Tag Archives: depressing songs

Nadia Reid – “Holy Low”

Don't you hate it when you have a pretty good idea of what your top 10 will be for the year, and then you hear something really excellent close to the end of the year and it throws everything into chaos? Yeah, I thought so!

Anyway, I read about Nadia Reid's debut album Listen to Formation, Look for the Signs (a melancholy album about a break-up by a woman is pretty much my wheelhouse this year) and immediately queued it up on Spotify. And when I finished listening to the album, I started it over again. And then got home and listened to it a few more times. This is pretty much all I listened to while writing papers for school last week. Anyway, here's probably my favorite song from it, "Holy Low."

J said the album gave her feelings of nostalgia that she couldn't quite place, and I totally get that. Her voice evokes a lot of bands I listened to in my late teen years, but I can't quite put my finger on who. Not that it really matters, since I just listen to the album over and over and worry that recency bias will make it too high in my top 10 this year. I suppose that isn't the end of the world when an album is this good.

For whatever it's worth, I think this is my top 10 as constructed today. It'll probably change sometime before the end of the year, but it's something!

01. Chastity Belt - Time to Go Home
02. Colleen Green - I Want to Grow Up
03. Julien Baker - Sprained Ankle
04. Nadia Reid - Listen to Formation, Look for the Signs
05. Speedy Ortiz - Foil Deer
06. Wimps - Suitcase
07. Childbirth - Women's Rights
08. Future - DS2
09. The Intelligence - Vintage Future
10. Spelljammer - Ancient of Days

4 votes, average: 8.25 out of 104 votes, average: 8.25 out of 104 votes, average: 8.25 out of 104 votes, average: 8.25 out of 104 votes, average: 8.25 out of 104 votes, average: 8.25 out of 104 votes, average: 8.25 out of 104 votes, average: 8.25 out of 104 votes, average: 8.25 out of 104 votes, average: 8.25 out of 10 (4 votes, average: 8.25 out of 10)
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Sufjan Stevens – Eugene

Carrie and Lowell is on many (if not most) Best Of lists this year (though no Grammy nods), and with amazingly good reason. This album is one of the most heartfelt, wonderful, awful records I've ever heard. More or less written about his childhood, the complicated relationship between him and his mother, and the time of her death (if you want more background, it's out there and easy to find, so I won't go too much further into the backstory).

I know there's been some pushback on the whiney singer/songwriter wailing over his acoustic recently, and this album could be construed as that, but I don't think it applies. In my mind, he wrote this album strictly for himself. He was kind enough to invite us in on what must have been a substantial and devastating cathartic journey. Littered throughout are so many baldly personal, terrible little slices of life. Take the first two verses this song alone:


Light struck from the lemon tree
What if I’d never seen hysterical light from Eugene?
Lemon yogurt, remember I pulled at your shirt
I dropped the ashtray on the floor
I just wanted to be near you


Emerald Park, wonders never cease
The man who taught me to swim, he couldn't quite say my first name
Like a Father he led
Community water on my head
And he called me “Subaru”
And now I want to be near you

It may not be my favorite of his (I mean, my god, Age of Adz), but it is definitely his finest work to this point. Sparse, sharply honed, and expertly crafted. A simply masterful album from one of my favorite craftsmen.

...oh, right, I should probably play the song now.


2015

Sorry, I wanted to find something professionally done from this album, however, strangely, none seem to exist.

Anyway, if this piques your interest, here's the album version of the first track, also awfully wonderful/depressing:

6 votes, average: 7.50 out of 106 votes, average: 7.50 out of 106 votes, average: 7.50 out of 106 votes, average: 7.50 out of 106 votes, average: 7.50 out of 106 votes, average: 7.50 out of 106 votes, average: 7.50 out of 106 votes, average: 7.50 out of 106 votes, average: 7.50 out of 106 votes, average: 7.50 out of 10 (6 votes, average: 7.50 out of 10)
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