I am not sure what the cutoff is for pop so I will just go with the safest one I can think of which is.
Marcy Playground - Sex And Candy
But there is the entire shoegaze craze, some marked above but I would personally think of Slowdive’s album Souvlaki as the prototype in my mind.
Very good call on that one. It was quite a popular song too, I remember hearing it on the radio a lot (and I like it.) It has a very minor tonality, sounds quite Nirvana-influenced.
From 1966, “Mr. Diengly Sad” by the Critters.
And from the same, even with the uptempo chorus, there’s just something dreary about “Just a Little” by the Beau Brummels.
Oh shit, how is it that we’re at 43 posts and nobody’s offered up California Dreamin’?
Hmm, why “Superman” and not “Mmmm mmm mmm”?
I’ll vote for a song from the “Upbeat songs…” thread - Ben Folds Five’s “Brick”!
Cowboy Junkies’ cover of “Sweet Jane” was a lot sadder than the original. Also Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You.”
I don’t know if Band of Horses’ “No One’s Gonna Love You” is sad or not. I can’t separate the lyrics from the music. What do you think?
Radiohead - No Surprises, Fake Plastic Trees, Karma Police
The Smiths - I Know It’s Over, The Death of a Disco Dancer, Well I Wonder, Never Had No One Ever and many more
Snow Patrol - Run
Clinic - Distortions - This one I would actually want played at my funeral
Maybe it has too much spring in its step, I don’t know. But hey, it’s not a completely sunny tune either.
Whatever else might come from this thread, that is surely the ultimate point.
Similarly, “Hello” by Lionel Richie.
I’m glad to see that Cowboy Junkies made the cut. But no mention of Tom Waits? You people disappoint me. Also, Band of Horses. Also The Smiths, “Never Had No One Ever”. Also, Audioslave, “Like a Stone”. Also…
MacArthur Park.
Horse with no name.
A lot of good ones have been mentioned. Very first that came to my mind is The Freshmen. Now I’m trying to imagine the music without the lyrics and see if I still find it depressing . . . I *think *I do but I’ve been hearing it one way for so long I’m not sure I can separate the two.
I’ve always thought the music on Ode to Billy Joe is quite melancholy; especially that haunting violin riff (probably not the correct term) right after the last verse that (to me) represents the sound of something or someone falling. If you know the song, hopefully you know to what I’m referring.
A couple from Lou Reed: They’re Taking Her Children Away; and Slip Away.
I’d also add “Perfect Day” even though there are a couple lines in it that suggest it’s not.
“Power of Goodbye” by Madonna
A rarity from the '60s: “When Rain Is Black” by The Deep
The first song that came to mind: Careless Whisper, by Wham!
Picks up a little around the 1:20 mark. One thing I’ve noticed is that most of these songs with “slow depressing music” are, well, pretty musically boring. Usually the same couple plodding chords played over and over for five minutes with maybe something over them part way through where the song would pick up a little. That’s not a criticism of the song as a whole – it feels like taking the body off a car and them commenting on how uninteresting the chassis is – but I think it does help explain why a lot of depressing songs don’t have dirge music accompanying them.
Yeah, Lou Reed has a lot of slow depressing songs. Anything from Berlin works and most of Dirty Boulevard.
Honey, by Bobby Goldsboro. Most depressing song evah, and it was a big hit back in the day.
Also Teen Angel. Yecch.