every time... There's no way an album can get sadder than this...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ica_-_Load.jpg

But that's not the saddest, there's worse... However, nothing can get sadder than this one.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ica_Reload.jpg

oh wait...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...stanger_lg.jpg

I've got a few that are really depressing to me, that may not be for other people. First and foremost:

http://www.tinytim.org/images/complete-reprise-cd.jpg

This one may be especially strange to some (many? most?), so allow me to explain: I always listened to a little bit of Tiny Tim for the novelty. You know - chilling and listening to "Livin' In the Sunlight, Lovin' In the Moonlight" or "Tiptoe Through the Tulips", appreciating the strangeness, whimsy, and fanciful nature of the tracks. I was looking for a good "pick-me-up" album after a rough stretch, and chose to download this thinking, "Oh, joy! This is ukulele-laden bliss, and it will pick me right up!" Perhaps it was just my mindset at the time, but that wasn't the case. I found that it made me overwhelmingly sad. What I saw the album for was this: Tiny Tim adopted this persona deliberately to have the naivete and wide-eyed wonder that a child has. It's the world as seen through the eyes of a child, is basically what I'm saying - you probably gathered that, but yeah. In addition, even the covers took on a whole different effect for me, listening. Anyway, certain tracks especially troubled me, as I saw the album from that perspective. Several of these will be included below.




And, Hell, even:

StarSailor - Love Is Here
 

Pretty much every song on this album is about soemthing heartwrenching.

But still one of my favourite albums.

Probably one of the best break up albums ive ever listened too ha.

It's good to see people giving props to Hospice. I'm going to have to check out a lot of the albums here that I've never heard. Particularly Godspeed You! Black Emperor. I've heard a lot about them over the years and never gotten around to checking out their stuff.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PlUeAd7i5P...600/110728.jpg
gonna go cry myself to sleep now.

EDIT:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

at least the saddest i've listened to.

and i'm sure everyone and their mothers know this song but just cause

The saddest album I know is WASP's Crimson Idol lol.

Yes. I can't believe I didn't think of this album for my earlier post. I love it though.

I listened to this once while I was tripping heavily. Never, never again.
It's so cold alone there in the dark.

I would say this one, because Delores had major depression which seeped through this album.

http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/t/t...l-departed.jpg

I really love sad albums. These are some of the most heartbreaking albums I've ever heard. I listened to these ones alot when I was going through a terrible break up last year.

Carissa's Wierd - Songs About Leaving

One of the saddest albums I've heard. This one has made me cry quite alot.




S - I'm Not As Good At It As You

Carissa's Wierds guitarist/singers solo album. This one was one of my favorite albums of 2010.




The Antlers - Hospice

Propably the saddest album ever. There isn't a single spark of light or hope in this album. This one devastated me with it's bleakness.

^ Songs About Leaving is an excellent choice. The lyrics and Jenn Ghetto's vocal delivery in particular are extremely sad to listen to. She sounds like she can barely hold herself together during 'So You Wanna Be a Superhero'. It's also a great album to listen to around this time of year, it goes well with late autumn/early winter.

I've yet to listen to her solo albums but that song you posted has convinced me to.

Hospice is a very bleak and heartbreaking album to listen to and it deals with one of the most depressing subjects of all. A brilliant album.

probably something by nick drake

ya know, that's becoming kind of a cliche - that singers who commit suicide would naturally churn out "sad" music

Nick Drake's songs aren't depressing - they're meditative, ponderous and stark - they never "depress" me

same with Joy Division - it's just monotonal and reminds me of how humdrum routine is - never depressing

Well, to you maybe not, but people do not simply label said albums as depressing because the singers committed suicide. Closer in particular could be described as very sad, both in the music and lyrics. Curtis was skulking the deepest chasms of despair during its recording, and you can tell quite clearly I'd say.

As for Drake, well, I wouldn't say Five Leaves Left or Bryter Layter are 'sad', but Pink Moon definitely is in my opinion.

ok then how about late for the sky by jackson browne or tigerlily by natalie merchant?

haven't heard either

Elliott Smith´s self titled album and Joy Division´s Closer stand out as two particularly "depressing" albums to me.

Yeah I don't find Nick Drake sad. Introspective, melancholy at times. Joy Division can be pretty depressing though. Hard to say if it isn't just dredging up those painful teen years for me though as I was pretty depressed when I was really into them.

neil young has some pretty sad albums: tonight's the night, after the gold rush, everybody knows this is nowhere

Heartworm-Whipping Boy
Pretty grim stuff, even the seemingly upbeat songs like When We Were Young have grim undertones.