Well Aaron and I have already given you ten pro love/valentine’s day songs so we felt it was only right that we even things up and give you ten depressing and regret filled songs. Please don’t listen to them if you are seriously depressed, we cannot be held responsible for any tirades or breakdowns…
// Cults – The Curse
A short and not so sweet track from their 3 song Bandcamp EP, The Curse spins a tale of regret; leaving your lover but soon regretting it once they’ve found someone else. An all too familiar feeling but a great track.
// Death Cab For Cutie – The Ice Is Getting Thinner
Admittedly this song should not be listened to when depressed; a brief read or listen to the lyrics of it could quite possibly send you over the edge. Setting the scene of the brutal final moments of a relationship just before it disappears over the precipice – “We bury our love in the wintry grave. A lump in the snow was all that remained.”
// The Black Keys – Next Girl
Unlike Cults up there Dan Auerbach’s ex is far from his mind – “my next girl will be nothing like my ex-girl.” Not quite the quintessential Valentine’s theme. Auerbach wrote it earlier but played it to appreciative and recently divorced bandmate Patrick Carney. Check out the killer video too!
// Unkle Bob – Swans
“You tell me that you love me but you never want to see me again,” is the lament from lead singer Rick Webster. It is beautifully simplistic in nature but has the added bonus of a strings section to provide some heart breaking depth.
// Tame Impala – Solitude is Bliss
Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker seems perfectly content in his own head. This is a song for the happily singletons – “company’s okay, solitude is bliss.” With lyrics such as “there’s a party in my head and no-one is invited” Parker might be giving a wee nod to the psychedelic lifestyle.
// The Spill Canvas – All Hail The Heartbreaker
All Hail The Heartbreaker has the potent mix of still longing for a past lover (“So don’t go worrying about me
It’s not like I think about you constantly”) whilst also berating them for leaving you in the first place (“What if I ripped your heart apart at the seams Maybe then you’d know how I feel”) – Are you feeling depressed yet?
// Tom Waits – Blue Valentines
Few songs match an artist so well. Blue Valentine – a tale of a man on the run from a past love is perfectly suited to Mr Waits. “She sends me blue Valentines, though I try to remain at large” – Waits world-weary vocals will certainly put you in the same mood, accompany with a glass whiskey in a smoky bar for full effect.
“And I die a little more on each St Valentine’s Day.”
// Weezer – The World Has Turned And Left Me Here
The thought of losing someone you have spent time building up a loving relationship can be heartbreaking in itself, in reality though who hasn’t had their heart broken? Weezer tell it like it is: “And in your place an empty space, has filled the void behind my face”
// Wilco – Hate It Here
You might try and occupy yourself with housework but you’ll always be waiting for that call. The simple theme of this track by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy – “I hate it here, when you’re gone”. Not quite a serious lament, this track has a lighter side to it.
// The Frames – Fake
Rumours in the media hinted that Glen Hansard had written ‘Fake’ about the fact Damien Rice had stolen his girlfriend. Glen has though denied this was the case and explained that it is: “about any situation where a relationship falls apart and one person starts seeing somebody else. That always brings the green-eyed monster to the fore and causes all sorts of odd emotions to boil to the surface.” Angry and frustrated what better way to finish off an anti-valentine’s day list.
