Are you feeling sad? Down on love? Destitute and alone? Never fear, Artsweek is here with some good, solid misery rock for you to enjoy.

Jets to Brazil and Black Heart Procession are both depressing rock groups formed in 1997, but they each have distinctly different sounds. While Jets distracts listeners from its melancholy lyrics by playing upbeat rock music, Procession leaves the listener with no doubt as to its sorrows.

Perfecting Loneliness, Jets’ latest CD, is solid indie rock that you can enjoy from beginning to end. Each time the music slows down, threatening to lose a listener’s interest, it picks right back up and sucks them right back in again. “Wish List” is a standout track, and “Disgrace” is a powerful track about the current state of affairs which asks, “Who put all these criminals in charge/ Did they win or just hold all the cards?” While Blake Schwarzenbach is hardly my favorite vocalist (he almost ruins the otherwise solid “Rocket Boy”), I can’t help but enjoy this album. Perfecting Loneliness is some of the best indie rock to come out in a while, and has earned its place in my CD player.

If you’re in the mood for something heavier, Amore del Tropico may be what you’re looking for. To be honest, it’s not my cup of tea, but it is a well-made album. Procession mixes psychedelia with its otherwise somber melodies for a sound that is simultaneously unique and draining. The album quickly becomes monotonous, as the songs go one speed (slow), and the heavy mood never really lightens up. Yet I have no complaints about either the vocals or the various instruments here. In other words, the album is technically sound, just nothing that I would to listen to on a regular basis.

These are just a couple of the many properly depressing records released recently – because, after all, misery loves company.

[Angela Potter is okay, but only ’cause her drink is pink!]