—Eric R. Danton, Serious audiophiles will point out that one of the saddest things about this song is the intrusively obvious pitch correction in the version used in Episode 10 of Twin Peaks: The Return (bummer), but setting aside that technicality, “No Stars” is still a heartbreaker even by Twin Peaks standards. Since Leonard died in 2016, however, we may never get to hear all of his versions. “All My Friends,” though danceable and streamline in nature, relays a universal sadness about getting older and the fluctuation of friendships as we age. The most popular TikTok songs for 2020. The remaining cranes were finished by friends and family, and the poor young victim of WWII was ultimately buried with them. Last Updated on July 19, 2020. Even at home, her friends have reason to still worry (“‘Cause I know you’re still worried I’m gonna get scared again/ And make my insides clean with your kitchen bleach/ But I’ve kissed enough bathroom sinks to make up for the lovers that never loved me”). But the final verse sums up Carlile’s reconciliation, allowing her to finally grieve: “I was angry/ I was a Baptist/ I was a daughter/ I was wrong.” —Josh Jackson, If “About Today” is any indication, The National know a thing or two about regret. After receiving a backpack for their infant daughter that Geneviève ordered shortly before her death, he collapses on the porch in tears. Though a warm display of fingerpicking and pedal play, there’s no light at the end of this song’s tunnel: Bridgers addresses her depression as she wails, “Jesus Christ, I’m so blue all the time/ And that’s just how I feel/ Always have an always will.” “Funeral” is a brave declaration of grief and likely requires a lot of courage to perform. https://www.popsugar.com.au/smart-living/List-Saddest-Songs-Ever-37584062 She sings about the devastating death of a friend and the survivors who help her through it. While feeling blue isn't the only theme country music explores, it's certainly one the genre has mastered. Shortly following the release of "Same Drugs," Chance took to Twitter to clarify the meaning behind the song, saying "Same Drugs isn't about drugs.". Like "Nobody," "Dancing On My Own" is definitely a song you can dance to, but in reality the lyrics tell the story of a girl dancing at a club while she watches her ex with another woman. Then he sings about God: “All the glory when he took our place / But he took my shoulders and he shook my face / and he takes and he takes and he takes.” He’s trying to reconcile the generosity of Jesus allowing himself to be sacrificed on the cross with a god who would let a young girl die from leukemia. The record comes to a screeching standstill on “Poke,” a heartbreaking stunner of an acoustic fingerpicked track, where he details the process of finally cutting the chord, delving deep in the ugliness that Baker spoke about with some of the most brutally honest yet beautiful breakup lyrics in recent memory. Here are the saddest songs of the 21st century so far: 50. John Darnielle spends most of the song wishing ill upon his ex-lover, but it’s made even more severe by his wishes of suffering for himself. But her plain-spoken observations about the ways in which we become our parents, and our kids become us, are heartbreaking at their core. And while those feelings can be profoundly sad, the song doesn’t necessarily leave the listener in a dark place: You might find yourself smiling through the tears, rather than heaving through a series of weeps, as its gentle tempo is drowned out in a rumbling of keys and voices. Sufjan Stevens revealed in an interview that this song touches on his feelings following his mother's death, when he started indulging in her previously self-destructive behavior. Opening with a clarification that death shouldn’t be reduced to art, that the true experience of it is too profound to turn into music, he goes ahead and does just that on “Real Death.” Singing over electric guitar strums and a droning accordion, he describes the immediate aftermath of Geneviève’s dying, how rooms feel empty now, how she still gets mail. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io. Not only does this play behind a montage of photos at like every school graduation, but the story behind this song is actually pretty sad. We and our partners use cookies to personalize your experience, to show you ads based on your interests, and for measurement and analytics purposes. Whether you're getting over a breakup, experiencing a big change in your life, or just feeling down, it always helps to know that Adele, Avril Lavigne, and Bruno Mars have all been there. “Skinny Love” was the first single, and the tune that helped launch Bon Iver into the public consciousness and make Vernon into a reluctant indie-rock star, a record producer (Kathleen Edwards, the Blind Boys of Alabama), creator of the Eaux Claires music festival and, not least (if perhaps least likely), a musical collaborator with Kanye West. Songs on TikTok; Only as you got me feeling like this tiktok song (why why why) Original: Jeremih – Don’t Tell ‘Em ; After Eric Clapton's son tragically died when he was just 4 years old, the singer took a 6-month hiatus from work. It’s to her that he addresses the painful refrain over and over in the song. If you're like me, you have a playlist for everything. Music, Film, TV and Political News Coverage. Going through a breakup is hard, and Lewis Capaldi depicts it brilliantly in his hit song. “No Hard Feelings” is about dying with no regrets, about the day when one’s soul leaves their body and all that’s left to focus on is the joy that defines a life. That feeling he’s having, I can personally attest to its level of suckiness. It all culminates in the simple yet devastating final line, a screaming appeal toward a higher power—one that she can barely fully get out—“God I wanna go home.” —Steven Edelstone, Adele’s 21—and really, most of her catalog—is full of heartbreak. At heart, “People Get Old” is a joyful song, as McKenna celebrates a lifetime’s worth of memories with her dad, who turns 83 this year. A classic breakup song, "Say Something" pairs best with a box of chocolates and a rom-com movie marathon. He returned with this song, which is about his late son. Vernon wrote the album after a disillusioning stint fronting a band in North Carolina and battling health problems including pneumonia, and then mono. Winner for most upsetting lyric is hands-down: “I am drowning, there is no sign of land/ You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand/ And I hope you die, I hope we both die.” Darnielle’s sheer despondency and lack of any hope for a better tomorrow is what makes this track so disheartening.—Tess Duncan, “Don’t Know How To Keep Loving You,” what Jacklin says is her favorite song on her excellent 2019 album Crushing (even though “that changes everyday”), is a revelation. “Downliner” is one of the standout tracks, a rueful meditation on dissatisfaction and regret. I didn’t prepare for how fricking lonely it would be to just be all alone in a country where no one knows me, while everyone else I know is having holidays with their family and friends.". “I feel like sometimes, we don’t get to the gritty imagery of that ugliness… It’s just crazy how you feel so embedded in the scene that [Scott Hutchison is] constructing for you.” The album follows the late Hutchison attempting to break up with his longtime on-again-off-again girlfriend, always coming back for another bout of self-inflicted masochism. The track is a brutal listen; Yorke’s vocals, while probably the clearest on the entirety of A Moon Shaped Pool, feel distant, like he’s looking back on the song as a bittersweet memory from long ago, now knowing what would eventually come next. Bright Eyes: “At the Bottom of Everything”, 46. Seventeen picks products that we think you'll love the most. The 15 Best Songs of October 2020 By Paste Staff November 3, 2020 | 11:30am The 8 Best Songs of The Week By Lizzie Manno & Paste Staff October 30, 2020 | 10:00am More from Best Songs This song is just all the more heartbreaking because we know it's about Justin Bieber and their complicated relationship. Billie has insisted that "when the party's over" is an angry song, not a sad one, but come on, I'm shedding black tears listening to it rn. —Steven Edelstone, “Just let me find a place where I fit,” Moreland pleads at the end of “Blacklist,” a wrenching paean to unrequited love and misbegotten rebellion that the Oklahoma musician sings in a rough, weary baritone. Moreland displays a rueful fondness for his younger self, even as he winces at how life can drain away the innocence and enthusiasm of youth until all that’s left is cynicism and uncertainty that we cover with false bravado. Neko Case makes it her own on her latest album Hell-On. Pumped Up Kicks - Foster the People 4. "No Cryin" - DVSN ft. Future. Electricity (the slow thrumming brushwork on the drums almost seems to sizzle). “Back to Black” recalls ’60s doo-wop with a moody, creeping tempo. As bleak as his songs can be, Moreland’s most recent album, Big Bad Luv, has a slightly more contented tone. The fact that Leonard Cohen wrote about 80 different verses of the now famous tune, and he was known to often sing different ones during various liver performances. At home in both a sweaty Brooklyn dancehall or your living room, “All My Friends” isn’t exactly dismal, but it’s certainly upsetting. —Loren DiBlasi, Justin Vernon recorded this song one winter in a cabin in the woods of northwestern Wisconsin, and it sounds like it: His acoustic guitar and double-tracked falsetto vocals are hushed and intimate, like the glow in a distant window in the midst of a snow-covered landscape. —Steven Edelstone, It’s probably safe to assume that Robyn advocates dancing your worries away, so it makes sense that she’d write a song that’s empowering in its self-awareness. Ed revealed that he was inspired to write this song after performing at a homeless shelter and he met a girl named Angel, hence the lyric, "It's too cold outside for angels to fly.". We were introduced to Ed Sheeran with this heartbreaking song and he proved right away that he was here to stay. Don’t be fooled by one of the jauntiest melodies Conor Oberst has ever written. This track off singer/songwriter Laura Veirs’ most recent 2013 album Warp and Weft is a tribute to Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese child who lived about a mile from the epicenter of the Hiroshima blast, and was 2 years old when the bomb fell. The ten-minute track might not be, as people thought at first, a specific farewell message to fans (Blackstar was conceived and in production before Bowie knew his cancer treatment had failed), but it is certainly a meditation on fame, posterity, and standing at the strange crossroads of age (69 isn’t spectacularly old but Bowie’s prolific multi-persona career had spanned over five decades, and that’s a hell of a long time in rock). Only Girl (In the World) - Rihanna 6. Blackstar is the wise and self-aware work of a mature artist but retains Bowie’s almost childlike spirit of wonder at the vastness and weirdness of what we cannot perceive-at least not while we’re in our bodies. Lynch has always loved to flirt with melodrama, and this torch song found its perfect expression in del Rio’s full-throated, bell-like voice. It’s about making peace with your “enemies” and learning to appreciate life while it’s happening, in both its “loveliness” and “ugliness.” Do that, and then when the end really does come, all that’s left is “just Hallelujah.” —Ellen Johnson, Written a quarter century after her father shot and killed her mother then himself in the driveway of their home in Monroeville, Alabama, the hurt still feels fresh for singer/songwriter Shelby Lynne. Let your tears out with this sad playlist. “I know myself, I’ll never love anyone else.” Ah, to be young. Not many songs can sum up being dumped for an ex as well as Winehouse does when she woefully sings, “I died a hundred times.”—Tess Duncan, Self-proclaimed adopter of the sadcore genre, indie folk crooner Phoebe Bridgers knows how to write a melancholic tune. The minor-key piano chord that opens the tune is the musical equivalent of a catch in your throat, as if to prepare you for what is to come. “I hurt myself today/ to see if I still feel,” Cash sings over wispy acoustic guitar and piano chords, his ancient baritone quivering in the darkness. The closest that Avril has ever gotten to a love song, "When You're Gone" is truly heartbreaking, especially when you consider the music video that goes along with it. “The older I get, you know/ Truth, it gets harder to find,” Moreland sings, describing a life lesson that never stops being true. The best sad songs will always make you cry. If you've ever found yourself awake at four in the morning, watching TV when a commercial for the ASPCA comes on, you know this song. Neither singer is a slouch when it comes to writing sad songs—see also, “I Wish I Were the Moon” by Case, or most of the songs on Dignity and Shame— but the two of them together are a potent combination. —Josh Jackson, Country icon Johnny Cash released his final album, the covers-heavy American IV: The Man Comes Around, in November 2002. Because sometimes you just need to let it out. Is Taylor Dropping a THIRD Secret Album??! The annual UK music charts for the 100 most popular singles in the decade starting in 2010. As this character is withering away due to cancer’s effects, everyone tries to ignore the “elephant” in the room and just make her final moments as joyful as possible. It’s melodically poignant, vocally burnished, arranged in a way I can’t not call “stellar,” and a kaleidoscopic exploration of his lifelong master trope: Stars, literal and figurative. “Don’t know how to keep loving you,” she sings. 1. Highlighted (lowlighted?) “I was far away.” Reckoning with the realization that he may lose her because of his inability to communicate, the protagonist is helpless. The track is among the most candid on an album revered for its honesty: As SZA sings about envy, loneliness, and inflated female beauty standards, she embodies an outcast character like those the song’s titular actress has often played. Here's our list of the top 50 saddest dance music picks of all-time, from sad love songs to depressing songs about death. No graduation montage is complete without this song. Great art doesn’t necessarily tell you something new, but rather puts words to something you always knew, but couldn’t name. James Murphy questions someone’s priorities when he sings, “You spent the first five years trying to get with the plan/ And the next five years trying to be with your friends again,” but he switches to first person by track’s end, singing, “If I could see all my friends tonight.” Before cranking this one up, make sure your closest pals are on speed dial. This song about lost love is the most covered in music history. “Flirted With You All My Life” is sobering, addressing death directly: “Oh death, oh death, oh death / Really, I’m not ready.” It relates his own experience with dying, whether through his lifelong flirtation with suicide or his mother’s battle with cancer, and it’s that honesty paired with Chesnutt’s colorful past that will make you question and almost certainly cry—in public, for the public or for life’s adventure in general.—Brittany Joyce, Mike Hadreas’ songwriting is unabashedly raw, the kind that speaks about the dirty and the unsightly in a way you can’t ignore. Listen Now. When I was in one of those moments I wrote this song.". The song is a study in contrasts, as nostalgia faces off against fading idealism and a dose of hard truth in lyrics that never pull a punch. This song is thought to be a response to President Kennedy's assassination since it was released just three months after the event in 1964. Sharon Van Etten: “Afraid of Nothing”, 40. From the time I arrived, I could tell she was over our relationship. "All Bad" is on Justin's album Journals, which features some of his most personal songs, inspired by his own personal journals. Music is a potent force—it can create friendships and help us get in touch with our feelings, both as listeners and creators—but as all-powerful as it feels when you’re hanging out with your friends in your teens, its limitations grow impossible to ignore with time and age. 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