Your daily commute can be long and tiring. Whether you’re taking public transportation or just need to scream your heart out driving home, sometimes it’s nice to put on some sappy songs just to ‘feel something.’ Everyone needs to have their main character moment at times. There are probably a million songs I could include, but to make things easier for you, here are my top 10 sad songs for your subway ride home:
1. The Subway Song – Delacy
This song is a given. The first line “Made me want to cry on the subway home” is one I’ve felt one too many times. Delacy perfectly encapsulates the feeling of uncertainty in life and in her relationship reflecting on her subway ride home.
2. The City – Ella Jane
Another necessity to the list. Hearing the line “I ride the subway ’cause I look for you in every face” always hits you where it hurts. Her up-tempo beat along with powerful lyrics will be certain to put you in your feels.
3. Dreams Tonite – Alvvays
“If I saw you on the street, would I have you in my dreams tonight?” Perfectly said. The melancholy, dream-pop sound mixed with soulful heartfelt lyrics will have you listening over and over.
4. Pool – Samia
The outro of this song. That’s it. Anyway, Samia asks all the big questions in this song. Knowing things don’t last forever, but how long? How do we enjoy the beauty in these moments when we don’t know how long we’ll have them is perfectly outlined in this song.
5. Don’t Know How To Keep Loving You – Julia Jacklin
Falling out of love with someone is a feeling that is hard to put into words. The desperation to want to keep loving someone but you simply just don’t know how to. I have never heard a song before this that perfectly captures that feeling of sadness and pain to hold onto something that is no longer there.
6. Savior Complex – Phoebe Bridgers
Phoebe Bridgers is my current obsession. This song specifically though is about the cycle of ups and downs in a relationship, in ways that aren’t always healthy. The concept of a ‘savior complex’ conveys that feeling of needing to save a person, which in turn, can be detrimental to the person doing the ‘saving.’ Phoebe emphasizes how hard it is to love someone you feel needs to be saved.
7. What Used to Be Mine – Faye Webster
I could go on forever about this album, Atlanta Millionaires Club. Period. Out of all of the songs, however, I think this is the one that hits home the most. Reflecting on past experiences; “what used to be mine,” is something I find myself constantly doing. The soft, jazzy instrumentals with the hard-hitting lyrics paint the picture of this type of sadness perfectly.
8. Lilo – The Japanese House
The imagery in this song painted through their lyrics is like no other. Especially the rawness in the live session on Spotify. The feeling of ‘floating’ around in the build-up with a new relationship is too relatable. That happy-go-lucky feeling in finding someone new through the beginning stages of that relationship. Knowing that this is exactly what you were waiting for.
9. Stay – Gracie Abrams
This song perfectly romanticizes wishing for things to stay the way they were in a relationship when it was ‘good,’ even if only for a night. Still loving them, missing their family, etc. is all taken into consideration after the fact the relationship is long over. Not even having to ‘stay,’ just for a second to feel normalcy again with that person.
10. never been in love – Gatlin
Out of all of the songs on the list, this has to be one that resonates with me the most. The overwhelming realization of never experiencing ‘love.’ Having all the pain and heartbreak without getting the good parts of it. The short-lived romances. The ‘what if’s.’ All relatable.
Bonus song:
I’m obsessed with Mitski and had to include her. She’s well-known for her deep, personal lyrics that paint a picture within an indie-folk, dark ballad, such as this one. Leaving this article with my favorite lyrics from this song: “I don’t need the world to see that I’ve been the best I can be, but I don’t think I could stand to be where you don’t see me.”