I am a music junkie. I spend hours every day listening to music. I tend to gravitate toward the sadder genres of music. I don’t know about you, but I can memorize all the lyrics to a song without ever really thinking about what they mean. This week, I took some time to think about my favorite lyrics, and I found them more heartbreaking than before.
- “Cherry Wine” by Hozier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdSCCwtNEjA
“Her fight and fury is fiery
Oh but she loves
Like sleep to the freezing
Sweet and right and merciful
I’m all but washed
In the tide of her breathing.”
This lyric really got to me. Especially the line “like sleep to the freezing”, because when someone is freezing to death, they fall asleep near the end and can’t feel the pain of dying anymore. Read that again. Her love is the distraction from the pain of slowly dying.
- “Jealous” by Labrinth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50VWOBi0VFs
“As I sink in the sand
Watch you slip through my hands
Oh, as I die here another day
Cause all I do is cry behind this smile”
The feeling of dying inside over and over again as you watch the person you love the most breaks my heart.
- “Gravity” by Sara Bareillis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEXhAMtbaec
“I’ll still feel you here until the moment I’m gone
I never wanted anything so muchThan to drown in your love and not feel your rain”
The weight on your heart when you have someone toxic in your life, but all you want is for them to love you like you need. I listen to this song almost every day .
- “What do I do?” by Emily James
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhpEvy0zRmI
“Will I fall into you, only to lose myself again?
Are you still as reckless as you were back then?
Learned your lessons or do you pretend
that you’re better just to fool somebody new”
Thinking about giving someone a second chance because you love them, but being scared to lose yourself, such a powerful lyric.
- “Skinny Love” by Bon Iver
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNzCDt2eidg
“Come on, skinny love, just last the year
Pour a little salt, we were never here
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer
I tell my love to wreck it all
Cut out all the ropes and let me fall
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Right in this moment, this order’s tall”
This song. I can’t. It’s about wanting to change your lover to make them what you need just to hold onto them a little longer. You know you’re asking too much, but you want to stay with them.
- “When you love someone” by James TW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bf3CJZ4hvg
“Sometimes moms and dads fall out of love
Sometimes two homes are better than one
Some things you can’t tell your sister ’cause she’s still too young
Yeah you’ll understand
When you love someone”
As a child of divorce, this one crushes my soul. Learning that love isn’t always pretty or elegant; it can be messy and still be love.
- “Roadtripsong” by Abby Cates
Abby Cates – Roadtripsong (Official Audio)
“I wished so hard that I could fly
My wings just weighed me down
I dreamed that I could be a boat
But I sailed too far and drowned
And oh I wished and longer for
These dreams to all come truе
Of all the things I’ve wanted
Lovеr, what I want most is you
You, you, you”
This idea of wanting to fly, getting wings, and then being stuck on the ground keeps me up at night. Every lyric of this song fills my soul with the most serene sadness.
- “If this is the Last Time” by LANY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPbG4mIgKAw
“Sorry for the fights and the tone of my voice
Sorry for the nights when I made the wrong choice
Life is flyin’ by and it’s hittin’ me now
I hope it’s not, but
If this is the last time, please come close
I love you with all my heart, you know
I don’t wanna cry, I’m bad at goodbye
If this is the last time
Then let’s do the things we always do
Like go to the mall and buy some shoes
I don’t wanna cry, I’m bad at goodbye
If this is the last time”
LANY is known for their heartbreakers, but this one is about your parents slipping away. It just hits different.
- “Vincent” by Don McLean
“Now, I understand what you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they’ll listen now”
This is an oldie, but a goodie. The song is a tribute to the life of Vincent Van Gogh, and the struggles of an artist, how they are not seen until they are gone.
- “Sara” by We Three (TW: self harm)
We Three – Sara (Official Music Video)
“Little Sara, last night you got it bad
In that moment you could barely even
Add up two or three reasons why you’re glad
And I guess that’s why you grabbed your pen and pad
It was 6:14 and you could barely even read
All the words you’d written down of why it was time for you to leave
Your phone was on the ground and you could barely hear it ring
Couldn’t even hear a sound, couldn’t feel a single thing”
This song had me full out ugly crying the first time I heard it. It gets really real about the struggles of depression and feeling invisible. It is very graphic so I caution listeners.
Well if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be crying in my room and listening to these songs on repeat.