his voice is almost gloomy, but in a striking and haunting way. it does fit the mood of the song--it sounds earnest and intense without being too singer-songwriter-y.

I'm just reacquainting myself with the entire Low album after buying it on CD (my LP has been out of my reach for a few years). It really is utter genius. If they were in any other context, I don't imagine I would enjoy some of the guitar solos featured in this song. Here, they work brilliantly though. The musical basis of 'always crashing in the same car' is quite simple, but the superb musical performances and odd, otherworldly production give it an incredible richness. Bowie's vocal is mournful, and doesn't dominate the track.

A stunning piece of pop, one of a few great and really hip sounding tracks Hildegard Knef recorded around this time. This sounds like a Bacharach song made even cooler, stripped down to its essentials. Knef�s smoky, detached vocals add to the effect to make this a real winner.

Satanist surf rock! (or a reasonable facsimile of that would sound like, anyway.)
From the land of polar bears and fjords
comes this insanely massive-sounding piece of black metal with a heavy dose of Dick Dale influences. It's quite poppy for a black metal tune, if you can see past the growling. I have to admit I've never actually listened too closely to the lyrics, i'm sure they're very misantrophic and gloomy and all, but this song feels very uplifting to me somehow. same thing as with Primal Scream's Detroit and Ennio Morricone's Magic and Extacy, i guess.
the synth effects round it out nicely, the guitars are fast and furious, and you got to love that drumming.


(One of these days I'm gonna have to make a mixtape with the world's most glaringly insane shifts of tone from one song to the next. This will fit nicely in between Dean Martin and Jean Jaques Perrey...)

wow, i mean: wow... i've been an avid nico lover for years, having acquired a deep appreciation of her via some claimed proto-goth associations. obscure subcultural praise and all that velvet underground hoop-la aside, her amazing "desertshore" was proof enough that nico was and is a uniquely powerful force in life and art. but this "roses in the snow" diddy just floored me on a first listen. the revolving, minimalist tune of her harmonium must be the loneliest, most disillusioned harmony ever played since "gloomy sunday," and the cryptically profound words the closest thing rock'n'roll ever got to the "book of job." what does this piece really mean to say? not sure really: but somehow, i think it might be something like re-reading a long-departed lover's suicide note on a warm, languid autumn day...

I love John Barry's work, he always seam to be able to score anything with excellent results. This song is no exception, taken from the movie 'Seance on a Wet Afternoon' from 1964. Haven't seen the movie my self so I can't really say what the premise of it is, but IMDB says it's a crime-drama about a self-styled psychic in London. Groovy eh?

This song is however great, Barry relies heavily on haunting flutes and trombones to create a some what eeire feeling, and it really works. Just listening to this song makes me think of a rainy gloomy dark afternoon in London. Now if I only could get a hold of a copy of the movie...

My favourite House Of Love song, it's a mid-paced typically guitar-drenched track with an insistent percussive backing and that low ostinato guitar riff with the little flourish in it. It has lots of minor chords which give it a rather gloomy feel (like many of my favourite songs). Actually their later song "Feel", which was one of the '90s best, could be "Shake And Crawl" slowed almost to a literal crawl ...

I've been called a little coward more than once,
It hurts when it's true.

I like this song - a lot.

The final track from their superb album "A Secret Wish". Instrumental, apart from a spoken lyric at the end, this reworking of the opening track of the album uses both real strings and synths in combination with some catchy, moody chords to create real atmosphere.

Super-dark-sexy...This song is an honest portrayal of the paradoxes involved with desire; happy/sad, pleasure/pain, love/hate...etc. I find it terribly gloomy yet wonderfully uplifting at the same time. Just beautiful.

Ex-Chameleons leader Mark Burgess released this CD in '94, which was supposed to be demos, but his "demos" are superior to most acts' finished products. This particular song is very gloomy, in two parts, and the second half has ghostly backing vocals (very likely synthesized) which recall those in Terry Stafford's '64 hit "Suspicion". There is a cello snaking around throughout, not to mention a banjo (!), and the acoustic guitar backing sounds muted. The lyrics seem to be critical of religion ("Yes I'm a fool, A fool not a rat, I have no fear of the cat"), which makes it the kind of song one would wish to have played at one's funeral. Mark Burgess has more talent in his little finger than most phoney chart acts have in their entire persons!

And by the way, the Chameleons' "Strange Times" LP is awesome!