Do you have any songs you like to play when you are depressed? Or maybe a song that brings you down, but you like it.

For me, some of mine are:

The Motels - Only the Lonely. Great song, but it really gets me every time when she says "I feel so lonely way up here."

Mazzy Star - Fade into You. Not sure if its a sad song, but when I'm down and out I play it. Has a sadness to the song.

Simply Red - Holding Back the Years. Song always gets me choked up, depressed or not. Great song for depression.

Anathema - Lost Control

Hit's me in the feels every time.

I tear up every time I hear “Varud” by Sigur Ros.

It’s kind of a pedestrian choice, but whatever. And it’s not sad per se, just emotional. I think it depends on the mood I am in. It just hits hard every time.

Marillion have a handful of songs that touch an emotional nerve as well-“Sugar Mice”, “Out Of This World”, “The Only Unforgivable Thing”, “The Sky Above The Rain”, and “The Leavers: All One Tonight” stick out among many more.

Pharoahe Monch's entire PTSD: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder album is depressing to me but in sobering ways, not the comforting kind. The production is soulful but sparse and all the singing on there is wretched sounding. His rapping is as complex as usual but more conversational this time round. "Broken Again" as a song example is a tearjerker.

There's so many sad songs I like but I don't keep a playlist. I agree with "Fade Into You" but I also find it comforting. Pink Floyd's "Fat Old Sun" and Swans' "The Sound" are two others I can think of that offer a similar feeling. The Swans one is cold with that noisy midsection though.

Agree about Mazzy Star, sad and comforting at the same time. One big reason for me is Hope Sandoval's voice, like there's some inherent sadness there... Look on Down from the Bridge is the first song that comes to mind, and I guess that's partly because of Rick & Morty episode where it's been used in a pretty depressing scene...

Nine Inch Nails - The Great Below

...it gets me always!

My dying bride - For my fallen angel

i never listen to sad songs when i'm sad, but if i had to choose a favorite sad song.. these are some of them;
Fade to Black - Metallica
Cemetery Gates - Pantera
Voice of the Soul - Death
In My Darkest Hour - Megadeth
Silent Lucidity - Queensryche

I've read he wrote this song after visiting his sister in the hospital after she tried committing suicide.

"Funeral" by Phoebe Bridgers has to be #1 for me. It was released the same year I lost a friend to suicide.

For the same reason, "Bobby Jean" by Springsteen hits me. The song isn't particular sad on its own, and it's been long rumoured Bruce wrote it about Steve Van Zandt leaving the band, but it's uncanny how much my friendship with this person I lost is similar to the lyrics.

Springsteen actually has quite a few. I Wish I Were Blind is a deep cut from an obscure album of his that cuts super deep. The River is probably one of the saddest songs I've ever heard in my life.
Songs like Paradise, You're Missing, Stolen Car, Drive All Night, Something In The Night, Racing In The Street are all gems.

Most of the songs I truly find crushingly sad these days are sad because of the memories attached to them. The people we lose throughout life, the bittersweetness of the nostalgia attached to them. I often hear songs that aren't even truly that sad and they trigger a memory in my mind of something so mundane, like driving through central Michigan with my (now) ex-wife, and I become incredibly sad.

Often these days, putting a playlist on shuffle is like playing russian roulette.

A few songs I haven't really talked about here yet.

Black Tape For a Blue Girl - "We Watch Our Sad Eyed Angel Fall" - there just isn't nearly enough music around like this, the analog-sounding synth pads with the dolorous violin melodies swirling over top.

Chopin/Yuja Wang performance - Piano Sonata No. 2 in B Flat Minor, Op. 35 - 3. Marche funèbre (Lento) - this is a really commanding rendition of this masterwork, with her attention to dynamics, it starts out whisper soft, and by near the end, the section utilizing the second lowest note on the keyboard, it feels like the weight of the grand piano is slowly crushing and suffocating me.

John Coltrane/Duke Ellington - "In a Sentimental Mood" - the title is quite fitting, in makes me nostalgic for indescribable things in a saudade fashion.

The Cure - "Cold" - even in their happier songs Robert Smith always manages to sound a bit sad, and here paired with the plodding tempo and that gorgeous synth pad it really evokes a mournful mood.

Immortal Technique - "You Never Know" - I'm not generally into lyrics, but this composite story is rather moving, the chorused guitar octaves are quite sorrowful, and the chorus has this really forlorn melody.

Sarah Jarosz - "Follow Me Down" - everything comes together so perfectly on this song, and while slide guitar has a reputation for being bluesy, here it is utilized exceptionally well for its more elegiac vocal qualities to pair with Sarah's own performance.

Sarah McLachlan - "Adia" - one of the most beautiful pop songs I've ever heard. It started an obsession with her voice, with this fragile, vulnerable performance.

Arvo Pärt - "Für Alina" - I'm not normally a fan of overly minimalistic music, but this piece really works. There is so much space between the notes as they ring out to reflect.

Secret Garden - "Papillon" - slower, expressive violin melodies really seem to tug at the heartstrings, and Fionnualla Sherry is one of the best at it for me. This is a really rich melody supported by an elegant piano accompaniment, and some additional orchestration as the song develops.

A lot of Townes Van Zandt's material is right up that alley. Some songs can tend to sound a little dramatic, but knowing a bit of his life gives some great insight into his lyrics. Songs like Rake always get me.

Lately I've also really enjoyed the Irish folk song Spancil Hill. It's usually introduced as having been written by an Irish immigrant in the US, hoping to make his fortune, who much too late realises that he will never make enough money to return to his home. It's just a very real and relatable situation.

i used to love getting sad with RHP, one of the all time greats

if i'm really sad i'm not normally listening to music, probably hugging myself in a corner somewhere

sad songs can give me energy believe it or not, i find strength in them because as you say they are saying something to me

tori amos nearly had me in tears half way through Broken Arrow
not sure why, it just hit me one morning driving to work


love her song writing


not to mention all the sad metal songs, that would take a while

Nothing hits me harder than the trifecta of transcendent longing and despair that is Weights and Measures by Drown the River, Lay Your Cheek on Down by Moonface, and Grease by Future Islands.

The last five minutes of The Caretaker is probably the heaviest music has hit me in quite some time

If "Fade into You" isn't a sad song there are no sad songs.

I 100 percent agree with you. If you don't get the feels from that song, you have a heart of stone.

Another great one is Last Goodbye by Jeff Buckley. It adds even more sadness to it, when you realize he died just a few years later.

The Mountain Goats are my reigning champions for this sort of thing. The Tallahassee album hits especially hard but the songs that get me the closest to home are No Children, Old College Try, and Oceanographer's Choice. The Sunset Tree is also an equally emotional affair though in a more volatile fashion.

Royal Thunder is one of my big go-to's when it comes to the sadness that calls for sheer catharsis. Time Machine is a song that is particularly noteworthy but the entire Wick album cuts deep. Mlny Parsonz is the best, most emotionally affective vocalist going nowadays as far as I'm concerned.

Theme From Schindler's List.

Such a emotionally draining movie needed a similar musical centerpiece, how John Williams managed that, I'll never know.

Itzhak Perlman's performance on it is so exquisite. There's just something about violin playing that is capable of emotion and sorrow on a level that no other instrument can reach. Hilary Hahn's work on The Village does similar things to me.

Tons of them.

Go through a divorce after 16 years of history, illness, triumphs and hardships, and then try to get through this:

Slumber - Distress

The bass lines soothe my soul. A melodic death/doom classic.


Daylight Dies - Solitary Refinement

Such a basic song, but the guitar work and production is just perfect. I tend not to listen to emphatically melancholic stuff for extended periods of time even if I'm feeling down, though. It's simply boring to wallow in despair for hours on end.

That's how I feel these days, as well. When I was younger (and the actual reality of life hadn't crushed me yet lololol) I used to put on Anathema and My Dying Bride and a lot of sad indie/folk music for hours. These days, I like hearing a few songs here and there, but would rather not throw myself into an abyss.

Man, you guys have suggested a lot of interesting material. Taking notes to check some of those songs when I arrived home from work today.

My contribution to this thread would be Sorority Noise - No Halo. Very powerful song and the lyrics are very relatable to myself. All their stuff (they only have two LPs) is vert good and deeply emotional.



Also, I reccomend to watch the video. It's pretty awesome altough very intense.

John Lennon - Woman

I can't even listen to this song. He wrote this to Yoko. He was shot and killed in her presence. I remember hearing the news, that he was shot and had passed. It really hit me in a big way. They loved each other so much and he wrote a song to her. To this day, hearing this song gets me choked up. When I listen to Double Fantasy, this is always skipped.

Yea, I completely agree.

"#9 Dream" is probably the most sad/beautiful song he wrote to me.

Erase the Grey, "Rain." Just kill me....

I often listen to Damnation by Opeth when I'm down. Or quiet post rock, like Godspeed You! Black Emperor or Mogwai.

Hmmm, no mention of Dream Theater's "The Best of Times" yet.

Abyssic Hate - Depression
Mogwai - Cody
the entirety of Deafheaven - Sunbather

it happens when it happens

That's one of my favorites. The song "Chocky" from the same album is also really beautiful, it's mostly just piano and guitar over a relaxing drum beat. It's the perfect thing for me when I'm worn out emotionally.

Zpoan Vtenz - Voi Ūžkit Gauskit

I've been listening to this album several times in the last few days and realized that this is one of the saddest songs I have ever heard. There is something about the female vocals, style of singing, and about the amazing Lithuanian language on the song that feels so intense emotionally that there was not a single time when I did not start crying while listening to it.
And the music (both motifs/melody and sound+atmosphere) only emphasizes and amplifies it.
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As for listening to sad non-metal songs this year and the previous year in general, most of the songs I have been listening to are much more emotional in lyrics and vocals than musically.
I often listen to Вежа Хмар (a Ukrainian non-metal band) these days, and mostly because of their lyrics. Вежа Хмар has many songs with lyrics that are related to sadness and grief. I really like their lyrics in general (and I've got accustomed to the low-fi sound of their albums and to some monotony/over-simplicity of their music, although I wish the vocals were more audible and clear on their songs) because this band often used nature-inspired imagery to express human feelings and to describe different events (including death and loss) in human life, as well as to describe view/perception of the world in general, and did not use Christian-related imagery (i.e. they are not like many doom metal bands with sadness/grief-related lyrics that I listen to when I'm in a mood for these kinds of songs/albums, - too many of doom metal bands use Christian-related imagery, even if the members of those bands and their lyrics are not pro-Christian. In general, as a fan of doom metal music, I had to get accustomed to Christian-related imagery on doom metal albums after years of listening to the genre, and I'm also able "to feel/to get into" these kinds of sad songs emotionally, but I still wish more doom metal bands would use a nature-inspired imagery when expressing sadness and/or grief in their lyrics).

The Mazzy Star that I listen to when I'm down is "I've Been Let Down" truly depressing but reassuring at the same time. There's something about listening to a sad song when you're sad that makes you feel a little better. It's reassuring that you're not the only one who's going through the same issues and that people have made songs somewhat related to what you're going through.

Some other sad songs I listen to when I'm down:

Nine Inch Nails - Hurt
Alice in Chains - Down in a Hole
Soundgarden - Blow Up the Outside World (maybe sad and angry at the same time?)
Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
Opeth - To Bid You Farewell
Paradise Lost - No Forgiveness

Metallica Fade to Black, Björk Hyper Ballad, Joy Division Atmosphere, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds The Weeping Song all are good.

Yes, Cody is a good one. Another couple of Mogwai tunes I find quite emotional are The Lord Is Out Of Control, Helicon 1 and This Messiah Needs Watching.

Other sad songs: Nutshell (A.I.C.), I Never Cry (Alice Cooper), Lost Patrol, Chance and Just A Shadow )Big Country)