Music that is not fun or joyous or euphoric but is still bloody excellent...

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your examples please, and why you love them ideally - try and avoid songs that comfort you cos of their profound melancholic nature if you can...if no answers come quick enough i'll try and rephrase this

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 11 August 2003 23:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Lull's Cold Summer will do this for me everytime -- it's not so much melancholic, more beautifully and perfectly blasted and dead (yet still living!).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 00:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I currently like Joy Division's "Atmosphere" better than any of their other songs. There's a kind of nobility to it which cuts through the corn (the corn being the other bit of why I like it).

I would say some drone compositions but it depends how far you're willing to stretch 'euphoric'.

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 00:03 (twenty-two years ago)

good call on Joy Div, i guess The Smiths and The Cure would figure too?

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 00:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Most Joy Div has a kind of grim rhythmic euphoria about it. The Smiths are too funny to qualify (I know it's a cliche to say the Smiths are funny - they're not JUST funny - but they're not grim either). The Cure can be left out because of that annoying little 'bloody excellent' requirement.

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 00:07 (twenty-two years ago)

i vote for early Stereolab, for not dissimilar reasons to Tom's mention of Joy Division

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 00:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Tori Amos, 'Me And A Gun'. Nothing fun or joyous or euphoric about an acapella tale of rape, but horribly compelling and disturbing and thus bloody excellent.

I think this thread caters to a huge amount of music...

― The Lex (The Lex), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 00:12 (twenty-two years ago)

if you added "cathartic" to the thread title that may restrict things a fair bit..

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 00:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Jandek.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 12 August 2003 00:13 (twenty-two years ago)

i think i meant to say cathartic, but you're right - i guess MEtallica and loads of 80s metal is too euphoric also.

'Atmosphere' is very cathartic and there are obv. a myriad of songs that fit that same bill - i think the Tori Amos example is good because something like that can unsettle you but at the same time compel you....which leads me to....

daaaark drum n' bass

but i guess i wanted to stick to songs cos as The Lex says, it can cater for so much

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 00:20 (twenty-two years ago)

wait, sorry, missed the melancholy clause

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 12 August 2003 00:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Cat Power - "Names"

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 00:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Interesting thread idea but I'm noticing that joy and/or euphoria mangage to creep into almost everything I really like, even "dark" stuff. When I think of music without these qualities I think of something very minimal and emotionally neutral that manages to engage on more of an intellectual level. Maybe something like Toshimaru Nakamura's No Input Mixing Board -- music to puzzle over and figure out.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 02:34 (twenty-two years ago)

The entirety of Neil Young's Tonight's the Night ... and After the Gold Rush and Freedom, for that matter. Have that riveting off-tune sense and cohesiveness ... unsettling ... they genuinely don't sound like anything else ... prompt thought and the such becase of their weirdness and uniqueness. Not necessarily catharsis, cuz Young doesn't really go at you directly on any of three (save for "Rockin' in the Free World") ... but they have find a space to affect listeners deeply anyway.

― Chris O'Connor (Chris O'Connor), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 04:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Another song that kinda does the trick ... Handsome Boy Modeling School's "Sunshine." Shit is gorgeous, if inane lyrically. Plus with the Father Guido spoken stuff mixed in and the amazing production, it's really compelling. Sean Lennon's finest moment (Poor guy ...)

― Chris O'Connor (Chris O'Connor), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 04:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Interpol - "NYC". I was somewhat pleased/shocked to find that there was a record on Matador that I liked more than two consecutive seconds of, and the drippy drippy echo all over this song sealed the deal. I love echo. It gets used right maybe once a century.

(Postscript - saw them on the BBC when they were at Glastonbury and they utterly ruined the first half of the song by being awful and pretty much everything I hoped they weren't in real life)

― Dave M. (rotten03), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 04:46 (twenty-two years ago)

The God Machine's "Home" does it for me.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 08:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Aphex Twin OWNS THIS THREAD.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 08:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Beherit, Darkthrone, Ildjarn...persistent icy grimness devoid of hooks, variety, fun, euphoria, melancholy. Aural masochism.

― Siegbran (eofor), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 11:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Run, do not walk, to the nearest store and by _Posession_ by GOD. 70 minutes of brutal, punishing, slow-building fury and rage. Highlights of the album are "Fucked" and "Hate Meditation".

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 12:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Eels' Electro-Shock Blues; altogether depressing, yet phenomenal songwriting

― kent farrington (kent), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 12:17 (twenty-two years ago)

arab strap is sometimes funny, but when they're not, it's still great. a lot of people say they find them too depressing, but they make me happy.

― praying mantis (praying mantis), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 13:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Ghostface Killa, for pretty much all the same reasons as anyone would pick Aphex.

Also Fugazi, who are arguably not euphoric or fun, but I love the way they use huge, crashing chords. And their basslines kill.

― Tom Breihan (Tom Breihan), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 13:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Mr. Bungle's "Pink Cigarette", not at all fun, creepy and disturbed/ing as Hell, a song-as-suicide-note, but insane powerful and great. The layers of vocal lines during the countdown at the end -> the flatline = goose-pimplingly killer song ending.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 14:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Beck, for being the fun-boy that he is, has a shitload of killer not-fun/not-euphoric/not-feel-good songs: "Steal My Body Home", "Nobody's Fault But My Own", "He's a Mighty Good Leader", "Blackhole", "Dead Melodies"...

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 14:14 (twenty-two years ago)

What Dan said about God. There's a reason Kevin Martin and Mick Harris are fellow travellers.

The God Machine's "Home" does it for me.

Hell, everything by them! Although in their own way they find a certain kind of anti-euphoria that's just as exultant. Argh, must hear "Purity" now...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 14:53 (twenty-two years ago)

i think crazy-eyed killah is an excellent example.....his music is rather melancholy, yet "bloody excellent" to say the least

― tony binacci (tonyp), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 15:35 (twenty-two years ago)

i must agree with kent f. on the eels - THEY ARE DEPRESSING!. they are also dull, droll, and disgusting! go away Eels and all their fans

― tony binacci (tonyp), Tuesday, 12 August 2003 15:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Berlin by Lou Reed, esp The Kids

― bham, Wednesday, 13 August 2003 10:12 (twenty-two years ago)

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