10 best emotional vomit albums (2024)

Writing any song can be like an emotional experience for everyone involved. Even if it’s about something as simple as going to the store, some of the greatest songsmiths have been known to paint with a certain degree of empathy when singing, either relating to someone who’s down on their luck or trying their best to find the good in someone who seems too far gone. Other times, though, the emotions get the best of artists like Nine Inch Nails, and it’s up to them to regurgitate them back out in the worst way possible.

Even though it’s hard to quantify how emotional an album is, there’s a certain aura coming off every one of these albums that’s chilling from the first notes. Everything might come back to the power of the song, but lying underneath the surface is the picture of someone who is either going through a difficult time in their life or doesn’t know how much time they have left to right their wrongs.

But the hardest cases for emotional vomit albums are those that have already hit rock bottom. Most of them were on the brink of destruction, but once everything blew up in their face, it was up to them to pick up their instruments, forget everything about song structure, and simply write about what they felt, whether that’s their struggle to continue on or their remorse for not doing better at the moment.

Some are more than a little bit ugly and might not be the easiest to listen to, but there’s no doubt that they are sincere from the moment that they start. None of them can be considered an easy ride, but once you’ve been on that journey, it’s easy to get more perspective on where your favourite artists are coming from.

10 best emotional vomit albums

10. Blood on the Tracks – Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan has never been one to share his feelings every time he opens his mouth. He was a brilliant wordsmith on every song he wrote, but he seemed far more comfortable talking about his place in the world or preaching to the public at large than opening up about his own feelings. But no one is ready for a divorce, and when Dylan finally accepted his fate after his marriage to his wife, Sara, dissolved, Blood on the Tracks was the sad aftermath of everything.

While the same old Dylan is here in some capacity, it’s clear that he’s having some trouble figuring out his own mind on each song. ‘Tangled Up in Blue’ might set the tone for the album as he tries to get back to his old flame, but listening through tunes like ‘Idiot Wind’, he’s clearly still struggling with his own problems with their relationship and wondering if either of them will come to their senses and forget the other.

By the time ‘Buckets of Rain’ brings things to a close, though, it’s clear that Dylan is still a bit of a mess. Even though Dylan got some advice to change a few of the lyrics because of how sad they originally were, the version that we ended up with is still one of the bleakest outlooks when confronting the bitter end of a breakup.

9. Jar of Flies – Alice in Chains

The ending of the entire grunge scene felt like one long extended funeral half the time. Even though most of the goodwill towards the genre died along with Kurt Cobain in 1994, the old guard still had albums to make, and a lot of them were reacting to the raw wounds that still hadn’t gone away yet. For Alice in Chains, though, they were dealing with a loss happening right in front of them, and Jar of Flies could practically serve as a last will and testament from Layne Staley.

By this point, it was clear that Staley was going to lose his battle with addiction. He had problems dealing with touring, and by the time fans saw them again playing Unplugged, he looked like a man with no skin, almost like someone would injure him if they happened to get too close. On this EP, though, he leaves nothing to the imagination, talking about the problems he was having with his demons on ‘Nutshell’ and eventually signing off with the country-tinged ‘Don’t Follow’.

And it only got more disturbing when his demise came to pass a few years later, eventually being discovered in his apartment in 2002 after passing away from an overdose. Listening back to this kind of record, though, it’s hard not to hear it as Staley already accepting his fate and trying his best to brace for the impact.

8. Niandra LeDes – John Frusciante

When John Frusciante left Red Hot Chili Peppers, he was already in terrible shape. He had never been comfortable with how famous the band had become, and by the time ‘Under the Bridge’ started lighting up the charts, he was practically checked out of the band and had gone on autopilot throughout the accompanying tour. While Frusciante quit the band on the spot before a gig in Japan, his first solo venture is still one of the most uncomfortable listening experiences ever committed to tape.

Since he had accepted his life as a heroin addict, Niandra LeDes is halfway between the tuneful moments that he made with the Chili Peppers and Captain Beefheart levels of strangeness, including some moments where his vocals sound frighteningly real. As opposed to someone putting their all into a vocal performance, this feels like walking in on someone having an emotional breakdown, and all you can do is watch them spiral further down.

At the same time, this provides a beautiful look into an addict’s mind, especially considering that Frusciante was able to clean himself up and come back even stronger when he rejoined the band. But for this hour of music, fans are getting a look into the darkest corners of someone’s psyche as they start to come to grips with how far they have fallen.

7. Pink Moon – Nick Drake

Compared to every other songwriter on this list, Nick Drake has always seemed the most mellow based on his music alone. As much as he may have been enigmatic throughout his career, hearing the raw talent on display in tunes like ‘Pink Moon’ is delightful to listen to if you turn your brain off. If anyone bothers to listen to the lyrics, though, they would understand how Drake was a lost cause on the verge of self-destruction.

Since his first two albums didn’t make a dent in the charts, this was his last-ditch attempt to make a name for himself before he checked himself into a mental hospital. Even though the producers remembered that Drake’s spark seemed to be gone, hearing him pour out his soul is like putting a happy face over pictures of a war zone, especially when he gets to talking about the harsh reality that he lives inside his own head.

And when Drake ended up taking his own life, Pink Moon only managed to sound even more dark. He knew that he was good enough to make a sweeping statement like this, but sometimes, the brightest stars end up burning out way too quickly for anyone to appreciate them in their prime.

6. A Moon Shaped Pool – Radiohead

No one necessarily goes to Radiohead looking to have the most optimistic perspective on life. Projects like OK Computer and Kid A may still be the best albums of their respective generations, but no one’s expecting Thom Yorke to talk about embracing the joy of life or how the world is going his way. Even for their brand of darkness, though, A Moon Shaped Pool is the kind of dark record where the message went right under everyone’s noses at first.

On the first listen, this could have justifiably been considered a collection of odds and ends from parts of their career. The live staple ‘True Love Waits’ had already been in their set for years, and some of the tunes on the record go all the way back to the Kid A sessions. At the same time, listening to Yorke sing about love and loss after separating from his wife sounds absolutely heartbreaking in context.

Since his other half would also end up passing away a few months later, hearing Yorke ending off the album singing ‘Don’t leave’ is impossible to listen to without crying, especially considering that the audience knows that his pleas are all in vain. While A Moon Shaped Pool remains the last thing that Radiohead has put out, this is the most concentrated pieces of melancholy they have ever made.

5. Carrie and Lowell – Sufjan Stevens

Every one of us is going to have to deal with mortality at some point in our lives. Whether it’s coming to grips with their friends passing on or some terminal diagnosis of their own, the biggest advantage artists have is to preserve their emotions in real time while they figure out how to face their fate. Although Sufjan Stevens always tried to capture a certain emotion on every record, Carrie and Lowell is the result of watching one’s parents disappearing before their eyes.

Whereas most folk artists cut to the chase on every one of their albums, Stevens leaves all the gory details on the table, whether that’s talking about the pet name that his parents used to have for him or the final moments he has before they reach the other side of reality. The production also helps put you in his mindset throughout the record, especially when he goes for super lo-fi and ends up recording pieces of songs on his iPhone.

By the end of ‘Fourth of July’, though, Stevens is about as emotionally raw as anyone could get, going from the final moments that he can have with his mother as she passes before finally realising that everyone that he loves is going to pass away. Not everyone is going to gel with the way that the music sounds, but even when looking at the lyrics without any of the music, everyone is going to want to call their loved ones and let them know how much they care about them.

4. In Utero – Nirvana

Fame is never meant to be the easiest job to pull off. As much as people like the idea of having their names in lights and playing all over the world, it’s not for everyone, and some of the greatest artists of all time usually have difficulty adjusting from being a humble songwriter to one of the most in-demand acts in the business. For someone who was never that comfortable with attention, to begin with, Kurt Cobain decided to let all of his feelings out once In Utero came out.

Although Nevermind got millions of people turned on to grunge, Cobain is in constant pain from the first blast of noise on ‘Serve the Servants’. Even though there are flickering moments of beauty on tracks like ‘Dumb’ and ‘All Apologies’, there are pieces that are difficult to listen to in places, especially when Cobain loses all control of his voice like the scream in ‘Scentless Apprentice’ or when he goes from incoherent rambling to pure heaviness on ‘Milk It’.

While Cobain was clearly in pain, there was no way of predicting what would unfold in the next few months when he was found by his own hand in his home in 1994. He may have had the ear of his generation hanging on his every word, but this is the sound of someone emotionally drained and begging for some sort of relief.

3. Blue – Joni Mitchell

Even by songwriting standards, Joni Mitchell seems to be focused on painting pictures rather than writing songs. Throughout every one of her records, there’s no question that she’s speaking from her heart, whether that’s talking about her concerns for the environment in ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ or wondering about the fallen heroes of old and where they are now on ‘Amelia’. For someone who was heartfelt in everything they did, though, Blue is the sound of that heart being shattered into a million pieces.

Following her split with Graham Nash, Blue is practically a goodbye album to the love of her life as well as a meditation on her own state of mind. Throughout each song, Mitchell seems to be looking for an escape from everything in her life, whether that’s skating away to somewhere else on ‘River’ or trying to let everything out on ‘My Old Man’. But even though she’s broken, that doesn’t mean that she’s unwilling to move on.

Throughout the record, Mitchell practically goes through every cycle of grief, and while the story doesn’t end with her getting back with Nash, she can still appreciate the fact that she’s stronger for having gone through the pain. Because even if something isn’t meant to last forever, it’s more important to have learned more about yourself than staying in that headspace for the rest of your life.

2. The Downward Spiral – Nine Inch Nails

Nothing about Trent Reznor’s music was supposed to sound necessarily pleasing. From the first time that Nine Inch Nails debuted, ‘Head Like a Hole’ was already responsible for taking things up a notch in terms of heaviness, and judging by the EP Broken, it was clear that Reznor was only getting more rage-fuelled as the years went on. But when all of that anger is directed inward, it was going to be an all-out assault when it finally recoiled.

Despite Broken having songs like ‘Wish’ on it, The Downward Spiral sounds like Reznor trying to peel the skin from his bones as he’s performing. Whether it’s the psychological break during ‘Mr Self Destruct’ or trying to satisfy himself in the sickest way possible on ‘Closer’, the frontman makes a manifestation of every dark side of himself before he realises that the best way to numb his pain is to leave this world.

Even though ‘Hurt’ does offer that one little bit of sunshine to a pitch-black album, it does nothing to diminish the amount of scars that it puts on the listener throughout its runtime. Industrial music was never meant to be for the pop charts, but this is the kind of emotional car crash that is too enticing to take your eyes off.

1. Plastic Ono Band – John Lennon

How does one properly leave the biggest band in the world? That was the heavy question that John Lennon had to answer at the dawn of the 1970s, but even with The Beatles in the rearview, that was the least of his problems when he began cracking up after years of emotional struggles with no proper help. By the time he went through primal therapy, he was finally in control of his emotions enough to let them out in a healthy way on record, and Fab fans around the world have never forgotten it.

Listening through Plastic Ono Band, Lennon is brutally honest about his place in the world, whether that’s looking at the food chain of business on ‘Working Class Hero’ or his own struggles with his parents on ‘Mother’. Despite it being a heavy listen, though, it’s nice to hear Lennon take off the mask that he had on for all those years and be willing to talk about his feelings, especially when most of us wanted to know about the fallout of his band.

But by the time he said that he didn’t believe in The Beatles anymore on ‘God’, we finally had to accept the fact that the lovable moptos who had filled our record collections were never going to be getting together again. None of us were ready to accept it, but Lennon knew that it was better for him to be his most authentic self than to spend the rest of his life putting on a happy face for the masses.

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