Sweep me up We are all God's unwanted children, so let's bitch and whine about our feelings.

Now we all need cheering up from time to time, some people turn to friends, others turn to booze, other crazy people turn to music, if you’re in need of a music playlist to wipe away the tears and lift your spirits …tough, here’s a list of songs that make you feel a hell of a lot worse. Enjoy.

1.) Flogging Molly – Far Away Boys

A largely unknown track by the Irish/American folk rock band ‘Flogging Molly’ this narrative tells the story of Irish immigrants who left Ireland during the famine to work the railways in the grand old US-of-A. Unfortunately this escape was more of an out of the frying pan, into the fire situation as the men were forced to work backbreaking hours for next to no money in conditions that would end up killing a lot of them. This sombre account captures all of the pain, despair and loneliness these men must have felt cut off from their families in a strange, unforgiving land.  Not a song for those missing loved ones, or anyone wishing to remain cheerful about life really.

Choice quote: `Someone said it was Christmas, but not a tree was in sight, the only thing growing was my will to die’

 

2.) Nine Inch Nails – Something I can never have

Reznor and his co-offenders could easily fill up this entire list without too much effort, but for the purposes of variety I’ll limit NIN to one song (and maybe a Cash cover version). Sung in Reznor’s eerie tones and combined with his formidable stage presence, this song is without doubt a truly haunting experience. As well as powerful lyrics that border on the verge of being sinister, a very erratic and booming bass drum line hold the track up as you sink into a state of depression, crying onto the photograph of your ex-girlfriend. I seriously struggled with my choice quote for this song as there are far too many but in the ended it seemed blindingly obvious.

Choice quote: ‘You make this all go away’

 

3.) Seether (featuring Amy Lee) – Broken

From the first few sobering twangs of Shaun Morgan’s guitar you know you’re in for something pretty dark and desolate. This song is also beautifully enhanced by the unquestionably brilliant Amy Lee who adds her own soothing voice to proceedings to really make you curl up and wish to die. This is a song primarily about loneliness, alienations, self doubt and selfless acts of self-sacrifice, awe inspiring stuff I know. Intentional or not but both Morgan and Lee quite cleverly sing this one as if they are both about to kick the chairs from beneath themselves once recording is finished, it’s a nice touch.

Choice quote: ‘ ‘cause I'm broken when I'm open, and I don't feel like I am strong enough’

 

4.)  The Rifles – Local Boy

Now to listen to this song absentmindedly it’s pretty upbeat, fast paced and rather cheery, do not be fooled. Now this song is here on a lyrics basis only, from an instrumental point of view it could be ‘I feel pretty, oh so pretty’ but we know better. Our eponymous hero is a man called Jimmy, a war hero, recalling the days when he returned from the war to his childhood sweetheart. You see this is many years on and we find Jimmy chronically lonely, and cut off from society with only his memories to get him by. The account battles with itself telling us that Jimmy doesn’t need anyone, but finally conceding that there is no one for him, he’s put up his barriers and he’ll die behind them, unnoticed and forgotten. R.I.P Jimmy.

Choice quote: ‘No, he don’t feel anymore, ‘cause Jimmy’s so thick skinned’

 

5.)  Something Corporate – Cavanaugh Park

Recalling his own childhood misery and crippling depression Andrew McMahon and Something corporate add a slightly more delicate touch to bleakness and misery. Ever the deep thinker,McMahon pours his soul into the song as he delves somewhat nostalgically into his youthful memories. However, after every short tale of relative joy, McMahon reminds us of his permanent affliction and the unsettling truth that for people like him happiness will never be a reality, and all he can do is look back to times when he was almost happy. A song that tells it how it is and doesn’t dress the truth up in frills, depressing…yes, brilliant, most definitely so.

Choice quote: ‘I had this dream that my life would be good, and I would do things that I should that I should, and no one is gonna’ me tear me down…but there was never any place for someone like me to be totally happy’

 

6.) Johnny Cash – Hurt

For obvious reasons this tear-jerking rendition of Nine Inch Nail’s ‘Hurt’ could bring even the most drugged-up, Jesus-bothering, sunshine-basking, drooling, Cheshire cat to a point of unfathomable despair.  The last words of a man preparing for death, a man who will live on in the annals of music as a powerhouse of country music. Reznor is no uncertain words bowed down and called this ‘Cash’s song’ after hearing the great man completely revise what his own version had been about. Cash’s epitaph stirs the very soul as you’re forced to wonder how much pain lies behind that revered voice of his as he nears the end of his life. Cash took a song already hailed as one of NIN’s greatest and truly made it his own, applying a personal touch no one else could have managed. As well as being a despairing piece of music Cash somehow also makes it incredibly inspiring, a testament to the man himself.

Choice quote: ‘What have I become, my sweetest friend? Everyone I know, goes away, in the end. And you could have it all, my empire of dirt. I will let you down, I will make you hurt’

7.) Nirvana – Something in the way

Written by Cobain during his troublesome teen years while he loved under a bridge, yes you read that correctly, Kurt Cobain lived under a bridge. Admittedly he didn’t terrorise local goats as they attempted to pass over but instead he wrote this aching melody on the wall to be later recorded for the album ‘Nevermind’. While recording Cobain complained the song wasn’t sounding right in the studio and decided instead to lay strung out upside down on the couch in the control room playing the song alone with his guitar. Reportedly Kurt sang in such a whisper of a voice that all recording equipment was jacked up to full volume and all outside noises were hurriedly turned off to catch this memorable piece of music history. Trivia aside, ‘something in the way'’ was written in one of the most dire periods of Cobain’s life, evoking all of his angst, anger and dejection, a musical masterpiece was born.

Choice quote: ‘It’s ok to eat fish, ‘cause they don’t have any feelings'

8.) Something Corporate – My Konstantine

A 9 minute love ballad from McMahon’s most tortured soul, ‘My Konstantine’ is everything a tragic love song should be. Hailed by critics as a ‘piece of genius’ this song is one not to be forgotten, for many reasons, the beauty of the music, and the painful ache it leaves in the pit of your stomach. McMahon has moved on from writing about his weary mental health to about his shattered hopes, dreams and everything in between. Like so many others McMahon has been guilty of playing away and ruining the greatest thing in his life, his konstantine, and boy do we believe he wants her back (it is 9 minutes long after all). Without doubt ‘My Konstantine’ captures the situation so completely, and with such poetry it cannot be left off this list.

Choice quote: ‘But I'm slipping in between, you and your big dreams, It's always you, in my big dreams’

9.) Idlewild – El Capitan

Idlewild raised eyebrows when they first released a song about a mountain (a recurring theme for Scottish bands it seems), and even more eyebrows when they revealed this mountain was famed locally for the number of people climb to the pinnacle and then proceed throwing themselves off. El Capitan is a very poignant song about desperation and the lengths we will go to escape the hell of our own demons. Full of instantly quotable yet unnerving one liners El Capitan ticks every box to feature on this list.

Choice quote: ‘I’ll climb El Capitan, and jump off, to cheers from the crowd, stand up, stand up and stand down, and I hope you took your camera, to photograph my tears, as they hit the ground’

10.) Radiohead – Creep

To break the mould I decided to list a song famed for it uplifting messages and inspiring disposition, actually I never, at number 10 it’s the ‘you-don’t-understand-me’ crowd’s favourite, Radiohead’s ‘Creep’. Most readers won’t need any further explanation for this one but for those of you not aware of Tom Yorke’s dread and despair revolution this self-pitying number is a universal classic. A story of our time, Yorke speaks for everyone as he laments his own pitiful shortcomings whilst he lusts over an unrequited love. A tale of being unnoticed, unappreciated and blaming yourself, ‘Creep’ piles on the misery, readers of a gloomy disposition are discouraged from listening, at least until they cheer the fuck up.
Choice quote: ‘You’re so very special, I wish I was special, but I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo’

Hopefully you’ll have noticed that within each of these songs is something positive and inspiring to be salvaged from the proverbial wreckage, and hopefully this wasn’t too much of a downer for you. Links to all the videos are available below (click-on-pictures).