The 10 Best Songs To Cry And Chainsmoke To.

(Disclaimer: I am not advocating smoking, it's a dangerous and expensive habit. However realistically, a lot of people reading this will be smoking, and I have personally done the crying and chain-smoking thing quite a lot, this is my reflection on the topic, and one person on the internet telling you to quit will have a negligible impact considering the fact you've probably heard the same from friends and family, whose opinions you will probably take under consideration more. Though I have gone under the monicker of Rollie Jesus, it's a joke, a meme, I wish I was getting paid by big tobacco to promote it alas that is not the case.)

Many people often go outside to cry and chainsmoke, it can be a quite therapeutic experience. The act of smoking is an almost ritualistic one, which is a big part of what makes it addictive. Sometimes in order to encourage the tears out a bit, to bring the catharsis about, the right soundtrack is needed. For this list I've decided to avoid many of the more well known sad numbers like Cash's cover of Hurt, Gary Jules' cover of Mad World and many other songs well known to the public. While not every track featured here is scraping the barrel of obscurity, they may not be immediately familiar to the general public and thus deserve a mention.

Earl Sweatshirt: Solace

Earl's 2015 release I Don't Like Shit I Don't Go Outside drew great critical acclaim for its harrowingly personal lyrics and a murky, very lo-fi production style that reflected its themes of depression and unease quite well. However it is this 10 minute track, released after that album on his Soundcloud, that I have chosen to include here. A sprawling piece, with distorted, hazy jazz influenced instrumentals, it is unfocused, somewhat rambling, and an incredibly powerful insight into what happens when you hit the bottom.

Red House Painters: Katy Song

Before his solo material and work as cantankerous folk artist Sun Kill Moon, Mark Kozolek led cult 90's indie rockers Red House Painters. Their style was a slow, sombre take on alternative rock, alongside acts like Low, Codeine and predecessors American Music Club they helped buck against the trend of loudness and aggression with a more delicate take on things. This 8 minute long dirge is a farewell to a departed lover, with a raw honesty about Kozolek's role in the end of that relationship, a song where you can get lost in the sadness.

Mogwai: Take Me Somewhere Nice

One of the most well known and loved acts under the post-rock banner, Mogwai have created many of the most sweepingly sorrowful songs on record. Here the tender guitar lines, violin lines and Stuart Braithewaite's soft vocals, barely reaching above a whisper, combine to create a truly devastating crescendo. 

My Bloody Valentine: When You Sleep

Another familiar choice for many connoisseurs of miserable music, yet I feel this track is one that will strike a chord with many. An onslaught of feedback drenched yet heavily melodic guitars and vocals that hang like ashes caught in the wind make this an essential for those 4 am cigarettes outdoors. 

Arab Strap: Here We Go

Cult Scottish indie duo Arab Strap could be seen as the British equivalent of acts like the aforementioned Red House Painters, yet their sound had some key differences. Alongside a prominent dance music influence, though they took that in a far darker direction than the likes of the Stone Roses or Happy Mondays, their lyrics often dealt with the futility of dealing with ones problems through debauchery, the everyday poetry of hungover thoughts, They are a truly underappreciated treasure in the field of sad music.

Counterparts: Witness

The genre of melodic hardcore has long been a source of emotional music, to bridge the tough-guy image that many hardcore bands could be seen to project. Counterparts provide some of the most emotionally raw takes on the genre, with "Witness" being a glimpse into the mind of someone at the end of their day, one that would not have the same power if not for it being written in the vocabulary of heavy music.

Burial: U Hurt Me

Before Skrillex, Nero and the onslaught of producers seeking the biggest drops, before MLG montage parodies turned the genre into a meme effectively, dubstep was a moody offshoot of the UK garage sound, and few producers at the time were capable of capturing that same gritty, mournful atmosphere as Burial. The haunting vocal samples, cyclical beats and a layered, textured sound that threatens to swallow you make for a real masterpiece. 

Teen Suicide: doing all the things i used to do with people, pt 2.

One of the more infamous names from the lo-fi bedroom emo Bandcamp scene, Teen Suicide have contributed much to the field of sad music. I've chosen this track for its sense of finality, its complete loss of all faith in ideas of getting sober or repairing relationships with other people, and the closing wave of noise that ends the track.

Elliott Smith: Between The Bars

Another more familiar track, however this is among Elliott's best songs, Sung from the perspective of alcohol, an unusual narrative device, it is a horrifying look into how substance abuse creeps in, promising to soothe all your ills and pain, one of the greatest depictions of its seductive powers.

Have A Nice Life: I Don't Love

Favorites of that hipster epicentre /mu/, Have A Nice Life draw from shoegaze, industrial music, post punk and black metal to create some of the most crushingly depressing songs in existence. "I Don't Love", uses a vocoder, heavy feedback and repetition to startling effect, the usually dehumanising effects of a vocoder instead showing us an all too human feeling of pain and frustration.

All the songs here are available in a YouTube playlist, go forth and use it as a springboard to find more sad, sad music.