The Depressing Music Thunderdome - You're in Too Deep, There's No Way Out

[Torzelbaum]

I think in order to understand why I chose Vesti la Giubba you need to understand the context for it.

I'm sure you've heard the joke where a man goes to the doctor because he's depressed and the doc suggests that the man see Pagliacci perform to cheer him up. Then the man responds "But Doctor ... I Am Pagliacci."

And why is the man depressed? Because in the opera this song is sung right after Pagliacci learns that his wife is having an affair but his business partner reminds him that the people expect to see a show so it must go on. It speaks to how cruelly indifferent the world and people can be to your private and personal pain. It is also a powerful and heart-wrenching performance by a great singer who is gone now.

So
Vesti la Giubba
and
The Grand Tour

 

[WildcatJF]

Whoops I'm a little late, lol. I'll still provide a little background for my song even tho it lost.

"The Deepest Blues are Black", to me, calls to mind a few things. One is my past relationship, which while not physically abusive still channels the same sort of energy I feel about those 12 years and where it ended ("Shame on you, Seducing everyone, you faded jewel, You diamond in the rough, You don't have to tell me I know where you've been, Shining once again"). But I've always found the song to have this defeatist perspective of someone in an abusive situation and have gotten so familiar with the feeling that the pain is comfortable. It's one my OC Marie listens to often, although I don't have her following the same path as Dave Grohl's narrative voice here.

I'll try to come back to vote in the morning!

 

[Violentvixen]

Vesti la Giubba and Good Night

This is a mashup with a bit of background (here's the Wiki page) but here's a quick summary. If you don't know SilvaGunner's schtick claiming the track is one song then surprising everyone when it morphs into something else is their thing. They claimed this was the last song being posted and the site was shutting down, so it was thought to be a goodbye.

The Undertale part is being called Good Night but the sound is Porter Robinson's song slowed down and Good Night doesn't actually appear in the game, it's only in the demo. But it uses the game's theme Once Upon a Time and parts of Hopes and Dreams so they probably just figured the title Good Night worked better or something I dunno. If you haven't played Undertale it's a game that's really damned emotional with hilarious highs, super-depressing lows and some decisions that make you feel awful because you have to take some actions that really, really don't feel good. There's also a lot of parts of the overall theme of Undertale that are super depressing but also not something I want to spoil.

Porter Robinson's Goodbye To a World is off the album Worlds. It's a stunning album but this is a track you very often hear people cite as their favourite. While a lot of people would probably nominate Sad Machine before Goodbye to a World for the title of depressing song, I find this one hits me harder. Here are the lyrics that are repeated:

Thank you, I'll say goodbye soon
Though its the end of the world, Don't blame yourself now
And if its true, I will surround you and give life to a world
That's our own

They're both (I'm pointing to the general Undertale motif as one song) about the world falling apart, both about not being alone at the end of everything (yes I might be projecting onto a song that has no lyrics but it's pretty iconic and wrapped up in the game), both about making your own decisions, but they both just have such a heavy dose of melancholy, regret and blame. To me one of the most depressing things is looking back and wondering what I did wrong, what I could/should have done differently. Both because it feels awful and at the same time I know it's a terribly wasteful activity and a sign my depression is acting up. This mashup combines two songs that call out to that part of me, because sometimes I have to acknowledge that part to calm it down and not drive me mad.

 

[SpoonyBard]

Five Years / Grand Tour

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Five Year Tour

 

[Kirin]

Good Night to Five Worlds

 

[Exposition Owl]

Vesti la Giubba and Good Night

 

[q 3]

Five Nights

 

[Issun]

But Doctor! I am Undertale!

 

[Falselogic]

Vesti la Giubba and The Grand Tour

 

[Dark Medusa]

I love me some David Bowie, and I think it's a well chosen song, but dear freaking lord did Vesti la Giubba hit hard. Incredible.

This second contest is a lot harder for me, because I feel that The Grand Tour is much more on topic, but I find country songs played straight to be a lot more boring than country that subverts the genre (...not that I'm an expert, I'm pulling this from my own feelings, so I apologize if this is just plain wrong). Meanwhile I think that Good Night is a lot less applicable, and doesn't feel depressing to me at all, but is the stronger song. As my qualifications change daily on what I'll vote for and why, I'll go with The Grand Tour. Seriously, thanks to everyone involved in putting some super interesting and thoughtful songs in the thunderdome, though, they're all fantastic.

EDIT: Just listened to the original Goodbye To A World and I can't believe I've never heard it before. It's great shit. Thanks for turning me onto it.

 

[Violentvixen]

EDIT: Just listened to the original Goodbye To A World and I can't believe I've never heard it before. It's great shit. Thanks for turning me onto it.

Yay! My favourite track off that album (and most days my favourite EDM track of all time) is Divinity if you want to check that out too. I also highly recommend his newest album, Nurture. Very different musical style than Worlds but overall a much more emotional, impactful album. Up until the last moment I debated submitting Something Comforting for this dome instead of the mashup, because "getting made you want more and hoping made you hurt more" is a lyric that hits me hard.

 

[Falselogic]

Vesti la Giubba wins its match. Match 7 and Match 10 are still tied. I'll take any tie breakers there!

 

[Falselogic]

Round 1
Match 11
@Issun 's Only Happen When it Rains by Garbage shares a cold one with @Exposition Owl 's Time by Pink Floyd

VS

Match 12
@Kirin 's On My Own from Les Miserables meets @Ixo 's Where the Hell Did You Go with my Toothbrush by Reverend Horton Heat

VS

Let us know why these are the songs you play loudly while crying in the shower.

 

[4-So]

Match 10 - George Jones

Match 11 is a hard choice. I've never been a Garbage fan but 'Only Happy When It Rains' is one of their tracks I really dig. But I have to hand it to Floyd, even if I don't find the track particularly sad/depressing. Never heard either song for Match 12 but my gut is telling me Les Miserables.


On My Own Time

 

[SpoonyBard]

Time / On My Own

 

[Exposition Owl]

So. About "Time." Dark Side of the Moon is a masterpiece of an album, but I don't listen to it very often, and "Time" is the reason why. My greatest fear in life is failure--not doing or being everything that I could or should--and this song hits that fear like a freight train. It's about knowing that each day, each hour, is an irreplaceable opportunity to do something that will help turn you into the person you want to be. It's about letting those hours and days and weeks and months and years pass anyway, knowing all the time that each of those wasted moments is a decision you've made, one that's changed you for the worse. It's about waking up every day "shorter of breath / and one day closer to death," knowing that your body will only get weaker and your mind less flexible as time passes, until you arrive at that final point when there's nothing left to do with your life but look back on it and all the ways it has fallen short.

So yeah. Time and On My Own, because poor Eponine deserved so much better than her horrible parents and that brainless goof Marius.

 

[Dark Medusa]

Time On My Own

 

[Violentvixen]

Only Happy When it Rains and On My Own

 

[Torzelbaum]

pass
and
Where the Hell Did You Go with my Toothbrush

 

[Issun]

Garbage Toothbrush

 

[Behemoth]

Rain On My Own

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Time on My Own

 

[Kirin]

Picked on my own because it's just what comes to mind on the subject of agonizing, unrequited love. And what's more depressing than that?

Also Floyd is of course classic but dang if Rains isn't a banger and a perfect anthem of self-destructive addiction to drama and sadness.

Only Happy On My Own

 

[Falselogic]

Apologies for missing last night. Personal things Pink Floyd and Les Miseables move forward.

 

[Falselogic]

Round 1
Match 13
@SpoonyBard 's Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber and @4-So 's And All that Could Have Been by Nine Inch Nails go up against each other

VS

Match 14
@Pajaro Pete 's Let me Drown by Orville Peck meets off with @q 3 's Fine on the Outside by Priscilla Ahn

VS

Share your feelings about these songs with us.

 

[Exposition Owl]

Adagio for Strings and Fine on the Outside.

“Kharak is burning.”

 

[q 3]

All that Could Have Been Outside

When Marnie Was There was the "last" studio Ghibli Movie until it wasn't, but it's a very unique experience nonetheless. Very introspective and melancholic, and its theme song, Priscilla Ahn's Fine on the Outside, encapsulates the experience well. One of the most recent movies I saw in a theater, which is a dangerous experience if you want to avoid crying in public.

 

[Kirin]

Adagio for Outside

 

[Violentvixen]

Adagio for Strings and Let Me Drown

While definitely still a sad song, Fine on the Outside comes off as more hopeful of the two, but I've never seen When Marnie Was There so I have a feeling some context from the movie makes the song have a different meaning that I'm not picking up on. For some reason it reads to me as a song about someone escaping bullying/abuse by moving away.