cover image This Will End in Tears: 
The Miserabilist Guide to Music

This Will End in Tears: The Miserabilist Guide to Music

Adam Brent Houghtaling. HarperCollins/It, $16.95 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-0-06-171967-7

Freelance writer Houghtaling initially defines “miserabilist” music by scrolling through some of the artists on his iPhone: David Ackles, Patsy Cline, Joy Division, George Ligeti, and Radiohead, among others. All of them share what Houghtaling calls “a natural affinity for melancholy, an elemental leaning towards the sour side,” and he describes their music—as well as that of more than 70 other artists—in this enlightening collection of short descriptions. A random dip in and out of this alphabetically arranged survey reads like the list on a really, really good mix tape/CD, one that includes Samuel Barber and Frank Sinatra alongside the Shangri-Las and the Eels. But Houghtaling has a bigger agenda: he wants “to coalesce disparate artists separated by time and traditional genres into a new system based on emotional cues (sad is the new jazz).” To this end, he attempts to show connections between melancholy artists from all ages in a few longer essays on Miserabilist themes such as heartbreak, cheating, depression, and disease. However, any guide to melancholy musicians that includes an essay on Morrissey but not one on Joni Mitchell has to be seen as highly idiosyncratic—although overall, Houghtaling is highly entertaining. (Sept.)