“Annabelle” might be the saddest song I’ve ever heard. There are certainly songs out there that are more pathetic or desperate, but a close listen to this one can pierce you to your core, especially if you are the parent of a young child. Spoiler alert: Annabelle dies.
Perhaps we should expect someone with an album title like Hell Among the Yearlings (great album, by the way) to be crowned the Queen of Sorrows. While that album is appropriately bleak, there’s something considerably sadder about losing a child and something even sadder about how the song’s protagonist is left with only the hope that somehow it will all make sense once she gets to the afterlife.
We could call that naive, but what else could anyone do in such a situation and be expected to retain a shred of sanity? I know that if I lost my daughter I would probably cease to function and maybe just walk into the sea.
While this is a harrowing song, it is nonetheless a great listen. Welch’s vocals shine even when she’s restrained and there’s some exquisite guitar work. I find it hard to resist attempting to harmonize when this song comes on, despite its somber content. If you’re interesting in going further down a bleak path then check out the Sad Songs playlist I made below. Or just check out “Annabelle” below:
SAD SONGS
I tried finding the classic Moral Orel song called “Sad Song” but I could not find it anywhere on Spotify. Probably time to dig it out of the internet archive. Here’s some sample lyrics:
I’m sad, sad, sadder than sad
And sadly still even sadder than before
So that’s the general theme of this playlist. These songs run a gamut of emotionally fraught topics from abortion to relationships falling apart to suicide, overdoses, families being torn apart, etc. I wrap it up with Nick Cave’s song “Waiting for You,” which is about his 15 year old son Arthur who died falling off a cliff at his home after his first experience with LSD. Not too long after that song was released, Cave’s 31 year old son Jethro, who suffered from schizophrenia, died a few days after being released from jail. He had been jailed for violently assaulting his mother. So there’s a deep well of sadness and tragedy there that I can’t really even fathom, thankfully.
This playlist probably deserves its own column and maybe I'll get to that eventually. For now, here’s the list. I am usually a little tongue in cheek with my analysis, but I honestly think songs like these can help you get through some really tough times, even if it’s just because you get to recognize that despair is part of the human condition and that no one is immune.