I have always liked dark, kind of spooky albums where you can tell it´s for real, no joking around in the studio. I think Dirty Work is such an album, a lot of anger, frustration and drama there. But one of my absolute favourites in that field is Lou Reed´s "Berlin". So utterly dark and yet a brilliant record. Any opinions?

How bout

Iggy Pop: the Idiot
any album by Leonard Cohen
Marianne Faithful Broken English and Blvd of Broken Dreams

Stones albums dont usually have the same start to finish coherency, but Exile drips of despair and frustration.

NINE INCH NAILS (Trent Reznor) - the one with HURT and CLOSER on it. Fragile is it? Pretty damn DARK....

The Times They Are A-Changin'....That one'll leave ya in the dark and alone



ROCKMAN

Dylan...lot of dark stuff there, Blood on the tracks, Time out of mind to name a few.

ROCKMAN.....I dig you but ....Huh???????? Grab some vegimite mate - time to fuel up the system !!! TIME OUT OF MIND is a pretty Dark album (speaking of Dylan)

HelterSkelter

Hollis Brown and Hattie Carroll....can both clear a room in 30 secs flat..
And yeah as ya said Time Outta Mind dark baby dark....



ROCKMAN

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

After Midnight
Walking After Midnight
Wee Wee Hours
Nighttime Is The Right Time
Early In The Morning
etc..




Really, though, Paranoid by Black Sabbath

oh, OK ROCKMAN, the Album !!! Yeah, HOLLIS BROWN is a killer, even the LIVE AID version gets to you....

low-bowie
tonight's the night-neil young
bauhaus
suicide
animals, wall-pink floyd
tool
broken-nine inch nails

Svartmer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have always liked dark, kind of spooky albums
> where you can tell it´s for real, no joking around
> in the studio. I think Dirty Work is such an
> album, a lot of anger, frustration and drama
> there. But one of my absolute favourites in that
> field is Lou Reed´s "Berlin". So utterly dark and
> yet a brilliant record. Any opinions?


Lou Reed - Ecstasy
The Who - By Numbers
Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
Bruce Springsteen - Darkness On The Edge Of Town
Bob Dylan - Time Out Of Mind
Miles Davis - Bitches' Brew
Miles Davis - Pangaea
Chet Baker - Let's Get Lost
Marvin Gaye - Here My Dear
John Cale - Sabotage Live
John Cale - Music For A New Society
Neil Young - Tonight's The Night
Neil Young - On The Beach
Frank Sinatra - Sings For Only The Lonely
Elvis Costello - Blood & Chocolate
Einstuerzende Neubauten - 1/2 Mensch
Pet Shop Boys - Behaviour
George Michael - Older (I am NOT kidding).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-03-17 00:09 by Nikolai.

Radiohead - Kid A
Radiohead - OK Computer
Beck - Sea Change
R.E.M. - Fables of the Reconstruction

Nice choices Nikolai. I dont know if it says something about me that Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely (one for my baby, great song) and the Who by Numbers (Dreaming from the Waist features Entwistle at his best) are two are my favorite albums.
I agree with the wall and animals from Floyd, two albums devoid of any lighthearted moments. Let it Bleed seems to be a darker album (Gimme Shelter, Midnight Rambler, Let it Bleed).

Leonard Cohen was mentioned:
Songs Of Love And Hate is given there.
The Good Son by Cave comes to mind too.

I will fill in later, this is close to me heart.

I disagree about Exile and LIB being dark albums.


Aside from Let It Loose, Exile is a very upbeat album.


Let It Bleed has more of an uneasy feel rather than a dark feel for me. It's like having a feeling that something very bad is going to happen, but it never does and at the end you feel relieved.

it's_all_wrong Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I disagree about Exile and LIB being dark albums.
>
>
> Aside from Let It Loose, Exile is a very upbeat
> album.
>
>
> Let It Bleed has more of an uneasy feel rather
> than a dark feel for me. It's like having a
> feeling that something very bad is going to
> happen, but it never does and at the end you feel
> relieved.

good point. Exile is too layered and dense to put any single label on it. you could make a stones "thru the past darkly" revisited from BB and Bleed:

Gimmie shelter
Stray cat Blues
Midnight
Sympathy
Let it bleed
etc

The darkest Stones album, in terms of lyrical, if not musical content was Undercover. Let It Bleed has a definite understated menace to it, but it is more the dread of unknown terrors. Had Undercover ended with I Think I'm Going Mad, it would have been a great ending.

Robert Johnson's "King Of The Delta Blues Singers" works pretty well as harrowing late night music. And Jimmy Reed can get pretty "blue and lonesome," especially on the "Live At Carnegie Hall" album and on "You Don't Have To Go."

I saw Neil Young's "Tonight's The Night" and "On The Beach" mentioned, and while those are indeed classics, I believe his alltime darkest is actually 1994's "Sleeps With Angels." The title track is pretty well known as a rumbling lament for Kurt Cobain, and the rest of it is concerned with death, decay and bitter disappointment-both public and private. "Change Your Mind" and "Blue Eden" are actually painful to listen to, but the record ends with some rays of light.

Another album that has an exquisite late-night feel is John Hiatt's "Bring The Family" (1987). It was cut in three days with Jim Keltner on drums, Nick Lowe on bass and Ry Cooder on electric guitar. The recording is so organic that you can really hear the sound of four men in a room, their presence and collaboration. Hiatt's tunes are basically about his recovery from alcoholism and his entry into adulthood and there's some really muted, introspective stuff put over in a very witty and artful way. "Stood Up" and "Lipstick Sunset," in particular, are graced with some of Cooder's best playing and are just amazingly sexy late-night records.

Did anyone mention the Cowboy Junkies' "Trinity Session?" Cut in one night with one microphone in an old Toronto church. Can't believe this record is about to be twenty years old. It was one of the albums that announced the end of the 1980's...

Always thought that Black Sabbaths first LP was very "dark "

Scott Walker - The Drift

Put it on, turn out the lights, and I promise it will scare the beejesus out of you! A tortured, brilliant masterpiece.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-03-17 05:25 by KSIE.

anything by Richard Thompson is certain to bring you down....sorry, ChrisM.... ;-)

I think Let It Bleed is a dark album. That's the word I've always used to describe it. Some people have mentioned it in this thread and several people disagree saying it's got a sense of dread or menace. A "sense of dread" and "menace" are not exactly bright and upbeat discriptions. But I suppose it's just a matter of opinion.

Do not laugh:

Phil Collins - Hello, I Must Be Going
Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel of Love

Check out any Marissa Nadler's album for really dark stuff. They call this music folk-noir for very good reason.

Back In Black. Can't get a darker album cover than that!! Any album that starts out with funeral bells has to be considered a dark album. Perhaps the inspiration for Spinal Tap's Smell The Glove album cover?

Here Comes Peter Cottontail by Gene Autry. When I found out that Easter Bunny was bullshit and Mum was buying the eggs I was really dark on that.

Album of Philip Glass and Allen Ginsberg,
"Kind of blue"of Miles Davis

Can any album beat Pink Floyd's The Wall?

Thommie Wrote:
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> Can any album beat Pink Floyd's The Wall?


Yes (when it comes to darkness): The same band's The Final Cut!