What came first, the music or the misery?”
Rob Gordon, High Fidelity

Don’t Look Back

The Raw and the Cooked

Fine Young Cannibals

1989

Never had the good things only money could buy / I'd drive my car but I haven't got a car to drive / Never had a holiday in a tropical sun / Good times look rough They're never going to come / Oh, I know these times are bad / And they make you want to cry / Don't be sad / We'll get by / Baby, baby, don't look back / It won't do no good / Baby, baby, don't look back / I'm going to leave and I think that you should / When I spent my life / In a place like this / On the first bus out / I'm going to get myself a lift / If you understand / Well, that's alright / If you want to go / It's got to be tonight / Oh, I know these times are bad / And it makes you want to cry / Don't feel sad / We'll get by / Baby, baby, don't look back / It won't do no good / Baby, baby, don't look back / I'm going to leave and I think that you should

Side note: FYC put out two incredible albums and called it a day. I wonder if they had it them for one more.

It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)

Document

R.E.M.

1986

… That's great, it starts with an earthquake/ Birds and snakes, and aeroplanes / And Lenny Bruce is not afraid / Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn / World serves its own needs / Don't mis-serve your own needs / Speed it up a notch, speed, grunt, no, strength / The ladder starts to clatter / With a fear of height, down, height / Wire in a fire, represent the seven games / And a government for hire and a combat site / Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry / With the Furies breathing down your neck / Team by team, reporters baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped / Look at that low plane, fine, then / Uh oh, overflow, population, common group / But it'll do, save yourself, serve yourself / World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed / Tell me with the Rapture and the reverent in the right, right / You vitriolic, patriotic, slam fight, bright light / Feeling pretty psyched / It's the end of the world as we know it / It's the end of the world as we know it; It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine / Six o'clock, T.V. hour, don't get caught in foreign tower / Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn / Lock him in uniform, book burning, bloodletting / Every motive escalate, automotive incinerate / Light a candle, light a motive, step down, step down / Watch your heel crush, crush, uh oh / This means no fear, cavalier, renegade and steering clear / A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies / Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline / It's the end of the world as we know it (I had some time alone) / It's the end of the world as we know it (I had some time alone); It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone); I feel fine (I feel fine); / The other night I drifted nice continental drift divide / Mountains sit in a line, Leonard Bernstein / Leonid Brezhnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs / Birthday party, cheesecake, jellybean, boom / You symbiotic, patriotic, slam but neck, right, right / It's the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone); It's the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone) It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone)

Break Your Heart

Ophelia

Natalie Merchant

1998

That trumpet at the beginning and through the song is amazing. Good music-video, too. For a long time I feel that design students found their major album art, music videos, and comic books. The album packaging and photography for Ophelia is wonderful, but who buys hard copies of their music anymore?

Pink Moon

Pink Moon

Nick Drake

1972

I think I first heard this track in a commercial for the autombile company, Volkswagon; and again in the sound track for the rom-com movie, Serendipity.

Fluffy Lucy

Greenland

Cracker

2006

I just finished grad school when this album came out and it stayed in my car for at least a year. The track is sad, and beautiful, melodic and universal.