Any of the Non-industrial music from the Silent Hill sountracks (1, 2 or 3). The music from parts 2 + 3 are better in context. Part 1’s music stands alone quite well.
Getting back to one of the original questions (what makes songs haunting?) I was surprised to see the discussion go on as long as it did without someone mentioning a minor key. I second the person who said that (sorry, previous page, slow connection, not goin’ back to check)–I love “haunting” songs and it seems like every time I hear a new song I like, I have to ask myself, “hey, is that in a minor key?” Most of the time it is.
BTW, I’d class almost the entire album “Fallen” by Evanescence as “haunting”. Others:
“Oh Life (There Must Be More),” Alan Parsons
“High Hopes,” Pink Floyd (one of the most depressing songs I know–I love it)
“Long Long Way to Go,” Phil Collins
“Kiss From a Rose,” Seal
“It Was a Very Good Year” (pick your favorite crooner)
“Skellig,” Loreena McKennitt
“Harbour of Tears” (the whole album), Camel
“Might as Well Be On Mars,” Alice Cooper
“Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24),” Trans-Siberian Orchestra
“Losing It,” Rush
“Subdivisions,” Rush
“Pleasure Victim,” Berlin
Another thing that many of these songs have in common is the use of an “echoey” effect to the music and/or the vocals. It brings to mind a certain desolation or loneliness.
I really like JaxBeachBoy’s explanation of the vague lyrics being because the singer can’t bear to talk about what happened.
One group that I forgot earlier is Arcadia (does anyone remember - they were Simon LeBon, Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor, I believe). All of their songs were very haunting to me. Lots of use of minor keys, echoes, etc. All their songs seemed so, so cold to me (but I loved them).
My classical list:
Symphony No 3 by Gorecki. Bar none, the most gut-wrenching music ever written about pain, loss, and the first flower springing from the charred earth.
The Requiem and Kyrie of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem gives me goosebumps. Much of the rest is kind of crappy, though.
On the subject of Requiems, the Lachrymosa from Mozart’s Requiem is especially poignant when you know he was working on it when he died. Never got past the first eight bars.
Un bel di from Madama Butterfly. If that one doesn’t make you cry, check your pulse.
Contemporary (relatively):
The string arrangement of Unchained Melody that they used in Ghost chokes me up every time. Fortunately, since I’m a big guy, no one thinks to call me a whimp.
The Drinking Song by Moxy Fruvous.
The Green Leaves of Summer. I like the recording by The Brothers Four.
Several by Crowded House: Into Temptation; She Goes On; Fingers of Love; Private Universe. My favorite band.
These will haunt you:
Switchblade Symphony, “Dissolve”
Bloodrock, “DOA”
Melanie, “I Really Loved Harold”
All of “A Storm In Heaven” by Verve employ these techniques. They also make use of echoeing effects on the vocals, and some strange effects on the guitars.
A few of their songs also seem to change speed in the middle, starting off with a slow tempo at the beginning, then speeding up and then slowing back down at the end.
What a cool thread! I’ll probably end up thinking of more later, but here are some that came to mind immediately:
Queen - “White Queen (As it Began)”
Don Henley - “End of the Innocence” (With seconds on “Boys of Summer” and “Sunset Grill.”)
Finch - “Ender”
Big Wreck - “That Song”
Pogues - “Streets of Sorrow”
Toad the Wet Sprocket - “I Will Not Take These Things For Granted,” “Walk on the Ocean,” “Before You Were Born,” several others.
A number of songs on my list have already been mentioned by other posters. For me, haunting isn’t so much about the sound of the music or vocals, but rather the lyrical content and/or context. Here are a few to illustrate the point:[list=1]
[li]Haunted by Poe - Maybe a bit obvious from the title, but especially effective if you’ve read her brother’s book House of Leaves[/li][li]San Jacinto by Peter Gabriel[/li][li]Keep Me in Your Heart by Warren Zevon - The last song recorded by Zevon, and the last track on his final album[/li][li]Lake Charles by Lucinda Williams[/li][li]Two Janes by Los Lobos[/li][li]Sail Away by Randy Newman[/li][li]Save Me by Aimee Mann[/li][li]Hello in There by John Prine[/li][li]Moonshiner as played by Uncle Tupelo[/li][li]Poor Places by Wilco - on this one, not just the lyrics but the sound as well, especially the CONET project sample at the end[/li][/list=1]Ack, that’s enough for now.
Two I’d like to mention:
Nine Inch Nails - Something I Can Never Have
Tool - No Quarter (Led Zepplin cover).
Fear Factory - Timelessness
Agalloch - The Misshapen Steed
My Dying Bride - Black God
A great song. It’s “Song to the Siren”, however (nitpick!), and I think the original by Tim Buckley (yes, Jeff’s father, and a much better artist, IMO) is both better and more haunting, so I nominate that one.
That one always gets to me, yeah…
And, still on the subject of Requiems, pretty much all of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. The first time I heard it I couldn’t get it out of my mind for days.
I also think this thread’s gone waaaaay too long without Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” being mentioned.
The old Alfred Hitchcock show theme, entitled " Funeral March of a Marionette", by Gounod. Creepy to say the least. I believe one time they played it and you saw shadows on a wall, suggesting the actions that the title implied. Haunting, even to this day, and certainly memorable.
China - Tori Amos
I’ll second Hotel California - the opening strings put me in a dark, open space even before I heard the words, “On a dark desert highway…”
Something about Corgan’s singing in Tonight, Tonight gets me. I like to think he’s singing as a deity - “Believe in me as I believe in you…”
The opening credits music to Se7en puts you in an appropriately uncomfortable mood.
Techno has the market cornered on haunting, but I’ve always loved 808State’s Pacific.
Peter Schilling’s Major Tom sticks with you long after you’ve heard it - “I’m coming home…”
Alice in Chains’ “Rooster” sticks with you like oatmeal for breakfast.
I forgot to mention “Clipped” by Rasputina. That’s one that sends chills down my spine just going through my head.
I would say that nearly everything I have ever heard by Sarah McLaughlan or Tori Amos would qualify as haunting.
Funny unrelated story - Transcript to an argument between me and my brother when home from college (picture two “white baseball hat” J. Crew frat guys in the 90s):
Brother: “You bought that Sarah Mclaughan CD? Why?”
Me: “I don’t know…I like it I guess”.
B: “She sucks.”
Me: “YOU suck! It’s better than your weepy Tori Amos CD!”
B: “What are you a lesbian? You’re so gay!”
Me: "Dude YOU’RE GAY! Half your CD is just some bi-atch crying into her piano. Boohoohoo! I hate men! "
B: Whatever…let me borrow it?
Anyhow that new Tori Amos song where she’s a foot is pretty haunting.
I would also add:
Enya - Boadicea
Adagio for Strings (the themesong from Platoon and also the VG Homeworld)
Most Pink Floyd stuff
I nominate Dear Prudence and Julia off the Beatles’ white album.
For that matter, pretty much the entire album is vaguely unsettling. Maybe it’s the whole Charles Manson/Helter Skelter thing . . . I don’t know.
For some reason I find Cibo Matto’s “Everyone Loves the Sunshine” haunting because of it’s juxtaposition of a minor key with really fluffy lyrics. They sing it like they only half believe it.
I’m up there with JohnM about Los Lobos’ “Two Janes.” In fact, I find most of Kiko really haunting, but especially “Wake Up Dolores” with the names of old world gods being chanted behind it.
Similarly, Hapa’s version of “In the Name of Love” has the kumulipo chanted behind it. It gives you chills to hear it.
As for dark & haunting, nothing beats the finale of Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony. All bravery and pretty music, but there are these incredlble undercurrents of dark strings & low woodwinds that give the music a subtle menace.