Hit me with your top 3 sad songs that aren't about love or getting dumped

[arxianfall]

Something more adult. One per artist. Bonus points if it's not all mopey. Don't just drop the title, say why it's in your top 3.
Edit: It doesn't need to sound sad.

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Here are mine:

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1 Poets Of the Fall: Where do we draw the line
Revolution roulette is my favorite album, even though I hate miss impossible on it. This song, at first glance sounds like the mopiest love song ever. Until you pay attention to the lyrics. then you can't decide what it's about. Is it loss,? Change? Purpose?
I don't know what it is but it's so emotionally charged for me that I can rarely listen to it and absolutely avoid it in my worst moments.

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2 Stereophonics: Drowning.
Had just gotten out of a 4 year relationship. Had a new job as a school counselor. But no direction and only dark thoughts ahead. I had 2 hours bus rides to the workplace. I used to blast this on repeat and fall asleep to it every day. I still get lost myself in it for days.

3 Listening to some right now since I can't decide.

[VibrantFox]

before submitting do the songs have to sound sad or can just the subject matter be sad?

[arxianfall]

Just the subject matter.
I know The Offspring songs. They are punk af but have the saddest or darkest themes.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Right now I've only got this one to share. From my end it's because the lyrics are written so beautifully and unapologetically that I cannot help but connect to the pain of the band and their lyricists.
The song is about dealing with the pain of loved ones left behind in the wake of suicide.

Convictions is a band that never shies away from hard lyrical topics. One of their dearest fans who travelled to see nearly every show committed suicide, leaving another fan who always traveled with them to see the band behind, a person they considered family. Part of the songs lyrics revolve around the band themselves, not being able to reach out to this person that tragically ended their own life.
I get that this song, being a very heavy Metal song may not resonate with everyone, but I challenge you all, to at least check out the lyrics and give it a chance. This song nearly left me in tears the first time I actually listened to the lyrics. One of them that starts out still is "You deserve to survive."

[AilyneGouveia]

I'll try to chose very different songs

There you go !

Dark jazz, very moody ! Make me think of some city under the rain with gangsters waiting in some dark alleys

A classical masterpiece, i find the piano transcription sadder than the orchestra version.

And finally this one, the rain sound in the background add even more sadness to it.

[thetalentedmrwulf]

1. The Weeping Song - Nick Cave: Ambiguous, ominous, melancholy. Digging deep, it seems to be about a family splintering apart, but there's a lot of interpretations that fit. The general concept that as long as you are alive, at some point, you will face actual, soul-shaking sadness. There's a set of lines that go "Why are all the children weeping" "They are merely crying son." "They're only crying father?" "Yes, true weeping is yet to come." and it's this statement on the difference between being sad and experiencing actual loss.

1. Ghosts - Ladytron: There's a lot of managing feelings of regret here, so I count it as a sad song. Polar opposite of most sad songs with regret though. "There's a ghost in me who wants to say I'm sorry. Doesn't mean I'm sorry." It isn't love or getting dumped, so much, as a sour reflection over things going badly between two people and pushing down feeling bad because the other person isn't worth feeling bad over.

1. Eleanor Rigby - Godhead's cover (Beatles is pretty good too) - It's just an incredibly lonely song, and I like the Godhead cover because it's less haunting (I have plenty of choices for haunting) and more something I can use to drive myself to fight past social anxiety and try to not pass away invisibly.

[DanielRKM]

Skid Row by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman

Evaporated by Ben Folds:

and last but CERTAINLY not least,

It's Gettin' Easy by Dear and the Headlights:

[VibrantFox]

Well, then i'll grab these three out of a hat

Nanawo Akari - Happy Ni Naritai / I want to be happy

PinocchioP - Nobody Makes Sense

Neru & z'5 - I~ya I~ya I~ya / Whatever whatever whatever

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i think if i had a running theme for what i'd consider sad songs it's probably this meme

[rosenw_ltz]

1. Wake Me Up When September Ends - Green Day

2. 7 Years - Lukas Graham

3. Little Talks - Of Monsters And Men

These are my top 3 because they're about some of my biggest fears in life... losing a loved one, losing myself, and wasting my life without doing anything meaningful. Poets of the Fall is a really good band, I love their music too

[thetalentedmrwulf]

Gods, I love Little Talks and its video so much.

[KilljoyConstruct]

At number three we have “Turn Back the Clock” by Steam Powered Giraffe. This song is about a robot who befriends a little girl through music, but watches her drift away and eventually forget their friendship as she grows up

At number two, we have “Up to the Stars” by SAINT PHNX, a song about the grief that comes with the passing of a loved one

And at number one we have “Memento Mori: The Most Important Thing in the World” by Will Wood and the Tapeworms. It’s about how death is inevitable for all of us and in the end we’ll all just be forgotten as time marches forward and claims more lives, so we might as well live however the hell we want.

[thedude3445]

Deacon Blues makes me feel like a depressed burn-out middle aged man circa 1979, despite being none of those things. That's the mark of a truly sad song to me.

[childofbooks]

maNga - Dursun Zaman
This song reminds me of death, even tho it never really directly mentiones it but uses symbolic lyrics. It gives the exact feeling that I get whenever I heard someone died, the feeling of losing someone, the numbness, the acceptance, wanting to cry my lungs out and then console myself saying "that person may found peace now"
The translations on the internet may use "she" to refer to the lost one in the song but Turkish has no grammatical gender, so there's actually no girl in the song and it refers to anyone that's gone.

Pink Floyd - Goodbye Blue Sky
It feels like a child that doesn't know about war and wonders what is happening to them. Kids are the real victims of all the ward this world has faced, it is heartbreaking.

Travis - Why does it always rain on me?
A perfect explanation of my depressed for no reason mood.

[arxianfall]

Steam powered giraffe was still alive and making songs?

[MReddragon]

Here's my contribution

War - Icon for Hire
It me of the hardships I went through with my sister during a mental breakdown. Depression is a nasty thing.

Hold On To Memories - Disturbed
It's a great song about keeping memories alive of those that have left us.

Dark Night of the Soul - Philip Wesley
Sometimes we just vibe with a song. It just... Is so melancholic

[erudenedure]

Two of my songs are from musicals, so hopefully that's OK. lol

1. So Big, So Small - Dear Evan Hansen

The song itself is from Dear Evan Hansen, but I really enjoy the villain!Deku MHA AU animatic for it. I'm a mom myself, so I can get that feeling about feeling so small when trying to be there, be strong, for your kid and you feel like you're coming up short.

2. Karma - AJR

Just a super relatable song, I think. Despite feeling "being good," and still grappling with feelings of being depressed and empty. No matter how good you are, there's still going to be struggles in life. I don't know if it's necessarily sad, but it's definitely sobering.

3. All You Wanna Do - Six: The Musical

An upbeat song about the abuse Catherine Howard dealt with her whole life. Basically men taking advantage of her when she was younger and then being stuck in a relationship with Henry VIII. When she finally thought she had a friend, he still just wanted something more physical from her.

idk I can relate heavily to being taking advantage of and men I wanted friendships with only wanting more from me.

[thetalentedmrwulf]

They’re still making music. It’s Spine, Rabbit, and Zero right now. They post updates on their YouTube Channel - sometimes in or out of character. Everybody seems happy and healthy.

[Kittyfox]

I only have two favorite songs that actually have lyrics so yeah lol

1. Bad Apple!
   It sounds happy and upbeat on the outside, but on the inside it's pretty sad. That's why I like it, because it's like me
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtutLA63Cp8

2. My Time
   Basically for the same reason lol
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFJEz8WNHTI&list=RDMM&index=39

3. Oh and this one too, forgot about it
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

[arxianfall]

Listened to everything. I like most of them even through they're not in my genre. Some I already knew. Still didn't find something to hit me like a ton of bricks.

But I mostly enjoy this thread for the reasons behind the songs.

[joannekwan]

I will never not post this one:
James - Moving On
about losing loved ones

My mom's favorite:
Luther Vandross - Dance With My Father
also about losing loved ones but more specific

And Johnny Cash's version of Hurt