Best Break Up Songs

So on the latest Beastcast someone wrote in about going through a break up. I too recently went through one, and I've been listening to a lot of music as a result.

The song that hits me the hardest (that chorus) is...

The Exploding Hearts-I'm a Pretender

What's your go to break up song? I've also been listening to a lot Modest Mouse Good News for People Who Love Bad News and Insomniac by Green Day as well(I have a predilection for guitar driven music).

Also this song gives me a sad hope when I listen to it...

Jemina Pearl-Heartbeats

Almost every song Roy Orbison has ever sang.

I love break up songs. Here are two of my absolute favorites, one from Ben Folds Five and the other from the Fiona Apple, both from their debut albums.

The Last Polka

Carrion

Never gonna love again from Lykke Li is a good one I'm thinking of right now.

My go to was always Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks. It's the greatest breakup album of all time, encompassing all the rage and grief of it. Shelter from the Storm in particular has helped me through some tough times! Fortunately I am married now and so I can listen to the album with a bit of emotional distance. It is still great!

There are also a couple of songs on his Time Out of Mind album that are good breakup songs. Standing in the Doorway and Not Dark Yet especially.

I also like Ryan Adams' Heartbreaker album for this.

@thomasnash: boom goes the dynamite. Greatest album of all time and plenty of breakup songs

Boyz II Men. "It's so hard to say goodbye". Great song for when your heart breaks or you need to pour some liquor out for the homie.

Just ended my relationship a couple of hours ago... Thanks for the convenient thread. I second the Modest Mouse recommendation.

Hurt by Nine inch Nails or Mr self destruct, solitary man by Johnny Cash is pretty good too

All of 13 by Blur.

Lately by The Helio Sequence is really good if you want to lie to yourself in the first half of the song and than lay in a fetal position whilst crying in the second.

The Kill - 30 Seconds to Mars

The lyrics are a little bit on the nose but still...

It was only when I got my heart broken by a break up for the first time that I really got "For No One" from the Beatles. It had always been one of my favorites, but all of the sudden I really felt what Paul meant.

Solitary Man is Neil Diamond.

That's probably one of my top ten albums of the last five years.

And that's perhaps my favorite Beatles song. Very good choice.

@spaceinsomniac: Johnny does a pretty good cover then

@thomasnash: Yes, Heartbreaker by Ryan Adams is a great album for this. I saw him live in about 2 months ago and he put on a great show.

Frank Zappa - Broken hearts are for assholes

Clarence Carter's "Strokin'" is the answer to "best x song" in any given situation. Barring that, you can't really go wrong with the entirety of Weird Al's Albuquerque. No, really. Just listen to it and tell me how quickly you're over someone.

Herzeleid by Rammstein.

Great break up related karaoke song would be Michael Bolton's How Am I Supposed To Live Without You.

My somewhat serious answer is Linger by The Cranberries. Its just a solid song in general especially in the moment.

I don't really have a break up song, but I remember this from an old episode of This American Life:

The Magnetic Fields - I Don't Want To Get Over You

Here is a link to the TAL episode about breaking up if anybody is interested. It's a pretty good episode from what I remember.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/339/break-up

Let's take things in a bit of a different direction; one of the best things about break-up/heartbreak songs is the shear variety of ways you can sing them:

The Notorious B.I.G - Friend of Mine: BIggie's one of the best, but his lyrics can get pretty disrespectful whenever women are brought up (even more than your average rapper). Turns out he's a big softy who got his feelings hurt! Given enough time, would he have ever come around? I guess we'll never know.

Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through The Grapevine: Biggie Smalls, but 28 years earlier...sort of. Not really. Anyway, written by Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield, they had Marvin sing in a higher register than normal to get a feeling of anguish through to the listener, and it became the biggest smash hit that Motown ever produced.

Julie London - Cry Me A River: The only thing worse than a bad breakup is a bad breakup where the other person wants you to just forget what they did and can't understand what they put you through. There's a thousand versions of this song, but I'm partial to the original, as you just can't beat how classy Julie London sounds.

And sometimes when you need a laugh (or are willing to stretch the definition of best to "best"), you have your choice of the fantastically overwrought Total Eclipse of the Heart:

or the fantastically silly video for Love Is A Battlefield:

So, pick your stage of grief (on the sliding scale of "fuck all men/women" to "I really need to have a dance battle right now") and enjoy.

If you want to feel miserable then 'I know it's over' by The Smiths.

'Let it die' by Feist is also amazing.

Eminem kim

Slipknot- snuff is a pretty good one, even if you don't like that kind of music, it's not like their usual stuff it's very slow and singy rather than shouty! Give it a go!

I don't get break up songs, I want to be reminded less of that person, not more.

Am I the only one that thinks break up songs are dumb? You're literally being pessimistic about losing someone, never being able to love again, and all that nonsense. Isn't it much healthier to focus on what you learned in that relationship, how it improved who you are and how you feel about life afterwards? Relationships are such an amazing and unique experience that crying about it is just such a waste in comparison. But I guess being mopey about it is a good indicator of why people can't deal with relationships and move on with their lives.

@zevvion: Not every breakup song is mopey though.

And not everyone gets melodramatic saying that they're seriously never going to love again, that sounds like a cliche. It's not unreasonable for people to feel bad in that situation. Maybe they don't think it improved them or taught them anything? It is unreasonable however to expect someone to break up and instantly go into a colorless analytics mode.

Sad songs that people relate to can help with that period between breaking up and moving forward. It's a pretty universal experience, I don't think it's a dumb subject for songs.

@mirado: 90s rap, 60s soul, 50s A&R era, and 80s pop. Not only that, but I have songs from every one of those artists. You Sir or Mam have great taste in music. You may already know this, but that Bonnie Tyler song was written by the same guy who did Bat out of Hell 1 and 2 for Meatloaf. Here's an awesome and somewhat little-known side project he had in the 80s: Pandora's Box.

Johnny Cash does a pretty good cover of most songs he tackles, including one you might not know about. He had to pay the original artist about $75,000 for that one.

But yeah, Johnny Cash is pretty great. Here's the original Solitary Man, btw.

If you are looking for a song or two to wallow in your sadness (which I did after my last break up), "Full of Grace" by Sarah McLachlan, "My Immortal" by Evanescence, and "Til I Die" by the Beach Boys are good..if you are looking for a good song to break you out of your sadness, I recommend "Sabotage" by Beastie Boys, "Paper Planes" by MIA, or "Helena Beat" by Foster the People

THE breakup song:

I had a girl who listened to a certain Coldplay album all the time, so pretty much any song from that album will affect me in some way.
This isn't completely relationship related but i had depression when i was younger and Stone Sour - Bother is a really great way to stew in it, a seriously bad idea.

Either 'The Lone Deranger' or 'Mist Förståndet' by Vildhjarta.

Oh mu goodness how has no one put this

Believe - Cher

@zevvion: Feeling bad doesn't equal pessimism. You can be hopeful, grateful, etc. and still feel like shit. There's also a million different reasons to feel bad after a break up other than "I'm alone."

@shindig: He always did sing for the lonely.

@spaceinsomniac: Thanks! My collection is all like that; Blondie next to Blue Oyster Cult next to Busta Rhymes, from the 30s upward. I give people era whiplash whenever I make a playlist.

Y'know, I didn't realize that, but looking back at how both of those have the same grand, over-the-top feeling, I should have. Thanks for the Pandora's Box heads up, too.

"Chet Baker Sings" is an album basically comprised of break up songs. I'll just leave this one here as an (surprisingly upbeat) example:

@zevvion: Which is why the breakup songs that motivate you to get through, because love will come again, are the best. You get to be sad, but you also remind yourself that time will get you through it.

Any album by The Magnetic Fields. I remember listening to their discography on repeat during a break up and there was always a song that described how I was feeling at that moment. I also appreciate the humor in their music that makes your feelings feel less profound than you might want to believe

flip this shit on its head

@iron1c: Yep.

I was going to suggest God Only Knows by The Beach Boys but the message of that song is, "If we split up, I'm offing myself."

El-P - How To Serve Man

"This ain't a break up, I like to think of it as a stay of execution"

I'm partial to Black Coffee in Bed by Squeeze, but there are countless amazing break-up songs.

For No One is a classic Beatles tune that contains the precise phrasing you'll find in most of the band's songs

Diamonds and Rust is a song written by Joan Baez about Bob Dylan after they split. It meanders quite a bit, so I prefer the Judas Priest, Unleashed in the East version for it's abbreviated take.

I Will Survive is a classic break-up song. If you'd like to appreciate it without feeling like a living cliche, you can try the Cake version, which has a very dry read that could be interpreted as a dishonest telling of one's true feelings (this is a common motif in break-up songs).

Catch the Wind, by Donovan, is soul-crushingly heart-felt. I get chills every time. Hits home so directly.

Give These Eyes a listen. I contend that The Guess Who is a better band than The Who. Come at me.

If I'm bringing you down too much, Jackson is a little more upbeat and light-hearted, I guess.

Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You is stellar, along with every other Zeppelin song.

Patsy Cline practically dealt exclusively in break-up songs. Walkin' After Midnight is a classic.

Getaway Car is a my favorite Audioslave song. There's a few other break-up songs on their first album as well. I think Chris Cornell had just gotten divorced around the time this album was being made.

My uncle refers to The Eagle's Already Gone as his divorce song. It is pretty great.

Free Bird

the GOAT

A good low-key option:

There's just something about that guitar solo that gets me every time.

Did some say "break up songs"?

• Beck - Lost Cause
• Blur - No Distance Left to Run + Good Song
• Fleetwood Mac - Dreams
• Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
• Interpol - Obstacle 1
• The National - Terrible Love
• Spiritualized - Broken Heart
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps + Modern Romance

Break up songs. Not suicide ones ;)

Studies have shown (source) that listening to sad music when you're sad is actually a healthy way of dealing with it - both because you feel empathy with others who may be experiencing similar depression, as well as because it can be comforting to know that there are others worse off than yourself. If you want to take it a step further, there's all sorts of theories:

Some scientists think melancholy music is linked to the hormone prolactin, a chemical which helps to curb grief. The body is essentially preparing itself to adapt to a traumatic event, and when that event doesn't happen, the body is left with a pleasurable mix of opiates with nowhere else to go.

I'd argue that too much of anything is unhealthy, but there's nothing wrong with listening to dark/depressing music when you're upset.