NME – The 50 Darkest Albums Ever Made
1. Manic Street Preachers – The Holy Bible
2. Spiritualized – Let It Come Down
3. Nirvana – In Utero
4. The Smiths – Meat Is Murder
5. Nico – Desertshore
6. The Cure – Pornography
7. Nick Drake – Pink Moon
8. Antony And The Johnsons – I Am A Bird Now
9. Johnny Cash – The Man Comes Around
10. Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak
11. Portishead – Dummy
12. Morrissey – Vauxhall & I
13. Joni Mitchell – Blue
14. Scott Walker – The Drift
15. Wire – 154
16. Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral
17. David Bowie – Heroes
18. Dépêche Mode – Violator
19. Leonard Cohen – Songs Of Love And Hate
20. The Psychedelic Furs – Talk Talk Talk
21. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – Your Funeral…My Trial
22. Joy Division – Closer
23. Sunn O))) – Monoliths & Dimentions
24. Swans – White Light From The Month Of Infinity
25. The Fall - The Nations Saving Grace
26. Black Flag – My War
27. Slint – Spiderland
28. Arab Strap – Elephant Stone
29. Tricky – Pre-Millennium Tension
30. Marvin Gaye – Here, My Dear
31. Big Star – Third/Sister Lovers
32. Husker Du – Candy Apple Grey
33. Nina Nastasia – The Blackened Air
34. Lou Reed – Berlin
35. Radiohead – Ok Computer
36. Low – Things We Lost In The Fire
37. Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath
38. Neutral Milk Hotel – In An Aeroplane Over The Sea
39. Glasvegas – Glasvegas
40. Smog – The Doctor Came At Dawn
41. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – I See Darkness
42. Billie Holiday – Lady Sings The Blues
43. Public Image Limited – Metal Box
44. Suicide – Suicide
45. Editors – The Back Room
46. Interpol – Turn On The Bright Lights
47. Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska
48. Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
49. Pulp – This Is Hardcore
50. The Xx - Xx
Not the worst list ever but the Coldplay, The XX and Editors aren't really dark compared to the rest. Not sure how they've got Let It Come Down at number 2 either
- Relevant artist taggings:
- Manic Street Preachers »[x]
- Spiritualized »[x]
- I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness »[x]
- Triple Darkness »[x]
- The Black Heart Procession »[x]
- Watch the new film for Manic Street Preachers 'Nat West-Barclays-Midlands-Lloyds'
- Manics Monday: WIN! Generation Terrorists - The Legacy Edition
- Manics Monday: Why Generation Terrorists was the most important debut of the 1990s
- Manics Monday: Rain Down Alienation - Generation Terrorists’ key tracks.
- Manic Street Preachers - Generation Terrorists (20th anniversary legacy edition)
- In Photos: Manic Street Preachers @ O2 Arena, London
- In Photos: XFM Winter Wonderland @ Brixton Academy
- Manic Street Preachers at The O2 Arena, London, Sat 17 Dec
Manic Street Preachers
Spiritualized
Thread not appearing correctly? Click here to rebuild | Report this
Twitter
Facebook
Last.fm
SoundCloud
MySpace
Friendster
RSS
This seems to be
a lot of my record collection. Is this a good or a bad thing?
A lot of good albums in their
But slightly ridiculous thing to do a top 50 of. Could they not find anything else to fill up the mag this week? Or is it just an online thing?
A Rush of Blood to the Head?
really? Other than that, not a bad list. This Nation's Saving Grace strikes me as a bit of an odd choice though - it isn't even the darkest Fall album.
Surely Perverted By Language is the darkest Fall album
Perhaps TNSG is the only one they'd heard of?
Perverted, Grotesque, Hex and Dragnet
are all darker than TNSG, I'd say. But yeah, I suspect you're right.
Bend Sinister is pretty dark
Surprised to see MOnoliths and Dimensions as the Sunn O))) choice
given the fact that they have a record called THE BLACK ONE. Clue is in the name, boys.
Methinks they haven't heard many Sunn O))) albums too.
Lazy journalism...
Or maybe it's just subjective and whoever chose it actually do consider it darker
It's little unfair to accuse someone who prefers one album over another 'lazy'
And whilst picking holes in an NME thread maybe rather like shooting fish in a barrel
sometimes it's fun to shoot fish in a barrel.
My thought - is 'In the Aeroplane' really THAT dark? I mean, sure it's about Anne Frank and she was killed in the holocaust but Mangum takes an almost 'celebratory' angle on it in places: 'now she's a little boy in Spain, playing pianos filled with flames' etc.
I guess O comely is pretty dark.
Didn't you get the memo?
The NME is on the way up again. The standard line is now: "They've actually have some really good features since McNichols left."
oh, sorry ,didn't get that.
oh well... I for one welcome our new insect overlords.
Not me.
Come near my house and I'm making Starship Troopers look like a documentary.
808s & Heartbreak?
could've had Gravediggaz or Cannibal Ox or something.
If we're playing the how many we own game... 46.
The XX are well dark
they wear black n everything
Sisters of Mercy.
They only wore black.
Where the fuck are they?
Nebraska isn't really dark is it?
Just a bit...sparse.
i would call nebraska bleak, hopeless and sad.
does that equal dark?
?
Dark?
Lyrically maybe. Some of the music on those albums could easily be considered pretty. Or poppy. Or asinine. Or bland. Or triumphantly commercial. Or interesting. but probably not dark.
Saying that though, it's just another page filling bag of shite list from the NME. So inconsequential.
I'm pretty sure the list was
Gloomiest albums rather than dark. If that makes a difference.
NME is a joke.
That said, there are some good choices on this list. I'm absolutely astonished that there's no Muse (This is NME! NME!) and the title of the list is laughable, but yeah.
There's also instances of "right band, wrong album." Previously mentioned Sunn O))), Radiohead (OK Computer? Um, Amnesiac much? HTTT? Both far more menacing) and IMHO Disintegration vs Pornography, Disintegration wins.
Seriously?
I'd say 'Pornography' was easily darker that 'Disintegration' - the latter is a bit more ethereal and sad where as 'Pornography' is very very nasty, nihilistic and aggressive.
Both bloody good albums though.
Typical DiS
We all hate the NME! A list of things published in the NME? Ho ho, it'll be shit! It's all wrong! Hang on, it's actually alright and people are generally positive about it as a whole. We all hate the NME!
Spiritualized – Let It Come Down
really? it's quite uplifting i seem to remember
scott walker should be much higher - that album is terrifying
Yeah, I'm one of the (apparent) few who actually LIKES Let It Come Down
but it's not dark. Or gloomy. Let alone dark/gloomy enough to be at #2.
It's far more chirpy...
than "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space"
I actually really like "Let It Come Down" too. It was the record that got me into Spiritualized. Many happy memories from second year at university!
it's rubbish
it's the album that put me off them
i adore 'ladies and gentlemen' though
If you exclude the horrible version of 'Lord Can You Hear Me'
I am rather fond of 'Let it Come Down'. To hire a 100 piece orchestra and then do songs about staying in bed all day...Kind of has my infinite respect.
I love that version of Lord Can You Hear Me
Never been much of a Spaceman 3 fan though, so I didn't see it as sacrilege.
But yeah, pretty much what everyone else said. It's not dark. And The Drift should have been higher.
i listened to it all of yesterday and to reassess
it's a lot better than I remember it being, it's got a nice quality than is grandiose in instrumental scale yet very humble and human in it's lyrics.
it's even less DARK than I remember, it's incredibly joyous and sounds like the work of a man at peace with himself and his failings. I probably dismissed it unfairly when it came out, sort of sounded a bit 'clean' compared to ladies and gents messy and psychotic jazz-esque breakdowns, which was what i was looking forward to.
Editors
LOL
Editors deserve their place on that list, man
Not as dark as prime-time Depeche, Cure or any 80's goth etc, but they're dark.
Listen again to 'Lights', 'Someone Says' and 'Camera' off that album and tell me it's not pretty gloomy(-yet-uplifting) fare...
clearly they're not aiming for dark as in macabre
so I'd nominate midnight organ fight
Not bad, really.
I mean, I disagree with a lot of it, some of which is downright near-objectively ridiculous, but it's better than I expected. Songs Of Love And Hate, Third/Sister Lovers & Suicide were among the first ones I thought of before opening the thread, and they're all there - the other one being Nick Cave's No More Shall We Part, and he's there but with something else. Can't argue with Billie Holiday either, although something with Strange Fruit AND Gloomy Sunday on would've probably been darker. Obviously as I type this I'm thinking of other ones that could've been there, but hey.
I can't even humour this nonsense
Ctrl + SALEM = No Result
what a joke
Yeah, NME never gets behind Salem
Apart from, y'know, three page features and number eight in their end of year list.
Surely that makes the omission even more conspicuous.
I've got 31 of those. No wonder I'm so depressed all the time.
Also: This Nation's Saving Grace - REALLY?
Anything that doesn't start with...
Closer and doesn't contain The Final Cut is ridiculous.
Fair's Fair; The Holy Bible is astonishingly bleak. But "Let It Come Down"? I'm convinced that's an error, surely "Ladies and Gentlemen..." is far, far darker.
And "This Is Hardcore" behind "A Rush of Blood..."? Sheesh!
Another pointless NME list...
see
I've never really thought of Spiritualized as dark, in the slightest. Shimmering, yeah, maybe. Miserable, a little bit, yeah. But dark? They're more like a full moon that's so bright it leaves its mark on your retinas.
Ladies and Gentlemen has dark overtones...
But I agree, it's not an overly bleak album. It's more of a struggle between hope, heartbreak and addiction. It's a beautiful listen really. Though I do enjoy immersing myself in it when I'm feeling glum.
I like that quote, I'm remembering that!
I love SO much that they put Coldplay on there
Right behind Nebraska too!
Where is The Crimea in this?
Davey McManus put a cigarette out in someone's eye. There are songs on their albums about real-life burning cars by the roadside while they were on tour. That's waaaay dark man.
Also: Mezzanine by Massive Attack defined dark ambient. Portishead are great but MA did it better.
Agreed....
I don't find Dummy dark in the slightest. Mezzanine in the pitch black is simply terrifying. All those weird noises...
Portishead Portishead
is very dark.
The whole album shudders and judders
leaving an atmosphere of chilly terror.
I think.
i'd say Third is their darkest.
...not.
Listen to
'Bad Vibrations' and come back and comment.
The darkest songs are clothed in shimmering notes.
*can't help laughing at this, I'm still in character, I'm the f***ing oracle this weekend* :P
Needs more Vampire Weekend.
Should be tucked in there between the XX and Coldplay, bone chilling stuff.
Let's make our own list!
I'll start:
The God Machine - One Last Laugh in a Place of Dying.
Good call!
Shame it's rare as hen's teeth.
Not as rare as Scenes is it?
Had to pay through the nose for that recently.
One Last Laugh, on the other hand, I bought in a library sale about 15 years ago so it probably evens out.
The only two CD's I've never replaced
after they were nicked with a bunch of others in a house burglary 8 years ago.
Amazing records, but I'm unlikely to rebuy them at 4-5 times the original price I paid.
Bizarre
I got my copy of that God Machine album at a library sale as well. If I remember correctly, only 3 people had ever loaned it over about a 6 year period.
Jimmy Fernandez
truly lovely bloke.
You could argue about this until the cows come home
I'd include By The Throat by Ben Frost (you don't know terror until you've listened to that, in the dark, very, VERY loud) and Either/Or by Elliott Smith (for the lyrical darkness). Would also pick Ladies and Gentleman... as the Spiritualized entry.
This Nations Saving Grace...
..isn't even the darkest Fall album.
Silly list.
Disintegration
over pornography obviously and Lonesome Crowded West by Modest Mouse should fo sho be in the top 10...I would also put whatever beatles album 'dear prudence' was on as I am pretty certain that the devil wrote that song.
I would say Disintegration and Pornography are equally matched, darkness-wise.
It's just that they're executed in different ways.
Pornography is way darker than Disintegration!
Change the contrast on your monitor then
Entreat (selected Disintegration tracks live) is darker still
Stronger sense of real emotion in the performances than on the record.
Surely Electro-shock Blues is the obvious choice for Eels.
Other albums I'd nominate:
Venetian Snares - Rossz Csillag...
Pharoahe Monch - Internal Affairs
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Salem - King Night
Eminem - Slim Shady LP, even.
yeah
I was looking for Electro-Shock Blues. That should definitely have been there. Although I love the album so much that it sort of uplifts me. But Dead Of Winter is just such a sad song.
haha, Glasvegas
I wish NME would just admit they're shit, they're not convincing anyone.
I was listening to The Man Who Sold The World a few days ago.
That album's quite dark. Doom as fuck. I forgot it was like that. I guess Bowie in a dress is pretty dark in itself.
The first Sisters Of Mercy record should be in there.
I know they were a Melody Maker band but the Eldritch-NME feud surely must've ended by now. And, as per usual, they seem to have ignored the blues.
Yeah, I'd have expected more goth records
eg Siouxsie's Kiss in the Dreamhouse: every track, it seems, is about sexual aphyxia...used to frighten me as a child! "Slowdive...when death is slow" HELP, I'M SCARED! heh
Fields Of The Nephilim - Dawn Razor
ColdpLOL
Vauxhall & I...
isn't dark at all either.
Odd choice of Smiths album as well
if you ask me.
I'd say Meat Is Murder is the least dark overall.
It had a few soary optimistic moments like That Joke... .
I can't really think of a darker Morrissey one.
Or at least a more bitter Morrissey one.
And Morrissey's pretty dark in general.
Missing:
Spinal Tap- Smell The Glove
Metallica- Black Album
Whats with all the lists NME are doing? QME more like...
It's early January, that's what it is
ctrl+fail
no Coedine, no Angelic Process, sigh... even REM's UP is darker than some of the shit on there...! Let's just assume they're trying to generate conversation.
Very good call on God Machine, yes!
Something by Xiu Xiu
Not a single Elliott Smith album?
It's been a while since I listened to Coldplay but I don't remember them being especially dark.
...and I'm convinced Glasvegas only made the list because they wear sunglasses
This is how i read this thread
NME – The 50 Darkest Albums Ever Made
1. Manic Street Pffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
NME – The 50 Darkest Albums Ever Mffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
is also acceptable.
I'm as scornful of NME as the next man (and of the manics in general too)
but anyone who thinks 'The Holy Bible' doesn't have a place in a list of dark albums is a loon.
A loon, I tells ya.
The XX? Really?
Coffee table soulless pap for the terminally boring, yes. One of the darkest albums ever made, of course not. Has a bigger pile of mediocrity ever got a whiff of press attention?
havent they got the name of the arab strap album wrong
That's a typo from where I cut and past it from...
The entire lsit would make perfect sense
Then I saw sunn and I knew they were were being ver very ernest here
That's the most hippy jazz Sunn album too!
I reckon Sunn are closer to Hammer Horror than something actually dark most of the time
This confirms that
NME readers
are equally familiar with both sunn and coldplay.
so just saying
next time i see some sneering fat cunt at supersonic with a sunn hoody....
NOTHING by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
I see. Thats a pretty whopping omission in my book. Surely F#A# is the epitome of a dark album?
ctrl + f + BAUHAUS
also, lolz really? coldplay? coldplay are about as dark as bruno mars.
Nice to see Scott Walker on there
Can't really think of any album more bleak than The Drift.
80fucking8's and heartbreaks ? the xx ? i beg your pardon.
I See A Darkness is uplifting not dark you assholes
just cos it has Darkness in the title.
In the mag
It says Closer but pictures Unknown Pleasures.
Lol.
Blur - The Great Escape
Death of a Party
yeah.
As a list of 'dark' albums this is pretty laughable
but as just a list of albums it's a lot better than the nme's normal fare. Or, considering I've never read it, at least better than the normal nme lists people post on here. 'White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity' shows that at least one writer knows their Swans, which is nice to see.
this totally
including Coldplay in a list of 'darkest albums EVAAAR' and having pretty much no metal is a bit silly. nevertheless the list is pretty good. Good to see Slint and Swans on there, and I do actually like A Rush of Blood to The Head quite a lot.
Needs More Mayhem.
Arab Strap covering Elephant Stone?
??
no Diamanda Galas :(
most disturbing recording
http://chondriticsound.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=6499
Hey, I just noticed that Glasvegas is there, but, like, Jesus and Mary Chain isn't.
Even though Jesus and Mary Chain aren't actually that dark really, but they're a fucksight darker than Glasvegas.
Here, mate, you know what's dark? Sonic Youth - 'EVOL'. And Wipers - 'Youth of America'. Burzum didnae get a look in either, sad. Bit Swans, though, which is good.
Darklands is pretty downbeat
I'd definitely include that over some of those albums in that list.
Candy Apple Grey?
John Cale's
New Music for a New Society is pretty dark
Came in to post this one
feck me
if coldplay can get in there you may as well have Boy In Da Corner.
Jezebel's probably darker than anything Chris Martin will ever write
and by 'probably', I mean, 'definitely unless someone rips out his brain and inserts Gary Gilmore's, whilst he remains conscious throughout'.
Closer is only 23?
Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica
Such a bleak record, there's no reason for it to not be on this list. I'd also include Death Cab For Cutie's We Have The Facts..., which is probably Ben Gibbard's most self-deprecating and drunk on sadness.
Also, I never thought of XX as a dark record at all. The tone of the record is far too lush and loving for that.
beck's 'sea change'
would fit a top 50 gloomiest. dark, i don't know about that.
that 'mezzanine' is not in that list is risible. arguably both joy division records should be there.
much like the greatest albums you've never heard nme list
this isn't so bad. It has some really odd choices sure but it's very nice to see my favourite Swans, PIL, Black Flag and Wire records on there.
Xiu Xiu - Knife Play.
What, no "from a basement on the hill?"
what no 'The Darkness'?
Tindersticks II maybe?
9. Johnny Cash – The Man Comes Around
I guess they didn't bother listening to 'A Hundred Highways' then.
Makes 'The Man Comes Around' sound like Boogie Wonderland on repeat. If You Could Read My Mind and On The Evening Train are pretty much the darkest saddest things I've ever heard. The sound of a human being literally singing for his life.
Pretty much no Noise, Blues, Metal or Country
So very much the NME's idea of dark.
The Shaggs aren't dark come on
It's weird but it's not dark. I suppose them being forced to form a band is a bit dark. Slayer are far too much fun to be dark.
I do enjoy pointlessly arguing what's dark and what isn't.
if this isn't dark then i don't know what is...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifsyjzCWgsw
erghhh!!!
I dunno
maybe some of his stuff became dark after his life started going a bit er off the rails. If that is possible. Backstory can obvs make you things in a different light.
The Girl Is Mine is still his darkest tune for me personally. Ghastly stuff.
I agree with nearly everything thats been said about the whole dark thing
but I suppose it's a bit much to expect them to include Demdike Stare or Kreng and it is pretty great to see Nina Nastasia's Blackened Air getting some recognition, one of my favourite albums ever.
Surprised Silent Shout isn't there and Tom Mcrae's s/t should maybe be there but not really surprised it's not
i thought that about Blackened Air - great record. did they cover it at the time, i remember reading the nme at bit back then, and peel certainly covered it but i don't remember the nme doing so. odd to see things like that, that are to an extent, in-the-moment indie records, so retrospectively praised, and that does in turn make you wonder what records NME(online) in 2020 is going to be praising; maybe it'll be yr Krengs and your Demdike Stares, maybe not idk.
oh wait ive thought about that post^ and realised i dont really care that much.
I gave it a 'glowing review' in there on its release
and also wrote the mini-blurb for it in this top 50 thing
just for the record, like
oh cool. well done you (not meant patronisingly). that's good to know.
not saying it's neccessarily the case here but i do think there's something (and this applies to DiS too, i guess) about particular writers rating a relatively less popular record and it getting it lost in the sway a bit if the editoral staff don't then get on board and give it a good ol' push.
good if the nme was on the right side with nina nastasia back then, but i guess it does make you aware of the precarious relationship between obscure record (say Emerald's What Happened) and obscure record that's becomes a bit of mainstream-indie crossover hit (says, Emerald's Does It Look Like I'm Here?)
well first and foremost I'm guessing that the main reason 'What Happened' never got a DiS review
is cos No Fun didn't send them a promo copy (NB I don't know this but I don't recall any of their stuff being up for review)
I mean clearly Mego don't have the ability to generate the kind of chatter that 'DILLIH' got just by virtue of being Mego, but you have to start somewhere
obv these days, blogs do a pretty big % of the legwork for a group like Emeralds
Ok Computer and ITAOTS shouldn't be on there
Whilst they are dark in subject, there is throughout an element of hope. I find both quite uplifiting actually.
Nebraska should be top 10 definitely. And Reign in Blood should be in there somewhere
Agreed...
The reason OK Computer works so well is that it doesn't wallow. I see it as being an album about being completely lost, confused and near-terrified by the world around you; yet managing to see beauty in it. And eventually find acceptance.
Radiohead aren't a dark band. They have their moments but there's a lot of tongue-in-cheek with them that people don't get. And lots of spectral beauty.
Mind, Idioteque still scares the f**k out of me...
well I have about 20 of those
but i think the darkest albumn i have is 'marc and the mambas' 'torment and toreros' (he does a great gloomy sunday on it)
I suppose what the list really is 50 darkest NME type albumns
however i would like to put a shout in for
'dead can dance' (many albums)
'cocteau twins' - garlands
nich cave and the bad seeds 'tender prey' (which i think is darker than your funeral my trial)
also xmal deutschland - 'tocsin' and 'fetisch'
idk
but i like this version of gloomy sunday by taro shoji...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtUpzmC5b_M
its gone
so here is marcs version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES-wpMkvDbo
The latest Harvey Milk album is grimm
The last few lines:
Slowly she got up / Reached into her bag / Got her thirty-eight / And walked into the trees. / Then I heard the shot / In no time at all / I just sat in wait / I did not call out. / As I sat, I looked. / There was something everywhere. / In the pine needles / and the humus / where I sat / There was something. / In the dead gray ashes, / There was grace
Not exactly 'life is the best game in town' is it!
ok I need to buy it
*comes for Pink Moon*
sorted.
Chad VanGaalen's "Infiniheart" is pretty bleak too - almost every song is about being controlled by machines/being dead/being killed/running away etc.
And yet still so pretty
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clZ73KJB8S4
So much love for Mr VanGaalen's brand of bleak naivety.
Brilliantly dark song & video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLw5b70OJH8
Can't believe he manages to do both so well
Stupid multi-talented bellend
Dark is a terrible word
Garth Marenghi's Gloomyplace wouldn't have been half as hilarious
I love the outrage that comes out of these threads
but to be fair it is often well deserved that said there's some really good records on here the number #1 choice is possibly one of my favourite albums of all time.
Not Too Bad
Holy Bible, Closer, OK Computer, Pornography, Meat is Murder, Suicide are all good (if obvious). I find the first three so dark as to be mostly unlistenable. (I don't see any hope in OK Computer, but maybe that's just me).
Let it Come Down is optimistic, as far as I'm concerned (Stop Your Crying, etc). Same with ITAOTS, as others have said. Vauxhall and I, A Rush of Blood to the Head, Glasvegas? Meh, not really.
Eels should be on there: ElectroShock Blues or Novacaine for the Soul. Unknown Pleasures, Faith and maybe Disintegration (I guess they're going for one album per artist only). Can't believe they left out Bauhaus. Swans: The Burning World should be there, if only for God Damn the Sun (the bleakest song ever written, as far as I'm concerned).
Main problem is that it's indie-centric, as Poprivet and others suggest.
Amazing that VIOLATOR is considered the dark Depeche Mode album
when Black Celebration has a good 8 or 9 songs about death, grim news headlines, the emptiness of sex etc etc. Violator is pretty peppy by comparison.
Some odd choices
Agree that 'Dummy' isn't all that dark when compared to 'Third' for example.
Let It Come Down is a really great choice.
The Downward Spiral should be much much higher, that album still freaks me out. Ditto My War.
Candy Apple Grey by Husker Du is a ridiculous choice. Zen Arcade is darker than that, though I wouldn't nominate any of their albums for this list.
Stuff which should be on there but isn't: Company Flow, The Jesus Lizard, Burial.
Portishead
The second self titled Portishead LP is WAY darker than Dummy
The Fall - The Nations Saving Grace at number 25
I've never thought of this album as 'dark', ever
Why no Big Black?
Atomizer is one of the darkest albums I've heard - it takes a couple of hours to shake off the gloom after a spin of it. Though I think 'Marcus Garvey' by Burning Spear possibly tips it for impact on first listen.
My vote goes for Gas. Not for the suicidal.
Brooding menacing dense electonica.
The middle two albums Zauberberg and Konigsforst especially.
Don't know what Dark is i think. Can sleazy be dark?
I think that From the Double Gone Chapel by Two Lone Swordsmen is pretty dark but very sleazy.
Nick Drake isn't dark, more a bit glum.
And i think Turn on the Bright Lights is a joyous album.
Silly NME and their lists
Burial!?
Its a shame there are hardly any electronic albums in there. Particularly with the upsurge of dubstep you'd think something would have ben mentioned.
o
My definition of dark is basically Autechre's Bine. Also, Richard Devine - Asect: Disect, Venetian Snares' Meathole. And Selected Ambient Works II surely.
I'd like to propose Blue Jam and
Clint Mansell's soundtrack to Requiem For A Dream
but as I probably can't have either on technicalities I'm voting for this;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Beauty
requiem for a dream and blue jam backed up there
though blue jam gets on my list by interpreting 'dark' in the sense a comedian would rather than let's all copy lemmings style-dark.
requiem for a dream is one of the darkest films i have ever watched. hypnotic, intoxicating, relentless and bleak. so that carries into the music just because we've seen the film. But besides that, the theme tune just has something about it - it should be too epic to be called 'dark' of itself, but the 6 minute version is just so relentless...
Wot, no Bright Eyes?
Fevers and Mirrors ftw please.
Hold on..........
Whipping Boy-Heartworm
Eels-Electro-Shock Blues
Tom Waits-Bone Machine
Wilco-A Ghost Is Born
Nick Cave-And No More Shall We Part
TV On The Radio-Return To Cookie Mountain
Alice In Chains-Dirt
The Fall-Live At The Witch Trials
Big Black-Atomizer
The Specials-More Specials
Modest Mouse-The Moon And Antartica
Spoon-Girls Can Tell
Tindersticks-Tindersticks [II]
Did this list take all of 10 minutes to draw up based on what the writer was listening to over the past month?
for an alternative, here's the long dark songs playlist you all helped me compile
http://open.spotify.com/user/seaninsound/playlist/4r5oUT6Kw2DwAWJChbtcAh
I was going to refrain to post here ..:(
seems I'm stalking you. :D
Not at all. Thanks. I just love that kind of thing.
the xx and Glasvegas
:D
mind you,
I've got a tiny suspicion that I do like Jamie X after all, he's just very young. He'll go darker still, perhaps.
Or, like nearly all young men, he will get very satisfied with himself in his middle life and spew out rubbish.
Who knows? :)
How are they defining 'dark'?!
The Holy Bible is more nihilistic in my opinion.How are Coldplay dark?!Nick Drake isn't dark more wearily melancholic again I may be splitting heirs but this list is confusing in parts.
Lou Reed's Berlin would be in my top ten.How about some latter Scot Walker?!
Oh The Drift is there
I agree on The Xx strange choice atmospheric and moody is how I'd describe it.They always sling a few recent albums in.
Nihilism isn't dark?
Yeah I just meant it's a more fitting word for me
But of course it's dark, it's just how to define the term. That's the problem with a list like this I guess it has to have a catchall title that won't exactly fit all of the albums there...
Any "dark albums
" list that doesn't include Throbbing Gristle is deeply flawed IMO
all albums are dark if you're listening at night with the lights turned off
i just want to say
that if there's an album ever released that is actually darker than The Holy Bible, i don't think i would want to hear it. that album is so, so bleak. genius, but fuck me, it's harrowing.
Closer
:)
Needs more
The Sound - From The Lion's Mouth
I think the fsct that anyone has written a new 'list' that I've not see before
in 2012 needs applauding. Interesting list. Quite a lot I agree with and a few that I really don't. But hey, that's the whole point.
It's from 2011, pal
Mere_Pseud_Bag_Head to thread.
Review this.
time to go
hmm ok so alien s** fiend were not big enough to be dark
but no stranglers? surely the first two albumns cmon really how are they not really dark.
Every track on no more heroes is about some sort of negativity, many of which steers close to controversy
Or nosferatu a spin off from Hugh cornwall
what about marc almond (with his mambas) with Torment and Toreros thats rather dark
what about new model army and 'Vengeance'
Personally I found Birthday Party - birthday party quite dark
Also the best albumn by nic cave and the bad seeds seems to me to be Tender Prey......fantastically dark
xmal deutschland had Todark albumns but i guess they arnt big enough for the NME
Fever Ray should be on top