Hero of War by Rise Against - I'm a vet to this hits fucking hard.

Blackbird by Alter Bridge - My stepdad got cancer in 2020 and had a very slow decline until he finally passed in 2025. Watching him wither away was heartbreaking. I saw him around Christmas of 2024 and he was still able to get up and move around on his own, but only for a short period of time. I went back down a month later to help my mom, because he couldn’t even get out of bed anymore. The hospice nurse came one day and basically told us he maybe had a week at most. He couldn’t even talk at this point, would not eat, and you could tell he was just in constant pain. I told him not worry and that I appreciated everything he did for my mom and that I would take care of her. He passed a few minutes later with his dog in his lap. Later that afternoon, after I had gotten everything taken care of, I took his dog for a walk. This song just happened to come on while I was walking her. The line, “May you never be broken again” made me breakdown right there in the middle of the park. To this day I still cry every time I hear the song.

He stopped loving her today by George Jones.

The First Time ever I saw your face by Johnny Cash.

Fast Car by Tracy Chapman.

Cats in the Cradle

The night we met by lord Huron
“I had all and then most of you, some and now none of you” fucks me up every time, incredible song

It’s Quiet Uptown from the musical Hamilton.

A Warm Place by Nine Inch Nails.

Something about this song takes me right back to a certain time and friend group in high school.

I’m the only one still standing after a loss this last winter and I can’t even think of listening to this track for a few more months.

RIP K.I.D. you and the rest of the tree people are missed.

I'm Not Gonna Miss You by Glen Campbell. He wrote and recorded it as Alzheimers was eroding his memory. It was the last song he recorded. I heard it just after my mom was diagnosed.

As I Am by dream theater

The closest I have to that, is Hate Me by Blue October.

The entire Frozen 2 soundtrack.

Al Green - How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?

When he sings, "Cos mine is", it gets me right there. See also "How can you mend... this broken man..." 😭

I'm sure I have a lot, but comes to mind:

EDIT: Sorry this turned into a big reply haha...

• Zombie (both the original and the 2016 Bad Wolves cover) , the second it opens, just visceral; it's the same old thing, in [2026], in our heads...
• The Kids Aren't Alright by The Offspring , I hate relating so hard to this as a generation, watching so many kids with promise just get smothered out surviving in a bleak "cruelest dream reality." Oft by drugs and hopelessness.
• In the Arms of an Angel by Sarah McLachlan : My mom always cries if she hears this song because her late mom did too. Then my cousin sang it at my dad's funeral so...Yeah, I don't let that one play. Sorry, Sarah.
• Immortal by Marina and the Diamonds ; The entire song is beautiful and profound. "And if the earth ends in fire, and the seas are frozen in time, there'll be just one survivor, the memory that I was yours and you were mine." (Holy shit just typing that...)
• Pretty When I Cry by Silent Rival ; Such a beautiful song I thought was about a partner who taught the singer about true unconditional love... It's about her late mother. It empowers me to fight to be there for those I love, and it sends a powerful message that we can be strong in our weakness.
• Dust in the Wind by Kansas ; anything about the fleetingness of life hits me hard.
• Memories by Maroon 5. I miss people...

Lots of happy songs too...Like they're beautiful and wistful and lovely and I think I cry because I can't imagine such peace... My wife likes these songs and I guess I kinda break imagining us getting to just unshoulder our burdens and truly live.

• Perfect by Ed Sheeran
• Just Too Good by Phil Wickham
• "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" , a popular Christian hymn from 1907, made prominent in recent history by BioShock Infinite.
• On that note, Amazing Grace really is amazing, but it doesn't help that it's the 'somebody died' song now...
• The Prayer by many artists: Celine Dion and Andre Bocelli
• Prayer by Hayley Westenra
• In My Arms by Plumb (has some sweet remixes, but man, a mother's love is truly something...our first is on the way and I really feel it now...)
• Somewhere Only We Know by Lily Allen

... Okay I'm sensing a theme here. Yeah, I'm a person of faith. Thinking of a refuge in my Father where I can stop worrying, stop fearing, stop fighting. Songs about pure and unyielding love, or lullabies , crush me instead of relax me for some reason. Maybe because the contrast with our present circumstances is so harshly defined and such respite feels like it can't be had in this life.

Idk so much about depth, but more because of the story it is tied to. I'm a nerd and have been playing a game that just told a story that hurt quite a bit and then they had 2 songs go with that story. One from the perspective of the main character being written for a second character, and the second song from that second character we've "lost" which was written for the main character. Its been two weeks and they still choke me up lol

The lyrics are ok, but I believe they were in Chinese first and then translated so I think they suffer from the need to fit within the melody and read kinda odd.

Vernal Days Dreamed by the Star

Voyaging Stars Farewell

A Better Place, A Better Time by Streetlight Manifesto always fucks me up.

I mean not so much an emotionally break me down but tulls we used to know, elegy (which has a wierd life thing that happened), and further on. They definately have the power to shift my mood.

"Boys will be boys" by Stella Donnelly. Best listened to blind, imo, so won't give context.

Hero of War by Rise Against. An American soldier's view of war.

Raoui by Souad Moussi (I can't understand arabic so she might be singing a shopping list, but the pain in her voice gives me shivers every time)

No Bravery by James Blunt. A British soldier's view of war.

I have a long playlist of stuff like this called "Managed Melancholy" - it's part of my mental health self care to immerse myself in sad sometimes and really feel. (I'm fine btw, and this is part of giving me an outlet)

Annie’s song. Don’t know why, it makes me cry.

Savior

Dammit

La Dispute - King Park

Story of a an accidental shooting of a kid by another kid

Jamie Hay - Where Do The Missing Go?

The story of a missing child who was killed and buried by their parents

Red Tape Parade - Leap Year of Faith

(RIP Wauz) The last song my friend Wauz wrote before he died. His band finished recording it after he passed. The music video especially gets me recognising so many faces.

• Brothers of Metal – Yggdrasil
• Order Ogan – Fields of Sorrow
• Sabaton – No Bullets Fly

Manchester Orchestra - The Silence

Moths by Darkher

When I am Dead by Bear McCreary

Daylight's End from Riot Games

Everything Reminds Me of Her by Elliot Smith

Old One by Finnegan Tui

The Ride by Amanda Palmer

Tattered Flag by Lorn

Sleep and Dream by Battle of Mice

Chocolate Genius - My Mom

Bright Eyes by Art Garfunkel from the Watership Down film

An Alien's "I Love You" by Utsu-P.

Hits really hard if you're neurodivergent.

Forever Young (specifically the youth group cover). Especially after hearing it played in a tribute to Philip Hughes in 2014. Life is so fucking unfair sometimes