Cowboy Junkies of course. Their entire first album, The Trinity Sessions is suitable. There isn’t a loud, happy, upbeat song there. Every single song is quiet, sad, angsty and mournful. If I had only one album to listen to for the rest of my life that’s the one I’d pick.
Their entire body of work is fits your description, although on some of their other albums there are a few uptempo songs. Uptempo, sad, angsty songs. I know for a fact that they have at least one song that is entirely happy. But with a dozen albums out, surely you can forgive ONE happy song, right?
A lot of Tom Waits work would qualify - I’d recommed Tom Traubert’s Blues (Waltzing Matilda), I hope that I don’t fall in Love with You, Blind Love, Hang Down Your Head, or Time.
I first heard this song on the Trainspotting soundtrack and was blown away (in a sad, angsty way). If you’ve seen the movie it’s the song that plays when Renton OD’s
Hurt by Nine Inch Nails on their Downward Spiral album. It has to be the most depressing, suicide-causing song ever written. Whenever I listen to it I just want to curl up somewhere in the dark and cry myself to sleep.
Have you heard Johnny Cash’s version? It’s even more mind-bendingly angst ridden that NIN’s. It supposedly reduced Trent Renzor to tears when he heard it, and the director of the video did it for free because of how moved he was by Cash’s cover.
If you want sad and angsty, listen to Hank Williams Sr.. He was an honest-to-God poet, and his sad songs could make the rocks weep. The later, live takes of Weary Blues from Waiting and I Can’t Escape From You, where it was just Hank and his guitar, and he was within a few months of drinking himself to death, are enough to break your heart.
I cant belive no one mentioned Joy Division. It doesn’t get any more sad, quiet and angsty than that. Joy Division makes Nine Inch Nails angsty songs sound like Mr. Rodgers ditties in comparison
And its no faux-angry-rich-boy angst either. Its the real deal. Lead singer Ian Curtis hung himself right after their breakthrough single “Love Will Tear Us Apart” was released.
