Music that does a good job of exploring mental illness

Music does not always adequately articulate mental illness. Just like Hollywood films, songs often perpetuate negative stereotypes, sensationalise conditions, or are full to the brim with inaccuracies. Somewhat unsurprisingly, the music that seems to express mental illness in the most meaningful way usually comes from artists who have struggled with it themselves at some point in their lives. And with 60% of musicians purporting to have suffered from depression or psychological issues during their lives, that counts for quite a few. Although mental illness comes in many guises, and is different for different people, here are five tracks that we think express the many facets of the mind in particularly striking or convincing ways.

ELLIOTT SMITH – "MISS MISERY"

“I’ll fake it through the day with some help from Johnny Walker red, send the poisoned rain down the drain to put bad thoughts in my head,” Elliott Smith sings with painful eloquence, his vocals drifting over a sweet, sinking melody. This 1997 classic was nominated for an Oscar when it first came out after it’s appearance in Gus Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting, but it’s enduring legacy can be put down to it’s beautifully poetic personification of depression; an insight into Smith’s mind-set before he passed away, in a way that is unapologetically honest and full of real, internal melodrama.

JOY DIVISION – "LOVE WILL TEAR US APART"

This is an obvious one, but it’s way too incredible not to include. And while the lyrics have been interpreted as being about the breakdown of Ian Curtis’ marriage, the dark, hallowed guitar riffs and deep, plaintive vocals perfectly express the descending anguish of a troubled mind. After Curtis’ death, Joy Division’s Bernard Sumner spoke about the frontman and the 1980 track, saying: “We thought his headspace was OK. But Ian had two faces – the public face for the band and the private troubles he had at home and the way they came out through his lyrics.”

MY BLOODY VALENTINE – "SUEISFINE"

With it’s repetitive, cavernous buzz-saw guitar riffs and pummelling drums, this My Bloody Valentine deep cut from their pioneering 1988 debut Isn't Anything embodies the distorted dullness and numbness of depression. The monosyllabic lyrics that flit between “Sue is fine” and “suicide” in the length of a breath typify the two opposite faces of mental illness, the public and the private, and do so in a way that’s simple but hits you right in the gut.

KENDRICK LAMAR – "U"

Hip hop doesn’t have the best track record for expressing mental illness sensitively or accurately, but in Kendrick Lamar’s much-loved masterpiece To Pimp A Butterfly, the Cali rapper never holds back in emptying out all the negative spaces within his mind – the dark, angst-scattered “U” is a brilliant example of this. “The record feels great but it comes from a place of depression.” Kendrick said in an interview with 93.7 The Beat. “It comes from a place of insecurity. (Depression) is something I faced in my life not only when (writing about the song), but even now.”

SIA – "CHANDELIER"

Sia’s exceptional, soaring hit “Chandelier” sounds ecstatic if you listen to the elation-filled chorus fleetingly, but when you listen closer it’s a lot darker, the lyrics sounding almost manic. “It's about the desperation of the avoidance of uncomfortable feelings,” Sia told Dazed about the track, which was written when she was in the throes of drug addiction. When speaking about the now-iconic Ryan Heffington choreographed video, she told us, “There was this period right before I hit bottom and got sober that I wanted in there, and so when Ryan was asking me what I wanted from Maddie (Zeigler) I said I wanted her to be like on the verge of a nervous breakdown.”