I'm glad Notintofeet started this thread, what a great source for excellent music.

Buena Vista Social Club/Chan Chan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rRJP8rVg-4&feature=related

The Cure - Lullaby.  oh yes :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEM0U2Zl5Ys

Darren Hayes - So Beautiful

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb7QFeSbkVw

And if all the world was smiling

I would only ever wanna see your frown 

Quite possibly the best line in a song ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXxFIQV0y8Q

Angel Standing By - Jewel

I must be the only person on this board who's not a Sarah MacClachlan fan - please don't hold it against me!

@scorpiomoongirl - I'm a big Snow Patrol fan, also One Republic which is kinda along the same lines.

@Orlando - I love the Garden State soundtrack, I can't count the # of times I've listened to it.

In terms of "hauntingly beautiful," the song "Marching Bands of Manhattan" by Death Cab for Cutie comes to mind. "Your love is gonna drown ..." http://www.lyricsbase.com/lyrics/deathcabforcutie/marchingbandsofmanhattan.html

Also a bunch of songs by Massive Attack and Portishead fit the bill, IMO.

And even tho he's *totally* different from the preceding, I also think a lot of Iron & Wine's stuff is "hauntingly beautiful." I think he just released something new, too ...

Oh, and Rachel Yamagata has songs that can make me cry, but don't let that deter you, she's totally worth checking out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuLRZD1m14w&feature=related

Thanks Josephine, will check out One Republic!
Edit: oh, it's the guys who made "Apologize?" I totally love that song.

Lately, I've been listening to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNwkN9vrUYY

Foo Fighters "Walking After You"

The Carnival is Over by Dead Can Dance is hauntingly beautiful

We love Ne Me Quitte Pas, opal. 

Joy Division "Transmission"

Les Choristes: Caresse sur l'ocean http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDRZVxv2KOU (the video is dumb)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEs1wtsw_IA

Voix sur ton chemin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhxry9JCKbM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-Zz_bSCsBE

Elisa, more the dance than the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFf1ZGxd70o

Andrew Johnston Pie Jesu: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA2bC1WkAQU

The Mountain Goats of course: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue8MSFSF8w8

Nina Simone "Just in Time" from Tomato Collection: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhqOHFUYtzI

Kate Bush Hounds of Love

I like Rachael Yamagata's Over and Over a Again

This Mortal Coil - Song to the Siren "Cocteau Twins"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mUmdR69nbM

Boards of Canada - An Eagle In Your Mind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf66Lmrqk00&feature=related

Biosphere - Hyperborea

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-mJPxUt8RE

song to the siren

On the floating, shapeless oceans I did all my best to smile til your singing eyes and fingers drew me loving into your eyes.

And you sang "Sail to me, sail to me; Let me enfold you."

Here I am, here I am waiting to hold you. Did I dream you dreamed about me? Were you here when I was full sail?

Now my foolish boat is leaning, broken love lost on your rocks. For you sang, "Touch me not, touch me not, come back tomorrow." Oh my heart, oh my heart shies from the sorrow. I'm as puzzled as a newborn child. I'm as riddled as the tide. Should I stand amid the breakers? Or shall I lie with death my bride?

Hear me sing: "Swim to me, swim to me, let me enfold you." "Here I am. Here I am, waiting to hold you

I think Marianne Faithful's "Sleep" describes the 12th house perfectly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyw0-3lAZkQ

I also like Portishead's "Wandering Star" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEQNAZGoZrw

And on the creepier side, there's Sopor Aeternus' "El Dorado" (From the Poe poem.)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5ei4OjXiV0

(I'm in a haunted mood, can you tell?)

http://youtu.be/ugn5YkmDH_8

@ Paganbaby - TOTALLY! I'm not a huge Moody Blues fan or anything, but if you hear that song and aren't moved then there's something wrong with your ears!  I'm jus' sayin'.....!

The Left Banke- Pretty Ballerina

eric clapton : please be with me (gipsy)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_SnMB63B50&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5mZzJmky1M&feature=related

This song had been stuck in my head for a week now.  It seems to happen off and on; it's just that "catchy":

Karnivool, All I Know

I'd link The Refreshments "Mekong" but all I can find is crappy live versions.  :/

Beautiful and very very sexy
(bush letting the cables sleep)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UWCURWZlQI&feature=related

This is the sexy version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-t1a_pzVKQ&feature=related

bump

Wow, I went searching for this thread and discovered that this is where I first found out about One Republic. Thank you Josephine! I love them now :)

Anyway, check out MIka's new song, from the album that will be out in September most likely:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9YeRSsMmak&feature=related 

I really Death Cab for Cutie. I think some of the most haunting songs I have listened to have been by Evanscence and One Republic has really great lyrics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3ijI3x7G6o

When you give half of you
I want all of you
When you give half of you
I want all of you

When you go back window
You see shadows
When you're shopping for me
'Cause when you give half of you
I want all of you

Sadness is a gentle mind
But a good women has her hands to use
Empty package of chips will tell you
What can be sold market and what can belongs to you
When you give
When you give half of you
I want all of you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImKY6TZEyrI

I want to hold the hand inside you
I want to take a breath that's true
I look to you and I see nothing
I look to you to see the truth
You live your life
You go in shadows
You'll come apart and you'll go blind
Some kind of night into your darkness
Colors your eyes with what's not there.

Fade into you
Strange you never knew
Fade into you
I think it's strange you never knew

A stranger's light comes on slowly
A stranger's heart without a home
You put your hands into your head
And then smiles cover your heart

Fade into you
Strange you never knew
Fade into you
I think it's strange you never knew

Fade into you
Strange you never knew
Fade into you
I think it's strange you never knew
I think it's strange you never knew

Bittersweet by Apocalyptica.

"Break this bittersweet spell on me,

Lost in the arms, of destiny..." 

Beautiful vocals exemplified by sweepingly haunting, *gorgeous* cellos: Shivers:

<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">

@k1hodgman  Bittersweet is one of my favorite songs ever !! I love Ville and Yoni's voices so much!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj905HtsB-g

^Draw Your Swords- Angus and Julia Stone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMRf4Lqkqz8

^^ If you understand french don't let the pop beat fool you :)

Addictions- SUperbus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB-2cpZk3HI&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL3623ED050C84E3DA

^^ Cut - the Cure

Your the first person I've met who ever heard of it. Hallejujah! Agreed Ville and Lauri have two of beautiful voices I've ever heard, the cello work alone ensure you being able to listen to it all day. Have you found the instrumental version? It's as good if not better, and just as gorgeous.

I have heard it before :) I love all 3 of those artists. I used to have the whole Apocalyptica discography listen to their song Terror. They are beasts with those Cellos!!

Damn straight. Went to go see them in concert when I was 16, and Holy S%^&! Gave a whole new meaning to "I Whip my Hair Back" lol.

I would kill to see them in concert!!!

So long as it's not me;p

There should be a lists of upcoming tour dates and concert destinations for you to check out online.

Also, The Congress Wheel by Poitin. It was playing in "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" during the scene in the brothel where the assassin is trying to kill the Gypsy woman Fortune Teller, right before Watson's wedding.

It very Celtic, and far more lively than haunting, but it's gorgeous.

Christina Perri "a thousand years"
Sade "moon and the sky"
George Michael "as"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjXFRSuSnh4

Another vote for Apocalyptica!!

Love Isn't a Right by Molly Drake (Nick Drake's mother):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO9tIVooNa0&feature=player_embedded

Adele "make you feel my love"
Haunts me for days already...

Try "Coming Back To Me" by Jefferson Airplane, "St Charles" by Jefferson Starship, and "Santa Ana Winds" by Survivor.

I have been haunted by the beauty of the Bach cello suites for many years now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLZ1U_n8fDg

Beautiful...not many songs can put butterflies in my stomach like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBXeXBpTVOk

But then again, the song kind of pisses me off because you know they wouldn't be singing about her demise if she wasn't hot. Oh well. At least it's honest about human nature and unfair preferential treatment towards attractive people.