heartbreak city

Loney Dear - Dear John (lala) - I like the way these sensitive eternally dumped Swedish singer songwriter types all sound a little like Kermit the Frog doing a Paul Simon impression. Baton Rougeans and area readers, they will be performing here (Loney Dear, not Kermit and Paul) at Spanish Moon on Mon. Feb. 9
Jessie Lea Mayfield - With Blasphemy So Heartfelt (lala) That is an album title! This kind of sleepy, sad, sexy, country folk is what I expect other people hear when they listen to Neko Case, but I like it sleepier, sadder, sexier, countrier and folkier than they do. I suspect she can stop your heart just by looking at you while she sings one of these songs in a bar.
Joni Mitchell - Blue (lala) I was going to find something more recent, but at the library I flipped through the 33 1/3 book on Court and Spark and then saw Blue on this list of The Most Depressing Albums of All-Time. The list is chock full of popularly conceived bum-outs, but would Joy Division's Closer be so synonomous with depression had Ian Curtis not killed himself? In that light, I think In Utero is more of a bummer than Closer is. Same with Blue, there is longing and wallowing, but there is joy in longing and wallowing.

My vote for most depressing record ever would be any by a mirthless Dane named Nortt, who describes his work as "Pure Depressive Black Funeral Doom Metal." Most doom metal depression antics strikes me largely as shtick, but I dunno, Nortt is undeniably a bummer.

Here is his Glemt from Gudsforladt (Godforsaken). Not safe for those susceptible to spiraling misery.


Same goes for the Muppet Show appearance by the aforementioned Paul Simon. Notice you don't see him and Kermit singing at the same time!