List: 50 Amazingly Sad Songs

When I saw NME had put together a list of 50 Beautifully Sad Songs I was excited to take a look as I truly love a good  and depressing song. I didn't recognise most of them, however, so was prompted to make my own playlist, of songs from all genres, decades and artists that give you that sad-in-a-good-way kinda feeling.

Go and have a listen on 8tracks and tell me what you think, have I missed anything crucial?

I hope you enjoy listening to tear-jerkers whilst gazing at Sophia Loren crying tears of glitter.

click Read More for the full track-listing…

1. With or Without You - Keane (U2 Cover)

I love this cover: the simple keyboard, the shaker coming in after the first chorus, and the lack of Bono's distracting glasses make the song all-the-more gut-wrenching. Also better than the original as it reminds you less of the Ross and Rachel break-up (it still hurts too bad).

2. In The Sun - Joseph Arthur

3. Landslide - Fleetwood Mac

4. Goodbye Kiss - Lana Del Rey (Kasabian Cover)

The original by Kasabian is nice but Lana makes it beautiful with that soulful voice and that face...it's just so sad-looking!

5. Somewhere Only We Know - Keane

6. The Animals Were Gone - Damien Rice

Damien Rice is my favourite sad song-writer ever. He's so good I don't allow myself to listen to him very often for fear of full-blown depression; it's that powerful. "Woke up and for the first time the animals were gone" - what does that even mean? I don't know, but it makes me feel sad.

7. Skinny Love - Bon Iver

Do I need to elaborate?

8. Signs (Acoustic Version) - Bloc Party

Kele's soulmate has died, but he keeps seeing signs, "signs that you're not dead, you're sleeping". The simple line "at your funeral I was so upset" really gets me.

9. Love Is Just A Game - The Magic Numbers

10. World Spins Madly On - The Weepies
"I woke up and wished that I was dead" - they're not called The Weepies for nothin'.
11. Last Request - Paolo Nutini
12. The Scientist - Coldplay
Coldplay's older music was perfect for broken-hearted 16-year-olds to doodle in their diaries. Then he met Gwyneth and stopped feeling sad I guess, so I cling to classics like this one.
13. I Will Follow You Into The Dark - Death Cab For Cutie
14. My Good Girl - Old Crow Medicine Show
This one really appeals to the country-bumpkin in me. Poor Mr Crow's girl ain't no good to him, "she don't have the courtesy to shut the door when she's been playin' whore, I don't wanna see his rags piled on the floor"- doesn't sound like a very good girl to me, my friend. In the end he wins though by killing her (in true Country style) but, alas, "my good girl ain't no good to me, not even in her memory".
15. Burn - Usher
We all know that sad feeling, you know the one, when the party ain't jumpin' like it used to. You gotta let it burn.
16. Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
17. Love Is A Losing Game - Amy Winehouse
18. Send In The Clowns - Barbara Streissand
"and where are the clowns? There ought to be clowns" I love to ask the universe this when I'm feeling melodramatic.
19. I Miss You - Blink 182
20. Drugs Don't Work - The Verve
21. Warning Sign - Coldplay
22. The End Of The Movie - Stornoway
I already advised you to give this song a listen. Hear a boy's tale of waiting for the credits to appear as it's the end of the movie (i.e. he's been dumped).
23. Whatever (Some Folk Song In C) - Elliott Smith
24. A Lack Of Colour - Death Cab For Cutie
Another group with a knack for lyrics "All the girls in every girl-y magazine can't make me feel any less alone, I'm reaching for the phone…and on your machine I slur a plea for you to come home", poor guy.
25. If I Have To Go - Tom Waits
Waits' gravelly voice plus a simple piano melody creates the mental image of the last man at the bar, drunk and singing the sad tale of having to leave his love behind. "I'll leave my jacket to keep you warm, that's all that I can do"
26. Last Kiss - Pearl Jam
The story of a couple in a terrible car crash. She doesn't make it but he does get to hold her close and "kiss her our last kiss".
27. Mad World - Gary Jules
28. Sad Song - Oasis
Clue's in the name
29. My Hallelujah - Sweet Talk Radio
Who knew a banjo could be so sweetly sad? "Loved my baby, ain't that enough? Why'd you have to go and make a widow of [me]" she sings to God, the big meanie who took away her husband.
30. Ode To My Family - The Cranberries
31. Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
32. Rewind - Paolo Nutini
33. Slow Dancing In A Burning Room - John Mayer
I feel like I'm not supposed to like John Mayer, but I don't know why, do you? Well, I'm saying it now; I think he's got some great songs. Phew. Now I've got that off my chest I can listen guilt-free to this story of a dying love.
34. Jolene - Ray LaMontagne
He loves Jolene but he's too into drugs to get it together. "I've been living out of this here suitcase for way too long" - I know the feeling, Ray, it sucks, but I can't relate on the whole "I found myself face down in a ditch, booze in my hair, blood on my lips" part; probably a good thing.
35. Set Fire To The Third Bar - Snow Patrol
36. Stop Crying Your Heart Out - Oasis
37. Nothing Better - The Postal Service
Maybe the dramatic description of heartbreak ("will someone please call the surgeon who can crack my ribs and repair this broken heart") is a bit much, but the harsh female voice cutting him off and telling him to get a grip pulls at my heart-strings (but only gently, no surgery needed).
38. Ashes Everywhere - Joseph Arthur
Joseph has a gift for descriptive and oddly beautiful lyrics. "Your ashes must be blowing everywhere 'cause I can still feel you when you're nowhere near" he sings to his lover who killed herself. Also "Oh Darling since you've been away from me I know how the pins feel in the bowling alley" - lovely!
39. Lua - Bright Eyes
40. Against All Odds - The Postal Service
41. We Get On Kate Nash
Some find Kate's simplistic lyrics annoying but this track is just so accurate and sweet. The story of her going to a party only to find the boy she fancies getting off with someone else ends with her staying in on a Saturday night singing "I don't ever dream about you and me, I don't ever make up stuff about us that would be considered insanity…I don't know your timetable, I don't know your face off-by-heart".
42. Tonight - Lykke Li
43. Tears In Heaven - Eric Clapton
44. Never Ever - All Saints
45. Do You Remember The First Time - Pulp
"I don't care if you screw him just as long as you save a piece for me" pleads poor Jarvis, caught in a love-triangle.
46. Rainy Days And Mondays - The Carpenters
Sure, rhyming "some kind of lonely clown" and "nothing to do but frown" sounds a bit silly, but oh boy, it works. Who doesn't get down on rainy days and Mondays?
47. Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday describes the "strange fruit" hanging on the trees down South; "blood on the leaves and blood at the root". This metaphor-filled song conjures a heartbreaking image of "black bodies swinging in the southern breeze" (if you still don't get it she's singing about people being hanged)
48. Transluticism - Death Cab For Cutie
49. Nothing Compares 2 U - Sinead O'Connor
50. Angie - The Rolling Stones
"Angie, you're beautiful, but ain't it time we said goodbye?". Grown-ups used to sing this to me when I was little, cleverly changing 'Angie' to 'Andie'.

Please feel free to send me suggestions of songs I might've missed!

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