Their rallying call could be the song's haunting refrain: "Paralyzed by the emptiness." Paralyzed, indeed, though Molina is not one for melodrama. The slow, minimal percussion and the sparse electric guitar make this song the perfect dirge for the constituency of every ghost town in the universe to march along to. As if the opening line: "when I die/ put my bones in an empty street" isn't jarring enough on its own, the song, in accordance with the rest of this album, does indeed sound like it was recorded in an empty street. Something sad is afoot in Ohio, as evidenced by our dear friends Mark Kozelek and Jason Molina. The intimacy of this song may unsettle most people, but for those willing to enter into it on its own terms, it's heartwrenching, beautiful stuff.Ĥ) Songs: Ohia "Blue Factory Flame" from Didn't It Rain (2002) The whole story is told fittingly through Chris Salveter's quivering, pseudo-Southern wail, with a stroke of female vocals for further accentuation, sounding almost as if the cousins had reunited to tell their story. Or do we? Next line: "And fumblin' to turn out the light / I'd wake up at night to watch you pissin'." Not quite, perhaps. "Cousin" is, ostensibly, about incest: "Cousin, you're the love of my life/ I was fourteen years old and they caught us kissin'." Oh my, it looks like we have a classic case of teenage confusion on our hands. The entire album is comprised of slow burning, apocalyptic garage atmospherics, sounding like Explosions In The Sky trying their hand at dirty country-blues songs. This song acquaints the listener with the deepest recesses of childhood angst and confusion, so intimately that one may feel repelled by the song at first.
SAD COUNTRY SONGS ABOUT GROWING UP HOW TO
There's an immense wave of guilt that pervades the song, but I don't think anyone would have trouble feeling Gira's sincerity when he says "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry/I did the best I knew how to do."ģ) Low Skies "Cousin" from All The Love I Could Find (2006) There's virtually no question of what Gira's singing about, his vocals sharp and articulate, and except towards the end, there are no other layers than a single acoustic guitar to distract oneself from it. The songs begins with violins unloading a couple decades worth of stress into the speakers, squealing and groaning for just about twenty seconds before the song sheds its clothing and Michael Gira, in his bruised yet crisp intonation, decrees: "The kid is already breaking/ and he's just a little boy." The bulk of the song rides on its austerity. By the end of the song the listener is more than immersed to say that this song's balance of melodic subtlety and lyrical gravity is addictive may be the understatement of the century (brief that it may be).Ģ) The Angels of Light "The Kid Is Already Breaking" from The Angels of Light Sing Other People (2005) The pain, like in any decent threnody or ballad, is exceptionally palpable. Kozelek's unconventionally soothing, ghostly voice lends an earnest frailty to the song all the way through. The first lines: "Sorry that I could never love you back / I could never care enough / in these last days." Mark Kozelek carries the piece for over six minutes, with multiple layers of rich, downtrodden guitars forming its base. So, in no particular order.ġ) Sun Kil Moon "Carry Me Ohio" from Ghosts of the Great Highway (2003)Įven the initial peep at the lyric sheet makes this a classic contender for one of the great ‘sad' songs of our time.
OK, now that we have the sticky formalities taken care of, I believe we can get this self-deprecating, heart-mauling, painfully intimate party under way.
Criticism of this article may NOT contain the words "How could you not have included" under the premise that music is a subjective media and the author doesn't feel like hearing about it. I, _ understand that whether or not I agree that these songs deserve a superlative title, I fully acknowledge that the author has, in fact, listened to them, appraised them, and certified them as 100 % mope-tastic. So let's make a pact, right here, before things get ugly: List-making, especially musical list-making, is eternally fraught with the gripes of contentious music aficionados who feel that their self-acclaimed authority on music is more, er, authoritative than anyone else's. Look: I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that I'm an authority on Americana, folk, country, alt-country, alt-Americana, alt-folk, neo-folk, freak folk, gothic country, and whatever other vapid nomenclature the world of music has to offer. Left to right: Sun Kil Moon, Okkervil River, New Ruins (photo by Tanara Yates) This Century's Top 10 Sad Songs From Americana's Stranger Side Perfect Sound Forever: The 21 Century's Top 10 Sad Songs From Americana's Stranger Side
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