10 Songs To Listen To When You Need A Good Cry

On occasion, there is nothing better than feeding into your miserable mood.  Wandering the streets on a rainy day, wallowing in whatever prompted your depressed state, is sometimes just what you need.

Here’s a list of songs that pair well with some common emotional breakdowns.  This is probably what every psychiatrist would deem detrimental to your mental health, but I say listen up and cry it out, you’ll feel better after.

1. Boz Scaggs, We’re All Alone.

Boz is the best choice for powerful, emotional ballads.  This song will make you want to belt out the lyrics at the top of your lungs in the middle of your livingroom right before you curl up in the fetal position on your floor and cry until your Xanax kicks in.

2. Me and the Mountain, Team Me.

Looking to feel real sorry for yourself?  This is the perfect song to lead you into your downward spiral while you take a long look at your life and realize you have yet to accomplish 90 percent of what you thought you would by the age of 30.  All of your friends are getting married, having babies, and purchasing real estate.  Meanwhile, you’ve barely saved up enough money to buy a non-Ikea couch.

3. Elton John, I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues.

So your significant other moved across the country and you thought a long-distance relationship was totally no biggie.  You now sit in your apartment night in and night out, thinking to yourself “What am I doing?”  You know the lyrics “cry in the night, if it helps” are basically your life anthem, because that’s what you find yourself doing most evenings while you scroll through Facebook photos of the two of you together.

4. Chicago, If You Leave Me Now.

So your significant other decided to cut the cord and leave you high and dry?  Remember kids, begging for someone to take you back is not a good look.  Play it cool for now and save your dramatic display until after your now-ex is gone for good…then burn all of their stuff while playing this song.

5. James Ingram, Just Once.

You and your partner took the big step and moved in together thinking “Hey!  Our love is so strong nothing could come between us!” as you signed on the dotted line of a two-year lease.  This song is best to listen to while packing up your apartment two years later because your love, and lease, has expired.  You put this tune on in the background while you divide up your things and think “who gets the record player we both bought together from Urban Outfitters last Christmas?”  I bet you never thought twice about this song when you heard it throughout the 90s over the speakers in your local supermarket, but now it seems perfectly fitting.

6. Brandon & Leah, Say It Ain’t So Bad.

Put this on right after you wake up from a night of excessive drinking.  You’re already feeling a bit depressed because you just realized you sent five back-to-back texts to your ex at 3am.  After you press play, go into your iPhone contacts and hit “delete” on your ex’s number.  Now get out of bed, put pants on, and drag yourself to brunch because nothing helps your hangover like a little hair of the dog.   A few mimosas are the best cure to help you forget about your little text mishap the night before.

7. Lana Del Ray, Young and Beautiful.

You just got off the phone with your mom and she harassed you once again about lowering your standards so that maybe one day in the near future you won’t be so single.  She tells you she is running out of excuses to tell your Grandmother, and that it’s about time you held onto a relationship for longer than two weeks.  Pour yourself a glass of wine, play this song, and finally create that Tinder account.

8. Sia, Breathe Me.

Everything that could have gone wrong today did.  You were late for work because your roommate spent an hour in the bathroom taking selfies in the mirror, your computer froze and you forgot to click “save” on that Excel document you spent hours working on, and the weather app on your phone said “sunny” but the downpour you are now stuck in on your walk home says differently.

9. The Monkees, Shades of Gray.

“Life is so unfair, being a grown-up is hard!” you think to yourself.  Your bank account is in the negative and you can’t come to terms with how much it’s going to cost to get your taxes done.  The struggle of keeping up with all of your adult responsibilities leads to a meltdown in the middle of a CVS because you can’t believe how the price of toilet paper is something you’d be this stressed about.

10. Hall & Oates, She’s Gone.

Maybe you shouldn’t have had that affair with that married man.  There’s no way he was leaving his wife to be with you, you dummy.  Not only has he left you in the dust, but you just now realize you wasted a year of potential dates on one very unavailable garbage person.  Whelp, move on, sister.  And while you do, listen to this.

Bonus Sad Song:  Ernest P. Worrell, Gee I’m Glad It’s Raining from the film Ernest Goes to Camp.  Not only is this the saddest of all sad songs, but the first time I ever listened to Jim Varney sing the line “no one sees your teardrops when it pours” made my small heart grow three sizes that day.