9 Scariest Songs You've Never Heard

1. Tom Waits €“ What's He Building?

If you're looking for brooding emotion, look no further than Tom Waits, the American singer-songwriter who has been on the scene for more than four decades. Known for his trademark growling vocals and his gritty and grotesque lyrics, the man is frequently cited as one of the true pioneers of atmospheric song writing.

Since the beginning of his career Waits has released sixteen studio albums, meaning there's a huge amount of material that everybody but absolutely die-hard fans haven't heard. One such song is What's He Building? released on the musician's twelfth studio album Mule Variations in 1999. The song is unique in that utilizes spoken word over sung vocals.

Though many songs find scariness through sound alone, it's the narrative of What's He Building? that really gets under the listener's skin. From opening question €œwhat's he building in there? What the hell is he building in there?€ to the gradually increasing detail (€œhe's hiding something from the rest of us€ €œhe has no dog, he has no friends and his lawn is dying€) never has a repeated question in a song conjured up so much terrifying foreboding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAkZT_4vL_Y

In this post: 
Tom Waits
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Commonly found reading, sitting firmly in a seat at the cinema (bottle of water and a Freddo bar, please) or listening to the Mountain Goats.