10 Most Haunting Songs In Rock
The tracks that strike a chord deep down.
The power in music is its ability to impart a whole range of emotions onto the listener.
What better way is there to blow off some steam then by putting on your favourite record, cracking a bottle of wine and having a boogie with all the enthusiasm of kid in a bouncy castle?
But, depending on your predilection, perhaps what you're after is to be thrust into a musical realm that explore's the rawest and deepest confines of the human psyche.
We all have those tracks that do this for us, the ones that strike a chord deep inside, conjuring up emotions that can barely hope to be explained or understood, instead leaving you with a haunting sense that there will always be more out there then our chimp brains can hope to fathom.
If you are one those people who enjoys indulging in that shared intrigue in the unexplainable, then these songs will surely do it for you. These songs are the finest and most haunting examples in rock of artists grasping at some of the more intangible aspects of the human experience.
10. Heron Blue - Sun Kill Moon (2008)
In 2008 Sun Kill Moon, headed by Mark Kozelek, released the sombre ballad Heron Blue, nestled within the record April. On an album full of masterfully written compositions this was a stand out piece of music.
The seven and a half minute song Heron Blue is a repetitive but driving reflection on what it's like to watch somebody you care about slowly drift away to the other side.
The central character of the track is a recurring figure in much of Mark Kozelek's music. An ex-girlfriend of the singer, Katy died of cancer in 2003 but her willingness to keep fighting her illness was a point of inspiration according to Kozelek.
The song centres around a repeated arpeggio pattern, its melancholic, sombre and unwavering, creating a morbid and yet beautiful melody for the lyrics to explore the struggle of terminal illness. The monophonic delivery of the vocal performance symbolises the morbid reassignment to bearing witness to a loved one during their final stages of life.
The lyrics are a vivid descriptions of the final stages of Katy's life, leaving the listener with a striking and haunting image of a women in her death bed.