Miserable music meme

February 14, 2010 at 10:53 pm (Music)

Here’s something that appealed instantly to me. Comrade Phil has started off a meme, celebrating Valentine’s Day with some dark and downbeat sounds, and Harpy has followed up on it. The basic idea is to take one each from the 80s, 90s and 00s, but I’ll see your three decades and raise you the 70s. Let’s start with James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain”:

…and I hope that was a depressing enough start. Good old JT, of course, could turn out a genuinely beautiful song when he was on form, even if it wasn’t always a happy one. But if there’s one band who were never accused of creating beautiful sounds, it was Venom. Mind you, “Buried Alive” did have a certain je ne sais quoi:

Heading into the 90s, this is where my musical knowledge starts to get patchy, so I have to enter the world of film soundtracks. Kevin Smith does like to make use of Soul Asylum, and “We 3” made a nice counterpoint to the downer ending of Chasing Amy:

And, bringing us up to the present day, here’s Martha Wainwright singing “Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole”. Not only a great title, but it’s a great showcase for Martha’s unique voice:

Well, that’s a bit of an eclectic selection. Just be grateful I didn’t give you five tracks of Willie Nelson.