Damien Jurado - Ghost of David (2000)

A sparse, often harrowing album of homespun indie folk. Songs like "Medication", whose distraught narrator asks God to take his troubled brother's life, and "Tonight I Will Retire", an aural suicide note, are sure to bring down even the best of moods. The album takes a strange, experimental turn about halfway through before returning to the more traditional singer-songwriter approach at the end; after however many years of listening, I still can't decide whether or not I think it was a good move.

Track listing:
1. Medication
2. Desert
3. Johnny Go Riding
4. Great Today
5. Tonight I Will Retire
6. Ghost of David
7. Parking Lot
8. Rearview
9. Paxil
10. Walk with Me
11. December
12. Rosewood Casket
13. Ghost in the Snow

Two in the morning, the phone disconnected
Her man knows I'm calling, it's what I expected
A note on my backdoor saying, "Baby not tonight."
So I sit with my brother who is nursing a cut wrist
He's mumbling "Forgive me."
And "Don't let them take me away."