Music for "Tough Times"

jadem6: wow, talk about a heavy heart. how can anybody else but you possibly understand? tell ya what: i'm gonna' go listen to sheryl's "tues. night" right now in the hope it'll get you, and maybe even me, through the next 4X10 years. keep on truckin'. -kelly

Joy Division, particularly Unknown Pleasures. When I'm in a pissy mood, I don't want to listen to happy feel-good music -- it's like nails on a chalk board. Definitely not for everyone though, nor for the better days.

I decided to chime in because I saw a few of my favorites listed here (namely Daniel Lanois Acadie, and various by the Cowboy Junkies). Jadem6, your 3 picks from Sheryl Crow are my moody favorites as well.

I think it would be fair to add U2's the Unforgettable Fire, especially side B (the album was produced by Lanois) and Marvin Gaye's What's Going On (which I consider an American masterpiece). I can honestly say that I've listened to Acadie more times than any CD in my collection.

Another "tough times" album of more recent creation might be The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin. If you really want to put a cherry on top of a bad day, read an early novel by Charles Bukowski. You'll end up laughing and will feel better in the end.

Some very moving posts up there, for me, a newcomer, many of the names slowly get a human face. I'll give you something classical: Schubert's Quintet in C minor, he wrote it in the month of his early and untimely death and to me its all about despair, anguish and then a serenity slowly building up and a letting go. It helped me enormously after my wife died five years ago, I listened to it practically every night and afterwards I could sleep.
The second movement always brings up tears, but in a good way and then "Ella Fitzgerald sings the Blues", she brings all those classical oldies to a new and passionate life, the blues are close to your own pain, but the driving force is vital and envigourating. Highly recommended, if you can find it.

Oh and I forgot, Bach's "Magnificat": It is so full of a glowing, rejoicing, positive energy, it will get you back into "flow" anytime and soothe the "savage beast of depression". Its like stepping out of a dark room into the sun. Honestly.