In religious news, today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of the Christian season of Lent, when the Church encourages its followers to give in to the effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder and plan on being depressed for about the next 40 days. This willful depression is in anticipation of the day when Jesus, like bears and squirrels, will decide it's warm enough to come out of hibernation. In honor of religious depression, here is a list of ten moderately to severely depressing albums which appear from their titles, to have some sort of religious connotation:

1. Depeche Mode - Songs of Faith & Devotion
2. Swans - Children of God
3. William Elliott Whitmore - Ashes to Dust
4. Kronos Quartet - Black Angels
5. Carla Bozulich - Evangelista
6. The Residents - God in Three Persons
7. Cocorosie - Noah's Ark
8. Various Artists - Plague Songs (It's a concept album compilation about the 10 plagues. Really.)
9. The Birthday Party - Prayers on Fire
10. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Good Son (The title track is written from the perspective the brother of the Prodigal Son, who stayed home dutifully and didn't get treated any better than his ingrate brother.)

Enjoy! (solemnly.)