Tom Waits is so cool. All of his songs do a really good job of making you feel like you remember a time and place you've never seen... his world is one of boxcars, whiskey, and five o'clock shadow. This song is much less bizarre than some of his others; it's more mournful. But it's just... nice to hear. He is a sad old man.

Fine. I like it because it's mournful and I find the lyrics intriguing. Every time I listen to it, I come up with a different theory on what it might mean. It interests me.

And why NOT recommend it if I like it? If you don't, then fine, but I'll thank you not to jump down my throat because I do.

This is my favorite piece of classical music, so beautiful it often brings me to tears. You are strictly forbidden to go to your grave without having heard this song.

Even if it's the happiest song in the world, Ray Lamontagne's voice can make any song sad.

Definitely not a bad thing. His raspy, mournful voice is always one I can listen to, no matter the mood I'm in.

This is a great twangy pop instrumental, which orginally appeared on the B-side of S & J’s big hit, Sleepwalk. I love Sleepwalk, but in a way I love this even more. It has all the deadly over the top seriousness of a mournful torch song, yet there are no vocals - the emotion is all coming from the steel guitar!

I fell in love with this song this evening. At this point it's hard to find many words to describe it; I'm just dazzled by how wonderful it is. It's a mournful and spooky-sounding soul song, opening with some percussion, and then some harmonized background vocals, drums, brass and piano. I guess the kicker for me are the shimmering strings in the arrangement, which come in with the main vocal. The vocals are fraught with emotion, and there is a very interesting use of vocal sounds as the song fades out.

Being a Five Stairsteps novice, I'd like to know if they recorded many other tracks like this. I gather that the record was produced by Curtis Mayfield, but I've never heard anything by him with quite such a delectable arrangement. Any advice would be appreciated!

'Odessey and Oracle' is an album that lives up to the hype. Of all the brilliant songs it contains, this is probably my favorite.

The basic lyrical idea - the rather pathetic hope that maybe if the guy just waits a while, his lover's new squeeze will leave and she'll take him back - is quite compelling, and the heartfelt vocals are very appealing. It's a short track, miserable as hell, but a winner!

This track is for the heart-broken and the lonely. It's mournful and the lyrics are sad - yet it's still a pleasure to listen to. Originally released in 1968, I was introduced to it through a Gilles Peterson compilation on Luv N Haight titled "Gilles Peterson Digs America 2".

This group were a revelation to me when I heard about them a couple of years ago (a friend turned me on to the reissue CD). Apparently this album featured the cream of Nashville session musicians, and it certainly sounds incredibly well executed. This is a mournful 60s pop song with an incredibly crisp production and some heartfelt vocals.

This one really has everything, to me. I'm not a connoisseur of the Beatles's 'White album', but I'm completely crazy about Ramsey Lewis's superb LP in tribute to it. The entire album has a delicious balance of crisp beats, electric piano, strings, and subtle touches of moog, played by the album's producer, Charles Stepney. I've chosen 'Julia' to recommend because I enjoy the way it changes mood - opening mournful and slow, and then getting very funky. But the entire album is really packed with winners; other highlights are a wacky and extremely funky 'back in the USSR', a superb 'Dear Prudence', and a great 'cry baby cry'.

I'm really blown away by this song (and this entire album), it's simply a masterpiece to my ears. A possible comparison might be to Oba, La Vem Ela by Jorge Ben (who Verocai arranged for), as the guitar chords and lush, cool tones are quite similar. This song however moves with a much greater sense of urgency, and right from the start, it a spills out like a mournful plea. As a listener, the attention to detail in the arrangement and instrumentation is obvious. The song is packed densely with sound and great short soloing, all played skillfully by a large band of famous contemporaries, whom Verocai personally recruited. There's something very magical about how the vocals and instruments combine, and how the song plays out. It feels as though you are witness to a uniquely perfect and possessed performance that would be impossible to reproduce. A beautifully moving and perfect song that leaves you craving more.

Sinister and spacy, slightly discordant, gospel-inflected soul groove, with a murderous, high-powered bassline. Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of Kiss apparently sing background vocals on this artist self-titled album, and strangely enough it's their backing that makes this sound sort of reminiscent of a gospel session, but in space maybe. Begging lyrics and tripped out reverb enhance the strange, infectious hold of this song. This is a very heavy, mournful, and unique sound experience. Recommended.

For someone like me, the strangest thing about getting really into Roxy Music is the overt rockiness of a lot of their material. Even on this track, which is one more of their slower, more mournful numbers, there are a lot of very heavy rocky moments. They work pretty well though, and I'm certainly not complaining.

The atmospheric opening is breathtaking, and Bryan Ferry's vocal as he sings 'I've opened up my heart' is incredibly beautiful. The words and music seem to meld together in a very pretty way, but then before long the track mutates into a stomping, carnival like passage that clearly influenced Nick Cave to a considerable extent. Throughout the song there's this interchange between delicate, melodic verses and the rowdy, discordant section. Like another favorite Roxy track, 'Just like you', this song finishes with a clever chord change.

I'm sure many people would find 'Bitter-Sweet' much too dramatic and serious - perhaps some days I would too - but it does have an incredible elegance and style that makes me keep on listening.

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.

Take a mournful song about a late-night bout of insomnia brought on by lonliness, add a few synthesiser loops, some random and often indistinguishable chatter, and mix in a reading of St Matthew 6:9-13 (the Lord's Prayer) for good measure.

One of those perfect music moments from the "New Wave" era of the early 1980's.

Recorded early in Stephen Duffys long and mostly un recognised consistantly brilliant career ,this from the first Lilac time L.p ,itself,an eclectic jewel amidst late 80,s polished mediocrity .A mournful folky number played out on a harmonium,accordion and light percussion ,sadness never sounded so uplifting and hopeful.Everytime i hear Duffy now i cam imagine Robbie williams covering .

We all know a song whose brilliance seemed to avoid the rest of the worlds attention but "You Used To" is genuinely brilliant .Released at the start of the 90,s in the midst of Mad-chester and all that!,this soulful,mournful swirling orchestral epic sank without trace soon after .I found a copy a few weeks ago and its brilliance has not been dimmed by the passing of time in fact it now seems more relevant in the wake of Massive Attack,Morcheba and Duffy .You may find it hard to find but if you have it let someone else hear it NOW!!!!!!!!!!

I was immediately captivated by the tropical beat that begins this 6 minute tune. The track simultaneously induces a melancholic yet inspired feeling. Kevin Wright's delicate voice, like many fine things in life, is an aquired taste. His mournful voice tells of ethereal objects"the moon..the stars..the milky way.."and his longing to be with the one he "holds dear."

'Set Out Running' is from Neko Case's second album 'Furnace Room Lullaby'. The album was recorded for Mint Records in Canada and is licensed to Bloodshot Records in the US.

Case has matured as a writer and 'Set Out Running' is proof. It is a haunting song of love, loss and fear, and never fails to move me I listen to it.

Keep an eye-out for a new release from Case. It is called 'Blacklisted' and is set to be released in the summer of 2002.

Neko Case and Her Boyfriends are currently on tour opening for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

This is a cover of a song by Sting. I haven't heard Sting's version but I am not a fan of what I have heard. Anyway, Cash's version is stripped down to the bare essentials, acoustic guitar and piano with a little bit of keyboard in the background to add some depth, but the music is secondary to the great mans voice. He's in his seventies, and all the age an experience in his voice just makes the youth and experience of the lyrics all the more poignant. His voice reminds me of my grandfather (May he rest in peace). The whole Album (American Recordings IV - The Man Comes Around) is incredible and this song is a stand out track among many, both original and covered.

I really love Slowdive. I guess it's fair to say they're the most under-rated band of all time (yeah, I know you all have your own opinions but you're wrong and I'm right - okay? ).

So imagine my surprise when electronica masters Morr Music decided to compile a Slowdive tribute record last year, featuring luminraies such as Icelandic beauties Mum.

The album is a sheer joy - and highlights the quality of Halstead's original song-writing (before the layers of reverb and delay were added).
The stand-out track is Altogether, taken from Slowdive's second Creation release 'Souvlaki'. An astonishingly pretty but achingly mournful track is turned, by Morr's Styrofoam, into a trippy work of blissed-out happiness. Cool.

one of my favourite tracks from the new album. it's one of his dark plucked string- ballads, quite a simple melody really, but the subtle brass and the mournful moaning of the background vocals makes truly beautiful. and then there's the lyrics..

"behind a smoke coloured curtain, a girl disappeared
they found out that the ring was a fake
a tree born crooked never grows straight
she sunk like a hammer into the lake"
stunning.

i am SO going to buy this album when it comes out, even though i've got the mp3's (sorry mr waits!). a part of me hoped that this album wasn't going to leak, so that i could get the whole package with the liner notes and all at once, but then again some things are just too good to wait for..

(hope they avoid the glossy plastic paper of the alice booklet this time. that was just plain wrong. didn't fit the subject matter at all..)

This is the title track from Stephen McCarthy's debut album. It features Piano, Bass, Drums and Sax with Stephen providing the vocals.

It shows the upbeat version of Stephen McCarthy's voice ... he also does some really slow mournful tracks on this album as well.

One of the reasons I like it so much is because Stephen made the album independently of any label.