Eerie and unnerving songs

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In the spirit of the month, and in light of upcoming mixtapes I will be making, I was wondering what songs some of you find eerie or disturbing. I realize that the list I have included will probably make most of you laugh, because the songs themselves aren't--for the most part--intended to be menacing. Some of the eeriness of my personal list mainly stems from hearing a few of these songs when i was young, and associating something else with the song.

1. Lightnin' Hopkins "Shine on Moon" (scary because it sounds like he's trapped at the bottom of a well...and the personification of the moon scared the bejesus outta me)
2. Grifters "Piddlebach"
3. CSNY "The Lee Shore" (don't ask why...maybe it was the thought of David Crosby)
4. Dirty Three "Sue's Last Ride"
5. Supertramp "School"
6. Smoke "Curtains"
7. Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition: Catacombs" or Griegs "In the Hall of the Mountain King"
8. Tom Waits "The Black Rider"

that's plenty, although there are more. anyone else?

― J. Grizzle (trainsmoke), Monday, 2 October 2006 17:32 (nineteen years ago)

Close Your Eyes - Acen.

― chap who would dare to contain two ingredients. Tea and bags. (chap), Monday, 2 October 2006 17:45 (nineteen years ago)

Beatles - Revolution 9 (If you've ever listened to this song late at night with all the lights off, the effect is extremely unsettling)

Entrance - Silence on a Crowded Train

― Nathan P1p (hoyanathan), Monday, 2 October 2006 17:50 (nineteen years ago)

Golem II: The Bionic Vapour Guy - Mr Bungle.

― chap who would dare to contain two ingredients. Tea and bags. (chap), Monday, 2 October 2006 17:53 (nineteen years ago)

Pere Ubu - Sentimental Journey (the one with the breaking glass)

― sonofstan (sonofstan), Monday, 2 October 2006 18:01 (nineteen years ago)

Eno's "In Dark Trees" might be too familiar to be unnerving, but it's still eerie. Good October track.

― cosmo vitelli (cosmo vitelli), Monday, 2 October 2006 18:06 (nineteen years ago)

Bloodrock: "DOA"

My older brothers used to trap me in a room and force me to listen to it.

― Jim M (jmcgaw), Monday, 2 October 2006 18:08 (nineteen years ago)

Bloodrock: "DOA"
My older brothers used to trap me in a room and force me to listen to it.

i can relate..to a point.

good call on the Pere Ubu upthread, and the Eno.

I just thought of Hood "Further Woodland" (after the Eno suggestion)
and it is on my list..

― J. Grizzle (trainsmoke), Monday, 2 October 2006 18:12 (nineteen years ago)

i always thought "long, long, long" on the white album was really freaky, especially that howl at the end with the cabinet rattling. also the creepy "can you take me back" from "cry baby cry" leading into revolution #9.

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 2 October 2006 19:11 (nineteen years ago)

Throbbing Gristle - "Hamburger Lady"

― Edward III (edward iii), Monday, 2 October 2006 19:17 (nineteen years ago)

I've cited these on a couple other vaguely similar threads, but Timmy Thomas, "Why Can't We Live Together," and James Brown & the First Family, "Control (People Go Where We Send You)." The former sounds apocalyptic to my ears; the latter makes me think of Jim Jones and the People's Temple.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 2 October 2006 19:17 (nineteen years ago)

"Halber Mensch" by Einstruzende Neubaten is the one I used to lock *my* brother in the room...

― bendy (bendy), Monday, 2 October 2006 19:20 (nineteen years ago)

i'm presenting a paper on nico's version of "das lied der deutschen" at a conference next month. nothing i've listened to has made me more uncomfortablethan that song.

― Godfrzej Ljang (godfrzej), Monday, 2 October 2006 19:21 (nineteen years ago)

Best creepiest/Halloweeniest Mr. Bungle song probably = "Violenzia Domestica".

― a naked Kraken annoying Times Square tourists with an acoustic guitar (nickalici, Monday, 2 October 2006 19:23 (nineteen years ago)

Tom Waits "Murder In the Red Barn", "Don't Go Into That Barn"

― a naked Kraken annoying Times Square tourists with an acoustic guitar (nickalici, Monday, 2 October 2006 19:24 (nineteen years ago)

i'm excited to hear some of these (to me) unknowns.

i forgot to mention the whole "huffalumps and woozles" piece from Winnie the Poo...but then again, I guess i didn't title this thread "Songs that immediately elicit the pant-shitting-out-of-fear reflex"

― J. Grizzle (trainsmoke), Monday, 2 October 2006 19:30 (nineteen years ago)

Current '93 - The Inmost Light Itself

...comes to mind. It's all in the twisted ambient music and especially the children's voices. Oh man, those voices. The child screaming 'DEAD' at the end keeps scaring me, no matter how often I have listened to it.

― Gerard (Gerard), Monday, 2 October 2006 19:33 (nineteen years ago)

that one Knife song (I think it's "One Hit", but not 100% sure) with the incredibly creepy vocals that sound like dogs barking

― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Monday, 2 October 2006 19:44 (nineteen years ago)

Zos Kia "Rape"
The Special AKA "The Boiler"
early Current 93
Diamanda Galas "Saint Of The Pit" LP
Coil "Tenderness Of Wolves"
Psychic TV "In The Nursery"

― sleeve version 2.0 (sleeve testing), Monday, 2 October 2006 19:56 (nineteen years ago)

The Microphones - The Mansion

Particularly in the context of The Glow pt. II it just sounds like being lost in the forest as night closes in and there's something out there. The two instrumentals after it compound the eerieness.

― Treblekicker (treblekicker), Monday, 2 October 2006 20:14 (nineteen years ago)

Diamanda Galas - "Double-Barrel Prayer":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T29Lqpi2RQ

― LeRooLeRoo (Seb), Monday, 2 October 2006 20:30 (nineteen years ago)

Rockers Hi-Fi - Going Under (Kruder & Dorfmeister remix).
Little Funny man - Aphex Twin
If you don't mind a bit of hard rockin, SOAD's Mr Jack.

― chap who would dare to contain two ingredients. Tea and bags. (chap), Monday, 2 October 2006 20:39 (nineteen years ago)

Anything by Spanish (?) act 666, who had 3-4 mainstream dance/rave hits in 1998.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 2 October 2006 20:39 (nineteen years ago)

Plus
Scooter: Move Your Ass
Scooter: Hyper Hyper

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 2 October 2006 20:39 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, and obviously much of Massive Attack's Mezzanine, in particular the title track, Rising Son and Group 4.

― chap who would dare to contain two ingredients. Tea and bags. (chap), Monday, 2 October 2006 20:41 (nineteen years ago)

joni mitchell - the wolf that lives in lindsay

she detunes her low E string down to C or B and the last two minutes are just her guitar frantically alternating between the clanging bass note and ringing harmonics, with wolf howls in the back. add lyrics about 'the darkness in men's minds' and the odd clang, and you have a truly unnerving song.

― derrick (derrick), Monday, 2 October 2006 22:06 (nineteen years ago)

Whispering Pines. More eerie than creepy, but still

― Billy Pilgrim (Billy Pilgrim), Monday, 2 October 2006 22:18 (nineteen years ago)

Something about Pink Martini's version of Qué Sera Sera always creeped me out...

― Illya (illya23b), Monday, 2 October 2006 22:29 (nineteen years ago)

The entirety of Sonic Youth's "Confusion is Sex". Because I can't decide on one song from that album.

― xgurggleglgllg (xgurggleglgllg), Monday, 2 October 2006 22:38 (nineteen years ago)

Swans - "Was He Ever Alive?"
The Burning Paris - "Asleep" (Smiths cover)
Kind of obvious, but anything from Coil's "Musick to Play in the Dark" albums.
Also obvious is "The Kids" from Lou Reed's "Berlin" album. Makes me queasy every time I hear it.

― vartman (novaheat), Monday, 2 October 2006 22:48 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, and the entirety of that "Screw Shareholder Value" thing Andrew Eldritch did a few years ago to get out of his record deal. Something about him blandly reciting the dimensions of some aircraft's wingspan over crappy techno songs with the drums removed strikes me just wrong.

― vartman (novaheat), Monday, 2 October 2006 22:51 (nineteen years ago)

Anything from Cindytalk's Camouflage Heart.

― David A. (Davant), Monday, 2 October 2006 23:26 (nineteen years ago)

records that have genuinely FRIGHTENED you

Music which has scared you (no I was scared by insert name of band you weren't scared by but wish to make lame joke about type answers please)

creepiness in rock?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 00:29 (nineteen years ago)

anything by jethro tull. jeeeZUS.

― shake (shake), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 00:34 (nineteen years ago)

thanks alex--a wealth of tracks

i didn't want to be redundant, just generate some fresh responses.

also, just thought i'd add Bowie's "Some Are" from Low

― J. Grizzle (trainsmoke), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 00:45 (nineteen years ago)

Nick Drake, Parasite

― Billy Pilgrim (Billy Pilgrim), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 00:46 (nineteen years ago)

WATCH OUT BEHIND YOU: favorite music from horror films?

― trees (treesessplode), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 00:55 (nineteen years ago)

Sorry I don't know the track name, but about halfway through Squarepushers forthcoming album, there's this song that's just a really long drone, maybe five or six minutes straight. We played it full blast out of my friends bedroom with the windows open, and even a block away you could hear it. It sounded like a distant air raid siren. Really creepy. We made a mental note to put it on repeat at full volume on Halloween night.

― Zachary Scott (Zach S), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 01:07 (nineteen years ago)

where did you sleep last night by leadbelly

― gem (trisk), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 01:21 (nineteen years ago)

When I was a little kid, it was "2000 Light Years From Home" by the Stones.

Also, "Quentin's Theme" from "Dark Shadows."

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 01:48 (nineteen years ago)

"Irma" - Peter Blegvad (from The Naked Shakespeare)

Very unsettling drones and multiple processed vocals narrating a nightmare of being unable to move as men rape his wife in the bed next to him.

― Hideous Lump (Hideous Lump), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 01:59 (nineteen years ago)

oh, lisa germano, "a psychopath', featuring a recording of an actual 911 call from a woman hiding from a stalker in her house. distinctly unsettling.

― derrick (derrick), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 02:09 (nineteen years ago)

"circus of death" by the human league. insane clown-death mini-epic inspired by, er, hawaii five-O. needs to be the version with the spoken-word intro ("this. is a song. called the circus of death") for full value. it's all tongue-in-cheek MKI league nonsense, but - like almost everything they did - it manages to be both funny and genuinely terrifying at the same time.

and "under your thumb" by godley and creme. trains, ghosts, more spoken-word bits, the world's scariest "ba-BARP" synth noise ... and no drums. god, i love that song. scared me shitless as a kid.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 09:42 (nineteen years ago)

Come to think of it, most of Scooter's overall output. Particularly their extremely annoying version of "The Logical Song".

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 10:09 (nineteen years ago)

talking heads - 'listening wind'
tom waits - 'no one knows i'm gone'
nick cave and the bad seeds - 'stagger lee'
my dying bride - 'the dreadful hours'
sonic youth - 'little trouble girl', 'karen koltrane'

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 11:06 (nineteen years ago)

Biosphere - The Fairy Tale

― Thomas Mehlt (Tokyo Ghost Stories), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 06:08 (nineteen years ago)

die todliche doris - maria

― frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 07:40 (nineteen years ago)

Beatles - I Want You... - in my experience, the white noise at the end is rather scary when driving at night.

― Jez (Jez), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 10:51 (nineteen years ago)

The entire goddamn Scott Walker "Tilt" record. Unnerving is the perfect word to describe and...what is that on the cover, anyway?

― kwhitehead (stephen schmidt), Thursday, 5 October 2006 02:17 (nineteen years ago)

ooh, Hamburger Lady. I forgot about that one. God. I need an Ambien now.

― Dr. Joseph A. Ofalt (hyloolnuspstt), Thursday, 5 October 2006 02:48 (nineteen years ago)

United States of America -- the track that kicks off with a Latin chant and ends with fire engine sound effects, and has lyrics about the snowstorms of byegone millennia

United States of America -- the one with the "in her eyes, in her eyes, in her eyes..." refrain.

I'm pretty sure one of these songs is named after a Bosch painting, but I'm too lazy to research it.

― King-a-Ling (King-a-Ling), Thursday, 5 October 2006 04:14 (nineteen years ago)

no harm. (faust)

― schanden (ritual), Thursday, 5 October 2006 04:59 (nineteen years ago)

Comus... Everything.
Sand... Everything.
The Trees... Everything.

I know I'm going to get shredded for this, but the song John Wayne Gacy Jr (by sufjan s) makes me freak out and shiver. Serial killer rapist clowns...

― Andi Headphones (Andi Headphones), Friday, 6 October 2006 19:44 (nineteen years ago)

Into the Night - Julee Cruise

― Sara R-C (Sara R-C), Friday, 6 October 2006 20:21 (nineteen years ago)

Alice Cooper - "The Awakening"
4 Hero - "Mr. Kirk's Nightmare"
Joy Zipper - "Alzheimers"

― hank (hank s), Friday, 6 October 2006 21:43 (nineteen years ago)

I already had a couple answers on the other threads alex posted, but if I didn't mention it before - "Chant of the Ever-Circling Skeletal Family". And a number of things on SMILEY SMILE unsettle me greatly.

― matt the queeg (veal), Friday, 6 October 2006 23:25 (nineteen years ago)

Pink Floyd - ECHOES was always the one for me.

Tool's '(-)Ions' is also pretty terrifying.

― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Friday, 6 October 2006 23:35 (nineteen years ago)

Blind Willie Johnson turns my bowels to dark, runny gravy and gives me night terrors at midday. But I'm not too keen on some of the duets he recorded with his wife, so I'd say only about 70% of his catalogue creeps me out.

Mark Lanegan can be pretty frightening, especially when he sings in a near-monotone on tracks like "Ugly Sunday" and "Kingdoms of Rain."

― King-a-Ling (King-a-Ling), Saturday, 7 October 2006 00:15 (nineteen years ago)

Blind Willie Johnson turns my bowels to dark, runny gravy and gives me night terrors at midday

OTM...most of those depression-era gospel or blue's recordings (or earlier recordings) do the same...

― J. Grizzle (trainsmoke), Saturday, 7 October 2006 01:41 (nineteen years ago)

is Blind Willie Johnson the guy with that bullfrog's croak of a voice, who was so poor he continued to live (and ultimately die) in the smoking embers of his burnt-out house?...(shivers)...the guy who did "John The Revelator?"...if so, smack-dab OTM...

― hank (hank s), Saturday, 7 October 2006 13:07 (nineteen years ago)

Tom Waits - What's He Building?

― Stephen Bush (Stephen B.), Saturday, 7 October 2006 14:45 (nineteen years ago)

The entire goddamn Scott Walker "Tilt" record. Unnerving is the perfect word to describe and...what is that on the cover, anyway?

According to Wikipedia, "The cover features Walker's hand, photographed and manipulated by David Scheinmann."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt_%28album%29

― Stephen Bush (Stephen B.), Saturday, 7 October 2006 14:47 (nineteen years ago)

Good call on "Revolution 9" and "Longx3." The whole White Album is quite creepy when you listen to it from start to finish.

The DKs were actually really creepy around the time of Plastic Surgery Disasters and Frankenchrist. PSD opens and closes with some truly scary spoken word/audio verite snippets that made me sell the album back when I was 14.

― mike a (mike a), Sunday, 8 October 2006 02:46 (nineteen years ago)

oh my god, the real anwer to this thread is 'ancestors' by bjork.

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Sunday, 8 October 2006 03:27 (nineteen years ago)

I've always found Jason Molina's "No Moon on the Water" from some 7" a few years back pretty unnerving.

― cws (cws), Sunday, 8 October 2006 03:52 (nineteen years ago)

five years pass...

cool thread

― og (admrl), Thursday, 5 April 2012 00:00 (thirteen years ago)

Kind of obvious I guess but listening to Frankie Teardrop is never fun for me

― og (admrl), Thursday, 5 April 2012 00:02 (thirteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH1RLz5q-vk

headphones on, lights off, i dare ya!

― preternatural concepts concerning variances in sound and texture (contenderizer), Thursday, 5 April 2012 00:11 (thirteen years ago)

thirteen years pass...

Maddy Prior & June Tabor - "Silver Whistle" is not overtly scary but I used to find it quite chilling, might need headphones to really get that effect again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PEmY4bVqUE

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 1 October 2025 14:43 (two months ago)

Please let me know if there's any bands that do consistently eerie music, there must be some metal bands that do music for windy winter mountains and are more disquieting than kickass?
Love the first two tracks on Sunn O)))'s Black One for this kind of thing.

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 1 October 2025 15:02 (two months ago)

Pretty much everything by Scott Walker from Night Flights on?

― Mr. T's Ballroom (Boring, Maryland), Wednesday, 1 October 2025 15:03 (two months ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvo-HjbmyCc

Track two from the Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud's "A New Soldier Follows the Path of a New King"

― fluffy tufts university (f. hazel), Wednesday, 1 October 2025 15:13 (two months ago)

Lankum make some of the most consistently eerie music I've ever heard.

― bored by endless ecstasy (anagram), Wednesday, 1 October 2025 15:22 (two months ago)

The early Raime stuff: https://raime.bandcamp.com/album/quarter-turns-over-a-living-line-2

― brimstead, Wednesday, 1 October 2025 15:35 (two months ago)

Maybe stretching the definition of 'songs' but you can't get much more unnerving than the recent work generally of Alice Kemp and of course Rudolf Eb.er.

Diamanda Galas + Current 93 suggestions upthread strongly seconded. Certain Nurse With Wound recordings (thinking of Homotopy to Marie and some recent-ish things like The Surveillance Lounge in particular) also suggested.

― Knife fight at the Optimists Club (atonar), Wednesday, 1 October 2025 16:13 (two months ago)

pere ubu - codex

― Grebo McEntire (uptown churl), Wednesday, 1 October 2025 17:41 (two months ago)

Seconding those first two tracks on Sunn O)))'s Black One.

Also:
Aphex Twin - Untitled - 2-10 (aka "Tassels"), from SAW, Vol. II
Demdike Stare - Forest of Evil (Dawn)
Pharmakon - Untitled - B, from 'Deserve It': Live in Chicago

― secret ride, Friday, 3 October 2025 00:23 (two months ago)

"The Garden of Jane Delawney" by Trees

― Vast Halo, Friday, 3 October 2025 14:35 (two months ago)

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