Here's an idea for a topic: a list of songs you find particularly haunting, unnerving, creepy, etc.

- Hurt by Johnny Cash/NIN

A typical choice, to be sure.

- Dance with the Devil by Immortal Technique

Watch the official video for this song and tell me if a hip hop song has ever left you with such an unsettling feeling.

- I Put a Spell on You by Screamin Jay Hawkins

Talk about CREEPY! But awesome, too.

There are others, but I'll leave room for patrons to contribute!

I agree with Dance With The Devil, that song is disturbing as fuck, My Immortal by Evanescence is also haunting for a different reason, if you've ever lost a loved one, it's hard to listen to that song without getting sad.

A few off the top of my head:

'Hurdy Gurdy Man' - Donovan. Used memorably in the film Zodiac.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lKCUuyojDI

'Ted, Just Admit It...' - Jane's Addiction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CpRCc4Jre8

'Stagger Lee' - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZFWCLEIdqg

Black Sabbath's 'Black Sabbath' off their album Black Sabbath. - Great opener, and still creeps me out a bit.<

King's Crossing by Elliott Smith

"Kim" by Eminem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYKMRY5Rr9I

Not necessarily listening to their songs, but reading the lyrics of Cannibal Corpse songs put me odd.

Put me odd? Does that make sense?

Someone already put the best song of the 80's down ('Ted, Just Admit It...'), but I have way more to list. Let the downers begin!

'4st 7lbs' by The Manic Street Preachers. It may be hard to decipher the lyrics initially, so keep lyrics sheet in hand. Once you understand, prepare to be thrust into a realm of horror and insanity. This is an unsparing portrait of mental illness.

Before it gets said: Metallica's 'One' is severely overrated. For better Hetfield anguish, try 'Disposable Heroes', which is twice as tragic and much less beaten-over-the-head obvious.

'Johnny Hit and Run Paulene' by X. A rather ironically sickening song about social decay and general reckless anarchy. The rockabilly beat that pins the song down only makes the surrealistic nightmare lyrics cut deeper.

'Love Canal' by Flipper. It is extremely amateurish, but also grisly and affecting. Try to find a live version if you can. For spare, cut-to-the-bone directness, this set of lyrics is hard to top; it envelops all of the fury of the victims, but also expresses their utter helplessness. Even for a punk song it's pretty bleak.

'Kangaroo' by Big Star. MUCH much much better than 'Holocaust' off the same album, this masterwork is one of the very best songs of the 70's. It is a gorgeous, affecting tune about a rotten relationship and feelings of jealousy, bitterness, and neglect. If the lyrics aren't quite as diverting as the above songs, it should be noted that the character of the song (like any truly great song) is in it's sound, which is both flush with sonic detail and unrelentingly dissonant. It is a gorgeous song that expresses decay in a very unsettling but impossibly moving way.

I'd like to submit No Surprises by Radiohead, off their OK Computer album. It's pretty depressing too.

Asilos Magdelena by The Mars Volta

If you don't speak Spanish, you'll probably think this song is sweetly melodic and enchanting. But for those of us who are fluent, this song can be pretty creepy. Don't use google translator, though...

Here's a proper translation:

I arrived ill,
And to compose myself I wander aimlessly
Dont give me your 'obedience'
Or else I will show my wolf form (show you my body of mud)
Where the skin is weak
With a hunger that wont let me sing

In my life
The darkness maintains me
When I saw you in the rain
you promised me your blood
I will not stay

Since cast off this world
I hold a knife, my God, for you
How many times did you bite me?
And how many times did I leave?
I am no longer in love with your lies
In hell I sleep (Its hell I love)
Because hell is the only truth

*chorus*

Morning star
Samael, I'm coming for you
And if I am left with nothing (And if I am left without wings)
I will still die for you

this.

"Silent Lucidity" by Queensryche

This is just a fluff song, but "I'll Be There" by Escape Club is bothersome and unnerving to me.

"...'cause I'm on your side and I still care
I may have died but I've gone nowhere....
Just think of me, and I'll be there..."

Yeah it is! Just listened to it earlier today after reading about it here and that last part of the story he tells was one of the most chilling things I've ever heard. That is one hip hop song they probably won't be playing at the clubs. Had to immediately listen to David Hasselhoff's "Current of Love" to brighten my mood after that onslaught of grimness.

I always found Karma Police, also from OK Computer to fall into that category. In a way, that whole album is unnerving.

"A Whiter Shade Of Pale" by Procol Harum. I agree with the following assesment by Martin Scorsese:



"Crucify" and "Silent All These Years" by Tori Amos.

"Dominion/Mother Russia" by Sisters Of Mercy.

"She's Lost Control" by Joy Division.

"God's Gonna Cut You Down" by Johnny Cash

"Hollow Hills" by Bauhaus.

"Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad" by Moby. The gospel choir on it...man oh man.

Honestly, just about any Metallica song could be a candidate for this list. I nominate "Fade to Black."

Tom Waits isn't exactly happy funtime music often.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaLjwSpZ6Cs

Slint - "Good Morning, Captain" :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoH5MPIgM7c

Mother Love Bone - "Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns" (well, the opening 2 minutes of it at least):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyb7dt9nz_g

Explosions In The Sky - lots of their tracks. I'll go for "The Only Moment We Were Alone":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKyrULAfvq8

A few songs I missed the first go-around.


Johnny Cash - 'Oh, Bury Me Not' - THE MOST. DEPRESSING. SONG. EVER. Sweet Lord and Jesus, where are you on this night?

Bruce Springsteen - 'Reason To Believe' - Complete downer, and a chilling coda to one of the most striking, brave, and painfully beautiful albums of the early 80's.

The Pixies - Everything. It's all creepy, disturbing, and definitely unnerving.

James Chance - 'Contort Yourself' - If nihilism had an anthem (which it wouldn't) then this would (wouldn't) be it. Guaranteed.

Geto Boys - 'Mind Of A Lunatic' - Crazy psychodrama, crazier lyrics. Sure, the rappers occasionally sound embarrassed to spit their lines out, but this is still unnerving, trashy bliss.

Massive Attack - 'Safe From Harm' - Chilling, penetrating tune about life on the edge. It's all about mood, and it delivers with a killer atmosphere and sharp vocals. One of the best songs from a group that defined an entire sub-genre. Listen. To It?

Misery is the River of the World, by Tom Waits. It's like a Colonel Kurtz monologue sung by Cookie Monster.

Oh My Lord, by Nick Cave. A CRAZY song about obsession and madness; if Kenneth Patchen or Edgar Allan Poe wrote songs, this is what they would sound like.

Fade to Red, by Kevin Max. An unnerving ballad about the end of the world, and how people seem to be as obsessed with it as they are about any basic human need (not related to the Lord of the Rings images in the video, but it's the only place I could find it).

Bells For Her, by Tori Amos. A song about abuse sung on a broken piano. Always makes me think of killer puppets, don't know why. Creepy as hell.

I would submit that this song by Todd Rundgren is unnerving in a different way. One of my favs of all time.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsezr0qiFIc