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….Or, what's an album that has some very sad songs on it? I've been far too happy lately and need a downer.

- Pet Sounds has got to be the most depressing album I've heard - but sometimes it can be the most uplifting album (crazy how this album can flip both ways).

- Sail Away by Randy Newman is pretty sad. 'Old Man'…That song will put you in tears.

I've never heard any Radiohead, but I hear they have depressing albums - anyone recommend one?

Don't Look Back In Anger by Oasis is jarringly sad - but I've never listened to any of their albums.

Any and all genres welcome.

The Wall by Floyd is pretty bleak.

Closer by Joy Division is something I can't even listen to, it's just depressing.

69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields is also a real bummer. 69 songs about feeling inadequate.

My vote goes to 69 Love Songs  :'(

Lou Reed - Berlin :(

I second that. An absolute masterpiece of an album. As a side note, I just saw the 2008 concert film and was moved to tears several times, even though I wasn't expecting much. Great stuff.

Peter Gabriel, Up.

Tool - Undertow. Threw it away it was so bleak and sticky.

Not all of it is depressing, but Big Star's Third/Sister Lovers.

The Marble Index is a good one to slip into a warm bath and die to. Ah, Nico!

Off the top of my head it's a tie between John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band, Dave Matthews Band / Lillywhite & Bruce Springsteen / The Ghost Of Tom Joad.

Love all three records but I would never even try to put any of those on with another person in the room.  Not guilty pleasures by a long shot but the kind of records, that most people aren't going to dig.

I saw a reissue of that album at a shop last summer. So cool to see obscure gems like that re released on vinyl

Alabama by Judd.

As great as it is...
"Pacific Ocean Blue" by Dennis Wilson

The Holy Bible by Manic Street Preachers is a pretty bleak album. Hardly surprising when the main lyricist on the album Richey Edwards,  (probably) commited suicide within a year of the albums release.

Sly Stone's There's A Riot Goin' On is depressing both in terms of content and production. Just listen to "Time."

Any album by Tammy Wynette

For many reasons The Final Cut is bleaker though.

Yeah, atleast The Wall ends on a somewhat positive note

But The Wall is depressing on a more personal level - total mental isolation

Pornography - The Cure
Heaven Up Here - Echo & The Bunnymen
Closer - Joy Division
Movement - New Order

Down Colorful Hill by the Red House Painters

Huge favorite of mine, however, love pretty much all of Mark Kozelek's work.

Eels - Electro-Shock Blues

On the Beach by Neil Young would be on my list, along with the Lou Reed and Big Star albums already mentioned.

It's sad, yes. But I find it a pretty uplifting album on the whole.

Oh, there's definitely positive moments on the album (for example Last Stop: This Town, P.S. You Rock My World), but for me on the whole it leaves me with a sad feeling. The first 3 tracks to start with... phew... It's probably the story behind the album that strengthens that feeling (for me).
Not saying I don't like the album (on the contrary). I definitely recommend it.

Was this the one where most of E's family died just prior to making it?

Mum died of cancer, sister committed suicide. Check out E's autobiography "Things the Grandchildren Should Know", it's a great read.

Albums that put me on a downer:
Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks and Street Legal. Emotional devastation ensues.

you son of

"From the Basement On a Hill" by Elliott Smith, what a terribly lost soul but so incredibly talented, some of my favorite songs of his are on this posthumous album but these are definitely his bleakest and most depressing songs lyrically and that's saying a lot when it comes to Smith.  Today is actually the tenth anniversary of his death, poor guy.  Certainly one of the best songwriters of his generation.  :'(

this one came to my mind immediately as well..  good suggestions so far, i'll add a few

Sea Change by Beck
Horses by Patti Smith (b side)
Bookends by Simon&Garfunkel (a side)

Pink Floyd The Wall depresses me. Maybe because it makes me think of the miserable movie that went along with it.

Just heard Tilt by Scott Walker for the first time and feel it definitely deserves a mention on this thread. What was going through that man's mind when he made that?

yo dawg, I quite liked the movie! The animation was amazing and it some really incredible parts. The bit where he organizes everything he owned on the floor, or the nazi scene during WFTW.

Agreed! The Wall film is one of my favourites, it got me into Pink Floyd!

   Oasis' "Don't Look Back in Anger" sounds full of hope, albeit tinged with melancholy. Not depressing to me.

   Nick Drake's PINK MOON is beautifully sad.

   RICH KID BLUES by Marianne Faithfull  (Marketed under several titles)

    Elvis' FROM ELVIS PRESLEY BOULEVARD MEMPHIS, TN  and Springsteen's NEBRASKA both sound like they were recorded by artists suffering from clinical depression.
  

Nico: The End

Tilt is upbeat and catchy compared to the follow-up, 2006's The Drift. The album following that 2012's Bish Bosch is a bit of a mixture of the two in my opinion. Awesome music, but definitely something you don't want to listen to when you're feeling down already (or are alone in the dark ;)).

Depends on if you are talking about cathartic sadness or depression such as the Wall or depressing in the sense  of something inducing  depression.   For example, the blues can be delightful  and help you channel and process blue feelings.  some music is so self indulgently full of self pity and unfulfilled narcissism that it could induce depression or severe and unresolvable ennui.

UK singer/songwriter & brooding troubadour Richard Hawley has issued a bunch of great albums if world weary balladeering is your thing. ;-)

His 6th album, Truelove's Gutter, is his darkest hour and consequently the one most in line with this topic. When I feel down I've found that the album makes for great listening. If I'm up, it's a bit too intense and gloomy for me, - but the songs are achingly beautiful and I highly recommend the album. (as well as all his other albums)

Here is, in my humble opinion, the best song off Truelove's Gutter - it was also issued as a single:

Richar Hawley - For Your Lover Give Some Time (2009)
http://vimeo.com/7172479

Yeah heard The Drift for the first time today. Throbbing Gristle mixed with the discordant strings of Mrs Leary's Cow backing The Phantom of the Opera's morbid wailing - what's not to love?

Pink Floyd's "The Wall" is an obvious choice(with which I agree), but I would also cite "The Who By Numbers" and "Electric Light Orchestra's "Balance of Power" (especially the song "Getting to the Point")

Who By Numbers freatures THE finest set of lyrics for any rock album ever. Nice to see someone acknowledge it :)

Any list of "downer" music must include Swans.  Then again, they sorta bypass depressing and go straight to suicidal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSRjYYUE-_c

Scott Walker albums are solid nominations but Sinatra's Watertown kills. me. every. time.

Lou Reed's Berlin.

It's a superb album, but damn... it's pretty harsh.

I'd say Berlin, as well. The 2013 of Montreal album Lousy With Sylvianbriar is a contender for depressing album of the year. For example, from "Colossus,":

Your mother hung herself in the national theater when
she was four months pregnant with your sister who would have
been thirteen years old today.
Does that make you feel any less alone in the world?

Your dad, I'm sure, he tried his best, he
thought you'd be better off living with your grandmother. He didn't
realize that she'd already given up.
Baby your family, they are just losers.

As depressing as those lyrics may be, I've never heard a more soul crushing song than Big Star's "Holocaust."

Third/Sister Lovers would definitely make the list of depressing albums, that's for sure.

Nothing is more depressing than The Gingerbread Man by The Residents.

You know how everyone heralds Blue by Joni Mitchell as some sort of incredibly touching, down-in-the-dumps breakup album? That may be true but at various times when I've been listening to it while depressed (natcherly!), I've been put off by how a lot of the songs are just her going, "I sure am depressed about being single again. Time to go to France and hang out in cafes and clubs!" and I get kind of annoyed, haha. It must be so nice for her to have been able to escape like that while the rest of us just stay at home listening to her sing about it.

(I still think it's a great album, I Just kind that aspect of it sort of amusing. I wish I too could just pack up and go to Europe when I'm feeling blue, you know?)

Duke, by Genesis is actually extremely depressing....... Especially for any guy who's gone through a divorce. The male side of such a story is rarely told.

Guide Vocal always makes me cry.

Nirvana's In Utero is a contender, even without "I Hate Myself And I Want To Die."

Without doubt, Electro Shock Blues by Eels - but depressing in a good way...

Depressing beyond belief:

Berlin----Lou Reed (side b)
Faith----The Cure (side b)

Oddly, both side a's are big favourites of mine...

Agreed, but I don't think it's the music.  Comparing "Only With You," as between Dennis on POB (on the reissue - it's not on the LP) and Carl on CATP/Holland, Dennis' delivery sounds so "pained" but Carl makes it sound "personal" and it might be just my looking back, long after his passing, wondering what made him seem so troubled.  I don't feel that way with Brian's stuff at all, even the stuff that other's find depressing such as "Til I Die" which impresses me as more philosophical rather than pessimistic.  I find that Brian "resolves" whatever is going on, either in the lyrics or or mysteriously, in the arrangement.  I'm thinking of the alternate version of Til I Die on Endless Harmony...He reminds me of one of the great philosophers just thinking about the world...

Maybe if Dennis had started composing sooner, he might have had a "place to put" his angst...that might have fulfilled him in ways that were more positive. Brian seems to throw himself into his work, at least more recently, and I think that is a good thing...

Some of the songs on Pacific Ocean Blue could be considered depressing, but at the same time those songs are so deep that they're also spiritual and inspirational. And, after all of the sadness, how does he end the album?

...It's wonderful to know we're alive....at the end....

It is very deep and spiritual, I agree 100%. When it came out on the reissue (I have the old LP) I put it in the car CD player, and it was almost too intense to listen to the whole thing, over and over. 

It is beautiful but so intense, as was Dennis. 

Not talking album, but I heard some assorted tracks by Joy Division & those are unbearably depressive to my ears. Though to be fair, Ian has good low voice.

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You list it here because..? Don't say you don't like Blondie & Ricky's presence.

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And Harvest? Depressing?  Maybe Tonight's the Night or  On the Beach.

For me, I might throw out Pink Floyd's "The Final Cut". Or Let it Be by the Beatles (cause if you saw the movie it was really sad-the Beatles imploding).

"I Hate Myself and I Want To Die" is not a track on In Utero.  ???

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1. From Elvis Presley Blvd- I actually love this album but it IS  a downer to say the least.
2. Clambake (Elvis)- a depressing movie with a depressing soundtrack, but yet I can't help but Love it (well most of it)
3. Pet Sounds- Yes, it's beautiful. just don't listen to it when you are depressed.. lol
4. POB- Same as Pet Sounds
5. Raised on Rock (Elvis)- what can I say, a record of sad songs that are sung by a man who just doesn't care anymore, the first album since his divorce..
6. Plastic Ono Band- sure not as depressing as the others but sometimes the primal scream gets to me
7. The Muppets Take Manhattan (soundtrack)- Jim Henson's last movie with the Muppets before he died and of course the song "Saying Goodbye" and the wedding songs at the end make it really sad for me to listen to..
8. L.A Woman (Doors)- Wow what can I say about this one, a drunk Jim Morrison, slurring his speech to basic 3 chord blues riffs.
9. The Wonderful World of Christmas (Elvis)- a sad depressing Christmas album with no Christmas joy at all on it, well except for maybe "Merry Christmas baby"..
10. Ray Stevens- "Even Stevens"- a great album, not funny at all!!! In fact this is his most serious album..songs like "He's a jolly good fellow", "Isn't it lonely Together" and "say Cheese" are some of the most depressing songs I have ever heard. "Mr Businessman" is depressing to me because of my step dad and "Funny Man" is not a funny song, but yet I think it's his best album even better than his comedy albums..
11. The Wall- I find it disturbing more than depressing, the same with the movie, which is more disturbing than the album IMO..
12. Johnny Cash- Heck most of his American Cds from the 90's with Rick Rubin, masterpieces but depressing, especially the last two or three of them when he started sounding sick..

A lot of Fiona Apple's stuff is pretty depressing.  

I'd agree that Pet sounds can be depressing... the first time I heard the album, years ago, I thought it was incredibly depressing and didn't understand why people enjoyed it so much.  As I got older I appreciated it much more and saw more of what was going on in it.

I've got to agree with the Johnny Cash albums too, especially that one with "Ain't No Grave".  Wow. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyfCTZB6Nrk

 I used to feel the same way about THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF CHRISTMAS but it has grown on me over the years. Hated it as a kid, especially in comparison to the 1957 Xmas album. The 71 album is a more stately holiday affair to be sure. You are dead on about EP BOULEVARD. RAISED ON ROCK is one of the dullest Elvis albums IMO. Any thoughts on FOOL ?

The Beatles - Let It Be

Big Star's Third/Sisters has to be one. As much as I love 'Nightime', the lyrics 'Get me out of here, I hate it here, get me out of here' are pretty depressing. Chilton pretty much sums it up in one sentence. Not to mention the entire song 'Holocaust'. Aye.

"Take Care" is also another bummer, not to mention the druggy stupor that lingers over the song:

"Take care not to hurt yourself
Beware of the need for help
You might need too much"

and

"This sounds a bit like goodbye
In a way it is I guess
As I leave your side
I've taken the air"

yes.. Fool has a couple real beautiful stuff with Elvis at the piano, it seems like the songs are songs from different years which sounds kind of strange to me.. I would say it's slightly better than ROR...

Antony and The Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now... hands down.

I would say Neil Young's Tonight's the Night and On the Beach are two bleak records.  I love both of them -- they're filled with emotion due to the fact that Neil lost a Crazy Horse guitarist and a roadie to drugs. 

Patti Smith's Banga's second half is pretty depressing as well.  The Avett Brother's Magpie and the Dandelion (while one of my favorites of theirs) is sad too. 

Paul Simon's Surprise album seems like his middle-aged angry rant to the world.  I loved it, but it's clear he's not exactly happy with the world around him.

Philip Glass' soundtrack for the film The Hours is sad as well.

All of these albums are great, though!

Holland 1945 that song just makes me cry thinking about how Anne Frank was killed like that.

Yeah Fool is patched together from different sessions, abit like how they put together compilations of some of the budget Elvis releases on RCA Camden. The title track is definitely the strongest song IMO and one of Elvis best ballads too.

The Flaming Lips- "The Terror"

So bleak it hurts