What songs make you sad/cry?

"Luka" by Suzanne Vega for very obvious reasons.

Daft Punk - Instant Crush (feat. Julian Casablancas)

Ever since I paid attention to the lyrics. The delivery doesn't make it any easier.

Cheesy picks here, but I can't help what gets me:

• "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)" by Nine Days used to make me tear up when I was a kid. Something about it, I dunno. Maybe it kinda resonated with me in some way, identifying too much with the incredibly vaguely described girl in the song.
• "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter. Yeah, don't judge me. First time I listened to this song, like, really listened to it, I was reduced to a teary mess. I still don't think it's a bad song (hah), but I kinda never really wanna hear it again since American Idol and the radio at the time made me so damn sick of it.

I am an opera buff, so I listen to a lot of things that make me cry. Particularly songs like "Addio del passato" from La Traviata, "Al dolce guidami" from Anna Bolena, and "Tu, piccolo iddio" and "Che tua madre dovra" from Madama Butterlfy.

Boards of Canada - Farewell Fire

Hecq - I AM You

Jon Hopkins - Immunity

Music never makes me sad, though I can get feelsy and end up tearing up with some songs, such as these. I love music that invokes strong emotional reactions, and hope someday my own music will manage to have such an effect on those who are unopposed to it.

Steven Wilson - "The Raven That Refused to Sing"

See you Again - Wiz Khalifa.

It's been a long day, without you my friend. I will tell you all about it when I see you again.

How could we not talk about family when family's all we got.

RIP Paul Walker.

Jesus, I never thought the director of Saw make me cry.

Dream Theater's "A Change of Seasons" More for the lyrics than anything else, the instrumentals is standard Dream Theater fare.

Wish You Were Here is pretty sad too, with the exception of "Have a Cigar."

Music/Tool's "Wings For Marie/10000 Days" is a touching tribute.

A lot of post-rock is this to me, for whatever reason.

edited 27th Sep '15 10:25:03 PM by BILLYMAYS!!!!

A few sections of Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells", especially the end of Side 1 when the angelic background vocals appear. Not really a song but an album. I never get why the album ends up being so underrated in retrospect despite its success commercially and critically. Is it because the public had enough with the album's music due to overexposure?

"Tears of a Clown" by Iron Maiden, a tribute to the late, great Robin Williams.

Hmm, my current favorite sad-making song would be "Say Hello Melancholia" by IAMX. Also, the whole album "The Romance of Helen Trent" by The Killing Tree would qualify, especially the instrumental piece "Soundtrack to a failing Relationship".

Kannathil Muthamittal is a Tamil song that gets me every time. For context, it's about an adoptive father and his daughter, who ran away to find her real parents as soon as she found out she was adopted. The song is the father telling her (in his head) all the ways she's been a blessing to him and his wife and how much they love her regardless of circumstance, and it's always gotten a singular emotional reaction from me even though it's not that relevant to me.

Luka, mentioned above, is another one, as well as Johnny Cash's Hurt.

“We Let the Stars Go” by Prefab Sprout. I’m not sure of the incident that inspired it, but Paddy McAloon is really putting his heart on his sleeve on that one. Devastating.

edited 14th Oct '15 12:37:48 AM by Bananaquit

Nico's version of "Das Lied der Deutschen" is oddly affecting in light of the song's complicated and depressingly ironic history. Although the version of "The End..." on that LP is arguably more harrowing in context, if not quite as sad.

Strange that this and Lou Reed's Berlin pop into my head when I think of really sad music. Not so much melancholy, or even depressing, but just intensely sad.

Just found this track, damn if solo piano isn't my kryptonite.

Sufjan Stevens - Flint(For The Unemployed and Underpaid)

None of them make me cry, but I have a few that leave me in a deeply reflective state.

• When Things Explode by Unkle, discovered in the great television show Person of Interest in one of its most emotional moments from the early seasons. It's one song that makes me think of your mistakes finally coming crashing down and you just witnessing the ensuing chaos as you recollect your thoughts admist the wreckage.

• Johnny Cash's version of Hurt. Along similar but different lines to the first one it makes me think of reminiscing about your life in the face of impending death. Which is something I'm often thinking.

• Peter Gabriel's version of My Body Is A Cage. While the Arcade Fire original is great, the original seemed to be more about the anger at being trapped in suffering, while Peter Gabriel's seems to be more of a quiet resignation to the suffering, which for me all is the more heartbreaking.

I honestly prefer the Arcade Fire's original for the way the emotion is reflected in the production and how it just swallows the vocals in this spiral of glowing instrumentation by the end. It's beautiful and more than a little eerie. Amazing song, though, in either version.

There's a song by the Mountain Goats called "Song For My Stepfather", which is about John Darnielle's abusive stepfather and details a story about getting hit as a kid, and numbing himself to the situation. It's a very hard song to listen to.

They also have an entire concept album centered around John's childhood, abusive stepfather and all, and the last song (Pale Green Things) wraps everything up in a really sobering way. Without spoiling anything, the last verse cuts from a story of his childhood into the present day, and the lyrics are a straight dialogue that definitively closes the album. It's a very personal song that resonates strongly.

One more, by the same band - "Your Belgian Things" is really gentle and melancholy. It clears my head and usually makes me feel something like "longing".

Fluquor by Onoken makes me tear up every time, especially in the context of the rhythm game it appears in, Deemo. Spoilers for the game are below, so don't check them unless you want to be spoiled.

It turns out that Deemo (the black figure) is the little girl's brother, and, when they both were about to be hit by a truck, saved her at the expense of his own life. The events of the game are dreamed up by the girl as she lays in a hospital bed, in a coma. The song plays during the credits, when the girl wakes up and realizes that her older brother is dead. Note that the girl is about six. I have a little sister this age, too, so it hits especially hard for me.

Zidane to Vivi.

Okay this is super cheesy, but sad Vocaloid songs in general. Hirari, Hirari in particular hits me right in the gut. (More than a little because the singer sounds a bit like an OC of mine, but I digress.)

Also, DAGames's United We Stand gives me really strong emotions in multiple different ways.

OH YEAH, also, the song Steven sings at the end of Mr. Greg always gets the waterworks going. You both love me, and I love both of you...

edited 2nd Nov '16 8:26:48 AM by SilvieSkydancer

Ok, this threat is a little bit older, but I'm gonna add my favourite sad songs anyways ;)

Kent - Stop Me June (Little Ego)

Kent - Klåparen

Kent - Glider

Kent - Mannen I Den Vita Hatten

Trading Yesterday - Shattered

James Blunt - Same Mistake

Leyla Yilbar Norgren - Fly With Me

Coldplay - Christmas Lights

Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head

Keane - This Is The Last Time

The Prayer (don't know who wrote it originally)

Maria Mena - Just Hold Me

Ludovico Einaudi - Una Mattina

Yiruma - The Things I Really

Molly Sandén - Freak

Oh Laura - Release Me

Alexa Feser - Dezemberkind

Andreas Bourani - Hey

Andreas Bourani - Nimm Meine Hand

Marie Meimberg - Ich Glaube

edited 21st Dec '16 3:52:23 PM by Hjortron18

Now that I'm obsessed with Hamilton, I have quite a few more. Spoiler warning for this whole post, even though all the events happened like 200 years ago. Ordered by likelihood to cause actual tears, from least to most:

• Satisfied: It isn't one of the classic cry-your-eyes-out songs, but I can vividly imagine myself in Angelica's position (well, more like Laurens', really; the crush would probably be the person with emotional connection to me rather than their spouse, but *waves hand dismissively* technicalities), and under the right conditions I've cried to this song.
• Stay Alive (Reprise): Only one bit (sept huit neuf) really gets me; I usually don't outright cry at this song but it either gets me tearing up or primes my tear ducts for It's Quiet Uptown
• The World Was Wide Enough: This song aims for the heart, but after like 10 full listens, I usually just die a little inside rather than full-on cry
• Burn: For all that Ham is the "hero", I want to fight him when I hear this song. I cry out of empathy with Eliza.
• Who Lives Who Dies Who Tells Your Story: What an epilogue, damn. I cry hardest at the whole orphanage bit, and then after the song ends I lie down and have an existential crisis because who DOES tell my story??? If I died today, what legacy would I leave????????
• It's Quiet Uptown: Pretty self evident, I still bawl like a fuckin baby after 10 to 20 listens. The reprise of That Would Be Enough gets me the hardest, along with "Forgiveness / Can you imagine?"

Tindersticks - The Not Knowing

• "Lucy" by Skillet.
• "I'll Be Your Home" from Devil May Cry: The Animated Series.
• "I Don't Want to Say Goodbye" from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon.
• "Keep Holding On" by Avril Lavigne.
• "My Immortal" by Evanescence.
• "If I Die Young" by The Band Perry.