14 of the saddest songs you’ll ever hear

We’ve all heard that one song that has hit us hard emotionally. Sometimes sad songs help us through a tough day. Or help us realize we’re not alone and that we’re not the only one who feels a certain way. Here are 14 songs that do just that.

Marianas Trench – “Lover Dearest”

A love song written to the one thing that was destroying him. Josh Ramsay opens up about his battle with drugs in Marianas Trench’s emotional ballad “Lover Dearest” off of their second album Masterpiece Theatre. “I’ll just hide it, I could slip into you it’s so easy to come back into you.”

Against The Current – “Roses”

Not every sad song is a slow ballad with a violin and piano as the accompaniment. At the beginning it’s easy to assume that this is just another song about a breakup, “I waited all night for you to come home. I always hated sleeping alone.” But as the song progresses it becomes clear that this is a song about the death of a loved one, an emotional plot twist that tugs at the heartstrings every time the lyrics are heard, “I hope that the lipstick I left on your face, stays red like the roses I laid on your grave.”

All Time Low – “Lullabies”

This song deals with a family coping with a suicide. Alex Gaskarth lost his older brother to suicide and this song is about what happened, the effect it had on their family, and a final plea to be together again. “Sing me to sleep, I’ll see you in my dreams, waiting to say, ‘I miss you I’m so sorry.”

Beartooth – “Sick And Disgusting”

The final track on Beartooth’s album Disgusting deals with depression and the thoughts that run through someone’s head when they’re suicidal. “Well I’m waiting for the day that my mind says it’s had enough. And I pray that day comes soon so I can finally feel loved.” This track is voicing the emotions of someone who has hit rock bottom.

Blink 182 – “Adam’s Song”

Mark Hoppus found the inspiration for this song from the loneliness he felt while on tour, not having a significant other to return home to. But he was also inspired by a teen suicide letter he read in a magazine. The song takes form of a suicide note and contains lyrical allusions to the grunge 90s band Nirvana. “I can’t wait till I get home, to pass the time in my room alone.”

Mayday Parade – “Terrible Things”

A story of how a couple met, fell in love, and were separated all too soon. Terrible Things follows a father telling his son how he met his mother and in the end how his mother died. The bridge of this song is a heartbreaking moment for the listener “slow, so slow, I fell to the ground, on my knees.” The father’s final advice to his son after he finishes the story is “don’t fall in love” because “life can do terrible things.”

Simple Plan – “Welcome To My Life”

This song’s intention was to express teenage angst about how frustrating life is during that age period and how it may feel as though no one understands how hard it is. It shows how it feels to think that no one understands what you’re going through and how no one truly knows how you feel, no matter how hard they try to.

Yellowcard – “View From Heaven”

The loss of a loved one and having to continue living life without them. The depression that follows the loss of having to live without them around. “I only need one more day, just one more chance to say, I wish that I had gone up with you too.”

The Wonder Years – “Passing Through A Screen Door”

An atypical love song full of powerful declarations raging against the inevitable crush of maturity. It’s about running from growing up and wondering if you’re ready to take the next step into adulthood while watching how the people you grew up with are already there. “All the people I graduated with all have kids, all have wives, all have people who care if they come home at night.” It’s a punch in the gut to anyone who knows what it’s like to feel aimless and zigzagging through their 20’s without a clear goal.

The Summer Set – “Don’t Let Me Go”

A song about feeling isolated from the world and like a ghost watching your life go by as a third party. The Summer Set’s song is about how the time they spend off of tour is used to mend and revisit relationships that have been put on hold while they were away. It’s about holding onto the hope that the people back home didn’t move on entirely. “Cause the hardest part is holding on, when everything has come undone.” It shows that relationships end and people move on with their lives even though you’re a few steps behind.

Sum 41 – “Pieces”

Everything has it’s flaws. Nothing is perfect. The “ideal” is this unreachable entity that can only be found on TV or in a book, the “ideal” can never be reached in real life. Sum 41 shows how everything in life is cracked and flawed and sometimes it’s better if we’re just left alone in their song Pieces. It shows how trying to be something different, something that would be considered “ideal” never works out in the end.

Sleeping With Sirens – “Better Off Dead”

Sleeping With Siren’s latest single Better Off Dead follows the story of a suicidal girl. She falls so deep into her depression that throughout the entirety of the song she is contemplating suicide. She believes that no one takes the time to understand her thoughts and what she’s going through. “Did you hear a word, hear a word I said? This is not where I belong, you’re gunna miss me when I’m gone.”

Set It Off – Dad’s “Song”

After losing his father to cancer, Cody Carson wrote this song as a way to remember him. It took Cody three years after his father’s passing to complete the song, “there’s no shortcut to success.” This emotional ballad appears on the band’s second album Cinematics and hits the hearts of every listener, allowing them to feel the emotions Cody did experiencing the loss of his father.

My Chemical Romance – “Cancer”

Facing the fact that the cancer is surely going to kill him, the patient The Black Parade focuses on begins to come to terms and make arrangements for his inevitable death. But as he is doing so he realizes that there is one thing he can’t accept, and that’s having to leave the one person he loves most, “cause the hardest part of this, is leaving you.”

 

Contributed by Natalie Roberto | @natalieannxoxox